Chapter 1: World’s End

Alfonso Perplexon opened his eyes and winced as crisscrossing beams of sunlight flashed across his face. His back and legs felt cold. It soon dawned on him that he was lying in the snow, on his back, looking directly up at a canopy of trees overhead. The trees were massive, sturdy, and ancient-looking. They were Great Obitteroos. There was no doubt about it. Alfonso exhaled deeply and, as he did, he let days, weeks, and months of tension seep out of his body. He had been picturing this moment for so long. At long last, he was home in Minnesota. Just then, Alfonso felt someone – or something – squeeze his fingers. He turned his head and saw a girl lying next to him in the snow; she had blonde hair, fine cheekbones, and two eyes that twinkled almost incandescently.

“Resuza?” asked Alfonso, half in disbelief.

“He speaks!” said Resuza giddily. She seemed unusually happy that Alfonso had spoken – so happy that she leaned over and energetically kissed his cheek. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever talk again,” she said. “Your father said it would take time, and I’ve tried to be so patient, really I have.”

“I am... I mean we are...” stammered Alfonso.

“Back home,” said Resuza, as she sat up in the snow. “Your home. I never thought we’d get here – you really do live on the other side of the world, you know? No wonder you call this place World’s End.”

Resuza sprang to her feet in one fluid movement, and Alfonso was reminded of her grace. Other memories of Resuza flickered through his brain – Resuza hiding in the darkened alleyways of Brash-yin-Binder, Resuza swimming by moonlight in his uncle’s pool in Somnos, and Resuza holding his hand at the Hub in the dank gloom of the Fault Roads. She always moved so swiftly and with such poise and, even in the darkest of situations, she would flash that quick, electrifying smile of hers. He had last seen her at the gate leading into the labyrinth, just outside of Jasber. That was how long ago exactly? He had no way of knowing. More disturbingly, he had no memory at all of how he had gotten home. The last thing he could recall was being inside the burning armory in Jasber, running for his life, with a bag of green ash tucked under his arm, and then falling to the ground.

“I was in some sort of coma, wasn’t I?” asked Alfonso finally.

“No kidding,” said Resuza as she stepped on his toes, reached down, grabbed his hands, and pulled him to his feet. And like that, he was standing so close to Resuza that their noses were practically touching. “It was scary,” said Resuza quietly. “Everyone was awfully worried. But then you sat up and began walking around. ”

Alfonso nodded. He was about to ask another question, but a sudden uneasiness passed over him. Alfonso glanced around and saw that the floor of the forest was alive with movement. There were hundreds and perhaps thousands of small creatures – rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, opossums, mice, shrews, and even a few foxes – racing underfoot. Resuza screamed. The animals parted around them and then flowed past as if they were two rocks in the middle of a mighty river. When the wave of small animals had passed there was a brief moment of stillness; then, in the distance came the sound of branches snapping. A second wave of animals appeared to be headed their way.

“Come on,” said Resuza. “We have to hurry.”

Alfonso and Resuza ran quickly through the forest of the Great Obitteroos, weaving their way between the massive tree trunks. All the while, they could hear the sound of a stampede behind them. At some point, everything began to shake – several trees toppled, a giant boulder began to roll, and the earth dropped downward creating a sinkhole just to the left of where Alfonso and Resuza were running. Alfonso stopped for a moment and took a good, long look down into the sink hole. The shape of the hole looked weirdly familiar. It had six perfectly even sides, like a hexagon.

Where had he seen such a hole before?

“Come on!” yelled Resuza.

They sprinted onward, hand in hand. Eventually, they emerged from the forest and into a great open field that sloped down gently toward the icy expanse of Lake Witekkon. In the middle of the field was an old deer stand – a rickety tree-house on four stilts – which their neighbor, Old Man Edlund, sometimes used as a hunting perch. A hundred yards or so beyond this was Pappy’s greenhouse and the small ramshackle cottage that was Alfonso’s home. They ran for the cottage, but about halfway there, Alfonso stole a glance backwards and saw a blurry herd of animals closing in. They would never make it to the cottage, but they might make it to the deer stand.

Alfonso squeezed Resuza’s hand and tugged her toward the deer stand. They arrived at the deer stand and scrambled up the rickety ladder just as the first wave of animals thundered past. There were deer, wolves, moose, and black bears. Alfonso and Resuza held onto one another in fright. The tree stand shook mightily and, on more than one occasion, Alfonso felt certain an animal would slam into one of the stand’s rickety supports and topple the entire structure. Amazingly, this didn’t happen. When the last animal sprinted past, there was a brief spell of calm, and Resuza spoke.

“It’s like a forest fire,” she said, “Only without the fire.”

“Huh?”

“When I was a girl, growing up in the Urals, I went hunting with my father once and we saw a massive forest fire,” she explained. “Before the flames arrived, all the animals poured out of the forest just like that...”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone shouting.

“ALFONSO! RESUZA!”

Alfonso and Resuza both turned and saw the figure of Judy Perplexon standing in the doorway of the cottage, motioning frantically for them to come inside.

“Come on,” said Alfonso. “We better go.”

They scurried down the ladder, ran across the field and bolted into the cottage. As soon as they entered the cottage, Judy closed the door and locked it securely. The first thing that Alfonso noticed was his father Leif, who was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. He looked very distraught. “I’m such a fool,” he was mumbling to himself, as he raked his hands through his hair. “A blasted fool.”

“Dad!” yelled Alfonso. Something about the way his father looked frightened him to the bone.

“I thought we’d be safe here,” said Leif without even looking up. “I should have known – it was all written out so clearly.”

“Safe from what?” asked Alfonso. “What is it?”

Before anyone could answer, however, the entire cottage started to shake. Judy began to scream. Leif remained at the kitchen table, muttering to himself. Alfonso looked around frantically and saw, to both his astonishment and relief, that Resuza looked perfectly calm. He walked over to her. His mother’s favorite vase fell to the floor and exploded into a thousand pieces. Resuza grabbed him.

“Listen carefully,” she said. She was speaking loudly. The cottage was collapsing from the inside. Everything not nailed down fell and burst like shattered windows.

“You’ll need me, before it’s all over. And Bilblox as well.”

The ceiling began to cave in, starting with a shower of dust and fist-sized chunks of stone.

“But most of all, you’ll need-”

She stopped and looked up.

“Who will I need most?” Alfonso asked. “Who? WHO?!”

Resuza screamed as a massive wooden timber dislodged from the ceiling and headed towards them.

“Wake up Alfonso!” she yelled. “Do it now!”

Alfonso was overcome by a feeling of weightlessness, as if he were rising upwards from a great depth. He felt disoriented and sick. Most of all, he was terrified of what he was about to see.