Modern Age Online

Kaleb groaned as the air pressure still held him and Abby to the front of the coal car. Milly was happily chittering away as she raced across the tracks in her new form. Normally, when the space marmot dove into something, she'd be hidden or inside whatever machine she'd dove into. Now the whole engine car was some cartoon-y, furry, blue monstrosity. On top of that, Milly seemed to supercharge the engine and the speed they were going was astounding. Kaleb just feared for the wheels below them. Which were already making ominous noises.

"We need to stop!" Kaleb shouted over the noise.

He looked down at Abby who was still leaning against his side. To his surprise, the woman had her eyes closed and seemed to be breathing softly.

"ARE YOU ASLEEP?!"

Abby muttered something inaudible over the train, and Kaleb stared in astonishment. That hadn't been traveling that long. At least he didn't think they had. The landscape outside was still a blur of color, and the train seemed to be holding up a lot better than his car had. A testament to the cartoon nature of Milly's new form, he assumed.

Nudging the smaller woman with his side, she quickly came awake and glared at him.

"What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I disturb your beauty sleep? We're still on a runaway train, y'know?"

"I thought your rat-thing was handling it."

"We can't keep going at this speed! The damn wheels will shake off."

After his words, the sounds of metal clanking together broke up the steady rhythm of the train. Abby tried to push off the coal car. But the force of their forward momentum still held them in place. Kaleb called Milly back with his mind and the train began to slow down. He could feel her reticence to give up her new plaything, but he called harder, and she eventually separated from the engine car.

The blue animal appeared in front of the as the train's speed kept it going. But Kaleb could feel them slowing down. He pushed off against the coal car as he summoned Milly back into his arm. Abby joined him as they both got their legs back and looked around. The landscape outside was slowly becoming more discernible and Kaleb felt a headache slowly coming on.

"What the fuck is this?"

"Well, at least we're out of the desert." Abby said, joining him at the engine car's door.

Kaleb tried to take everything in as the train slowed to a stop. The desert and cacti had been replaced by a sprawling green plain. Groves of flowers and large, vibrant trees dotted the landscape. The sun above was still grinning at them inanely, and Kaleb shuddered. The big yellow face was creepy.

"You think that's our Mage?" Abby asked as she glanced up at the sun too.

Kaleb shrugged. "I don't think so. If it was, they would've done something by now."

"Maybe they like watching people squirm, or maybe this is all some kind of show to them."

"That would partially explain the 'actors.'"

Abby nodded as she jumped from the train and landed on the soft grass. The train was barely crawling along now. So Kaleb jumped as well and felt his sneakers sink into the squishy ground. He half expected the grass to scream at him as he joined Abby.

"Now what?"

"We either wait for Jar-Lock and Vivienne to get us out of here or we explore and see what we can find on our own."

Abby glanced at him, an eyebrow raised. "When we can't really protect ourselves and are subject to the physics of a cartoon world?"

"Hey, if you want to dig a hole and wait in it, we can do that too. I'm just saying Jar-lock could be a while."

"We at least need to get somewhere more defensible. I don't enjoy being out in the open like this."

"Do you think the cowboys are still after us?"

"Maybe. But it doesn't really fit the theme of this area, does it?"

Kaleb shrugged, and they both stepped forward into the strange new world. There was no path in the field, and nature seemed to press in on them from everywhere. The grove of bright flowers swayed softly in the slight breeze that was in the air. Kaleb could smell the woods surrounding them, as well as several of the more potent flowers. He scanned the treeline as Abby led the way for both of them.

She dashed straight for the nearest tree and started climbing. Her arms extending into dark shadowy blades that she jabbed into the bright brown bark. Kaleb studied the bark for a while as Abby climbed. Something about it looked off to him and not in the standard cartoon way. He scratched one of his small lizard claws against the bark as he heard Abby come to a stop above him. Glancing upward, he saw that she had climbed to the very top of the large tree in almost no time at all. As she scanned the surroundings, Kaleb looked back to the bark that his fingers had pulled away from the tree.

To Kaleb's surprise, the bark wasn't wood at all. It was almost fluffy, and it came apart in his fingers. Like soft paper. Kneeling down, he ripped up some grass as well. His scaly fingers picked up the strands of grass and rolled them around. Just like the bark, the grass was softer than normal and it seemed almost brittle. Like it was a cake that hadn't finished cooking yet.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Is the Mage weaker than we thought?" Kaleb wondered to himself.

Something pink swept by his peripheral vision and he spun around to find it. But as soon as his pistol was out of its holster, the thing was gone. More trees dotted the landscape, and a few swayed softly in the breeze. The sounds of branches snapping overhead told him that Abby was on her way down. Holding the pistol at the ready, Kaleb turned back to watch her descend. That's when something yellow flashed from his left side. He spun to catch this one, but it the blur of color was long gone.

"Look out below." Abby said before jumping and landing next to him.

Kaleb watched as the short woman brushed herself off and asked. "Anything?"

"Nothing in any direction for miles. These trees grow denser to the east and north, though. The forest extends back toward the desert and then around to the north. Growing thicker as it goes. The plains, meanwhile, seem to stretch on forever. With nothing but empty fields of green grass and oddly colored flowers."

"Yeah… Oddly colored seems to be the name of the game out here." Kaleb said, swiveling his head around to catch anymore blurs of motion.

Abby gave him a confused look, and Kaleb just pointed at the tree.

"Didn't you notice that the bark is softer than normal?"

Abby shrugged. "A little bit, I guess. But my arm blades are pretty sturdy, anyway."

"Scratch at it with your finger. It's like watery paper or something."

Abby leaned in close to the tree and rubbed at the bark with her palm. She rubbed her fingers together in disgust as the flaky bark was flung away from her hands.

"It's like… paper mache. But thick and flaky."

"Like a cake, right? Or pastry?"

"Hungry Professor?"

"I could eat, but not enough to snack on a tree." Kaleb joked. "The grass is the same way."

Abby kneeled down and Kaleb got a view of the trees just beyond her. A flash of blue blurred between two trees as he watched. Immediately, Kaleb raised his gun and fired off a blast of energy. But the thing was long gone. He watched as his blast clipped a tree and dissipated into nothingness. The bark on the tree went flying, but Kaleb swore he saw the tree glow blue as his blaster shot vanished.

Abby rolled away from Kaleb's shot and came up behind him. Using him as a shield, she looked around for signs of attack. Finding nothing, she asked.

"What the hell?"

"Something is in the woods. Something fast… and colorful."

"What is it exactly?"

"I don't know. It's moving too fast for me to identify. All I know is that I've seen a pink one, a yellow one, and, now, a blue one."

"Are you sure it's not one animal changing colors?"

"Nope. But I don't fancy a trip through the trees. Not with something super fast. I vote we take a walk through the flowers."

"As good a choice as any, I suppose." Abby sighed.

Kaleb took one last look at the tree line and turned his back on it. Abby joined him and they walked away from the odd trees and flashing colors. They didn't get far before another flash of color dashed in front of them. This one was red, and it came to a stop directly in front of where they were walking. Kaleb brought his weapon up as Abby summoned her shadowy arm blades.

"What the fuck?" Abby asked, clearly confused.

Kaleb could only shrug as he held the bright red rabbit in his gun's sights. The fluffy-looking creature sniffed the air cutely before hopping toward them. He wanted to pull the trigger as soon as the tiny creature got close, but morbid curiosity filled Kaleb as he watched the rabbit nibble at the green grass.

"It has to be dangerous, right?" Abby asked.

"Definitely." Kaleb agreed and finally pulled the trigger.

The red rabbit blurred again, and Kaleb's shot hit the green grass. Again, the blue orb of energy flashed against the ground, and a blue haze appeared over that section of grass. Meanwhile, the rabbit stopped a short distance away and glared at Kaleb. Its red eyes flashing with odd intelligence that unnerved him. Lining up a second shot, Kaleb watched as the rabbit opened its mouth, revealing several sharp teeth.

"Graaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

With a high-pitched squealing cry, the bunny leapt at them, its front paws growing into dangerous looking claws. It blurred through the air, barely giving Kaleb enough time to pull the trigger. His shot went wide as the red bullet hit him in his chest armor, knocking him flat. He felt and heard the tiny creature scratching at his metal armor as it continued to wail hauntingly at him. He was pulling his gun back to get a shot off when Abby appeared above him and slashed the rabbit with her blades.

Her shadowy weapons slashed through the tiny creature. Its two halves collapsed on top of Kaleb, and he quickly brushed them away. When he did, he noticed that the creature also felt odd under his hand. Looking at the top half of the dead creature, Kaleb noted its insides weren't biological. They seemed to be the same papery substance as the trees. Just packed in a much more dense fashion.

Abby seemed to be to discovering the same thing as him with the rabbits other half. He turned to catch her looking at him and nodding already.

"It's the same thing."

"Yeah," Kaleb said, getting to his fit. "What kind of cartoon uses paper characters?"

"This one." Abby answered simply.

"Pfft!"

Kaleb scoffed at her answer and brushed a hand down his armor. The rabbit's claws and teeth left several rends in the metal. It didn't dig through the Kevlar, but if it had a few more seconds, it might have. He fingered a particularly deep groove in the armor and sighed. Something else he'd have to upgrade… again.

Three little whomps of air brought Kaleb's face back around toward the treeline. He swore as Abby turned to see what he was looking at. Three more rabbits were sitting in the grass, their heads twitching in their direction, their red eyes lifeless.

"Shit."

"We're okay, Professor. There's only three of them." Abby grinned, holding her shadow blades up.

Kaleb was about to respond when several more whomps of air happened. With each sound, another colorful rabbit appeared amongst its brethren. Soon three became six, which became twelve, and so on until they had a veritable army of rabbits facing them.

"Plains, train, or trees, Abs?"

"They'll run us down on the plains and the trees seem to be their home." Abby said.

"Back to the train it is." Kaleb nodded.

He sent a string of Cybar bolts into the mass of rainbow rabbits and sprinted toward the train. As his shots landed, several rabbits opened their mouths and gave the same squealing cry the first one had. Their piercing yowls hurt Kaleb's ears, but he didn't turn back as he and Abby ran from the rabbit army.