Chapter 28

Twenty-Eight

The queen's death and the chaos that followed as her monsters died one by one was quite horrible to witness. Theo and Baku were right in the middle of it, and they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Baku had taken a real beating as he bought Theo enough time to deal with the queen. As well as several bits of missing flesh that would take many months to heal, Baku had several deep cuts over his face where the nightmares had clawed at him, and he was bruised all over. Theo held him close as they moved past the new rip to the other world. Baku could not close it. His device only closed rips between their two worlds. Theo wondered how the MDF would deal with it.

They did have the other rip to close though, and they re-traced their steps back to it, Theo's wrist throbbing as he did so. It was packed even tighter on the journey back through, which slowed them down quite a bit. The nightmares were on the floor, thousands of them just dead because they could not survive without their queen. It made no sense, and Theo said as much to Baku.

"They are almost like one organism, not many," he said through gritted teeth. "And she controls it all."

Theo had imagined them as such from the first time he had seen them running over the beach and was oddly satisfied that his musings had been correct. "She doesn't control anything now," he said softly.

They both looked behind them to where the rip had settled. The dark landscape beyond looked…ominous. Was Theo tempted to have a quick look inside? A quick hop to another world entirely. No. He'd been in the space between all the worlds, and frankly that was more than enough for him! Let the MDF explore whatever that was, but Theo was done. Two dimensions were all that he needed.

"You did so well," Baku said as they continued onwards, passing by the egg nursery-slash-clearing. The egg sacs had opened up, but the nightmares inside were dead. They were all dead at this point and their purple flesh was already beginning to glisten horribly.

"We both did," Theo said. "We make a great team."

"As I always knew we would."

It took them half an hour to make it back to the rip they had come through. They were both exhausted. The effects of the fight with the rages, the ingestion of the serum, and then the battle with the nightmares. Theo also felt that he had been affected in some way by the time he had spent in the space between dimensions, perhaps not physically, but definitely emotionally, and it would take him some time to work through that.

They paused there for a moment at the rip to catch their breaths. Theo could see the forest on the other side and there were several lights glowing there. Something flew above them on that side, swooping past, and he shuddered.

"We can't go back through this one," Baku said as if reading his very thoughts.

"No," Theo agreed as neither of them were up to a fight with more rages. "If we follow the beach down to where the MDF is," he suggested. "That will bring us out on the edge of the forest."

"Yes," Baku agreed and with that he closed the rip up and they began their long, long walk along the beach.

It took them the better part of the evening and then into the night to make their way from the queen's position to the very edge of the infestation. Theo was tracking it in his mind, working through the miles, trying to ignore the ache in his wrist. At the same time, he was keeping an eye on Baku because his monster looked in poor shape. Theo had noticed a huge bite in his side, and it was bleeding sluggishly.

"We can get you some medical attention," he said as they approached the edge of the infestation.

The number of munching monsters reduced slightly this far out. Many were dead here because of gunshots not because of the queen's death. In fact, there were various munching monster parts about rather than whole bodies. In the distance, Theo could see the MDF, and he tried to work out what he would say to them, how he would explain what had happened once they got close.

He didn't get a chance.

The humans started firing the moment they spotted Theo and Baku.

"What the hell are they doing?" Theo shouted as Baku pulled him behind a large rock. Vaguely Theo noticed it was sedimentary and he worried about that when a bullet whizzed past his face.

Baku pulled him down so that they were crouched behind the rock, and their position meant that they were hidden from the sizeable MDF group up ahead…but not for long, already the squadron were advancing on them. There were quite a few more soldiers there than Theo had expected, more than his squadron contained for sure. Had they brought in reinforcements? Troops from elsewhere? Was that because of the intel they had been given on what the queen was up to? Theo had no idea but in that moment it didn't really matter. Another bullet whizzed past his face, and Theo realised that they planned to shoot him.

"What are they doing?" he demanded.

Baku pulled him closer. "Exactly what your MDF was created to do."

"Kill monsters…" Theo breathed. He shook his head. Part of the sedimentary rock in front of him exploded. "I'm not a monster!"

"They do not know that," Baku said. "All they see is a purple human."

"I just need to speak to them."

"And what will you say, Theo?" Baku asked as more of the rock exploded.

"Explain to them what has happened, how I have ended up like this, what we're doing here," Theo said quickly.

"You believe they will listen?" Baku demanded.

Theo remembered his arguments as he was being conscripted. The way the army judge had ignored every last one of them even though Theo had thought them all out and thoroughly researched them. He'd cited sources and everything.

"I…"

"They will not listen, Theo," the monster said. "We know this from experience. It took months before we could even begin a conversation with your UK government, and still, they mistrust us. Why do you think we don't share all our tech with them? It is not from a desire to be selfish. It is because they cannot meet us in the middle."

"Why did you let me come here then?" Theo demanded.

"I needed you to see," Baku replied. "To understand."

Another bullet. Baku pushed him down, keeping him from harm, and Theo knew then that Baku was right, and it wasn't just because Theo was purple. It was because Baku was with him, and Baku was clearly not a human. His shimmering skin marked him clearly as something from the other dimension, what the MDF would call a monster, and they did one thing and one thing only with monsters.

"We must leave now, Theo," he said, and he pressed the buttons on his wrist, opening a rip behind them.

It was darker still in Baku's world, but Theo could see rolling hills and fields through the gap and he breathed a shaky sigh of relief. They would not need to enter the forest. Because Theo thoroughly intended to cross into the other world with his monster, he knew that then. He had little choice. His newly purple skin and his vibrating body made it so.

"I'm coming with you," he said.

"Yes," Baku replied. "You are."

Another bullet and this one far too close for comfort. Baku grabbed him and they stepped through the rip. It closed an instant later to the sound of more bullets and shouts from the other side.

"We're safe now, my human," Baku said, and he pulled Theo into his arms.

Theo thought about the pinching monster that was just a few miles away sleeping in its cave, the matriarchal spider whose web was quite close indeed but dormant for now as she had eaten several small cat-like creatures in the last hour, and all the other monsters roaming Baku's lands.

"Safe," he said with a laugh. "I'm not sure you and I are ever going to be safe again!"

"Because of our plans?"

"Yes!" Theo said and he bent over and breathed in the air of what was quickly becoming his other home.

"We have some time before we get started on them," Baku said. "For now, let us make shelter."

And that was what they did.