From dda67c282bc8f3f855cd71a806cdfbf5ac1cafe4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: david Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2020 09:13:45 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] initial commit --- book-1/9.tex | 340 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 340 insertions(+) create mode 100644 book-1/9.tex diff --git a/book-1/9.tex b/book-1/9.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0414b58 --- /dev/null +++ b/book-1/9.tex @@ -0,0 +1,340 @@ +\chapter{9} + +The nausea and pain let up for a moment, +but in return Andrew felt like a newborn child. +He visibly collapsed in on himself and had to fight to keep his eyes open. + +``Are you okay?'', +asked Katt. + +``I don't know'', +answered Andrew truthfully. +Even speaking was hard for him now. +The fever that was causing him increasing discomfort was probably the reason for this whole absurd story: He was laying in a hospital bed somewhere, +had a twenty seven degree\footnote{Celsius} fever, +and was hallucinating all of this nonsense. + +``I think they're gone'', +said Katt. + +Andrew couldn't remember if any measurable time had passed since the last time she had spoken, +but it must have been because when he --- with Katt's help --- stood up and looked over the edge of his cover the plaza was completely empty. +The girl gave him another doubtful look, +but didn't say anything else, +instead continuing on at a pace that he could barely keep up with. +After she had taken a couple of steps, +it got remarkably better. +The fresh air felt good and the careful movements brought his circulation back in swing. +In addition whatever he had seemed to come in waves and apparently the time between them seemed to be decreasing. + +``How far do we still have?'', +he asked. + +``Two blocks'', +answered Katt. +She corrected herself. +``Three. +But the gobblers moved in a different direction. +I haven't ever seen them turn around.'' + +``And other than that there aren't any people-eating monsters here?'', +asked Andrew. + +He almost counted on a \textit{yeah} as the answer, +but Katt just gave him a slanting glance and shook her head. +``Nothing that the gobblers have overlooked.'', +she explained. +She didn't say anything for a moment, +then: ``You're from outside, +am I right?'' + +Why should he still lie? In any case Andrew was sure that he wouldn't survive the next hour. +Either some bizarre twelve-armed and three-headed beast that Katt had forgotten to mention would eat him, +or he would collapse after a few steps --- or finally wake up from this insane nightmare. +And he still hesitated to answer. + +``I'm not sure if we're talking about the same \textit{outside}'', +he said. + +Katt looked at him unsettled. +``Is there more than one?'' + +``If you mean the world that \textit{Men in Black} with their flying kitchen mixers are from, +I'll have to disappoint you'', +he replied. +``I haven't ever heard of these types before. +And of their Science-Fiction-Helicopters and Star-Trek-Weapons definitely not.'' + +``Aha'', +said Katt. + +``We don't have any of that'', +insisted Andrew. +``Other than that \dots'' He shrugged and looked back at the sky, +that was still completely black and starless. +A crazy thought crossed his mind: Could it be, +that he had jumped through time from some unknown phenomenon? Had he ended up in a bleak and fear-inducing future or in some kind of terrible parallel universe? He thought about that possibility in earnest for a moment, +but arrived at the conclusion that the combination of accident victim/brain damage/nuthouse was much more realistic. + +``I think so.'', +he said in the end. + +Again Katt looked at him for quite a while in a way that he didn't want to interpret --- even if it seemed to him that she wasn't especially happy about his answer. +``And how is it \dots there?'', +she asked with hesitation. + +``Its kinda like here'', +answered Andrew. +``But completely different.'' + +Katt seemed to be somewhat insulted, +but she didn't say anything but walked a little faster so that he had to use what little strength he had left to keep up with her. + +In some regards Andrew was right. +He needed some time to clear his thoughts, +and Katt would just ask him more questions that he wouldn't or couldn't really answer. +There were enough questions bouncing around his head that he didn't have any answers to. +He was stranded in a place that shouldn't exist, +was followed by men that fired at him for no reason with weapons that have even less reasons to exist and flew in helicopters out of the next century, +and had almost been eaten by monstrosities that looked like they had been created by Roland Emmerich. + +Oh yeah, +and just as an aside: Nick was dead. + +A deep sorrow overcame Andrew as he thought of his friend --- Nick hadn't been anything else. +His friend. +Maybe the only real friend he had ever had. +He felt as if he had betrayed him, +yes, +as if he was at fault for what had happened to Nick, +and in a certain sense it was true. +If he hadn't convinced Nick to let him drive, +then maybe the kidnappers wouldn't have been able to outrun them and hide in the Cessna \dots + +Andrew stopped that thought short. +What-if thoughts wouldn't help him further. +He didn't have any choice other than to keep going and to wait and see what happened. + +While he was walking two steps next to and a step behind Katt, +he stealthily looked at her probably for the first time since they had met with actual attention. +He had to think of the nightmarish face that he believed he had seen in the factory hall. +So far he had automatically assumed that it was Katt, +but now he realized how bitterly unjust that was to her. +He corrected his estimate of her age down by at least one year, +maybe two. +And he noticed something else that so far he hadn't thought was possible, +but also confused him a lot: He suddenly saw how pretty Katt was. +Even hunger and lifelong hardships that emaciated her to the point of almost being a caricature, +her natural elegance and grace hadn't been affected. + +``We're almost there.'' + +Katt raised her hand, +and as Andrew followed her gesture, +he saw that they had passed the burning building a long time ago. +In front of them was another block of ruins and behind that he recognized an unswerving line of darkness that divided the city in two halves. +The river, +that Katt had been talking about? He tried to discern what was on the other side, +but he couldn't work it out. +The ruined city seemed to continue there, +but he couldn't really see anything other than more shadows. +There were no signs of the \textit{day} that it seemed to be on the other side as far as he could see. + +A sharp pain shot through the back of his head. +At the last moment Andrew suppressed a yelp of pain, +breathed in deeply and held on to the mad hope that it was just happenstance and that it would go away soon. +Instead of that it slowly spread out like a spiderweb of white-hot threads, +and after a few seconds his old friends nausea and dizziness added themselves to the mix. +He didn't have much time. + +Katt seemed to feel how he was doing because she quickened her pace, +and Andrew trotted after her until they had reached the line of solid blackness that separated the city of ruins. +By now he was in such a state that he would have stumbled right into the abyss had Katt not held him back at the last moment. + +``What\dots?'', +he mumbled dazedly. +He wasn't sure if his voice was still understandable. +Or if he was speaking at all or if he had just imagined it. + +Katt just considered him with a pitiful glance. +Her voice suddenly took on the tone that you only use with very young children (or very old people) and still weren't sure that they understood. +``Just stay right here and don't move, +okay?'' + +Andrew nodded obediently --- he probably would have also nodded if she had told him the lottery numbers from last week ---, +and Katt made a funnel in front of her mouth with her hands and expelled an especially warbling scream; +it wasn't especially loud, +but it was so piercing that it must have been audible\footnote{\href{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHMjD0Lp5DY}{this book sponsored by Audible\texttrademark, +use code ANDERS or text ANDERS to 500 500 to learn more} \textsuperscript{/s}} throughout the whole city. + +``My sister is waiting on the other side'', +she said. +``She'll let the bridge down, +don't worry.'' + +Andrew wasn't worried. +He also couldn't remember if he had asked a corresponding question, +but just in case he nodded anyway; +Very carefully, +as even that small movement made the headache he had explode. + +Katt raised her hands again and repeated the warbling sound, +then stomped the ground madly and yelled. +``Ratt god damn it! Where are you?'' + +``Ratt?'', +asked Andrew. +Did she have to yell like that? His head would explode if she kept yelling around like that. + +``My sister'', +explained Katt. + +``Katt and Ratt'', +giggled Andrew. +``How peculiar.'' + +``Does something about that bother you?'', +asked Katt sharply. +She glared at him defiantly for a moment and roared for her sister louder than before. + +Andrew distorted his face demonstratively and took a step away from her; +however not a very big one and not without getting within two steps of the \textit{river}. + +It wasn't a river. +Apparently they were speaking the same language that used the same words, +but meant different things. +What lay in front of him had no similarities with a body of water. +It was a good five meter wide canal of weather-beaten gray concrete that went down an indeterminate distance. +Andrew precariously bent over and immediately righted himself. +He had only had a short glimpse into the depths, +but he didn't see anything that reminded him of water. + +``What's down there?'', +he asked. + +Katt shrugged. +``The gobblers don't cross'', +she said. +``Isn't that enough?'' She didn't wait for Andrews answer, +instead regarding him with an almost hostile look and roared as loud as she possibly could for her sister. +This time she used a whole litany of insults and curses that would have made Andrew blush in any other circumstance. + +It worked. +This time it was just a moment before he heard a bright squeaking voice and a long spindly shadow appeared from the silhouette of the city ruins on the other side of the river. +Andrew tried focusing on it with wide eyes for a few seconds, +but he couldn't concentrate on one thing that long. +His thoughts were increasingly revolving around himself. +It was impossible to focus his thoughts on a single thing for more than a moment. +He was more nauseous than he had ever been before in his whole life. + +``We've almost made it'', +said Katt. +``I knew that I could rely on Ratt. +Just one more moment. +Can you keep it up that long?'' + +Of course not. +He nodded. +``Yes.'' + +Katt's facial expression explained very clearly what she thought of that answer. +But she was diplomatic enough to not say anything, +instead concentrating on the delicate shadow hat was slowly lowering over the river with a shrill screeching. +Andrew followed her lead --- at least he tried. + +His thoughts were getting more and more confused. +He was unimaginably nauseous. +He had the worst headache on this side of the Andromeda galaxy and his fever had a good chance to break the Guinness world record; +actually his blood had surpassed the boiling point and must have been steaming out of his ears like an overheated pressure cooker. + +For some reason he thought the whole thing exceptionally strange. + +Squeaking and aching the spider-web-like outline lowered itself more before it impacted their side of the \textit{river} with a long echoing bang and Katt was suddenly very lively. +``Can you keep on going?'', +she asked. + +``Sure'', +answered Andrew and sunk to his knees. +Katt caught him and did the most embarrassing thing to him that had ever happened: She bounced a bit in her knees and threw him over her shoulders with no hesitation. +He could feel her sway under his weight for a moment, +then found her balance again with a quick motion. +She turned around and ran off with almost provocatively light steps. + +Andrew was almost glad that he wasn't currently understanding all that was going on around and especially \textit{to} him. +If what he could recognize of the \textit{bridge} that Katt was prancing over with mischievous ease was real, +then it was definitely a pure nightmare: a breakable structure of \textit{tied (!)} together rungs and struts that was aching under each of her steps, +as if it wanted to collapse at any moment. + +Andrew looked into the deep, +but he regretted that almost immediately. +There was \textit{something} below them, +but he couldn't say what. +Whatever it was, +it scared him to imagine what it was based on what he had seen so far. + +After what seemed like an eternity they arrived at the other bank. +Katt stumbled two more steps on terra firma before she collapsed to her knees with an exhausted groan and let Andrew glide off her shoulders like a wet sack. +He fell, +which hurt less than he expected and rolled two, +three times across the ground before he stopped, +laying on his back. +Underneath him was soft grass and earth, +not hard stone. +Through his closed eyelids he saw bright sunlight. +But Katt had told him that the day wasn't over on that side of the river --- whatever that meant. + +He wanted to open his eyes, +but he was only successful after his third try. +Something really was wrong with him. +Something was incredibly wrong with him. + +It looked like the effort was worth it. +Above him a cloudless and almost obscenely radiant blue midsummer sky stretched out over the facades. +Their slightly shifted to the left lines weren't any different than the ones on the other side. +They were the same burnt-out soot-stained ruins like on the other side. +It seemed that the destroyed city continued on this side of the river as well. + +As if from a great distance he heard Katt's voice, +but it wasn't talking to him; +even though he was too dazed to comprehend any of the words that were being spoken, +he could feel it. +A different, +more bright and somehow hissing sounding voice answered, +then light steps that were hardly audible on the grass approached. + +Katt appeared above him. +She looked sweaty and so exhausted as if she had just done such extreme bodily exertion that hadn't just pushed her to her limit of what she was capable of, +but possibly a little over it. +And the concern in her gaze had grown so much that Andrew, +in spite of his dazed state, +asked himself if it weren't advisable for him to seriously worry as well. + +``This is Ratt, +my sister.'' She made a hand movement towards a shadow that was just outside of Andrew's field of view, +making him use quite a bit of what energy he had left to turn his head and blink up at the figure that was approaching him from the other side. +Katt's sister seemed to be somewhat smaller than her, +and he had the crazy feeling that she had a type of shaggy fur coat, +even though the sun on this side of the river was burning down so hot that it was almost uncomfortable. +He couldn't really identify Ratt as the sun was directly above her, +so that the glaring light actually drove tears into his eyes. + +``This is Andrew, +who I was talking to you about'', +Katt continued, +obviously turned toward her sister. + +Ratt came closer and bent over curiously. +Andrew still couldn't really identify her, +but something wasn't right about her head either. +In spite of the head she seemed to be wearing not just a fur coat, +but also a fur hat. + +``He says he's from outside'', +Katt continued. +``I don't know if that's true, +but he has the sickness\footnote{he got down with it}.'' + +Ratt bent down even further, +and Andrew, +who had just wanted to start to be frightened about Katt's last remark thought better of it and fainted. +