Everwild (Skinjacker 2)

Allie tried to pull free, but she was too weak now.

"You're not going anywhere but with me," Milos told her. "In case you forgot, you made me a promise, and you're going to keep it." Then he pulled her out of Graceland, and she didn't have the strength to resist.

Chapter 37 Sky Refugees

Johnnie-O sat facing Charlie in the Starboard Promenade of the Hindenburg, a bucket of coins between them.

"You go first," said Johnnie-O.

"No, you go first," echoed Charlie.

"No, you go first!"

"No, you!"

How they got here was a mixture of failure, triumph, and luck.

While Mary Hightower had made her way to Graceland for her momentous meeting with the Chocolate Ogre, her children attacked the train.

Johnnie-O took charge, ready for the fight. "Bring 'em down or push 'em down," he told the army. Any enemy that couldn't be captured would be sent to the center of the earth. Then he went out into the battle swinging his heavy fists. Charlie, who was not much of a fighter, followed behind him, carrying the bucket of coins, and wearing a gardening glove on his hand to protect himself from the coins' power. Maybe Nick wanted to give these kids a choice, but Johnnie-O and Charlie were determined to send as many of them as possible into the light, whether they liked it or not.

Johnnie-O grabbed one Afterlight after another, dragging them to Charlie, who would put a coin into their palms, and force their fists closed around it. They all had the same reaction, a look of terrified surprise that was quickly replaced by an expression of utter peace before they disappeared in a twinkling of light. Johnnie-O didn't like the peace part of it. There was no satisfaction for him in making his enemies content, but as long as they vanished from his sight, he didn't complain.

Ten minutes into the battle, however, Johnnie-O began to worry. Mary's children just kept coming and soon it became clear to Johnnie-O what their objective was. The train.

"Keep them back!" he ordered. "Don't let them near the train." But there were simply too many of them. Johnnie-O and Charlie had dispatched at least fifty or sixty with coins, but there were hundreds more. The Sky Witch had tricked them!

"Take coins," he told the others. "Everyone, take coins and put them into their hands. Do it!" But that backfired miserably, because every kid who grabbed a coin from the bucket couldn't resist the urge to grasp the coin themselves, and vanish. They were losing more of their own than the enemy.

It was over in less than twenty minutes. Their entire fighting force was backed up against the train, hands in the air, and the train itself had been captured. It took four Afterlights to hold Johnnie-O down. Then, as he struggled to break free, he felt a drop of water on his forehead, then another, then another and when he looked up, he saw a wet kid in a wetter bathing suit looking down at him. Water dripped into Johnnie-O's eye from a little silver key dangling around the kid's neck.

"The Sniffer told us all about you, Johnnie-O," the wet kid said. "Mary was even looking for a punching bag, to give you something to do until the end of time, but she never did find one. Guess you'll just have to shadowbox," which was a nasty thing to say, since Afterlights didn't cast shadows.

Johnnie-O wasn't about to be defeated by a kid in a bathing suit, so he fought himself free from the Afterlights holding him. "Dry up!" he told the wet kid, which was an equally nasty thing to say, because he couldn't. Then Johnnie-O pushed him out of the way, and ran to Charlie, who was sitting on the bucket of coins, hands behind his head and surrounded by a cluster of Mary's kids. Johnnie-O pushed his way in, pulled Charlie up, and grabbed the bucket, swinging it like a weapon.

"C'mon!" he said to Charlie, and they both ran.

Mary's forces had captured the Chocolate Ogre's army and they had taken his train--but there was still one more means of transportation available for someone with the nerve to take it.

The Hindenburg was not too difficult to find, as it was taller than anything around it. There were still dozens of Mary's Afterlights holding it down with ropes, keeping it from being torn away by the brutal wind.

"There's a whole bunch of them, and only two of us," Charlie said. "I don't like those odds." But Johnnie-O realized something Charlie didn't. These Afterlights couldn't fight, because they already had their hands full. If it took this many of them to hold the airship down, how many would have to be taken off the job until the ship would tear free?

They wasted no time. Johnnie-O pulled them from the ropes, and Charlie slapped coins into their hands one after another. They had dispatched more than ten of them by the time the others figured out what was happening. They all panicked, and began to let go of the ropes. The airship began to lurch.

"Let's go!" Johnnie-O said. They raced toward the Hindenburg. The ramp was dragging across the ground, beginning to rise into the air. They leaped on, and pulled themselves inside.

The airship's nose lifted higher as it caught more of the Everlost wind. Some Afterlights still dangled from the ropes, but they had the good sense to let go, and the zeppelin took to the sky, twisting and turning out of control, at the mercy of the wind. It was just the two of them in the giant craft. They hadn't been able to save the train, or Nick's army, but at least they saved the bucket of coins.

"Can you fly this thing?" Johnnie-O asked Charlie.

"No," he answered, "but I got plenty of time to learn, doncha think?"

They fumbled their way through corridors until finally finding the bridge, and that's when they realized there was a problem.

There was a bar across the door, and that bar was held in place by a huge padlock. "Where's the key?" asked Charlie. "There's got to be a key."

Johnnie-O knew exactly where the key was, because he had seen it dangling above his face dripping water into his eye.