Tick just happened to look at Sofia as she rolled her eyes, then literally bit her lip to keep from saying something smart. As for him, he didn’t know what to do. He’d come to the right place; he’d convinced Jane she needed to help. What now?

A few minutes passed. No one spoke, only observed the world shaking and cracking all around them. Tick didn’t know when exactly he’d dropped to his knees on the ground, but having the lower half of his legs firmly entrenched in mud sure helped his balance. His thoughts drifted to his family, to his Reality, to what horrible things must be happening there and the terror the people he cared about must be feeling.

Before his heart completely melted into a pool of pity and anguish, he snapped his mind away from it all. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered unless he got the job done right here, right now.

A stiff wind picked up out of nowhere, blowing swirls all around them, pulling at their clothes and hair. Tick squinted his eyes against the flying grit. A few jagged streaks of electricity abruptly knifed through the air in a spot just a few yards away from the group. The thin lightning bolts fired back and forth, collapsing in on each other as if they were trapped inside an invisible sphere. Then it all collapsed into a blinding ball of whiteness, hovering above the ground.

Tick looked away, a big bright spot in his vision. He heard a loud thrum of energy combined with the snaps of popping static. Surges of that now-familiar womping Chi’karda washed over his body in waves of tingles and vibrations. When he finally blinked his vision back to normal and returned his gaze to the spot, the glowing silver-blue orb of the Haunce floated there, its many faces alternating rapidly.

It spoke in a deep and resonating voice, its face changing from an old, wrinkled woman to a young boy as it did so. “It is far worse than we feared. Millions are dead already. Come, hurry. In thirty minutes, the universe will no longer exist.”

Chapter 52

Creatures in the Dark

Screams up ahead. Some human, but most unnatural, almost demonic. Explosions. Thumps of sound more felt than heard. Ragers and Shurrics, most likely.

Encouraged, Sato moved toward it all, keeping his right shoulder close to the rock wall, doing his best not to fall down at every lurch of the earthquake. The air had brightened slightly, but he still could barely see. Here he was supposed to be leading a great army in their very first battle, and he’d somehow ended up all by himself, nowhere near the action. He would’ve felt guilty if he had the time or energy to worry about such things.

Rapid footsteps approached, accompanied by grunts and gurgly breathing. It sounded like a whole pack of Jane’s creations coming straight for him. Sato reached into his pockets and pulled out a Squeezer grenade in one hand, a Rager in the other. He crouched down and backed into a natural alcove in the stone, hoping not to have to use the weapons until the monsters were past him, hoping they wouldn’t notice him.

His wish came true—mostly. At least thirty creatures ran by in a storm of heavy footfalls and flying sweat. Sato could see only their outlines: hunchbacked wolves walking on their hind legs. He shuddered and had to fight not to close his eyes and act like a little kid wishing they were just nightmares that would go away.

The last one of the group stopped as its companions kept moving. Sato held his breath and tried to shrink into the stone at his back. The odd creature sniffed several times and pivoted its muzzled head back and forth. Sniffed again. And again.

Sato didn’t move, only tightened his fingers around the grenade, ready to throw it directly at the monster’s chest and run if it came to that. The creature took a step toward him, then another. Sniffed again. Made a low, wet, rattling sound somewhere deep in its throat. Another sniff. Sato could see its outline plainly; it was just a few feet away. He could only hope the thing had poor eyesight or wasn’t expecting something huddled near the ground.

It took another step toward him, sniffed, and let out its growl again.

A sharp barking sound rang out from where its companions had gone. The creature in front of Sato barked back—a horrible, horrible sound—before it turned in a slow circle, giving the area one last look, sniffing again and again. It took two slow steps away from Sato then turned and ran after the others.

When the monstrous thing had finally been swallowed by the inky gloom of the tunnel, Sato got back to his feet and threw the two projectiles as hard as he could after it. He didn’t wait to see the result, but sprinted in the near-darkness in the opposite direction, toward the still-clanging sounds of battle. A few seconds passed before he heard the Squeezer’s boom and the clatter of flying wires behind him, followed by the electric-tinged explosion of the Rager. Inhuman screams pierced the air, flying through the tunnel like a wind full of death.

Sato kept running.

The Haunce obviously didn’t think there was any time for manners.

“We need to get rid of the boy and girl. We do not need them.” Its eyes—set in the face of a middle-aged man with a huge nose—darted at Paul and Sofia. “And if they stand too close to us when we begin, they will explode.”

Nervous pangs, almost painful, bit and poked at Tick’s insides. Luckily, his friends didn’t seem to think they should argue the point.

“So what do we do?” Paul asked, kneeling on the ground on all fours struggling to keep his balance.

Tick had an idea. “Master George!” he yelled as loud as his sore throat would allow. “If you somehow made it back to headquarters, wink Paul and Sofia back!”

“Wait!” Sofia snapped. “We should stay here, go find Sato. Help him rescue all those—”

Too late. She and Paul disappeared.

“—kids!” Sofia barely got the word out before she collapsed to the hard metal floor of Master George’s headquarters in the Bermuda Triangle. Going from an earthquake to the steady surface totally threw her off-balance.

“Whoa! Hey!” This from Paul. “How’d you do that so fast?”

She looked at him kneeling next to her, mud caked all over his pants, then up at a grinning Rutger. “Yeah, how did you know what Tick was saying?”

Rutger looked like a proud parent. “You kids still have a lot to learn. I was monitoring your nanolocators more closely than anyone else’s, and we can pick up the vibrations in your larynx when you speak. How do you think we kept such good tabs on you when you were being recruited?”

“You guys seriously creep me out sometimes,” Paul said. He got to his feet and wiped at the mud on his clothes. He held out his hands, a disgusted look on his face. “Don’t you think we deserve some privacy?”