Everwild

"Yeah? Well I'm go

"We'll climb up the left side," Nick said. "He won't be able to get a good angle on us that way. Climbing was rough at first, but they quickly got the hang of it. As they passed the orbiter's massive engines, the kid tried to shoot again, but his bullet ricocheted off a rusty bed frame in the scaffold's infrastructure. The bullet's shell casing dropped from above, bouncing off of Joh

Nick decided to keep his opinion to himself--although he was pretty sure that they had found Zach the Ripper.

One more missed shot, and the ripper closed the hatch, shutting himself in. Nick and Joh

"If we fall, we'll just land on the deadspot. We'll be okay," said Nick.

"Yeah ... unless we miss."

"Maybe we can land on Kudzu," suggested Nick, since the dog had begun barking again.

As they neared the top, the scaffold became thi

"No. It's an airtight hatch--there's no way to get in from the outside."

"So what are we go

Nick looked up toward the orbiter's viewport, but it was out of view. There was no window on the shuttle that could give the Ripper a view of them.

"Ever watch a turtle that has pulled into its shell?" Nick asked Joh

Joh

While Afterlights tended to develop an u

The sun set. The sun rose. The sun slowly crossed the sky, and by noon the next day, the rifle-toting turtle had not come out of his shell. Nick lost none of his resolve, but Joh

Then, late in the afternoon, they heard the clunk of metal on metal, and the small, circular hatch began to open. It only opened an inch--just enough for the Ripper to peer out--but an inch was all they needed. Nick wedged his fingers in the opening.

"Grab it! Hurry!"

The Ripper tried to pull the door closed, but Nick's fingers blocked the way. Joh

The shuttle's flight deck was cramped, and filled with hard metallic surfaces. It was all very disorienting in vertical liftoff position, with chairs bolted to the "wall" instead of the floor. Dim light spilled in from the darkly tinted viewport, directly overhead, like a skylight.

"Get out!" screamed the Ripper, "This here is my place! MINE!" He struggled with them, but when he saw the size of Joh

"We're not going to hurt you!" Nick told him.

"Speak for yourself!" said Joh

While Joh

"Leave me be!" the kid shouted, "or I'll ecto-rip yer arms right outta their sockets!"

"I'd like to see you try!" yelled Joh

Joh

A brain.

Right there in the Ripper's hands.

It was just like Isaiah had said.

It didn't look like a real brain; it looked more like a plastic model, with the various lobes labeled in bold lettering-- perhaps something Joh

"Aaaaaaah!" wailed Joh

"AAAAAH!" he screamed. "Put it back in! I swear I won't touch you, just put it back in!"

"Maybe I'll just squish it beneath my feet! Squish, squish!"

"Noooo!"

It infuriated Nick to see Joh

"Give him back his brain, or I'll pull the pin, and shove this thing in your mouth."

The Ripper laughed at that. "Won't matter!" he said. "If I gets blowed up, I'll just pull back together again, like it was nuthin'!"

"Yes," Nick said with a grin. "In theory ..."

The wider Nick's grin got, the more worried the Ripper became. "Whadaya mean, theory?"

"I mean that bullets and cuts are one thing. They heal in seconds, sure ... but if you're blown to smithereens, how do you know all those smithereens are go