“I think there’s a reason the ghouls are staying away from this place,” Damien said from besideme.
Yeah. A verylargereason. The plasma shield dome was only about two hundred feet from the base of the mountain, but there was so much foliage, alien trees and pods that you couldn’t make it out in a direct line of sight. We were zigzagging through the pods when I pulled the walkie from Damien’sbelt.
“Prepare Maxine for transport,” I ordered, a little out of breath. I ran three miles a day, but I was beat after dragging those heavy-ass ghoulies so far. There was no doubt about it, we were going to need to move out. I just hoped our beauty queen was stableenough.
“What? Why—” Ronnie’s words were cut off by a roar. An honest-to-God size-of-the-mountainroar.
I didn’t have the balls to look behind me, just kept running. Damien’s face went as white as a sheet, as the ground shook harder, tossing me into him. Together we struggled to get to the dome where Ronnie and Nox where setting up the medic cot. A quick glance left and right told me there were no ghouls around, so I lowered the plasma shield using myremote.
A shiny glint of metal brought my eye to Mr. Hansen, who was just slipping the handcuffs on himself when Jeremy looked up toward the mountain. A shriek flew from his throat, and suddenly he bolted upright, knocking Mr. Hansen onto hisback.
“Jer, no,” Damien cried out, but it was too late. Jeremy ran. He took off at lightning speed, unarmed, straight into the DreamWars.
Oh God,no!
“Go!” I screamed at Damien, who seemed frozen in fear. At my command, he took off after his brother with Josephine right behind him, screaming hisname.
I bent down, trying to put sweet Jeremy out of my mind, and helped Mr. Hansenup.
“I should never have taken the cuffs off,” he said, horrified. His eyes were wide and reminded me of a scared child, so lost andhelpless.
I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have lowered the shield,” I toldhim.
He was in shock, as was I. If anything happened to Jeremy, I wouldn’t be able to live with it. None of uswould.
“Jo will get him. She always does,” Mr. Hansen said suddenly, a bit more optimistic. I just nodded and patted hisshoulder.
“Let’s get out of here,” I told our small group as Ronnie and Nox slowly lifted an unconscious Maxine onto thecot.
The roar came again, and the ground moved with such force then that I thought it might swallow me whole. That time I had to look, the self-preservation instinct within me forced me. Craning my neck, I pinned my eyes on the beast beforeme.
Holy mother ofGod.
The mountain had woken, and he was ugly as hell. Like a dinosaur with dreadlocks. He was sitting upright now, glowing red eyes open and blinking down at the snack we’d lefthim.
Good, maybe that will hold him off whilewe—
He picked up the ten or so dead ghouls in one hand and opened his mouth, tossing them all in at once. He didn’t even chew. They were like potato chips to him. Then he looked out into the open expanse of the Dream Wars, seemingly planning his maincourse.
“Run!” Ishouted.
Brisk took one look over his shoulder, then grabbed the bottom of the cot Maxine was strapped to, as Nox lifted thetop.
“Kit! RPG launcher!” Nox tossed me hisduffel.
I caught it midair and started jogging next to them as we made our way through the foliage and as far away from the giant ghoul aspossible.
“You brought an RPG?” I said inawe.
Thank God for Nox’s unhealthy obsession with blowing shitup.
It was hard to open the zipper while running, but with Mr. Hansen’s help, I was able to get the launcherout.
Off in the distance, I could hear Josephine and Damien calling Jeremy’s name. I needed to focus on this giant asshole and forget about Jeremy. I had to trust that Damien would find him and he’d beokay.
Pulling the RPG launcher from the bag, I spunaround.
Holy crap!The mountain ghoul was so close. The ground shook as he slowly stumbled forward, like a drunken baby who‘d forgotten how to walk. He stood over a hundred feet tall, probably one fifty. And he was as wide as a house. His skin was lizard-like and scaly but looked very tough, almost like rocks. The only thing of beauty was its hair. Thick hyper-colored ropes that reminded me of the Galadrias, hung in stocky chucks around itsface.
