Salad Days

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

VEGETABLE KINGDOM

Brocc leaned against the railing of the blimp, staring at the giant cauliflower spider stomping over the colored houses of the vegetable kingdom. Every step from the spider shook the ground eight-fold, and Brocc felt the vibrations even though he was two thousand feet in the air.

The spider’s eyes glowed red and it skittered over the kingdom, crushing rooftops. Leaves jutted from its legs, and green energy pulsated from its lumpy, purple-cauliflower body like a force field.

“Cheesus, sis,” Brocc said, sighing. “Six extra legs don’t look good on you.”

Frank motioned to him from the wheel.

“Hang on. We’re going closer.”

Brocc gripped the metal railing as the blimp listed to one side and steered toward the spider. The kingdom was still far away, but he began to smell the acrid smoke from the hundreds of fires, conjuring memories of screams that rushed through him like internal wind. He tasted burning flesh licked by smoke and char, saw ghosts of vegetable children chased by flames.

He blinked and they disappeared, and so did the intensity of the fire. He didn’t know whether the sweat he felt across his face was from real or imagined burning. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling a cloud of smoke.

He coughed and cursed.

Fighting the anger that was building up inside him, he balled his fists and resisted the urge to reach for the daggers on his belt.

“So what do we do?” Brocc asked.

Geoffrey, standing at the railing next to him, wiped sweat off his lid with a handkerchief.

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” the milk shake said.

Brocc grabbed Geoffrey and pushed him against the side of the blimp.

“You created that monster! Don’t tell me you don’t know how to fix this!”

Geoffrey yelled and beat Brocc’s arms.

“Stop. You don’t know what you’re doing—”

Brocc nodded at the spider. “I have an idea. How about we feed you to her, instead?”

Geoffrey shook his head and uttered something unintelligible.

Brocc’s gaze hardened, and he stepped closer to Geoffrey.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to lose a sister? To see her die in front of you and not be able to do anything? What it’s like to stand here and listen to her murderer babble nonsense when all I want is my sister back?”

King Carrodias grabbed Brocc and pushed him away. Geoffrey fell to his knees, breathing heavily, and the king helped him up.

Brocc stumbled back and bumped into Celerity, who folded her arms and scolded him.

“Calm down,” she said quietly. “I’m pissed, too, but anger isn’t going to solve this problem. Not this time.”

Brocc paced around the deck and tried to do as she said. But he couldn’t ease the anger and anxiety that coursed through him.

Kendall, who stood next to Frank at the wheel, fidgeted nervously. He had been staring at the cauliflower the whole time.

“Will somebody explain what the hash brown heck is going on?”

“I didn’t create her,” Geoffrey said finally. “It just … happened.”

“How?” Brocc asked.

“Your sister—I don’t know why, but she tolerated Nutrizeen better than any vegetable we’ve ever seen before. She became a superfood. We kept her secret in case the war turned against our favor. There are several other superfoods along with her.”

“Is she still … alive?” Brocc asked.

“Not ‘alive’ as we would define it,” Geoffrey said. “She’s truly a monster, Brocc. Nutrizeen mutates the brain. Makes one revert to primal impulses. There’s no restoring her previous self. The Caulette as you know her is dead.”

“Then we’ve got to put her out of her misery,” Brocc said. He snapped his fingers, and purple energy engulfed his body. This was a different kind of heat—cool, controlled, ready for action. He willed himself to lift a few feet into the air, and fireballs formed in his hands.

“Now you’re talkin’!” Frank said. He gestured for Kendall to take the wheel. He pumped his fists, and energy engulfed him as well.

“Get us in close, Kendall, and we’ll take care of the rest,” Frank said.

Celerity slapped her whip and she glowed, spinning out several kinetic versions of her body that flickered around her.

“No!” Geoffrey cried, pulling Brocc out of the air. “That’ll just piss her off.”

“It,” Celerity corrected. “You have no right to defend her. You took her life away.”

“But I know its characteristics,” Geoffrey said.

“Characteristics?” Celerity asked angrily. She slapped the ground near Geoffrey’s feet with her whip and he jumped back. “She had a life. She had qualities, not characteristics, you sonofa—”

“I’m atoning for my sins, but you’re going to die in vain if you attack her like that,” Geoffrey said.

Brocc looked back at the spider, and then he stopped burning.

Celerity sighed and Frank’s eyes widened, and they reluctantly stopped glowing, too.

“So what do we do?” Frank asked. “Sit back and watch the kingdom get destroyed?”

“You haven’t been paying attention,” Geoffrey said. He pointed to the hotdog-shaped blimp easing through the sky. It was headed for the castle, an ornate, sprawling orange building with carrot spires.

“Monte Cristo is behind this. He’s using Caulette to cloud you with anger, Brocc,” Geoffrey said.

Brocc remembered the evil hotdog.

“Damn it,” he exhaled.

“That’s what Monte Cristo does best—he manipulates,” Geoffrey said. “He’s only in the vegetable kingdom for one reason, and once he’s finished, he’ll make Caulette disappear. That will be the only way to stop this attack.”

“What is he after?” Brocc asked.

“The Cube,” King Carrodias said, wincing.

“What’s the Cube?” Kendall asked.

“It’s the kingdom’s source of power,” King Carrodias said. “Without it, our vegetable fields would wither and the kingdom would lose its splendor.”

“Sodius plans to use the Cube to destroy vegetables,” Geoffrey said. “The signs were there in our conversation in the Nutrizeen Labs. When Sodius asks for something, he already has a plan to take it. Monte Cristo is following orders. He won’t stop until he has the Cube. And trust me when I say that Monte Cristo follows orders very well. He’ll spare no one.”

“We have to get to the castle,” the king said. “I only hope that Lady Duxelle can protect it.”

“Something is happening there now,” Kendall said. “Look!”

The castle began to glow as the spider approached it.

“Yes!” King Carrodias cried.

“What’s going on?” Kendall asked.

“They activated the Cube,” the king said. “The castle is safe.”

The castle grew brighter, and a force field of energy flashed around the building, sending a shockwave in all directions. The wave glowed white and billowed as it washed over the vegetable houses. But it didn’t damage them. Instead, it let off a verdurous smell as it ripped through the sky. The smell overpowered the burning and ushered a calm across the area.

The wave continued rolling outwards, tearing through the Gourman blimps and sending them flying, until finally it crashed into the spider. A brilliant nova exploded from the spider’s body, and it let out a bone-shaking cry.

Brocc heard the torment in the spider’s cries.

He shivered. The feminine pitch, the beastly terror—Caulette’s suffering.

“I can’t watch this,” he said, turning away.

Another shockwave hit the spider, and the beast crashed to the ground and disappeared in a column of bubbling green light.

“Wait a second,” Kendall said, scratching his head. “Did you guys notice how that shockwave only touched Gourman ships?”

“Yeah, just as it should!” Frank said, smirking.

Kendall pointed at the shockwave as it traveled toward the blimp. His voice was frantic.

“Then hold onto something!” Kendall cried.

The shockwave ripped through the blimp, sending everyone flying across the deck.

Frank crawled toward the wheel as the blimp spiraled through the air.

“I can’t control it!”

Brocc leapt at the wheel and struggled for control, but the blimp was spinning too fast. The wheel was wrenched from his hands and he slammed into the floor, grabbing onto the railing as the blimp flipped upside down.

Geoffrey lost his balance and fell toward Brocc. In a flash, Brocc reached out and grabbed him. Geoffrey dangled overboard, screaming as the earth wheeled under them.

“I’m only saving you because you’ve still got explaining to do!” Brocc cried.

Sky became ground and ground, sky. The light from the shockwave mingled with the flames.

Everyone screamed as the blimp tumbled.

Brocc closed his eyes and waited for the blimp to crash.

Another shockwave hit the blimp. And another. Each one knocked them further away from the kingdom.

Whish!

Crack!

Whish!

BOOM!

An explosion forced Brocc’s eyes open.

The deck was on fire.

The sky spun like a furious kaleidoscope—purple, white, orange, and gray.

Everyone hung from the railings of the blimp, trailing like streamers.

They were falling.

Fast.

Brocc felt his stomach in his mouth.

Geoffrey gripped Brocc tighter; the milkshake was uttering a prayer.

“Shut up!” Brocc shouted. “You don’t get to pray for forgiveness!”

Geoffrey looked up at him and opened his mouth to say something, but dark ground rushed up to meet them before he could speak.

The blimp crashed, and Brocc felt something spraying all over his body.

Soft. Abrasive. A million daggers against his skin. His mouth filled with it, soft against his teeth like a rugged pillow.

Is this sand?

He couldn’t see. He lost his grip, flew away from the railing and hit a rock.