Chapter 29
"Well, that wasn't on the map."
The three boys gazed down at the landscape below them, at the enormous tower that jutted out from it high into the sky. It was shaped like an enormous, conical spike, gleaming a blinding, metallic silver with no windows or openings in sight. It dwarfed not only the largest buildings in Lime Lake, but it even enveloped the grassy mountains and plateaus nearby in its colossal shadow.
"We gotta land soon! I'm running outta gas!" Ed shouted from atop the glider. Sweat dripped profusely down his face, the fire streaming out of his hands a fraction of the intensity it was earlier. The propane tank had already run out, only a few sparks of flame sputtering from it as minute amounts of gas leaked out and ignited. The glider began to descend.
"Alright, Ed, you can stop now!" Edd shouted. "Let's find a road to use as a runw—"
Boom!
A wall of sound whipped past the boys like the sound of an enormous cannon going off. Soon after, a screeching, crackling sound came into existence and slowly grew in volume. Following the source, Kevin looked at the tower to see a gigantic, orange ball of electricity speeding toward him. Kevin and Edd instinctively jerked their bodies to the right, and the glider slowly banked and turned away. The projectile missed.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The glider tossed and turned in panic as more missiles twinkled into view from the silver tower, rapidly growing as large and fast as the first one.
"Ed! Can you make us go faster?!"
"I'll try!" Ed tensed his arms and focused as hard as he could. A stronger burst of flame burst from him, pushing the glider fast enough to barely avoid another missile. His mind began to seethe as he squeezed his PSI for every last bit of energy he could muster. His jaw grew sore as he clenched his teeth, struggling to keep his tearing eyes open.
And then the fire stopped.
Ed's vision flickered as his mind blanked out. He tried to muster power. Begged for it. His mind retaliated by sending intense pain through his head. The boy passed out.
Edd and Kevin quickly felt the sudden loss of speed, and shortly after they felt a sickening jolt as one of the energy projectiles slammed into the edge of the left wing. The glider flipped through the air, the wing flapping around burnt, tattered and limp. The boys screamed as they tumbled downward, the onslaught of missiles beginning to stop now that their target was hit.
"Double-D, what do we do?!"
"I-I-I-I d-don't know!"
"Ed, are you okay? Ed?!"
"Oh my god, Ed!"
"Think of something!"
The glider spiraled downward, picking up speed as it went. Edd felt himself rising out of his seat as he turned his attention to the broken wing. Impulse overriding fear, he forced himself to jump from the bike to grab onto the wing's support frame. Ignoring the fact that his heart and stomach were competing to see which could work its way up his throat first, he scrambled around to the top of the glider.
In one hand, he took hold of the ropes binding Ed to the contraption. In the other, he grabbed a rope that was flailing around near the tip of the broken wing, and he pulled the two together. The wing grew taut, and the glider stopped tumbling. Running on pure adrenaline, he managed to tie the two ropes together with trembling hands.
Even though the wind pelted him with chaotic force and noise, Edd paused for a moment to gaze at his unconscious friend. He tentatively pressed two fingers on Ed's neck, and time stood still.
There was a pulse. Ed was breathing.
Time was kind enough to stay still for just a moment longer, to allow Edd to sigh and swallow back the tears.
Kevin tilted and jerked and pulled back on the handlebars of the bike as hard as he could. The glider refused to tilt up from its near vertical descent. The ground was approaching at an alarming rate, and the top of the tower grew higher and higher above them, piercing the sky. "I could use a bright idea here!" Kevin shouted. He turned around to see Edd float from the top of the glider to the back, clinging to the tail end between the propeller and the bike.
"We need something to force the glider out of this dive!" he shouted. "Do you know PK Fire?"
"No! I don't know any PSI that'll—" Kevin paused. "Unless… will this work?"
"Will what work?"
"Please let this work! PSI Shield!"
Kevin's world grew black as he extended his consciousness out into the void. In the space below the glider, he envisioned a wall of solid energy, curved outward like a ramp. His mind buzzed as the vision become a reality. The glider fell straight past it, missing the ramp completely.
"Shield!"
It jerked back downward as the bike's back wheel nicked the edge of a new force field.
"Come on," he said, clenching his eyes shut so he wouldn't have to see the ground charging at them furiously. "Shield!"
The glider jerked, and Kevin yelped as he was pressed hard into his seat. The glider made full contact with the ramp-shaped shield, quickly turning its vertical dive into a horizontal fling. It wobbled left and right. It began to tilt upward, where it stalled and tipped back towards the ground again. It didn't go straight down again, however, and it tilted back upward on its own.
Edd, ignoring the sudden feeling of weight coming back to try and pry apart his white-knuckled grip from the glider, quickly shimmied along the tail until he was closer to the center of the contraption. With some quick trial and error, he managed to find a spot that caused the glider to stabilize. It shakily began to slow down as the flat, grassy ground grew closer at a much less alarming pace this time.
"What the heck just happened?" Kevin asked, his attention turned to the now extremely-massive-looking tower looming above them, gleaming in the abnormally dim sunlight. He pedaled quickly to keep the propeller spinning, now that their main means of propulsion was knocked out.
"We've just been assaulted!" Edd screamed hysterically. "This wasn't just some random passerby inflicted with mad hysteria, this was a coordinated assault! Whomever is in that tower—"
Kevin waited for a second before realizing that Edd had cut himself off.
"Oh my lord."
Kevin turned toward Edd, and quickly saw what was wrong. The two were passing over a crash site. A trench of broken trees and metal lead to the remains of an airliner. Smoke was still rising from the debris.
"I d-don't think they like people around these parts," Kevin said. He immediately tried not to think about how many people had been on that plane, or who they were. He failed. "W-we gotta get out of here. We gotta to find shel—"
"Look out!"
This time Kevin wasn't fast enough to react. Like a dart hitting a bullseye, the glider stuck gracelessly in the large pine tree with a crackly thud.
~ααα~
"Are you sure that thing even works?"
"What evidence do you have to the contrary? It helped us find Lime Lake from where we were near the desert, after all."
Edd zeroed out the sextant and made his habitual double-check on their position as they walked through the small, coniferous woods. Kevin ignored how tired he was now that the last of his adrenaline had died down as he pushed the bike along, an unconscious Ed sitting with his head on the handlebars and a large pack on his back. The glider had been removed and abandoned, too damaged to salvage according to Edd. Kevin was just happy his bike wasn't damaged, even if he did have to resort to using it as a gurney to carry Ed on. A tingle of fear ran down Kevin's spine. They had managed to save most of their supplies, but the two cans of powdered gravy Ed had so insisted on taking with them were destroyed in the crash.
He would not be happy when he woke up.
At least that would not be for a while, Kevin figured. Tentatively, he expanded his mind outward. He found it hard to concentrate on using his sixth sense while also making sure to watch where he was going, but he could feel his friend next to him. Ed was all but drained, his "light" that Kevin felt was like a smoldering ember; alive, but so very small. Kevin wondered if this was how he was like after he had first used PSI.
He smiled, though; when Ed wakes up, he thought, he'll have one heck of a story to tell people. And while Kevin felt like he never wanted to go on an airplane again, the adrenaline hadn't quite left his blood, and the rush from earlier left a feeling of excitement in him. He would have one heck of a story to tell, too.
"Ah, see? Here we are!" Edd said, his pace quickening as he saw the roofs of houses poking above a large, uniform hedge in front of them. Remembering what happened the last time he entered a new neighborhood, Kevin put his free hand into his pocket and pulled out his ratchet.
They walked alongside the hedge until they found a short lane which led into a small cul-de-sac. As they passed through it, the neighborhood opened up around them, revealing to the boys a wasteland. The houses were in good shape, but the lawns and streets were littered with furniture and appliances and trash. Many of the windows were boarded up from the inside, and some were broken as if something had crashed through them. The entire place was silent and dark, cast within the shadow of the enormous tower beyond.
"What do we do now?" Kevin asked. Edd answered by cautiously walking up the front path of the nearest house, stepping over various furniture and objects and ringing the doorbell. Kevin shrugged and followed behind them, and the boys waited on the porch for someone to answer.
"Wh-wh-who's there?" came a squeaky, frightened voice from the other side of the door.
"Excuse me, but—"
"What do you want?!"
"Do you know a woman named Michelle?"
"What do you want with her?" he spat, a sudden sting of anger permeating his voice. The boys heard several clicks and clacks as the door jiggled back and fourth in rhythm. It opened a few inches before one—several chains on the other side grew taut and stopped it, and a thin face peered through the gap. "Y-you're just children!" he said, his eyes widening.
"Yes, and w—our parents are friends of Rick," Edd explained. "We came to check up on his sister, Michelle."
"This isn't a good place to be right now," the man said. "Err …Michelle's down the road a bit. Her house is number thirty-five fifteen on the left. Get there and get to safety. D-don't tell her I sent you! You never saw me!"
"But we don't even know who—"
The door slammed shut almost after the boys heard the locks quickly reengage from the other side. Insulted, but more confused than, they turned around and headed down the messy, object-ridden street. On several occasions Edd caught glimpses of people looking at the from their windows, only to quickly close the blinds or hide behind the boards. One even motioned a cross in front of him before disappearing deeper into the house, wearing a tragically sympathetic look on his face.
And then Kevin got hit by a lamp.
"GAH!" Kevin stumbled, holding onto the bike for stability as he pressed a hand to where his head got hit. Edd scanned the area to find the culprit, but no one was there. Suddenly, the boys heard a loud scraping noise, and they turned toward a nearby couch on the road. As if something was pushing it from behind, it shuffled along the ground toward them. They backed away from it, and it shuffled faster, and faster, the cushions on it rippling as it to make it look like it was snarling. The boys broke into a run. The couch ran after them, bouncing from left to right in a furious waddle.
Kevin and Edd watched in horror as all around them, the household objects strewn about began to move. Small things like pens and bottles flung themselves through the air, while larger ones found other methods of locomotion in varying levels of animation. All of them were making their way toward the boys, the only other moving things out in the open. It was like something from Ed's comics, Kevin thought to himself. He made a mental note that he should actually start reading them later.
Soon everything grew so animate that the boys couldn't outrun them anymore. A portable vacuum cleaner flung its hose around Edd's leg and tripped him. It tried to drag the screaming boy toward the others, but a sudden smack from Kevin's ratchet caused it to let go.
"Don't even think about it!" he shouted. He quickly realized that he was no longer holding onto the bike, and winced when he heard it tip over and fall to the ground with Ed still on it. The mob of objects began to surround them. "Oh, come on! Shield!"
A protective dome apparated around the the three boys. Small appliances bashed themselves futilely against it, and Kevin allowed himself a moment to rest as Edd struggled to mount Ed back on the bike.
"I could use a hand here!" he wheezed, the weight of the larger boy too much for him to handle.
"Gimmie a sec!" Kevin retorted. Larger objects began beating down on the dome. Sweat dripping down his brow, Kevin layered a second shield on the first. "Alright, that should hold until Ed wakes up and we can bust out of…"
The words died in his mouth as he saw the sea of attackers split apart. Down the newly-made path, two lights blinked to life. Even Edd stopped what he was doing when he heard the sound of an engine revving. The sound of screaming tires pierced the air as a blood-red sports car rocketed toward the boys' makeshift haven.
"Oh crap."
Kevin flinched. The car made to ram into the shield. Instead, it was lifted up on a makeshift ramp of energy that materialized before the dome. The car flew through the air, but it managed to crash into the dome from above and shatter it before it slammed to the ground.
Kevin and Edd stood in the middle of the street, exposed to the army of bloodthirsty things. The car made a swift U-turn, and charged at the boys once again. Kevin widened his stance.
"Alright," he said, his voice rising into a yell as he added, "you all asked for it! PK Riding!"
A net of cackling, thread-like energy burst from Kevin in a wave. It harmlessly passed through Ed and Edd, but not so with everything else. Most of the smaller objects completely disintegrated when the multi-colored energy zipped through them, while many of the larger items were cut up. The muscle car's windows shattered and its tires popped, causing it to swerve and miss its target. Undeterred, it furiously attempted to correct itself. The rest of the mob began to recover from the attack as well.
Kevin and Edd quickly helped pick the bike up with Ed on it and they sprinted down the street. Kevin swatted at the smaller objects with his ratchet and blasted the larger ones with his PK Riding, but every felled attacker was replaced by two more.
"Please understand the reasoning for destroying your belongings!" Edd called out around him.
"Dude, I don't think anyone can blame us," Kevin replied, ignoring his racing heart to put on sarcastic face. He couldn't hide the sweat running down his brow, though. "Now how close are we to her house?"
"Oh, let's see… thirty-five seven, thirty-five nine, thirty-five eleven… thirty-five fifteen!" he shouted. The boys turned hard to the left and scrambled up the house. Where a door was supposed to be, there was a large, charred hole covered by a bedsheet nailed to the top. Ignoring all manners and formalities for just that instant, Edd thrust the sheet upward and threw Ed and the bike in. Kevin entered right after, and quickly raised as many shields as he could muster to block the opening.
The blanket covered the shield, but the boys could hear it being pounded upon. Kevin grimaced, trying to concentrate on keeping them strong, but it was like trying to keep water cupped in his hands. However, the pounding grew quieter and quieter as a short time passed, and eventually it stopped altogether. He waited for the kicker, the brute of the group to barge in just as they thought they were safe like in the movies. Time passed. It never came.
He kept one shield up just in case.
"Well," Edd gasped, "I think I've had my share of exercise for the whole—"
"I'll kill you, you bast—!" the two boys jumped as a woman leapt down a nearby flight of stairs, wielding a golf club above her head as if it was a sword. She landed hard on the floor and drew the club back for a hard swing. She had just barely started to swing it when her head tilted up and she actually saw who her intruders were.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Kevin shouted, dropping his ratchet to hold out his hand. The woman stopped her attack midswing, causing Edd to flinch.
"Y-you're… you're children," she gasped, her arms trembling as she lowered her weapon. She brushed her long, black hair from her eyes and rested the golf club against a lively green skirt. She breathed a few short, heavy breaths as she eyed the three of them.
"E-e-excuse me," Edd said, his heart still racing in terror, "are y-you M-miss—er, Michelle?"
"And what if I am?" she asked, a slight Latino accent flavoring her voice. Kevin could see the resemblance to her brother; her arms were well-toned, and her face was shaped with a similar gruffness. Her eyes were gray as Rick had described, and they gazed upon the boys with a strange mixture of fright and compassion.
"Y-your brother Rick s—" he took the moment to pant some more, remembering what the man had said.
"Rick? What about him?" she pointed her golf club at the boy menacingly.
"H-he was a friend of our parents," Edd almost shouted. "They sent us here to check up on his sister wh-when they heard he had died."
Michelle sighed, and gently lowered the club. She lowered her head onto a hand and slumped back to sit on the stairs. "Of course," she sighed. "Well, you can probably tell it's a bad time for visiting."
"What the heck is going on out there?" Kevin asked. Now that the panic had died down, he began to notice that the house was devoid of anything that didn't seem to be a part of it. "Why's everything in this town coming to life with a vengeance?"
"That's the million dollar question," the woman responded. "It just started happening, when that damned—erm, thattower just appeared!" She lifted her head up, and noticed the boy lying underneath the upturned bicycle. "My goodness, is he alright?"
"He is in good condition," Edd explained, "just tired. We've had a bit of a long day."
"Well, I can't exactly send you three home back the way you came. Not unless I was as heartless as those things." She nearly spat that last word out. "How about we go upstairs," she said more than she asked. The boys complied, and she helped Kevin carry Ed and the bike to the second floor. The upstairs was as empty as the first floor, save for a few mattresses and various boxes of food.
"We have no way of telling what will come alive or not," the woman said. "But it seems that items in a group are more likely to and much harder to deal with, so we all threw out everything but the bare essentials."
"Don't worry, if any of this attacks us we'll be able to handle it," Kevin assured.
"It's a miracle you three even made it here in the first place. Now, if I may ask, what did your parents hope to accomplish by sending you here by yourselves?"
Kevin and Edd hadn't really thought of a way to explain it, so the latter said, "Well, we heard that Rick's niece—or your daughter—was taken from you."
"H-how do you know that?" Her eyes narrowed. "How did you even know that my brother died? The phone lines have been down for days!"
"It's a long story," Kevin said, "but just bear with us."
"Fine," she said begrudgingly, her eyes beginning to grow misty. "So you know about my daughter and my brother. Why do you care? I've never met any of you before. What do you owe me?"
"The person who told us she was taken also described a friend of ours being taken as well," Edd said.
"You mean… that little blond boy?" Michelle asked. "With the retainer?"
"Yes, exactly! We've come for him as well."
"No, don't tell me you're…" she looked at the boys as if they had grown a second head.
"We've come to bring them back," Kevin said. "To save Jimmy and your daughter."
