Chapter 15 of 35 · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Chapter 15 — The Gate of the Feral Gods

Book: The Gate of the Feral Gods · Previous: Chapter 14 — Maggie · Next: Chapter 16 — Denise · Floor: Floor 5 — The Bubbles · Series: the series

Opening

“So,” I said to Juice Box.

Summary

Juice Box, bald for no reason, in the Spit and Swallow: Henrik is her brother; the Principals are not cataloguing every species but hunting one, and Quetzalcoatlus, a creature not native to this land, can cast a spell that alters plants. The changelings are not from here either, and every generation adapts worse: one birth in four now has Compression Sickness, and those born with it are sterile. Henrik wants the ghost's spell to make a food that stops the defects. The Gate is no myth — she lied — but a backup plan even Henrik would not use: three parts, two pocket watches and a winding box, one stolen from the dromedarians by Henrik, one with Commandant Kane, one with the mad mage. Put together, it opens a gate from one place to another, and when it closes an ancient, feral god comes through on the opening side: 'the gods from before,' banished into the Nothing by the pantheon and driven mad. 'We can go home, but it would bring devastation to this world.' The air goes electric and the quest arrives: The Gate of the Feral Gods — take all three pieces and put them together. 'What happens next is pretty damn neat.' Donut is reading the new social feed aloud (a tattoo of her on someone's lower thorax).

The storm rips the unfinished shield away and buries the town; a bronze quest to fetch five downed balloons for a shelter goes to Louis, Firas and Langley, who have salvaged an intact Drop Bear from the Bactrian ruins. Gwen's team is through all four walls and stuck at a magically locked door; the tomb raiders are trapped in saferooms by water; Mordecai needs vile dill. Carl thinks Donut's choice was the easy way out, 'and in this place, the easy way usually came with dire consequences.' Katia, watching the house wedged against the ceiling: 'You also don't want to hurt that kid […] It's no accident they put a child up there.' Carl, on children: he would be a bad father, and Bea's ten false alarms terrified him. Katia: she could not have children, was pre-approved to adopt alone in Iceland, was disqualified for a reason she will not give, and is 'glad now' — a lie Carl can hear. The fourth robot Donut says there were a lot of babies in there and wonders how long they will cry in the dark; Mongo tears its head off and it self-destructs, by Loita's order, so Carl cannot study the core. Zev, in the chat: 'There are memes'; asked to choose the doll's name, 'I would go with Ivy.' Donut gasps.

The Drop Bear, renamed Nightmare II over its stencilled Death Trap, runs on Carl's first-floor gasoline. With its escape balloons it lifts Carl and Donut to the bubble's ceiling, five kilometres up, and the engines push them along the glass like a bicycle with training wheels to the last of the Wasteland: a square of dirt under a magical balloon four times any other, and on it an ordinary suburban house — double garage, basketball hoop, Christmas lights, a Dallas Cowboys welcome sign and a doormat that says 'We don't dial 911.' The stairwell is on the second floor. The door opens before they breach it: a gnome girl in a bloodied Cowboys jersey. 'Have you come to kill my father? You're a little late. He's already dead. Do you want to come in? I'm making lemonade!'

Characters

• Carl — The quest for the artifact; 'I won't hesitate if my hand is forced. Even if it's a kid.'
• Princess Donut — Reads the social feed; names the doll Ivy on Zev's word; a gunner with bullets.
• Katia Grim — The adoption that was refused; 'glad now I don't'; sits this one out.
• Mordecai — Hunting vile dill.
• Mongo — Kills a fourth robot Donut.
• Juice Box — Henrik's sister; the sickness; the three pieces; what a feral god is.
• Henrik — Stole the dromedarians' watch; would not use the Gate.
• Ruby — One in four births.
• Zev — 'There are memes'; 'Ivy.'
• Loita — Made the toys self-destruct.
• Gwendolyn Duet — Through the walls, stopped at a locked door.
• Langley — A Drop Bear under a tarp; five balloons to find.
• Commandant Kane — 'Already dead,' says his daughter.
• Bonnie — Pigtails, a bloody jersey, lemonade.
• Chris — Entombed in the dark, half in water.

Locations

• Hump Town — Buried by the storm; the shield gone.
• The Wasteland — A suburban house on a square of dirt at the top of the world.
• The bowl — The Drop Bear dug out of the sand at the Bactrian ruins.

Motifs

• The Gate of the Feral Gods — Two watches and a winding box; a hole into the Nothing; the quest.
• The changelings — One creature, not all; a food against Compression Sickness.
• The gods — The feral gods: the ones before the pantheon, banished and mad.
• Quests — The Gate of the Feral Gods; a bronze one to shelter the town.
• Sponsorship — A doll that explodes by order; memes.
• The Nightmare II — Death Trap repainted; balloons to the ceiling.
• Bea — Ten pregnancy scares.
• The mobs are victims — A child placed on purpose; a sterile generation.