Chapter 5
“Good work, my friends. You have destroyed the rebels, yes?” he asked.
Lilly nodded. “Didn’t you see that huge explosion?”
“Yes, yes. I was just making sure and all. But, I’ve got a problem now. See, I needed you to get rid of the rebels. Now that they’re gone, I have no reason to deal with you any longer. Guards, kill them.”
I stared at the King in shock. “You lying scum! Don’t shoot us! Why do you even listen to him?”
The guards all paused. “What does he do to help the success of your Kingdom? Why would you ever side with that lump of lard?”
A guard in the back of the room raised his hand slightly. He clenched his fist and then opened his hand up completely.
One guard lowered his gun slightly. “What are you doing? These people are intruders, and you would listen to them over me? I am your rightful King from a long line of great monarchs! How dare you doubt my power!” the King stammered.
“You’re a worthless dictator! You just make people do what you want for your own amusement! You’re starving the people outside for fun!” I cried.
The guards looked at each other. The guard in the back pulled one of his fingers into his fist, leaving four up.
“I know some of you have family out there! Why would you allow them to starve to please this stupid fool? How has he even been controlling you in the first place? What reason do you have to listen to him?” I cried.
The fat King snarled and pulled out a small box with a red button.
“Take one step closer and I’ll send us all into the next world!”
There was a loud buzz as Lilly’s laser weapon fired into the box, burning a small hole right through the middle of it.
The guard’s hand now only held one finger up. A second later, that one fell into the fist as well. The moment his fist had been completely clenched, a guard nodded at him and spoke up. “What reason do we have to listen to you? You’ve brought us no fortune or good years!”
Another guard snarled. “The foreigners are correct. You murdered my best friend in front of me, and made me watch. We don’t need you. Now that you don’t have anything to hold over our heads, your time here is finished.”
Another slowly turned, and aimed his gun at the King. “You killed my mother.”
“You killed my whole family!”
One by one, each guard turned against their King, and the King sputtered in rage.
“How dare you aim at me! I order you all to kill yourselves! This is scandalous!”
I turned around. “By the way, you should know that hamburgers are a type of greasy meat.”
As one, the cries and pain of all the people the Hamburger King had wronged and murdered roared. The King swayed, and toppled from his throne. He hit the ground hard, and moved no more. Unseen to Drake, the guard at the back quietly slipped out of the room during the bloody slaughter.
He pulled his sleeve up to reveal a small wrist bound computer. He pressed a button on it, and disappeared into a glowing red and black portal without a trace. Several other guards broke out from the crowd and sprinted after the first guard. Seconds later, the portal vanished with a silent pop.
Back at the throne room, a guard drew a long knife and cut the King’s head off. He ran out of the door, and threw it off of the castle battlements into the slums. “The Tyrant is dead!” he screamed.
An old woman wandered out of her house, and stared at the head of the dead King. She stood frozen for a moment, before cheering like a little kid. “The King is dead! That fat King is dead and gone!”
People ran out from the slums, cheering and laughing. We all walked up to where the guard was. Lilly sighed. “Now how are we going to get our army?”
The guards opened the walls of the castle, and the people poured in.
“The food is all in the center of the palace! Take as much as you need!” A guard called.
As the people poured into the palace, I turned to one of the guards. “So, what will you do now?”
He grunted. “Our army will come with you. As promised, ten thousand men will return with you to fight this enemy. We need no new King. How soon will we be able to return? We cannot allow the Kingdom to be unprotected for long.”
I sighed in relief. “Thank God. I thank you for honoring our agreement. You will be back instantly, though those of you who died in the battle will not return. It is a special technology of my people that would take too much time to explain in the time we have.”
The guard nodded. “Very well. We shall meet you at the walls of Ronsard City in a few hours, after I call the requested men to formation.” He strode away to help with the masses, and I raised an eyebrow at Lilly.
“See? It all worked out.”
“Only because they felt sorry for you.”
I shrugged, and we headed out of the castle.
As we waited outside the walls of the city where we had first appeared, there was a large explosion behind us within the City. We both spun towards the city in time to watch one of the spires of the massive castle teeter and topple to the ground with a mighty crash.
I watched silently, and the walls to the city lowered. Behind them, thousands of guards stood waiting. Lilly grinned. “Now let’s get the heck out of here.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” I replied, and waved for the ten thousand soldiers to come around us.
“Ok, I need you guys to pack in tight and stand still for a moment. Then we can get back to home base.”
I closed my eyes, and focused on the green lines. The green cube formed, and I opened my eyes. I was standing a few feet away from the circle, so I shuffled a little to the right. Darkness washed over us, and I was back in the Void.
There was a brief moment of panic as all the soldiers found themselves immersed in complete darkness. Then the Grid flickered back to life, lighting up the bleak land.
“Where are we, Commander?” a soldier asked.
Commander. I like the sound of that. “Welcome to the Void. This is where home base will be. I recommend you guys start by building some basic shelter. You don’t need food or water here, but it’s nice to have a place to live for a little.”
“How do we build anything? We’re in the middle of nowhere with nothing but darkness around us.”
“I’m surprised you’re taking this so calmly. I would have thought you would have been running in circles screaming your lungs out right about now. And you can do pretty much whatever you want in the void. The stuff you’re looking at right now is literally nothing. It doesn’t exist. Therefore, a chair cannot exist here either. However, this nothing is in fact here, since we are standing on something. Using that logic, a chair can be right here since I am sitting on something.”
I sat down, and a wooden chair appeared behind me as I sat down. The soldiers nearest to me gasped, and I could hear surprised whispering. I was just surprised by the fact that my messed up logic had worked, even if I had read about it in a documentary.
“Don’t forget that anything you make here stays here. If you try to take it out with you whenever you leave the Void, it will revert to what it is- nothing. And don’t make food either, because it's still nothing here. It won’t have any taste and will disappear after you bite down on it. Did you get that?”
“Not really. But essentially, don’t make food and make houses. I’ll pass it along,” a soldier replied.
I nodded. “Thank you. I figure this is confusing for all of you. Just try to make room, because a lot more people will join you guys.”
The soldier nodded, and I turned back to Lilly. “Let’s get some rest before we head out tomorrow. It’s not like it will make much of a difference to the Pisces Empire. We have all the time we need here.”
She nodded, and I went to lie down. A soft plushy bed appeared before me, and I flopped into it. “Ah, this is amazing!” I sighed in contentment.
Lilly did the same, and she flopped onto a long, flat rock. “What type of person imag
ines a rock to sleep on when they can have anything they want?” I asked.
She ignored me, and closed her eyes. Shrugging, I sank into my bed. I kept sinking, and then dropped into a room with a large monitor screen. I grinned, and picked up a game remote from thin air. I activated the monitor, and Zombie Slayer 9000 appeared on the screen.
I started the game, and began shooting zombies. A moment later, Lilly dropped down beside me. “Jinx, what the heck are you doing?”
“I’m shooting zombies, can’t you see?” I blew a zombie’s head all over the screen, and got double points for a headshot.
“What happened to getting some sleep here before we got new troops?” she crabbed.
“Who sleeps when they can shoot a virtual gun at virtual creatures that don’t exist?”
She hit me over the head, and the monitor disappeared, replaced with a rock plate.
“Go to sleep.”
“Only you could sleep on a rock. Hey, how is it like sleeping on what makes up your brain?”
She ran her finger over the handle of her pistol lovingly, and I gulped. I imagined a rope dropping from my bed entrance, and climbed up it quickly. When I reached the top, I laid down and allowed sleep to overtake me. Of course, I only did this after dropping several hundred stuffed pink poodles into the room and sealing it.