Chapter 18 of 26 · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Chapter 18 — Miss Quill

Book: Carl's Doomsday Scenario · Previous: Chapter 17 — GumGum · Next: Chapter 19 — Danger Zone · Floor: Floor 3 — The Over City · Series: the series

Opening

» Time to level Collapse: 3 days, 16 hours.

Summary

Puddle Jumper to the magistrate's building, a skyfowl-only mall with no first floor; on the stairs they pass Burgundy, a human clerk with one blue eye and one brown. Miss Quill, an elderly eagle behind a desk of three hundred beanie babies, will not disturb the magistrate over non-skyfowl murders; Carl drops the dead prostitute on her desk, the guards decline to arrest a man with a Gate Pass, and in the minute she is gone he does something to her shelves (three sticks of dynamite, ch. 21 reveals).

Grinding west, an undead ambush in magical darkness — Shambling Berserkers, thirteen-foot piles of sewn body parts, quadrupled in the dark — and two city elves. Carl's hob-lobbers fly from the xistera; his dynamite bounces back; he falls into an empty pool onto the bloated corpse of a dead boss, which detonates and throws him onto a roof. Donut and Mongo finish the fight caked three inches deep. New rule: no explosives when blinded.

Characters

• Miss Quill — Introduced; the beanie babies; her late husband was Magistrate before Featherfall, who 'only comes out at night nowadays'; the guards ignore her.
• Carl — Plants the dynamite; is launched by a corpse.
• Princess Donut — Finishes the berserkers; 'You really need to be more careful, Carl.'
• Mongo — Level 12.
• Daniel Bautista — Named on the Divider's corpse.

Locations

• The medium skyfowl settlement — The magistrate's mall and offices.
• The Over City — The slums west of town.

Motifs

• The stuffed figures — Three hundred tagged 'Beanie Babies' on Miss Quill's shelves; a few in glass cases.
• The xistera — First combat use.
• The 201st Security Group — Two more elves.