\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.

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