T he moment Nobody tells us where to go next, the Pillar’s chopper shows up in the air, ready to pick us up.
“This is when I usually disappear,” Nobody says and starts to frantically pedal away.
“You’re going to let him leave with the key?” the Pillar says.
It’s times like these when I don’t know what to do with him exactly. The kids shouting my name in the air distracts me from staring back at the Pillar. I turn and walk in their direction, smiling like a kid myself.
Again, it’s funny how little things, like a child’s smile, make all the sense in this world of continuous nonsense. Even the Keys to Wonderland don’t matter much all of a sudden.
“Hey, Nobody!” the Pillar yells. “You still have my key.”
“Who’re you talking to?” Nobody twists his head back, mocking the Pillar. “There is nobody on this bicycle.”
I actually admire this comeback as the chopper lands before me. The spiraling wind feels refreshing all of a sudden.
“Then, I assume nobody is going to fall off the bicycle now.” I hear the Pillar suck on his cigar behind me, calling out for the man on a bicycle.
I hear Nobody’s bicycle swerve and fall to the ground.
“Ouch!” Nobody wails on the desert floor.
I turn to look.
“I think I heard nobody say ouch.” The Pillar strolls casually toward Nobody—which is a boggling sentence, in and of itself.
I suddenly realize the absurdness of a bicycle in the desert. But I am not going to stir my head around that. I’ve seen madder things in my short life.
The Pillar stands over Nobody and demands the key under the threat of the gun he is pointing at him.
I sense something bad is going to happen. I turn back to the kids and distract them, so they don’t look.
When Nobody argues he won’t give it back, the Pillar shoots his leg. This search for the cure is getting bloodier by the minute.
But it works, and the Pillar gets the key back—my key!
“Don’t kill me, please,” Nobody begs.
“Only if you tell me the last missing piece of the puzzle,” the Pillar says. “Now that we know the plague was cooked by this Scientist, it’s time to tell us who ordered it in the first place.”
“I thought you were sure it was Lewis Carroll,” I interfere from a distance. “Isn’t he the Wonderland Monster who’s behind this?” Of course, I still have my doubts about Lewis being a monster, but I haven’t been sure of anything for a while.
“Who is it?” The Pillar lowers his gun toward Nobody, neglecting me.
“Carolus Ludovicus!” Nobody finally speaks.
This is the moment a whirlwind sweeps through the desert, almost knocking me off the earth.
When it slows down, I see the Pillar is still pointing his gun. Even from this far, I can see the worried look on his face.
Carolus Ludovicus?
The name sounds villainous. Another drug lord from around here? Then what about this Lewis Carroll walking the streets of London?
“You understand now when I told you the plague is incurable?” Nobody tells the Pillar.
The Pillar says nothing, turns around, shoots the man dead without looking, and walks toward me.
The look on his face is tense.
“You didn’t have to shoot him ,” I say to him as he gets on the chopper. “I know he was a bad man, but I’m fed up with all this killing.”
“Did I shoot someone?” The Pillar fakes an innocent face. The children laugh.
“Yes.” I get in. “You shot Nobody.”
The children laugh again, and now I get the joke.
“Exactly.” The Pillar signals for his chauffeur to take off. “I shot nobody.”