The Land of the Dead: Book Four of the Oz Chronicles (15 page)

“I told you not to come,” I said to her.

Ajax growled as if to let me know that he was just as annoyed as I was.

“You’re not the boss of me,” Lou snapped.

“But the pact…”

“I’ll stay out of your way. Besides I don’t think I have it as bad as the rest of you. I haven’t felt like taking a bite out of anyone.” She stepped into the room, followed by the Throwaway version of me.

“Him, too?” I groaned. How could she bring him?

Even in the darkness, I could she her cheeks turn rosy red with embarrassment. “I can’t help it if he follows me around.”

“You told me I could never leave you,” the Throwaway said.

“Shut up!” Lou yelled. “I was… that was for you own safety.”

Gordy chuckled. “She made her own Oz. How romantic.”

“Gordy,” I said, trying not raise my voice. “Mind your own business.”

Lou saw Kimball lying on the ground and breathing heavily. She couldn’t help herself. She ran to his side as quickly as she could. “What happened?”

As she ran by me, I noticed something very odd. I didn’t want to eat her. I went over the events of the last few days in my head and tried to remember if I had ever wanted to eat her. I couldn’t recall ever being alone with her once the infection started.

She knelt down beside Kimball and started stroking his head. “Oz, what happened?”

“We…” I pointed to Gordy. “We had a misunderstanding. Kimball tried to help, and he got grazed by a knife. It’s not that serious, I just don’t have time to look after him and, you know…”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t know.”

“That’s the point,” I said. “I don’t know either, and I’ve only got five more days to find out.”

“We’ve only got five more days to find out. You have to stop doing that,” she said giving me a disapproving look.

“What?”

“Making it all about you,” Gordy chimed in.

“Gordy…” I started, but was quickly cut off by Lou.

“He’s right. You’re not in this alone.”

I growled. She was taking me all wrong. I wasn’t saying I was in this by myself. I’m trying to save everyone. Didn’t she get that? Besides I didn’t see anyone else from our group when I took my little tours of The Land of the Dead. I thought about saying all that to her, but I didn’t have the strength or the desire to start a whole thing with her, so I just nodded and apologized.

She smirked because she knew I didn’t mean it.

“So, can you and Ajax take care of Kimball?”

Ajax hooted, which I was pretty sure was his way of saying yes.

Much to my dismay, Throwaway me reached down and picked Kimball up. Gordy let out a barrel laugh.

“Stole your girl and your dog, boss man! He takes your job and you got a country song all ready to be wrote!”

Lou stood up and was just inches away from me. I breathed in and got a whiff of her scent. I still didn’t want to eat her. For some reason, I wanted to kiss her.

“So, what do you want to do?” she asked.

Her question caught me by surprise. Did she know I wanted to kiss her? I didn’t say it out loud, did I? “About what?”

“This place. The goon running around here trying to make us all eat each other. What are we going to do about it?”

I sighed. She didn’t know I wanted to kiss her. She just wanted to know if I had a plan that was going to keep us all from becoming dinner. “I keep going back to the Land of the Dead until I understand what it is I’m supposed to see.”

“You’ve been?”

“Three times.”

“And?”

“And besides a lot of bad memories, I got nothing. The old man was a real bad guy in his time.”

“What’s it like?”

“It’s strange. It’s not that bad, except for when the old man shows up. It’s like olden times. The cars are weird. Everyone’s dressed funny. It’s the 1920s.”

“And you’ve seen the old man every time?”

I slowly shook my head. “No. Not this last time. I saw these two cops. One was a detective. The other one was in a uniform.”

“How do you get there? I should go with you. I mean we don’t appear to want to eat each other. You should use me.”

I considered it and then said, “You can’t go unless you’re dead.”

“What?”

“Something little Bobby told me. Only the dead and never-was, like the Throwaways, can go to the Land of the Dead.”

“You’re not dead,” she said furrowing her brow.

“I was… it’s a long story. Let’s just leave it at that.” I snapped my fingers. “You could do something else though. Since you don’t seem to be… hungry. You can go up to the fourth floor and start grilling Bobby. Ask him everything he knows about the Storyteller who came up with this Destroyer. Why the old man? There’s got to be a reason. Some kid with Down syndrome in the 21
^st
century shouldn’t even know about a creepy old dude in the 1920s who ate little kids. Something else has to be going on here.”

“Okay.” She smiled, and I felt better knowing I had her working with me. I pretty much felt like I could do anything with her on my side. I guess she had always been. I just forgot. “Still don’t think you should keep going to the Land of the Dead by yourself.”

“Not much I can do about that. I don’t make the rules.”

She motioned toward Throwaway Stevie. “Take him.”

I looked him over. “A never was,” I said to myself. “Of course.” Turning back to her, “You’re a genius.”

She blushed. “You can have mine, too,” she said pointing to Throwaway me.

I almost gasped at the thought. It was just too creepy. “I’ll be okay with Stevie.”

Her expression quickly changed to surprise. “Stevie? That’s ‘The’ Stevie?”

“Well… no, not really. It’s Gordy’s version.”

She made her way to Throwaway Stevie and looked him over. It was several seconds before she said, “Hello.”

Stevie avoided eye contact with her. He looked down and held back an uncomfortable chortle. “Hi.”

“It’s not really him,” I reminded her.

She smiled. “I know, but it’s the closest I’ll ever come to meeting him.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Stevie said.

She was a little startled by this statement. Her only reaction was to blush again.

“Do you remember my room?” he asked.

I could feel the chill running up her spine from where I was standing. “Your room?”

“I like my room.”

She turned to me, but all I could do was shrug.

“I was in your room once. With Oz. I met your mother. She made us breakfast. How did you know that?”

He squirmed and seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable. He chuckled nervously and pointed to his head. “I have Gordy here.”

She stepped back and studied Throwaway Stevie from head to toe. “Gordy, huh?” She leaned in and whispered something in Stevie’s ear and then walked back to me.

“What now?” she asked.

I thought it over. “We go our separate ways.”

“What about him?” She pointed at Gordy with her thumb.

“What about him?”

“Well, what happens to you when you go to the Land of the Dead?”

“Don’t know exactly. I blackout, and I’m just there.”

“You’re there, but not your body?”

“Near as I can figure.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “So, without Kimball, you aren’t going to have anybody to watch over the part of you that remains here.”

She was right. There would be nothing to stop Gordy from turning me into a meal. “I’ll deal with it,” I said with no clue as to how I was going to deal with it.

“There you go again,” she said shaking her head. “You can’t do this alone.”

“We don’t have a choice. I’ll talk to him.”

“You two talking about me?” Gordy yelled.

We ignored him.

“Take Ajax,” she said.

“No,” I responded. I had put Ajax in charge of watching over her. There was no way I was going to leave her alone with a bunch of cannibals running around the mansion.

“Then take you,” she said.

“Me?” It took a second or two to figure out she meant the Throwaway version of me. “Not a chance.”

She groaned in frustration. “You have to take one.”

“I don’t…”

“You’re taking Ajax.”

“No…”

“Look, I know you told him to protect me, but it’s not necessary.”

I was embarrassed that she knew I had assigned Ajax as her protector. I gave the big ape a dirty look for selling me out. He refused to look at me.

“In case you forgot, I took care of myself and the others while you were gone. I’m not a little girl anymore.”

“It’s out of the question…”

She cut me off. “Save it.” Turning to Ajax she signed something to him and then directed Throwaway me to follow her.

“What did you tell Ajax?” I asked.

She smiled. “I told him not to let anything happen to you. He’s your protector now.”

“Lou,” I protested.

She held up her hand to shut me up as she back-peddled toward the Halloween room. “It’s time for you to be a warrior, not a hero.”

***

I stepped into a dressing room with Throwaway Stevie while Ajax stood guard outside. I kwew Gordy couldn’t make his way past the big ape, but I was still a little concerned about the Flish. As far as I knew, he could walk through walls and go anywhere he pleased, but it was a chance I was going to have to take.

Stevie sat on a chair in the corner of the small room. I plopped down on the floor.

“Are we going home?” Stevie asked.

“Someday,” I said.

“What are we doing?”

“Waiting.”

“For what?”

I sighed. “Something.” Truth was I had no control over my trips to The Land of the Dead. They just snuck up on me. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to get Stevie there with me. I was trying to figure out a way to explain this to him when I felt the floor shake beneath me. It was a gentle rocking at first, but it quickly grew more and more violent.

“What’s wrong?” Stevie said grabbing onto my forearm.

“Nothing to worry about,” I said. “We’re just taking a little…” The shaking suddenly stopped. “… trip.”

Throwaway Stevie looked awestruck by the experience. His chest was expanding and contracting from his labored breathing.

“Calm down,” I said.

“Where are we?” he asked.

Confused I said, “We’re here… nowhere… we didn’t go anywhere.” And we hadn’t. We were in the small dressing compartment. Nothing had changed. Or had it? It did seem a little brighter. I stood up and pushed the door to the small room open. Light poured in.

“This isn’t here,” Stevie said.

I shielded my eyes from the almost searing light. “No… it’s definitely not here.” My eyes adjusted and I could see that we were now standing on a busy sidewalk. We were no longer in the same place or the same time. We were in the Land of the Dead. The way the people dressed, along with the appearance of the dead boy, told me that.

“What are we doing here?” Stevie asked.

“I wish I knew.”

The dead boy started to walk away. I instinctively started to follow him, but Throwaway Stevie didn’t move. I motioned for him to come along, but he didn’t budge.

“We’ve got to go with him,” I said.

Stevie slowly shook his head.

“He has something to show us.”

“I don’t want to see it,” he said looking as scared as I had ever seen anyone look.

I smiled. “I know how you feel, but it’s important.” I stuck my hand out for him to grab onto. He examined it and then took hold of it. I pulled him to his feet and we followed the boy.

Stevie flinched every time someone passed us on the street. “They don’t feel right.”

“Try to ignore them,” I said. “They can’t see you.”

He fixed on a spot ahead of us and pointed. “He can.”

He was pointing to the gray man. It was a younger version of him, but it was definitely him. He grimaced when he saw us approach, but he was clearly agitated before he even saw us. He was pacing in a small circle and gnawing on his fingernails.

“It wasn’t hers to sell,” he mumbled. “I have to get it back.”

The sign above the shop where he was standing read, “Patterson Pawn.”

“It’s mine. It’s mine. It’s mine.”

There was a note on the door of the pawn shop that said the owner was shutting down for a few days due to a family wedding.

“Have to get it back. It’s mine.” Even though the old man was younger on this visit to the Land of the Dead, he looked weaker, more unsure of himself, than he had on previous trips. One thing was certain, he really wanted something that was in that pawn shop.

“Problem?” I asked.

He jumped at the sound of my voice, and it made me feel really good. He was scared of me.