Into the Beyond Books 1-3

The sputtering rumble of the old truck’s diesel engine grew louder as it accelerated down the road. They were going too fast to bail. Lewis peeked out from under the tarp, trying to get a bearing on their direction.

Josie’s cellphone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, surprised to see that it still had any battery left. “Hey, it’s Steph,” read the text from an unknown number. It came in a group chat with Rebecca and Channie included as well. “We r getting into Channie’s mom’s car. Will b in pursuit. Hang tight!”

Josie read the text to Lewis. He didn’t look relieved.

The truck slowed, turning off of the main road. Lewis peered out again, trying to get an eye on the street sign, but it passed by too quickly.

“Tell them we turned off the road,” he said with a frown.

Josie passed the vague information along, but no sooner had she pressed send than her phone’s screen turned black. The battery was dead.

After about another mile the truck came to a sudden stop, slamming both children against the back of the cabin with a thud. The driver opened his door, hopped out, and yanked the tarp off of them before they could do anything.

The old man looked down on them with stern eyes.

“Uh, sorry,” said Lewis, sitting up. There wasn’t really any good explanation they could give.

The old man didn’t skip a beat. “Where are you going?” he asked. “I can give you a ride.”

“Um, sure,” said Lewis awkwardly. “Just back to the main road would be great, I guess….”

The man nodded. “I can give you a ride.” He hopped spryly back into the driver’s seat and started going again with Lewis and Josie still in the back.

Josie looked at Lewis with wide eyes. She’d been about to hop out, expecting to get into the cabin, but nearly fell as the truck lurched forward.

The truck continued on, moving farther away from the main road. There wasn’t anywhere convenient to turn around at first, but then they passed a turn-off.

Lewis slid open the tiny back window to the cabin. “Sorry again,” he said, “but I meant the road we were on before, back the other way.”

The old man nodded. “I can give you a ride.”

They passed a second turn-off without pause. The old man put his foot to the floor, accelerating well beyond the speed limit.

Josie gripped onto the side of the truck in fear as her hair whipped around her face in the wind.

“Slow down!” Lewis shouted up to the old man.

They were both relieved momentarily as the truck slowed and pulled off the road, but their concern multiplied when the old man kept driving through the empty field ahead. The tires kicked up a cloud of dust behind them.

“Dude!” yelled Lewis. “We’re sorry we snuck onto your truck, just let us off!”

The old man peered back, this time with nervous eyes. “I can give you a ride,” he said, repeating the same phrase again with the exact same intonation as before, like some sort of human parrot.

The old man’s skin rippled slightly. Unnaturally. Not human.

The truck stopped with a skidding lurch just shy of a line of trees.

Josie jumped up the moment they stopped. She pulled camp counselor Matt’s belt knife out from her pants. Before she knew what was happening, a long tentacle sprang out from the old man’s back and slapped the knife out of her grasp. The tentacle then wrapped around her neck, attempting to choke her. Josie flailed, screaming in terror as she grappled with the slimy appendage. She sunk her teeth into it as it went across her face. Warm blue blood gushed into her mouth as she chomped down hard. The creature hissed in pain as it released her.

Her body shook with adrenaline. The metallic taste of the odd blood nearly made her gag.

Lewis raised his arm, aiming his silver coil at the monster in human flesh. The tentacle whipped back around at him, bashing into Lewis as he fired a burst of energy. The shot missed the monster, instead blowing out both the back and driver’s side windows. Several more tentacles sprang at him through the broken window. They flailed violently, knocking Lewis down to the truck bed.

The monster withdrew its tentacles after Lewis fell. It no longer resembled an old man as it collapsed inward on itself, as if melting. The creature deflated into an aquatic-looking octopus-like physique, rippling wildly with a dozen tentacles. Its skin shifted about, changing like a kaleidoscope with a thousand different colors.

Before Lewis could get another shot off from his coil, the creature flopped out of the shattered driver’s side window and rolled under the truck.

Josie screamed as she pointed to the treeline. A pair of extremely tall and gangly creatures had emerged from the woods.

“Agares!” cried Lewis.

Josie just caught a glimpse of a humongous reptile stepping out of the forest beside the two slender figures. It looked like an oversized Komodo dragon.

With a disorienting shift, everything suddenly changed around her.

Lewis was now in the driver’s seat, his whistle in his mouth. He started the truck while sending blast after blast of energy from his coil through a hole in the suddenly broken windshield.

Around the truck everything shifted again—several times in fact—as if Josie were only witnessing one second out of every ten at best. The snippets of time flashed before her eyes as a fight ensued around the vehicle. It was jarringly confusing. The position of the sun changed—they were headed back the other way now. Dark blood was splattered all over the smashed windshield.

Josie smeared a glob of wetness across her cheek. It appeared during the last shift in reality. The sticky red substance now on her hand was definitely blood. It smelled heavily of iron as she rubbed it between her fingers in a confused daze.

“What is happening?” she yelled up to Lewis as she crawled into the cabin through the back window. The plume of dust behind the truck hid the scene of the conflict at their backs. Steam rose up from the dented truck hood as Lewis drove back up onto the road and sped away.

“There was a basilisk!” Lewis exclaimed. “It’s a giant lizard that can freeze time—but it can’t affect me because I’m not in my native time stream. This whistle messes with its abilities.”

Josie swept some of the broken glass from her seat and buckled herself in beside Lewis. She was still in shock.

“Those crazy-tall bearded guys were Agares. They always come in pairs.”

“I only saw one,” said Josie.

Lewis shook his head. “There were two. I Erased one, but now the coil isn’t working anymore. I think it’s broken or out of power or something. I hit the other one with the truck while he was riding the basilisk.”

Josie looked back behind them apprehensively but couldn’t see any sign of the giant lizard or the tall man.

“I’m not sure if they’re dead, but they’re injured at least,” said Lewis.

Based off the amount of blood on the hood of the truck the monsters were definitely not having a very good day.

Josie wiped some of the blue blood from her chin with the neck of her shirt. It looked like she’d been drinking paint. Her jaw ached from the tentacle wrenching itself free from her bite. She spit a glob of blue into the footwell. “I don’t like tentacles.”

“You never cease to amaze me,” said Lewis with a grin.

Josie gagged as she spit again on the floor.

They weren’t even halfway back to the main road when the truck’s engine began to sputter. A moment later and it cut out entirely. They quickly came rolling to a permanent stop.

Calamari anyone? Us Parcae really love the jiggly-wriggly stuff! A good juicy grub will satisfy an empty belly any day, but I personally still prefer a good burger. When you have the whole timeline of humanity to explore, there is almost no limit to the goodies one can find to consume! But I digress, these are serious times. Lewis managed to burn his coil out in a fit of terror. You shouldn’t blame the boy, though, the Agares are terrible… but… he really was just firing that thing like it had unlimited energy. You don’t even want to know how energy intensive it is to wipe a person out of existence. The Agares definitely won’t be winning any Green Awards anytime soon. It’s a dog-eat-dog multi-verse out there. The Agares would burn through half the energy of the cosmos if it meant being able to steal just a little bit more for themselves. They’ve really taken the whole industrial complex thing to the extreme.

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray