Chapter 17 of 35 · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Chapter 17 — Jennifer and Dale's house

Book: The Gate of the Feral Gods · Previous: Chapter 16 — Denise · Next: Chapter 18 — One · Floor: Floor 5 — The Bubbles · Series: the series

Opening

» Time to Level Collapse: 10 Days and 4 Hours

Summary

Ten days and four hours; 17.72 quintillion views. Katia sewed parachutes for nothing. The house sits cocked on a dune half a mile from Hump Town, and its balloon starts refilling until Bonnie hands over the walnut on her necklace: an F-quality soul crystal in a clamshell that meters power to the balloon, 89% charged, 'Kill something to charge it up.' Carl keeps it a fraction open. Carl 44, Donut 37, Mongo 33. The master bedroom, with the stairwell in its walk-in closet behind a blue field, belonged to Dale, a plumber, and Jennifer, a University of Arizona librarian, and their three children, likely all asleep when it happened, Carl thinks; Kane slept in their bed with a drawing of his own wife and baby in their frame, and Cosmopolitans on the floor. Carl thinks of Maggie's claim that the dead can be brought back, and counts himself lucky to have only two. He loots the house to the studs — laptops, consoles, Barbies, a plastic kayak, two bikes, a workbench, the Christmas tree, the electrical panel — and finds no guns. Bonnie was given a potion by her father after the Wasteland fell, to stop her crying; she slept beside his body. The Nightmare II drifts down and goes into the garage. Louis, Firas and the archers killed the Thorny Devil queen and cleared the bowl. Juice Box, as a gnome woman, takes Bonnie's hand: 'Orphans will always have a home in Hump Town.'

Carl to Donut: her panic over Mongo took her out of the fight. Donut: 'Who flipped the switch? […] You rarely think of the proper answer to a problem, but you usually come up with one that works anyway.' Ghazi's letter decides the order: the land quadrant before the tomb. Loita threatens to feed Mongo to a mob on the next floor and make Donut watch; then Zev says goodbye — the social board has made her job redundant, and Loita will not let her come down. 'You shouldn't make promises you can't keep.' 'I keep my promises.' The recap: Prepotente and Miriam put a spider nest to sleep and let it fall; the Popovs on a pirate ship; Lucia Mar shattering an ice mummy with a group; Quan Ch's bubble popped early. Florin is off the list; Chirag Ali, a Sacred Paladin, is on it; Carl second at 44, Quan Ch seventh at 45. A fifth robot Donut, three times heavier, survives Mongo and moans when patted; its head panel threatens self-destruct. Mordecai: non-enhanced toys are for children on long voyages or too poor for the access tax; Veriluxx's logo suggests Veritan Linkage, a Soother lending fund that advocates enslaving those who cannot pay, allied with Borant and the Bloom, and the campaign is probably a way to funnel money to Borant. 'Is the whole universe filled with assholes?' 'Just the ones with the money.' The Mysterious Pocket Watch carries a bone symbol Carl half remembers; its alarm shows, in the not-quite-mirror, a fish-thing that is Henrik, alive in the flooded tomb. At Skarn's house Bonnie is waking: 'He knew she was going to do it […] Do you have another one of those potions? Please?' Mongo gives her the pink rabbit; Carl puts the family drawing on her nightstand. Loita: 'Audiences like drama, but not melodrama.' Watching the girl sob into Juice Box, Carl changes his mind about an idea he had dismissed as too risky, too soon.

Characters

• Carl — A soul crystal on a string; loots a Texan house; a promise about Zev; a decision.
• Princess Donut — Told she checked out; 'That was you being you'; loses Zev to a purchase.
• Katia Grim — Sewed parachutes; kneels for Bonnie; 'Kids are resilient.'
• Mongo — Level 33; gives Bonnie the rabbit.
• Mordecai — Veritan Linkage; 'Just the ones with the money.'
• Bonnie — A potion to stop crying; wakes at Skarn's; asks for more.
• Juice Box — A gnome mother for an orphan.
• Skarn — 'They take care of me here.'
• Zev — Goodbye, without a goodbye.
• Loita — A threat about Mongo; 'not melodrama.'
• Henrik — A fish in the watch's mirror.
• Louis and Firas — A borough-boss star each: the Thorny Devil queen.
• Langley — 'They'd held their own.'
• Commandant Kane — A drawing in a stolen frame; Cosmopolitans.
• Frank Q and Maggie My — Maggie's claim about the dead, still in Carl's head.

Locations

• The Wasteland — Jennifer and Dale's house: the stairwell in a closet; the garage's workbench; a kayak.
• Hump Town — Bonnie in Skarn's house.

Motifs

• The soul crystal — F-quality, a clamshell dimmer for a balloon; the C-quality bomb recalled.
• The collapse dead — Three children, likely asleep, Carl thinks; Kane in their parents' bed.
• The leaderboard — Florin off; Chirag Ali on; Carl 44.
• Sponsorship — A fifth doll; Veritan Linkage; taxes and slavery.
• The Gate of the Feral Gods — A bone symbol on the watch; Henrik answers the alarm.
• The show — Loita's threat; Zev made redundant by the board.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Recipes steered so Mordecai seems to invent them.
• The mobs are victims — A gnome girl asking for the potion that stopped her fear.