Sell you a Bridge chapter 167

February 13th 2011 The OZ 7:00 AM EDT

I  was pretty much flabbergasted to see the Brick Route literally right  next to us when we landed on the shore. Well, twenty feet or so, but it  became obvious pretty quickly. This was pretty amazing luck honestly,  and better than things usually went for us. I looked around. "Well.  Guess we found the road again, so...yay us? In any case we should get  going again, it's still early. If we can get some distance we can stop  and get some sleep." I'd made sure to get camping supplies on New  Genesis, so we would be good to go there.

Everyone  agreed and we mounted the road and started on our way towards Central  City. It was weird to see how dilapidated and broken down the road was  here. Back where we landed it was still in pristine condition, a  beautiful mosiac of gleaming yellow stone. Here though, there were large  gaps of mud and rock and the few remaining stones were old and faded.  It was sad to see such an obvious marvel reduced from its former glory.

I'd  been walking with Dreamer for a while and she had the puppy still, so I  decided to dip over to talk to Zee. She was still deep in conversation  with DG and when I got close she gave me a wide smile. "Hey baby, nice  moves up there with the monster hordes. I liked the new spell." I  stepped up to put an arm around her giving her a quick kiss. "Anyway DG  was just telling me that she's had a weird feeling for a bit. She  doesn't know what caused it but she feels like this place is familiar."

DG  looked embarrassed. "It's just...a feeling. I don't know." She looked  around in slight confusion before her eyes focused on a road marker we  were passing. She seemed to be paying a ton of attention to the symbol  on the front. "All of life's answers can be found along the old road."  She didn't say the words like she was talking to us, more muttered them  to herself as if repeating an old mantra.

Cain,  who had hung back when he heard mention of her odd vibe, frowned at the  girl. "The old road?" We all stopped. Cain was staring at the girl  suspiciously. "You told me you weren't from around here. The Old Road is  what the locals call the brick route." That made me turn to regard her  curiously myself. I could see her confusion in her aura, but I could  also see familiarity. She DID know this place, but she didn't know how  she knew it. It was an interesting puzzle. At Cain's accusing tone  though Zee tensed, preparing to step in.

I  put a hand on her arm, shaking my head no as DG shook her head as if  trying to dislodge something. "I...I'm not. I've never been here before.  But I know this place." She spun in place and took off past the road  marker and into the forest. We all looked at each other before we  shrugged and followed her. She wasn't exactly Wally, so it wasn't hard  to keep up. Bear and Vykin looked on guard, hanging back to stand with  Dreamer, which I approved of, and Zee and I sped up to catch the Kansas  girl.

We  found her standing in front of a huge sign. 'Welcome to Milltown' The  sign stood in front of a small town made of old fashioned buildings, and  DG strode right in. Cain looked disturbed. "This place was erased. It's  what Azkedelia does when she doesn't want anyone knowing about  something." He focused on a sign with a crossed out picture of a skull  and the letters NHA printed on it. "We shouldn't be here. DG!" He  called. "We need to go, it isn't safe here." But his warning came too  late, as people started to emerge from the doors.

Well...people  was a generous description. Some of them were people, albeit weird ones  with tentacles or metal limbs, but one man actually floated out on a  robot body, glaring at us. "Start the pyres!" He sneered at our group.  "Azkedelia's minions must be shown the folly of trespassing." I raised  an eyebrow at the machine guy, just about ready to blow him apart with a  blast of ectoplasm if he pushed me.

DG  beat me to a response. "Hey that's rude! I've never even met this  Azkedelia person!" I gaped at the girl. I was now convinced something  was going on with her. Normal teen girls did not mouth off to floating  cyborg creepers. She should have been freaking out, but her aura was  sort of detached like she was barely even cognizant of what was  happening. This whole thing was an afterthought to her.

The  cyborg guy cocked his head. "You, who spoke. What is your name? Your  voice patterns seem familiar." His voice was confused but somehow  hopeful, when DG answered and responded with the statement that she'd  never been here before he looked genuinely lost. That particular  expression did not change when a pair of older human slipped out of a  side door with a jaunty wave and a dismissal of the cyborg guy.

The  man smiled widely as he ambled out, opening his arms. "Hey don't let  him confuse you baby girl, he's just a crazy old cyborg." DG squealed in  glee shouting a greeting to her parents as she bolted into their arms. I  blinked. Well, that had been much easier than I had been expecting it  to be. Had I become too used to things being difficult? This seemed way  too easy and I had no idea what to do about it.

DG  greeted her parents, excited to see them and chattering away about what  this place was and how they got there. The two people seemed...weird to  me. I couldn't say how, but I wasn't about to break up the reunion.  They took DG aside to talk privately, obviously excited to see their  daughter and hoping for some privacy. Still it was hard not to hear when  the two revealed to DG that they were robots sent by her real parents  to raise her.

They  explained how they were programmed to love and protect her and they  cared for her like their own and thought of themselves as their real  parents, but their real purpose was to prepare her for her return. They  were supposed to bring her to the floating cyborg guy to learn the  truth. She looked so stunned.I felt for her. Even for me that was  fucking weird, and I was half ghost and half actual devil. Finding out  she was actually from here was a lot for her to handle, and when I saw  her getting overwhelmed I walked over to cut in.

They  seemed to be surprised that I was even around. I put a hand on DG's  shoulder and smiled at them. "Hi there, name's Morgan, I'm a new friend  of your daughter's. Listen, I know you guys have a ton of things to tell  her and share with her but she's pretty shaken up by all this I think.  Dumping more on her right now might be a bit much. Why don't we give her  a minute to process before she goes over to talk the the cyborg priest  guy. He'll still have her answers after she gets her head on straight."

The  two of them looked reticent but nodded anyway, and DG shot me a  grateful glance as she walked over to one side to try to calm down. Zee  headed over to talk to her and the two had a heart to heart before the  girl came back over. She put on a steely face of determination and  nodded to all three of us. "Ok. I'm ready." Her parents looked relieved  and lead us both over to the barn where the cyborg was. Apparently I was  now a part of this.

The  cyborg was really disturbing to look at up close, and his constant  bobbing was annoying, but I kept quiet about it as he started his story  because it seemed rude to interrupt. "Fifteen years ago Milltown was the  jewel of the OZ." I was pretty sure there was a giant super metropolis  up the street that would disagree with his assertion that this pile of  shacks was the nicest place in all the land at any point but I kept my  mouth shut as he told his story. "During that time a beautiful woman in a  dark cloak came to me, her spirit full of dread."

His  voice was grave as he narrated how her mother had come to him, afraid  after losing her husband and that she feared she might lose her child  too. His chest opened up and a screen extended, playing a home movie of  the incident. I was pretty annoyed we'd had to listen to him yammer to  begin with if he had a goddamn hilight reel. He went on to tell her her  mother had tasked him to give her something to guide her to the light,  and to her specifically, and then he apparently decided it was ok brand  her fucking palm without asking.

Personally  I'd have slapped him upside the damn head for the that, but DG seemed  cool so I guess that was just how they said hi in the OZ. We didn't have  time for any more nonsense chosen on bullshit however because Cain came  bursting in. "Longcoats are coming!" He strode over to look out the  front window. "We're running out of time." Robot priest took that as  invitation to grimly proclaim that DG needed to seek out a guy in the  Central City who had powerful magic and could help her on her quest, and  Cain said he knew him and promised to tell her more but said we had to  go.

He  dragged DG outside and I followed behind him. I wasn't in a hurry  though. I was starting to get annoyed by having to run away all the  time. I'd been bolting back and forth since I got here and I was just  about done with this shit. He turned to me. "Come on kid! We have to go!  We can outrun them." I just smiled at him and walked past, looking at  the massing army of men on their weird hover segways. I knew we would  outrun them, in fact, they wouldn't chase us at all. I'd make sure of  it.

I pulled  ectoplasm into my vocal chords. Not much. Not enough to damage the town  behind me or even kill the longcoats themselves, though falling from  twenty feet up was going to break some legs, and once it was all gather I  projected it out in a series of words. I'd never used my ghostly wail  to speak before, but it seemed like it should work. I opened my mouth  and poured out a wave of rippling power. "Stop following my friends." The sound blasted out, carried by the power as it tore the machines from under them and sent them pinwheeling through the air.

They  smashed into the ground one after another, like eggs being dropped off  the room of a school by kids for a science fair. Spoiler alert, some of  them were NOT properly cushioned. I heard loud cracks as legs shattered  and men screamed, but none of them actually died. Aside from Wally and  Zee not liking it DG was local and I felt like killing a bunch of  natives in front of her was bad form, though I suspected some of them  would have preferred that because I was pretty sure at least a few of  those men would never walk again.

I  turned and walked past a gaping Cain to meet up with the group. Bear  was grinning at me in appreciation, as was Serifan, Vykin gave me a  respectful nod and Dreamer favored me with a bright smile. Wally and  Artemis both looked impressed and Zee was amused, with pride spiking her  aura, presumably because I kept it low key. I looked at all of them as  they stared at me. "Well? We're heading to the city next right? This  wizard guy seems like he might now how to whip up one of those travel  storms." Then I walked right past them with a smile. I admit it. I could  be a show off.