“What do you mean?” Jalee asked.

  “Based on what you heard back there, I’d say we have a new mission—find the other half of the disk… and destroy it.”

  15

  All of us stood there in silence, processing what Ahlaksiz was suggesting. She wanted to destroy half of the famous sun disk. Take away any chance the monsters—both good and bad—had of returning home. Or at least, that I knew of.

  “There are other ways through, no?” I sensed Jalee’s confusion, noticed her eyes on the ground, so stepped over and took her hand in mine. Even with the shock that went through me, I didn’t let go.

  “You saw the hunter almost return,” Ahlaksiz pointed out. “So in a way, the answer is yes. Those like him with the ability to trace their prey or others through, can then return. There aren’t many of those,” she indicated my wrist device again, “that we know of. If we were to destroy it, the monsterverse would effectively be safe from the likes of them.”

  “But that wouldn’t end the problems,” Jalee countered, like a balloon popping. “The warlords and self-appointed kings and queens are there, still causing trouble, and they still have… my sister.”

  Shit, there was that. I squeezed her hand, holding it in both of mine as I made eye contact with Ahlaksiz. “We can’t do it.”

  “What then?” She gestured back at the hill. “You’d propose we let them back in? That’ll create how many more bad situations for others.”

  “How’s this our fucking problem?” Kinara said. When Ahlaksiz turned on her, she said, “I’m serious. Fuck those other monsters, and fuck anyone that isn’t us. Sure, we save Jalee’s sister because she cares about that, but I don’t get why we’re discussing the fate of a bunch of others?”

  I frowned, torn on this. On the one hand, everything cinema had taught me said we needed to be heroes, storming in there to save the princess and change the fate of humanity. On the other, a small voice in my head grumbled, “Screw ‘em! Screw ‘em!” repeatedly. Anthony Hopkins from Legends of the Fall, I think? Yeah, that was definitely the voice.

  “Milkshake?” I asked.

  “Please,” she grumbled, playing the joke with her name but not smiling. Her eyes were focused on Jalee. “I’m in a different situation, in that I have my reasons to return, but they’re hardly the same as hers. Are we forgetting, though, that she served the hunter?”

  My hand twitched slightly, almost pulling away before I stopped myself. In fact, I had completely forgotten that little fact.

  “That’s not fair,” Jalee said, first to Milkshake, then eyeing me and pulling her hand away. “What, I’m not trustworthy now? I thought we went over this.”

  “We did, but there’s also the fact that we’re monsters.” Milkshake brushed off Kinara when the latter tried to get her attention. “We’re not known for our honesty, exactly. And for all we know, you have other reasons for wanting to go back.”

  Jalee glared, nostrils flared and looking like she was about to lose it.

  “Can we discuss this in the car?” Kinara asked, and her eyes kept darting over my shoulder, back toward the compound.

  When I turned, I could see why. Other monsters, whether from the mansion we’d been at or from neighboring houses, were moving our way. They were slinking through the bushes, moving along shadows, and even from here I could tell that some had that green glow in their eyes that meant trouble. A click of my tongue revealed that there were even more monsters incoming than I’d realized.

  None of us hesitated, all running for the car. We hadn’t come here to fight anyone, especially not a fortress of monsters. Not yet.

  “Not so fast,” a voice said, and I turned to see a guard at the car. Not a monster at all, but a man who looked very much like a Secret Service agent.

  Coming to a stop, I asked, “Who the fuck are you?” Maybe overboard but I was riled up.

  “Where’d you get this vehicle?”

  “Move,” I said, glancing over my shoulder. In all of my life, I’d never talked to someone like that—especially not someone in a suit. And since his hand was moving for what looked like a pistol, I had to act fast. No powers now, this was pure instinct as I decided to use my fist on someone for the second time that day. Unfortunately, with all the excitement, I’d forgotten how much I’d already hurt myself with the first punch on the dragon. This guy didn’t take it so well, stumbling back and sliding along the car as I cursed, holding my wrist.

  “Nice!” Kinara said, hitting him with a kick next, then grabbing his hair and tossing him aside.

  I started for the driver’s seat, except the guy was already recovering and, it turned out, had that pistol out. Shit, I started to see that blur again, seeing it rise up toward Kinara. No fucking way. I changed my trajectory and brought my foot down on his wrist. A shot went off, hitting a nearby tree. My instincts didn’t realize that, though. All I knew in the moment was that the man had fired his pistol and might have hit one of my monster girls.

  My foot connected again, this time so that he dropped the pistol, and then again on his face. The next hit his throat. This man clutched at his throat as my foot left him, but he didn’t seem to be recovering. Shit, he wasn’t exactly breathing.

  Two of those monsters came swinging down from the branches above. Jalee caught the first with a blast of electricity while Milkshake went for the other. These things reminded me of hairless, orange gorillas, especially the way the one was fighting Milkshake.

  Ahlaksiz had one door opened as she shouted, “Drones!”

  I’d forgotten all about the drones! Calling them out now, I sent a barrage of shots into the treeline to warn off any other incoming monsters. Only, this one had the best of Milkshake and slammed her into the car. I turned a drone on it and opened fire, only to see it dodge back and the shot explode the man’s head on the ground! So much for him recovering, and so much for my breakfast. The drones fell back as I heaved over, retching out sausage and egg onto the ground. This was my first human kill, and it hit me much harder than the situation with the hunter previously.

  Before I knew it, more monsters were on us. A tall, slim lady with pointy ears sent a blast from her palm our way, singeing Jalee’s shirt. A monster that reminded me of a bull, but with the body of a large dog, charged Jalee, and kept coming even as her electricity coursed through his body.

  Milkshake, however, was done playing around. She was up and swinging that hunter sword, growling and cutting right through the dog-being’s backside. It slumped to the ground, twitching with half of its body opened up.

  Howls and shouts roared to life all around us, more monsters emerging. Blasts came our way, others swinging down, and I thought for sure this was my last moment on Earth.

  “Back!” a shout came, and then Tooth was there, flying into the path of those blasts and sending out a shock-wave that took them out. He landed between us and the incoming monsters, wings spread out as wide as three of him would’ve been tall, then motioned for the car. “I won’t be able to hold them off forever. Go!”

  At that moment, all I knew was that we needed to get into the car and get the fuck out of there. I clicked my tongue as I ran, so as to be as aware as possible, then leaped over a root and rolled over the hood. A blast came inches from my head, its heat stinging my eyes, but then I was up and Kinara was at my side. Ushering her in through the door, I turned the drones to unleash fury on the monsters, giving the other ladies cover fire so they could get in the car as well.

  “Why’re they attacking us?” I blurted out, car on and already backing out of there. A blast hit the side of the vehicle, rocking us but not causing any damage.

  “Clearly, there seems to be a disconnect between Tooth and his master on the one side, all these others on the other.” Ahlaksiz sat in the passenger seat, and turned around to see what was happening. “Call back the drones now because,” she cringed and made a low growling sound, “you just lost one.”

  “Dammit!” I slammed the dash, then did as she said. The drones reconnected with a small ding, but a second later something larger hit the car.

  We all turned to see one of those blob-like winged monsters snarling at us from the side window, fist pulled back and ready to strike.

  “On it,” Jalee said, and she shot out a burst of electricity that made the window shatter before sending him off. “Sorry, didn’t think about the window.”

  “Makes this part easier, though,” Milkshake said, reaching over her and sticking out her hand as she called the hunter blade back. She thrust right as another monster came up alongside us, then let the sword vanish again.

  We turned down the hill we had come up, but were going at such a speed that there was no way we’d be able to make the swerving road work for us. After nearly plowing into the first tree, Ahlaksiz reached over and ran her hand over the dash so that she took control, then threw us up and over the trees, cloaking as she did so.

  “Right now,” she said between heavy breaths, “all we need to worry about is escaping from the chaos zone.”

  I nodded, then glanced at her before turning to the others. “There’s no way we’re seriously coming back here, right?”

  “We need her half of the disc,” Jalee pointed out. “Or will, eventually.”

  “Sure, sure…” I turned back around, watching as we descended over massive oaks and mansions. One thing was clear though—when we came back, we had to be ready for a fight. We would return to destroy both halves of the discs, but there had to be a way to go in and find Jalee’s sister, first.

  16

  It wasn’t until we came to a stop for a quick bathroom break that I began to think back on how it had felt to kill that man. The security guard was a human. Someone’s son, maybe a brother or father. And now he was dead because of me.

  Taking a life was a strange feeling. Even as a child I’d always felt strange about squishing spiders, and the one time I’d thrown a rock to scare a bird but accidentally nailed it, I felt horrible for weeks. Now, however, something else entirely was taking hold.

  Exhilaration? My chest felt puffed out, my adrenaline rushing through me as I ran into the El Pollo Loco bathroom, and even my dick felt twice as big in my hand. Was it all in my mind? Before letting the piss out, I held my thumb next to it to get a gauge. Sure enough, it was like two thumbs across and at least two heads longer than it had been before. It didn’t seem like a semi boner, either. Strange.

  After a quick piss and washing my hands, I pulled down my pants to look at it in the mirror. If not for the side vein being where it always was, curves too, I would’ve thought it was someone else’s dick. What the fuck was happening to me?

  The door opened and an old man entered, pausing there at seeing me checking myself out. When I quickly covered myself and apologized, he laughed.

  “You got something to be proud of there, boy. Nothing to apologize for.”

  Considering the fact that he winked at me as he passed, I felt incredibly awkward and was gone in a flash. The others had used the ladies’ room with help from Ahlaksiz, and were now grabbing some chicken for the road.

  “They won’t give it to me raw,” Kinara whispered with a pout, leaning her head on my shoulder.

  “Yeah, you could get salmonella or something.” I glanced around, glad we were alone in line, and whispered back, “Hey, do you think… am I becoming a monster?”

  “Humans can’t do that.”

  “No?”

  She lifted her head to look me in the eyes. “It’s never happened before.”

  “What’s that?” Ahlaksiz asked, returning with the bag of food to go.

  “I just..” How was I supposed to say this? “Well, I got some of their abilities, right? Which is kind of like,” I lowered my voice further to say, “monsters. And now in the bathroom I noticed something else… monster-like.”

  Confusion took hold of her expression, but Jalee’s eyes went wide. “Show us.”

  “What? Here?”

  She pointed to the car. I nodded, but as I turned, Kinara slipped a hand to grab my package.

  “Oooh,” she said. “He’s telling the truth. It’s bigger.”

  Unfortunately, that’s when I saw the table of younger women—maybe young college girls?—all watching this, half of them bursting into giggles, others looking disgusted. I quickly made for the door, but paused there, eyeing Kinara.

  “Thanks for that,” I said when she passed by.

  She grinned wide and stuck out her tongue. “I couldn’t wait to find out.”

  “Right. Well, on the topic of meat…” I nodded to the side door, propped open for some reason with a plastic cup. Maybe the lock was stuck or something. “That might lead to the kitchen, and if you really want raw, we can make that happen.”

  “I could catch something in the wild instead.”

  “No time,” Ahlaksiz interjected. “Sorry, but if you want food before our trip, it’s now or never.”

  That settled it. Maybe it was this new ‘monster’ side of me, I don’t know, but I gestured for the car and said, “Get in, I’ll be right back.”

  Kinara looked impressed as I made my way to the side door. She headed for the car with the others while Milkshake asked what I was doing. They whispered the plan to her, barely audible as I inched past the open door and had a peek. From here, I could see the guy working the register, but he had his back to me. Nobody else.

  That settled it. I stepped in, walked briskly past the register, and went for a box of chicken that looked like someone was preparing to cook it. Snatching it up, I came face to face with a pimply teen.

  “Who’re you?” he asked.

  “Delivery,” I said, spinning and carrying the box back toward the door.

  “Hey, I just pulled that out, so—you, wait!”

  I was booking it, then, pushing through the door with my shoulder, almost laughing as I made my first and only chicken run. Jalee had my door open, motioning me in from the back, and I made it with the guy shouting from the doorway behind me.

  “Go, go, go!” I said, and Ahlaksiz took the controls so that we were gone before they had a chance to call the cops. Would they do that over a box of stolen, raw chicken? I had no clue.

  We were all whooping and laughing, though that stopped the second Kinara reached into the box and pulled out a piece of partially thawed chicken to bite into.

  “Ack!” she shouted, throwing the chicken so that it hit the windshield and fell down onto the dash with a splat. “It’s fucking cold!”

  Stunned silence followed, then the laughter returned—but only from Ahlaksiz and me.

  “They freeze it,” I explained. “You’re going to have to wait for it to thaw. As for us, though…”

  The rest of us started digging into the cooked chicken, and damn was it good. I’d never even tried this place, having been more of a KFC kid growing up, but whatever this spicy, seasoned piece was that I had in my mouth at that moment was proclaimed the winner.

  “Please tell me we got biscuits with butter and honey,” I said between bites, and then looked around for a root beer. “Shit, no sodas?”

  “We got out of there in a rush,” Ahlaksiz said, “and I was thinking mostly of protein. Sorry.”

  “Should we go back?” I grinned and they chuckled, all knowing that clearly wasn’t an option at this point. We had water bottles, and that would have to do for the moment. “Seriously though, we have our destination, but I don’t know how we’re going to get there. I mean, Turkey? We can’t exactly sneak you all onto an airplane.”

  “Ferris, aren’t you forgetting something?” Jalee said, hand on my shoulder from the backseat.

  “We don’t exactly need an ‘airplane,’ when we have this,” Ahlaksiz added, patting the dash. She froze, realizing she’d gotten chicken grease on it, then laughed. “Ah, oh well.”

  I took a napkin from the bag and wiped it as clean as I could, then looked out and noticed which direction we were heading.

  “You all think we can basically drive to Turkey? To fucking Turkey?” I scoffed. “That would take… Hell, I have no idea.”

  Ahlaksiz wiped her hands on the napkin, then pulled out her wrist device and activated a holo-screen. “According to this, it’s almost seven thousand miles away.”

  “How many days’ walk would that be?” Kinara asked.

  “Kinara,” I said, trying not to mansplain, “you can’t walk to Turkey. There’s a huge ocean in the way. But, assuming you could, maybe someone could walk, I don’t know, like thirty miles in a day? So that’s like… two hundred something days of walking.”

  “Shit.”

  I nodded.

  “It’s a good thing, then,” Ahlaksiz programmed something into the car with a few hand gestures, “that this isn’t a regular car.”

  In a burst of light, we shot forward, all of us pinned back in our seats, shouting and mumbling and maybe even slobbering. My gut wrenched and I finally got the car to stop by taking the controls, but that was a big mistake—we slammed to a stop and suddenly all the chicken started working its way up. I’d already vomited once that day and wasn’t about to do it again.

  “Don’t ever,” gulp, “do that…” moan, “again.”

  She stared at me with an arched brow, then laughed. “Ah, right—humans and their weak stomachs.”

  “For the record, I didn’t enjoy it much either,” Jalee said, and I turned to see that she looked a bit green.

  Another urge to vomit came up and I leaned out to open the door, but barely had it open when Ahlaksiz caught me by the arm and said, “Don’t.”

  I saw why. We were hovering well above what looked like an orchard. It could have been any one of the farms nearby in California, except, somehow it didn’t feel right. With a deep breath, my urge to puke vanished.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Judging by the travel system, I’d say… somewhere over Kansas City.”

  I blinked, trying to take that in. “We barely traveled at all.”

  “You don’t seem to understand what you’ve already accomplished in your short time of being part of our world.” She glanced back at the ladies, then to me. “Not only have you summoned three monsters to your side, but you played a role in taking down a hunter. To put it in terms you’d understand, you’re level one in Chrono Trigger Diablo but skipped to the middle of the game and managed to survive because you have amazing teammates.” She held her hands up as Kinara started to protest. “And now, Ferris, you’re becoming badass, too. And as you learn about Prana and Ichor and all that, I could see you becoming quite the force to be reckoned with. But you just took that mid-game boss’s mount, and—”