Chapter Twenty-Six

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

Most everything fades—photographs, favorite shirts, hair. Many things that are bright and vibrant today will be muted and dull tomorrow. Even the things that seem still are fading. Memories fade. I remember . . . well, it’ll come to me. Feelings fade. How many times have you been angry because somebody sold you a low-security secret at a high-security price? Only to have your feelings of betrayal fade away after that person is eaten by a shark while trying to escape the country.

Like I said, feelings fade.

Sometimes, recognizing that something familiar has faded is not easy. Those nice blue jeans you’re wearing don’t look so stiff and new when they’re held up to a brand-new pair. And that clear, shiny whisp that you’ve been hanging out with for the last few days just might not look as shiny when you hold her up to the light of Reality.

The point is, Janet was fading.

“Are you all right?” Tim asked Janet.

“Fine,” she replied, standing as close to Osck as she could.

The day was growing increasingly warm, and all four of them were crowded together in the large parking lot that had been fenced off. They were near the Porta Potties and behind the temporary first aid station. Tim was sweating profusely; his thinning hair was wet with perspiration. Tim fanned himself. “I miss Swig,” he admitted.

A group of frustrated cogs shoved Tim and Osck as they tried to move by.

“Watch yourself,” Osck said as one cog walked right through Janet.

“I’m not about to take orders from an echo,” the cog said. “And I’m certainly not going to step around a whisp.”

The cogs walked off laughing.

“It’s so hot,” Tim complained. “How long can they keep us here?”

“We can’t last here much longer,” Azure said weakly from beneath the hood of his robe.

Two nits who were fighting with each other ran into a large, overheated rant. The rant picked up one of the nits, cursed loudly, and then threw the nit into a line of beings waiting for the Porta Potty. Two soldiers grabbed the rant while others tried to help those who had been knocked down.

“This is bad,” Tim said.

“What do you mean?” Janet asked.

“It’s so hot and crowded. And Swig said that black skeletons and rants weren’t designed to be cooped up with each other.”

An official-looking military person was talking through a bullhorn, ordering everyone to stay calm.

Osck leaned over and put his hands on his knees.

“Are you okay?” Tim asked.

“I feel weak,” Osck said. “Like after a long night with no reflection. What are the large creatures up above us?”

Tim looked up. “Helicopters.”

“There’s so much metal,” Osck said. “Is there killing?”

Tim nodded.

“That beast there,” Osck pointed to a tank outside the fence. “It looks immovable.”

“It’s a tank,” Tim said, wiping his forehead. “And they can actually move quite quickly.”

“I thought we’d be free,” Osck said with a touch of panic in his normally stable voice. “Azure, you said we’d be free.” Osck reached out and touched Azure on the shoulder.

Azure shook as long black strings whipped up from the soil and wrapped around him. It happened so quickly Tim could barely register it. Azure screamed and cried, his expression that of someone who knew better and was now getting his comeuppance. The black strands yanked Azure downward into the soil. Tim tried to grab Azure’s arm, but it was no use.

“I was so wrong,” Azure said as he was pulled completely under the soil.

Tim and Osck and Janet just stood there looking at the ground. A few others who had seen it happen looked on as well.

“Where’d he go?” Osck asked.

“The Dearth,” Tim answered.

Janet shivered.

“We gotta get out of here,” Osck said. “I feel like I’m fading. And look at the other echoes. Something is very wrong.”

Tim looked around. All over, echoes were pulsating, their bright color fading in and out. Osck grabbed the fence near him and began to shake it. It rattled and swayed, but it wasn’t until a couple of dozen other beings joined him that things really began to move. The tall fence teetered and rocked—and then in one smooth motion it tipped over, crashing down on top of tanks and soldiers.

The crowd cheered and swarmed the fence, scrambling up and over the tanks and soldiers trapped underneath.

Tim ran with the crowd, afraid to stand still and be trampled. “Stick with me, Osck!” he called over his shoulder.

Osck ran right behind Tim as they scurried up over the downed fence and into another parking lot filled with soldiers who now had their weapons out and were pointing them in their direction.

A huge rant knocked down a soldier and screamed triumphantly. That seemed to be all that was needed for everyone to forgo every ounce of restraint they had ever had. Fences from all over were pushed down as thousands of beings from Foo made it their business to free themselves.

The sound of shots being fired echoed off the pavement as megaphones screamed for everyone to please calm down. A troop of black skeletons tore apart a temporary shelter and were shot at with canisters of tear gas. The gas did nothing to the skeletons but make their bones shinier and their minds angrier.

Four rants mowed down a couple of soldiers and stole their rifles. One of the rants then accidentally shot himself, not knowing which end of the rifle was dangerous. The poor being fell to the ground moaning and was picked up and carried off by a chanting crowd of angry Foovians.

A tank fired a shot, taking out three small cogs who had been running.

“Keep moving!” Tim screamed. “Over behind those short trees.”

Osck ran as fast as he could, stumbling with every other step and constantly turning around to make sure Janet was still there. “It’s so hot here. My feet feel like they are falling apart.”

“Keep going!” Tim yelled unsympathetically. “We’re going to be trampled.”

A huge purple bolt of light shot out across the sky as if heaven were shaking out a tablecloth, and birds began to drop from the air, flopping down against the ground.

“What’s happening?” Tim yelled.

The ground shook, and then, as if the earth had slid off its axis, the whole landscape seemed to tilt, sending everyone to their knees.

“This is Reality?” Osck yelled to Tim as he got back on his feet.

“Normally it’s calmer,” Tim replied.

More fences came down as every Foovian who had come through the tunnels joined the movement to be free. The ground shook and the sky began to pulsate.

Soldiers didn’t know whether to shoot at those escaping or run for their own lives. As most of them were trying to make up their minds, millions of thin black strings shot from the ground and began to wrap themselves around anything they could grab.

“It’s the Dearth,” Janet cried.

“Find a car,” Tim yelled.

“What’s a car?” Osck screamed back.

“Over there!” Tim pointed through the crowd to a blue jeep about a hundred yards away.

When they reached the jeep, they found the doors locked, but the windows were broken. Tim reached inside and unlocked the door. Osck crawled through the back window and took a seat next to Janet.

“Let’s see if I can do this.”

Tim was not a criminal. He was a garbage man with a great brain who had read a lot of books in his lifetime. Fortunately for the travelers, one that he had read and remembered dealt with what to do in an emergency—for example, if you were stuck in the woods and had lost your car keys. How would you get your vehicle started?

Tim reached down, pulled out some wires, twisted two of them and connected another, and the car roared to life. He took the briefest moment to smile proudly before throwing the jeep into drive and slamming his right foot down on the gas. The car bucked and then shot forward like a horse that had been stung in the rear. Tim plowed over a fallen fence, almost taking the life of a cog who was foolishly running for his life directly in front of the car.

Tim swerved and moved around the crowds of beings, finding brief open spots to drive on. He spun around a tank that was just sitting there and then headed for the far side of Blue Hole Lake, hoping that most people were going the other way. There were fewer people but more short, ugly trees and old houses.

Tim smashed a chicken coop and drove right through an empty garage that was attached to an old adobe house. He wound between the few houses, taking out mailboxes and trash cans and anything in his way. He worried for a moment that someone might be chasing him, but Santa Rosa, New Mexico, was one big, chaotic mess and there was no way, short of a miracle, that it would ever be anything else.

The world was officially off balance.