Banshee Worm King: Book Five of the Oz Chronicles (11 page)

“Oh my, someone definitely is not feeling like themselves,”
Lou said.

“If you weren’t Oz’s girlfriend I would have totally kissed
you by now,” Gordy said.

April couldn’t take anymore.
 
She stepped out the backdoor to get away from
everybody.

Lou helped Gordy sit down on his cot.
 
“I’m not anyone’s girlfriend,” she said
making a point not to look my way.

“Please,” Gordy said, “you two love the crap out of each
other.
 
You’re just too stupid to know it
or show it.”
 
He laughed.
 
“I rhymed.”

Bostic brought him a plate of jerky.
 
“Here you go, son.”

Gordy took the plate and stuck a piece of jerky in his
mouth before lying back.
 
“You’re like a
giant or something.”
 
He settled back and
chewed the jerky.
 
He swallowed and
closed his eyes.
 
“Almost as big as
monkey dude.”

***

Lou pulled me outside to get me away from the others.
 
She looked right and then left before whispering,
“You heard what Gordy said.”

I was momentarily distracted because she leaned in so close
to me. She smelled amazing.
 
I cleared my
throat and said, “I heard.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?
 
He said
Bostic was almost as big.
 
He didn’t say
he was as big.
 
Almost. That doesn’t mean
it’s him.”

She worked to hide her frustration.
 
“I think we should consider the possibility
that it is Bostic.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I said.
 
“Why would Bostic help us only to send Gordy
down on the ground to be eaten by the Banshees?”

“I don’t know,” she said backing up slightly.
 
“Maybe he’s their caretaker.
 
Maybe it’s his job to feed them.”

I moved in closer for no other reason than I missed her
smell.
 
“No offense, but that sounds a
little crazy.”

“Does it?
 
Really?
 
Have you forgotten where
we are?” Her voice got louder with each question.

I put my finger to my lips to urge her to be quieter. “I’m
just saying you’re kind of jumping to conclusions.
 
Gordy isn’t exactly the most reliable witness
right now.”

“Maybe not, but I still don’t think it’s a good idea to
ignore coincidences.”

“What do you suggest we do?”

She started to speak a few times but then stopped
completely. It was clear she didn’t have any ideas.

“Look, we’ll keep an eye on him,” I said.

“That’s it?”

“There’s nothing else we can do.”

“Should we tell the others?”

I considered her question.
 
“Ariabod,” I said, “but not the others.”

She furrowed her brow.
 
“Ariabod?
 
Why not Ajax?”

I shrugged. “Ariabod’s... He’s just...” I couldn’t give her
a reason.
 
I had lost faith in Ajax.
 
I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but
there was no denying it.
 
I couldn’t get
the idea out of my head that he’d let Kimball die.

“He’s just what?”

“Just nothing.
 
I
just think we should keep Ajax out of this. Ariabod makes more sense, that’s
all.”

She leaned back and gave me the evil eye.
 
“If you say so.”
 

She started to walk away, but I grabbed her arm.
 
“You’re not still mad at me are you?”

“Mad?”

“About April.
 
The
kiss?”

She smirked.
 
“Who
says I was mad? You kissed April.
 
Who
cares?”

“I didn’t kiss her,” I said.
 
“She kissed me.”

“Whatever.
 
It’s none
of my business.
 
Besides we’ve got way
bigger things to worry about than who you decide to kiss...”

Something came over me.
 
I couldn’t help myself.
 
I just
leaned in and kissed her.
 
A thousand
tragedies were exploding all around us, but all I could think about was kissing
her.
 
It sounds insane and stupid, and I
couldn’t explain why I did it if you gave me an eternity to think it over.
 
I just had to kiss her.
 
It felt... perfect.

She gently pulled away.
 
“Why did you do that?”

“Because if I really do have a choice in this screwed-up
world, I choose to kiss you.”

She initially looked stunned, but she slowly smiled.

“Can I ask you something?”

She nodded.

“If you could go back to the way things were before this
all started, would you?”

Her smile changed to a confused grin.
 
“Of course I would.”

“Even if going back meant that you wouldn’t know any of us;
Wes, Tyrone, Ajax... me?”

“We were meant to be together... all of us, I mean.
 
I just know it.
 
We would find each other eventually.”

I shrugged.
 
“But
what if some of us couldn’t go back with you?”

“What do you mean?
 
Why couldn’t you go back with me?”

I shook my head.
 
“Never mind... I should check on Gordy.”
 

I headed for the door, but stopped when she said, “I
wouldn’t go.”

I turned to her.

“I couldn’t go without you.
 
You’re not just someone that survived the end of the world with me.
 
You’re why I want to survive the end of the
world.”

“You mean all of us, right?”

She nodded. “Yes, but mostly I meant you.”

I stood and stared at her.
 
A breeze blew her hair across her face.
 
Her eyes were startlingly blue, and with the exception of her lips, her
cheeks were naturally redder than the rest of her face.
 
“I remember when I first saw you.
 
You were this dirty little mute kid that
annoyed the crap out of me.”

“Well, if I remember right, you were stealing our
Pop-Tarts.”

“You took to Nate right away.”

She smiled.
 
“I was
terrified for him because it was pretty obvious you didn’t know how to take
care of a baby.”

I laughed.
 
“That’s
true.”

“Look at us now.”

“Yeah,” I said, “look at us now.”
 
Before leaving I looked her square in the
eyes. “This might be wrong to say, but...” I hesitated.

“Say it,” she said pleaded.

“The fact that the world ended wasn’t all bad.”

A startled expression spread across her face again. “What
do you mean?”

“I got to kiss you.” I left before she could respond.

Six

That night I saw Ajax sitting by himself in the corner of
the room.
 
He was gone, lost in his
thoughts, and I knew what he was thinking about.
 
He was replaying Kimball’s last moments in
his head.
 
I knew that’s what he was
doing because I had been doing the same thing right up until the point I
noticed him.
 
I blamed him for Kimball’s
death, and I had a pretty good idea he blamed himself.

I suppose if I wanted to be fair I would have realized that
there wasn’t anything Ajax could have done to save Kimball.
 
It all happened so quickly.
 
But I wasn’t interested in being fair.
 
Right or wrong, I wanted to blame
somebody.
 
Ajax was right there.
 
He saved me.
 
Why couldn’t he have saved Kimball?

A horrible thought hit me as I stared at Ajax.
 
I wasn’t just mad at him.
 
I hated him.
 
I knew it was wrong.
 
He was
Ajax.
 
I owed him my life, many times
over.
 

That didn’t matter to me.
 
What mattered to me is that I looked down by my feet and my dog wasn’t
there, sleeping away, snorting and huffing in his sleep, dreaming about chasing
rabbits and playing in the backyard of our old house.
 
He wasn’t there.
 
He should have been.

I stopped looking at Ajax because part of me thought he
could feel the hatred I was sending his way.
 
I didn’t like feeling the way I felt about him.
 
I was hoping it would pass, but I didn’t
think I would ever be able to forgive him.

Wes was sitting on the floor propped up against the wall
next to Gordy. His eyelids looked heavy, and he struggled to keep them open.

Lou sat on a chair next to him staring at the front
door.
 
She was worried about Tyrone.
 
All of us were worried and mad.
 
He was a selfish jerk for taking off like
that.
 
I didn’t care that he was
grief-stricken about Valerie.
 
That was
no excuse.
 

I looked to the other side of the room and saw April and
Bostic huddled close together over what looked to be two piping hot cups of
tea.
 
If I didn’t know better, I would
say they were two old friends hanging out in a coffee shop talking about their
day.
 
I don’t know why, but I didn’t like
them being so chummy.

A loud thump outside the front door got everyone’s attention.
 
Ariabod was the first to move to the
door.
 
We all approached behind him.
 
He grunted and then pulled back the door.

Tyrone rushed past him with something cradled in his
arms.
 
He was still wearing the harness
for the zip line.

“Where have you been?” Lou said chasing after him.

“I got it,” he said.
 
“I got the little piss-ant!”

“Got what?” I asked.

He dropped what he was carrying in his arms on the counter
in front of Bostic and April.

“Oh my God,” April said.
 
“What is that thing?”

“You killed it?” Bostic stepped back.
 
“How?”

I reached the counter and froze when I saw the thing Tyrone
had carried in.
 
It was the monkey, only
it wasn’t a monkey at all.
 
It was a
total freak show.
 
It had the body of a
long thin monkey, but the hair that covered its body was thin and patchy.
 
Its head was basically a slimy white
ball.
 
And a row of eyes circled its
slimy head.
 

“I saw it jumping through the trees after we got Gordy
inside,” Tyrone said.
 
“It was going over
the top of the house, so I just walked through the house, out the front door
and zipped across to the other platform.
 
I figured if I waited there long enough, I’d spot it in the trees
again.” He smiled broadly.
 
He hadn’t smiled
in so long it was odd to see the expression work its way across his face.
 
“I only had to wait about ten minutes or
so.
 
It came bouncing overhead.
 
Didn’t even notice me.
 
I followed it as quietly as I could across
the treeway.
 
About five or six platforms
over, it jumped down on the deck ahead of me. Still didn’t know I was there
even with all those eyes.
 
I didn’t give
it time to climb back up in the trees. I jumped on the little creep.
 
Stabbed it through the head.”
 
He pointed to the now noticeable wound on the
side of its grotesque head.

I leaned down and examined the wound.
 
I pushed on it lightly.
 
The head felt like a slimy pillow.

Tyrone saw the confused expression on my face and said,
“Weird, right?
 
There’s no bone, no
skull.”

Lou leaned in.
 
“It
looks like...” she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“It looks like what them worms are made of,” Wes said.
 
“The head anyway.”

Lou nodded.
 
“That’s
what I was going to say.”

“Wait, wait,” April said.
 
“Are you saying this thing is a worm?”