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But look away now from that fiery forked cloud in the sky, for history ca
Seven valiant souls got where they were going that morning, and while eternity opened its gates to welcome them, Everlost opened its gates to welcome the majestic vessel that took them where all men have gone before.
"What is that, some kind of castle?" asked Joh
Nick forgave him his ignorance. What would have been the point in trying to explain this earlier? It was best to let him see it for himself. "It's a spaceship."
"Do you think I'm an idiot?"
Nick didn't push the issue; instead he led them both across the narrow causeway to the Cape--a much longer journey than it looked, and as the massive craft loomed before them, Joh
"So it is a spaceship!" And then he looked to Nick, both hopefully and doubtfully. "Can we make it go?"
"I don't think that's a good idea," Nick told him. "Anyway, that's not why we're here." And before Joh
Joh
"If Zach the Ripper is here, then this is the one place in Everlost I don't want to be!"
"So go back," Nick told him simply, and kept moving forward. Joh
Like any other Everlost legend, Nick knew there was no telling how much, if anything, about Zach the Ripper was true, but he knew that dealing with a ripper was dangerous business. Isaiah wasn't the first one to speak of Zach the Ripper's ability to inflict permanent damage on an Afterlight. If you were decapitated by Zach the Ripper, you stayed decapitated, and you'd be stuck having to carry your head around in a backpack, or under your arm, or dangling from the end of your hand by your hair. Whether or not you'd feel the pain of it was unknown--for although Afterlights weren't supposed to feel physical pain, all bets were off when it came to an ecto-ripper.
For this reason, Nick was terrified as he approached the great spacecraft, but he didn't show his fear to Joh
"Look at that thing!" Joh
The orbiter and its rocket assembly were indeed floating about a hundred and fifty feet in the air. Nick knew there had once been a launchpad beneath it, but the shuttle launchpad was on tractor treads, and had long since been rolled away. "It's resting on the memory of a launchpad," Nick told him.
"Wonder what Mary would have to say about that."
Nick put on his best Mary voice. "In all things postmortem, the stubbor
Joh
A closer inspection of the suspended spacecraft revealed that there was a rickety scaffold right beside it, just a few feet wide, and randomly pieced together. It looked more like a vertical beaver dam, stretching up to the engines, and clinging to the craft itself, all the way up to the orbiter's hatch. There was also something else on the huge deadspot beneath the suspended craft. Something that shouldn't be there at all.
"That's ... a dog... ." said Nick.
"Well, I can see that."
But Joh
The dog was some kind of unholy mismatched genetic mutt. Something like Rottweiler, crossed with Pomeranian. It was both huge and a
"Wait a second!" said Joh
The Pomerrott mutt was chained to a spike in the middle of the deadspot. Which meant someone had to put it there. Joh
"Not this one. Maybe dog heaven took one look at it and sent it back."
Just then another sound cut between the Pomerrott's barks. It sounded like a loud snapping twig. Nick realized it was a gunshot the same instant the bullet caught him in the eye. It spun him around and knocked him to the ground. Chocolate splattered the underbrush and the Pomerrott barked like there was no tomorrow.
Joh
Joh
Nick stood up, hearing the crack of a second shot. This one caught him square in the chest, but since he was ready, he didn't let it throw him off balance. This time he could hear where the shot had come from. Up high. There was a rifle barrel poking out of the ship's hatch, taking aim for a third shot. Nick waited until the fabric of his tie healed closed before he spoke.
"If you're going to shoot at me," Nick shouted, "at least have the guts to come out where I can see you!"
No response but the barking of the dog. Nick strode forward with Joh
Finally a voice called down to them--the voice of a kid--their age, maybe younger.
"Get outta here! Go on! Nobody wants you here!"
"Nobody?" said Nick. "You mean you're not alone?"
"They's a whole buncha us up here. Yeah! A dozen at least. So go on, get lost a'fore we come down and make ya sorry y'got yerselfs kilt in the first place!"
"Prove it," said Nick. "If it's more than just you, let's hear from one of the others."
The kid was quiet for a moment, then said, "I don't gotta prove nuthin'! I gots the gun and you don't!"
He shot again, and the bullet caught Joh