Paradise was nothing like Krav had ever seen. As he approached, he forgot all about the pain in his gut. He slid off of the pack beast and sprinted towards it.

  Greenblatt knew he should stop him, but he was just as shocked. He steered the pack beast on toward the green landscape with wonder barely contained behind his leather mask. The bloody map had made mention of an oasis near the Emerald Expanse, but he could never have guessed that it was this big.

  “You... you see that too, right? I’ve heard stories of mirages, but this seems like far too much to be that.” The warlord was beside himself, struggling to comprehend how something so massive could have ever stayed a secret for so long.

  “I see it,” Ulrich said. His voice was low and his eyes wide. There weren’t many words that could depict the strange feeling he had about the place, but foreboding was a good start. “It was only a few days away from the Pit this entire time and we had no idea.”

  They watched Krav run as fast as he could and stop in front of the edge of the jungle. The boy stared with his mouth agape. Rufus had told them stories about places just like this. Lush, green wildlands that sprouted from the sands and defied the chaos of the wasteland. It was such a farfetched fantasy, Krav half expected scantily clad wild women to emerge and offer to make all of his dreams come true. He saw something better than half dressed women, however.

  A cluster of feathers was nailed into one of the trees, and just based on their colors, he knew they belonged to the Gordo clan. They were either Jackmaw Yapyap’s invitation to continue onward, or a guide for Shi-Toh to catch up. Either way, Krav was up for a challenge. He ripped them off the tree and handed them to Greenblatt as he approached on the pack beast.

  “Gordo clan?” Krav asked.

  Greenblatt took the feathers and held them up in the sun. One of them caught his eye. Among the reds and greens, a harsh black was nestled among them. He thought it looked a lot like the bird they were tracking, that mega vulture. If it had been, perhaps they were on the right track.

  “More than likely. We should tread lightly, though. I’m not sure how safe this place is.” Greenblatt stuffed the trinket into his pocket and drew the reigns of the pack beast. He was surprised when she didn’t move.

  “Your beast does not wish to continue,” Ulrich said. He was sitting on the creature’s back end, slapping its hindlegs to coax it on.

  “Leave her then! Lenny’s close by, I can feel it!” Krav was off, hacking away at the overgrowth and leaping over fallen logs. In an instant, he was disappearing into the jungle.

  Greenblatt did not leave his pack beast. To do so meant abandoning all of their supplies in a place where nothing was certain. The jungle was alien to them, and to go in without so much as a rash balm might mean suicide. Greenblatt yanked on the reigns while smacked its hind legs and yelled obscenities at it.

  The pack beast finally began to move once 001 and 002 starting to poke it in the backside with their poleaxes. Its pace was abysmally slow, treading through the jungle without looking up. It mewled and complained, but it didn’t stop.

  Something about that noise it kept making was putting Greenblatt on edge. He had heard it before, he just couldn't recall where from. It was a bad omen, whatever it was. Quietly, he pet the pack beast and coaxed in on with sweet praises.

  “Good girl,” he whispered in one ear so the others might not hear.

  Krav was far ahead of the others, chopping down flora and not paying attention to the creatures of the jungle that watched. The feathers were a fantastic clue, but they didn’t point in any direction. There had to have been some code or pattern to them that deciphered their message. Far behind him, he could hear Greenblatt telling him to slow down and not to get lost, but he was beyond that.

  When he turned, the desert had vanished. He was so deep, all he could see were green and brown trees and multicolor flowers. The place was a beauty, certainly, but it had an uncanny air that weighed heavy on the boy. To his curiosity, one of the trees between him and Greenblatt didn’t look quite right. It looked like a tree, sure, but there was a strange, bulbous growth on it. Then the growth shivered.

  There was a monster on the tree. Blending against the moss and vines, eight sharp legs met a ballooning body. Krav could see a smattering of eyes peering over its mandibles like black pearls, and they were watching him. It shook again, rattling like dead branches in the wind, and it shook off a cloud of dust. The grey-green essence floated in the air, and when Krav breathed it in, he immediately felt sick.

  The dust made his head spin and his mouth run dry. His throat was closing to try to prevent him from breathing in more of the dust, but it also stopped him from calling out to his companions. All he could do was cough and choke as he fell to his knees and the spider stepped off of the tree.

  Legs twice as long as the boy stabbed into the fertile earth with a calm grace. There was no calculated speed that most predators had. It just walked over and opened its mandible with all the calm of a restaurant goer sitting down for a meal. Fangs like swords dripped as it salivated with deadly toxins.

  Through choked breaths, Krav had his axe ready. The spider might not have any urgency, but he did. As the mandible approached and the black eyes glistened, Krav swung the axe and chopped off one fang. The spider retreated and raised its forelegs to its face as if it was rubbing off something in its mouth. Krav tried to scream his profanities, but the knot in his neck prevented it. His attack had taken the last of his breath and his vision blurred.

  “Don’t breathe!” Greenblatt said from behind him. 001 and 002 flashed to the boy’s side. One stayed to protect him, the other pressed the attack against the spider, swinging at its legs and face. The spider retaliated by stamping its legs and wriggling its forelegs to try and confuse the lobotomite. It tracked the beast with impeccable grace and continued to slash at its appendages.

  Ulrich rushed to pick the boy up, covering his face with his arm. When he got to his side, something flew from the brush. It looked like a small bird, but it stabbed into his arm. When he pulled it out, Ulrich was shocked to see it was a manmade dart.

  “What in the hell is this place?” he said, but before he could get an answer, he felt a familiar shock to his system. Whatever was in the dart was made with the same plant the valley used to make zerker. The familiar cold flooded his veins and his mind was quickly blanking. He knew there wasn’t much time before he lost his mind, so he turned his attention on the beast from the tree.

  Ulrich rushed the monstrous spider and grabbed it by one of its legs. He wrestled it to the floor and held it for 002 to slam with its poleaxe. Drool was flowing from his lips, and his eyes were turning bloodshot. Soon, 002 might have to turn his weapon on him, but he was hyperventilating, sucking in the dust and closing his airways. Before he could lose his mind, he would pass out.

  “Idiot!” Greenblatt nearly yelled. He leapt off the back of the pack beast and ran to Krav’s side. He saw another dart fly from the brush and bounce off of 001’s machine carapace. There were people here. Probably Gordo clan. When a dart came his way, he snatched it out of the air with deft fingers and inspected it. A thin green liquid coated its tip. It was a new trick if it was the Gordo clan degenerates. Perhaps they had Mac cooking up this sort of thing.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Those shrubs!” he commanded, and the lobotomite left Krav to charge the ambushers. As he approached their position, a rope snapped taught and lifted 001 into the air. Greenblatt was probably the worst combatant they had, and now he was alone.

  There was chaos in every direction as the shrubs danced with movement and the mega spider stamped at 002. The lobotomite was holding it off well, but Greenblatt needed it to root out whatever was stalking them from the grass. Two more darts ripped from their hidden positions and Greenblatt ran. If he could cut down 001, he might be able to save Krav and Ulrich.

  Another jungle trap sprang off as Greenblatt stepped on a tripwire. A log swung down from a tree and knocked him over. The force was hard enough to knock the fight out of him entirely. Before he lost consciousness, he watched an army of strange creatures emerge from the brush and stab into the mega spider with spears. 002 looked like it was have an aneurysm trying to process everything. It looked to Greenblatt for orders, then the spears were turned onto it.

  One of the beasts hopped over to Greenblatt. The warlord of Kiva Noon was reaching his hand out to it, trying to choke it through the air. The creature was covered in shaggy black hair and stared with a red face. As it approached, Greenblatt lost his strength. It bent over him, then it felt at the bottom of its red face. It had been so convincing, Greenblatt didn’t even notice it was a mask.

  A girl stared down at him with a confused look.

  Krav was the first to wake up. He found himself between Greenblatt and Ulrich tied up to a tree. This high up, he could look down on a village that blended into the surrounding jungle. Homes were made in the bottoms of giant mangroves. Their roots were covered in animal pelts to insulate them. The boy could see people mingling in and out of their root systems without looking back up at him.

  The center of town looked like a clearing that was turned into a communal eatery. A giant cooking pot bubbled with a stew that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades. People danced around it with the same odd shaggy creatures, and a shaman led them in a strange song.

  There was a familiar skull decorating the pot. Rufus stared up at him.

  Krav noticed more of the shaggy creatures in the tree with him. They crawled along the branches like monkeys; backs bent and crouching low. He tried to get their attention by barking at them. “Hey! Cut me down from here and give me my shit back!”

  One of the creatures snapped its head to the boy and raised a finger to its red lips. Krav wound up a wad of snot in the back of his throat and launched it in the thing’s general direction. The creature brought a pipe to its lips and aimed it at Krav, only to be stopped by another one of its kind.

  “Wait!” it said. The voice was muffled, but he could understand it as English. To his surprise, it was comfortingly feminine. The boy squinted. He had never met an animal that could speak besides the joker jackal, but this didn’t sound like mimicry. It was communication. “You’re with Jackmaw Yapyap?”

  That made his blood boil. Krav gritted his teeth and fought his restraints. “Of course I’m not with Jackass Yapyap! I’ve been looking for his giant ass so I can cut his head off!”

  The thing must have known he was being genuine. It nodded, then removed the mask. The shaggy fur disappeared with it, and underneath was a tanned woman decorated with tribal tattoos. “Then we have the same goal.”

  “Fuck you, we do,” Krav said. “If you don’t cut me and my friends down and give me my friend’s skull back, I’ll kill every last one of you.”

  The woman nodded to the other masked warriors in the tree. “You won’t make it passed us.”

  Krav looked around. Now all of the masked people in the trees were staring at him, pipes raised to their lips and loaded with darts. He turned back to the woman. “Maybe not in an unfair fight like this…”

  “State your name, boy,” the woman said. She was circling the branch she was on, walking back and forth along it without taking her eyes off of Krav. If she wanted to kill them by now, she would have.

  Krav narrowed his eyes at her. “No.”

  A dart flew into Krav’s neck, and it stung at first. Then there was a calming sensation, and he felt like he might piss his pants, or fall out of the tree, or both. His vision blurred and his speech lulled. He couldn’t hear Rufus’s voice from all the way up here. The woman continued to yell at him. “Your name!”

  “Krav…” he slurred.

  “And your friends?”

  Krav felt like Lenny. He was losing his grip on reality and forgetting everything. “Who?”

  The woman pointed to the two men beside him on the tree. Krav giggled. “I have no fucking idea. What is this stuff? It’s not half bad.”

  “We call it Chakra. Depending on what we mix it with, it has many uses. Right now, you have our mind-altering serum running through your veins. It’ll make you answer some of our questions easier. Why do you have a vendetta against Jackmaw?”

  Krav looked at her. His eyes rolled in his head like cogs on different timers. The woman was dressed in nothing but a leather bra and shorts. Feathers formed an anklet above either foot. A bandolier of darts hung around her chest. Short dark hair bobbed around her shoulders. It was enough to make him forget he was being interrogated. “Has anyone ever told you you’re pretty? I know a guy who just killed his girlfriend. You should meet him.”

  “We were discussing Jackmaw.”

  Right… Jackmaw. Who was that again? “Have you seen Rufus? I usually keep him close.”

  “Is that one of your friends?”

  “Try best friend,” Krav laughed. Whatever they had dosed him with, it was a lot of fun to be high on. It felt like a million pounds had been lifted off of his shoulders and he could relax for the first time since Lenny had been kidnapped. Then it hit him. It was swirling, all coming back at once. The drug had felt like a mellow indigo swarming in his chest, but the color was changing to a maroon. He stopped laughing and fixed on the woman. “How the hell do you know Jackmaw Yapyap?”

  “Because he’s a cancer upon this world that we should have killed long ago.”

  That made Krav laugh again. “You really should have…” then he felt himself about to cry. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, but he maintained his composure. “He took my little brother. Now I’m going to tear his fucking head off.”

  “Then to atone for that, allow us to help you. But we can’t help who we don’t know.” She pointed at the fat man next to Krav. “Who is he?”

  “Ulrich of the Shit Lords… or something.”

  “And him?”

  Krav turned his head to the wiry man next to him. He was bundled up in a mask and still asleep. “Albert… Um… He has a really long name. I just call him Greenblatt.”

  “Thank you, Krav.” The woman gave a sharp whistle, and more of the masked people crawled around the tree to untie the three. Greenblatt stirred awake, but Ulrich needed to be carried by three of them. “I am Gaya of the Disciples. Welcome to paradise.”

  The Disciples were a generous clan. Living deep in Paradise meant plenty of hunting, and plenty of hunting meant plenty of meat. They brought the three of them to a tent where they were treated for their wounds and fed. Krav ate most of it, even stealing from Greenblatt.

  The tent was far from the other homes built into the trees. It was a large structure, much bigger than Greenblatt’s humble abode. A pit of coals warmed the space and kept the meat hot while it waited to be eaten. The tent itself was built with large logs and animal hides that were from megafauna so large, a single pelt sufficed for its construction.

  Gaya was the only one in the room with them. She looked like she was waiting for someone else to join them, but she answered as many questions as she could while they had her.

  Where were they? Rootwalla Village, home of the Disciples. Who are the Disciples? A question best saved for the warlord. Was there more meat? Yes. How did she know Jackmaw? She didn’t, but her clan did. Was there more of that Chakra stuff? Not for you.

  “Asking for a friend,” Krav said and took another big bite from his steak. He eyed the one on Greenblatt’s plate. The warlord didn’t even try eating. He didn’t want to risk showing his face, and Krav wanted his plate. Greenblatt didn’t bother protesting when the boy thought he was being sneaky by slipping the meat from his plate.

  “There were others with us,” Greenblatt said. “A beast of burden and two bodyguards. What happened to them?”

  “The animal has been released back into nature. The abominations have been disassembled.”

  “Released? Disassembled?” Greenblatt stood and tried to look imperious over the woman. She didn’t seem moved. “You will return my things to me this instant or Karma help me I’ll raze this place to the ground!”

  “You’re free to tame your beast and reassemble your experiments when you are out of our custody, but for now you will abide by our laws. Animals are not our slaves, the dead cannot be resuscitated, and the intoxicants are forbidden outside of the dreamer’s tent.”

  The last remark was aimed at Krav, but he ignored her as he choked on his piece of steak. Ulrich slapped him hard on the back, and he spat it up. “So we can’t even get high?”

  “Not yet,” Gaya said. “But soon.”