Banshee Worm King: Book Five of the Oz Chronicles (6 page)

“You could have told us,” I said.

“Would it have made a difference?”

I shook my head.
 
“No.
 
It’s just the right thing to
do.”

He nodded.
 
“I
screwed up then, but I promise you as long as you stick to the trees you’re
safe.”

I thought about what he said.
 
“I guess.”

He smiled.
 
“Doesn’t
change our current situation.”

I held the harness out to April again.
 
“Put this on.”

“But...”

“I’ll knock you out if I have to, April.
 
I’m not kidding.”

She slowly reached out and took the harness from me.
 
She stared at it for a second and then ran to
the edge of the platform.
 
She cocked her
arm back and was prepared to toss the harness to the ground below when a black
flash yanked her back.
 
It was
Ariabod.
 
He tossed her to her back,
lumbered over her and let out a hair-curling roar.
 
April fainted dead away.

“Well,” Bostic said, “that’s one way to do it.”
 
He hooked April up to the harness and
connected it to the zip line.
 
“You’re
first, Oz.
 
I’ll send the girl after
you.”

I hooked up to the zip line and jumped out into the open
air.
 
I felt my body drop for just a split
second and then my stomach dropped even deeper as gravity pulled me down the
zip line.
 
At first, I gasped and
struggled to catch a clean breath, but once I settled into the gliding motion,
I felt a smile form on my face.
 
I found
myself hoping I would never reach the other side.

But I did.
 
I broke
through the fog and soared past some sturdy overhanging branches, missing
getting struck in the face by mere inches.
 
I peered ahead and saw the silhouettes of the others waiting to catch
me.
 
My foot hit the deck and Lou
bear-hugged me as I slowed to a stop.
 
She held the hug a beat or two longer than necessary.
 
I didn’t mind.
 
In fact, I was disappointed when she let
go.
 

April woke up half way across the zip line and let out a
horrible ear-piercing screech that lasted until Tyrone and Wes brought her to a
gentle stop on the deck of the new platform.
 
I didn’t take time to notice the shelter until Ariabod arrived.

It was not your average treehouse.
 
It wasn’t even your average house,
period.
 
It was practically a castle in
the sky.

“Bostic wasn’t kidding. It is a mansion,” I said.

“Got a feeling we’ll fare better in this one,” Wes said.

“Couldn’t do any worse,” Tyrone said.

Lou tugged on the line to let Bostic know that a single
harness was ready to travel back.
 
“It’s
a roof over our heads.”
 
She tilted her
head toward Gordy, who was propped up against the wall of the treehouse.
 
“Gives us a proper place to tend to his
wounds and to plan our next move.”

The harness disappeared into the fog.
 
We all watched and waited for Bostic’s large
frame to come barreling through the haze at any second.
 
We waited and waited and waited.

“Where is he?” Wes asked.

Just as the words left his mouth a squeal soared through
the tree tops followed by a howl that obviously came from Bostic.

We stood silently.

Another howl by Bostic.
 
More squeals.

“What do we do?” April asked.

I grabbed one of the remaining harnesses and put it
on.
 
“We go back and help him.”
 

Wes grabbed the other harness.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” April said.

“No it ain’t, little girl,” Wes said.
 

“I should go,” Lou said.

Wes growled.
 
“Why
should you go?
 
You some kind of
superhero?
 
I’m the full grown adult
here.
 
Let me act like it for a change.”

He clipped on the zip line and leapt off the platform.
 

“Wes!” I said as I hurriedly tried to clip on.

He soared past the fog before I could secure my harness on
the line. I looked at Lou.
 
“Stay
here!
 
No matter what!”

She reluctantly nodded in agreement.

I was off the platform and zooming across the zip line
faster than I had on the trip over.
 
The
cool air was beating against my face.
 
My
heart was racing.
 
I had no weapon.
 
No plan.
 
No idea what was waiting for me on the other platform.

When I was in the thick of the fog, I heard Wes let out
what sounded like a warrior’s cry.
 

“Wes!”

He didn’t reply.

The outlines of two large men came into view.
 
They were crouched and ready to pounce on
something.
 
I couldn’t make out what it
was.
 
The haze was too thick.

I landed on the platform with a thud and quickly unhooked
my harness.

“It’s in the tree,” Bostic said with blood pouring down his
face.

Wes was breathing heavily, and his hands were balled into
fists.
  
“It’s quick as all get out.”

“What is it?” I asked with my eyes on the branches above my
head.

Bostic shook his head.
 
“It’s new.
 
Ain’t never seen it
before.”

Whatever it was shrieked so loudly it felt like it was just
inches from my ear.

I saw a branch shudder.
 
“There,” I said pointing.

The creature screeched again and swooped down on top of me.
 
It was long, dark, and bony. It came down so
fast I couldn’t tell if it had two legs or four or eight.
 
There were black dots in a circle around its
head.
 
I got a look at its rows of pointy
teeth as its mouth opened and chomped down.
 
I pulled back from the attempted bite and fell to the platform.
 
The creature momentarily placed its feet on
my chest and then leapt back into the branches.

“Holy cheese and crackers,” Wes said.
 
“I ain’t never seen anything move like that!”

It shook the branches violently.
 

I scrambled to my feet.
 
It wasn’t until then that I noticed Bostic was holding a baseball bat
with dozens of long nails sticking out of it.

“I ain’t even got close to hitting it,” he said.
 

The creature swooped down again with one hand still holding
onto the branches above.
 
The other hand
swatted at Bostic and the large man swung wildly, grazing its knuckles.
 
The creature squealed in pain.
 
It jumped up through the branches and onto a
neighboring tree.
 
It turned back holding
its injured hand, gave one last screech before it moved onto the next tree and
then was completely out of sight.

Bostic let himself relax a bit.
 
“Doesn’t appear to take to getting hit.”

“Well, I say we zip back to the treehouse before it has
time to regroup or, worse, bring some of its buddies back.”

“Fat fella,” Bostic said, “that’s the best idea you’ve had
yet.”

I could see Wes’ jaw set at being called fat fella by a guy
that outweighed him by a good 50 lbs, but he let the comment go and hooked
himself to the zip line.
 
“Hook on and
go, Oz.”

I did as he said without argument. We were all headed to
the other side within a matter of seconds.

Three

Bostic hovered over Gordy holding a piece of torn cloth to
his own head.
 
The creature on the
platform had left a pretty good gash above his ear.
  
“The girl, April, did this to him?”

Lou was pouring some Tennessee corn liquor on a rag.
 
“It’s a long story.”

We were in the middle of a large open room.
 
Gordy was lying on a flimsy cot.
 
Everyone else sat on the perimeter of the
room gathering their thoughts and taking in the interior of the house.
 
It was big, but shabby.
 
Bostic was not a neat man.
 
I didn’t have a clue how long he’d been
living alone in the house, but it looked like he’d shared it with a couple of
tornadoes until very recently.

“She got a habit of taking a bite out of people, or was
there something special about him?”

“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Lou said.
 
She made a motion towards the wound on
Gordy’s leg, but stopped short.
 
“This is
going to sting, Gordo.”

“Sting?” Bostic said with a chuckle.
 
“It’s going to hurt like hell.”

Lou gently placed the alcohol-soaked rag on the edge of the
wound and Gordy howled in pain.
 
She
shook her head.
 
“I barely touched it.”

“Want me to hold him down?” Bostic asked.

Gordy took a deep breath.
 
“That’s not necessary.
 
Just do it
quick.”

Lou did as he requested and guided the rag quickly across
the wound.
 
He strained and flexed,
biting his lip to muffle his groans.

Bostic leaned down closer to examine the wound.
 
“Infection’s set in.
 
Not too bad, but the skin on the edges is
turning black.”

Lou pulled the rag back and studied the area he was
referring to.
 
“What should we do?”

“Cover your ears, young fella,” Bostic said to Gordy.

Gordy gave him a puzzled look.
 
“Why?”

“Because you don’t want to hear what I’m going to say.”

Gordy lifted his hands and covered his ears.

“Best thing is to cut away the dead skin,” Bostic said.

“What?!” Gordy said sitting up.

“It’s either that or cut the leg off,” Bostic said.

“Oh, man,” Gordy said lying back down with his hands over
his face.
 
“Why does this crap always
happen to me?”

April skulked farther and farther away from them, her face
full of guilt and shame.
 

Wes wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close so no
one would overhear what he was about to say.
 
“Talk to her.”

I attempted to pull away, but his grip was too tight.
 
“I’m not very good at that kind of
thing.
 
You do it.”

“People don’t look to me for things like that.”

“What makes you think they look to me for that sort of
thing?”

He squeezed tighter.
 
“Damn it, Oz.
 
You’re the
leader.
 
Get it?
 
We follow you.
 
We count on you.
 
April needs you. Understand?”
 
With that, he released me.

I stepped back and shifted my gaze from him to Gordy to
April.
 
I ran a thousand reasons through
my head why I shouldn’t talk to April, but I couldn’t shake the one reason why
I should.
 
It was the right thing to do.

When she turned her back and faced a wood-slotted window at
the opposite end of the room, I gave in and approached her.
 
I could tell by her body language that she
could hear me coming.
 
Without turning,
she said, “I don’t belong here.”

“None of us do,” I said, staring at the back of her head.

“No, not here in this world. Here, with you and the
others.
 
You would be better off without
me.”

“What happened to Gordy wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes it was.”

“No it wasn’t.
 
It
was part of the story.
 
That’s the way
things work here.
 
The best I can figure,
we don’t have any control over what happens.”

She gave my point some thought.
 
“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No it doesn’t, but that’s the way it is.
 
We are characters in a story.
 
That’s it.”