CHAPTER 18 THE SURPRISE ATTACK

Stilt Town was probably the oldest surviving human settlement in Eagleland. Several families from medieval Summers were being called witches due to the strange happenings in the city. With nothing to lose, they fled west, to the Blessed Eagle Shores. They found that the place was less than blessed, mainly due to the strange creatures, plants and hostile natives. After the old settlement at Fivemiles was razed by a viscous band of Indians, they fled to the one place where the natives wouldn’t follow – a thick swamp filled with bizarre creatures. Those that survived lived in isolation for years, some mutating in strange ways that are still quite a mystery. Up until recent decades, they lived very much like they did seven hundred years ago.

The boat navigated around the tall stilts, gracefully dodging other boats despite its blocky frame. Finally, the guy in the back stopped cranking the engine at a little dock at the foot of a very weather-beaten shanty. Krause carefully followed Mera and the gruff man up the ladder. Crates and barrels were strewn haphazardly around the platform the hut sat on. Krause thought it was a miracle the whole thing didn’t buckle and collapse from the weight. The man made his way across a rope bridge to elsewhere.

"It’s a wreck, isn’t it?" Mera said, stepping over what looked like an old fishing net, "It’s sort of fallen apart ever since mom decided to join the capitalist rat race. But come inside! It’s not very often this place gets visitors."

Krause really couldn’t concur, but he nodded and followed her into the door. It was surprisingly neater than the outside, if cramped and dark. The whole place had one room, with a strange-looking iron stove in the corner, a plank table with little stools, and two cots along the walls. Sitting on one of the stools was a big, scowling muscular man with graying black hair and the same creepy, piercing yellow eyes like Mera’s. He lowered his pipe and raised an eyebrow.

"Well it’s about time you come home, girl. You were looking for pipe root, and you found a boy instead."

"Um…Krause, this is my dad, Kyles."

"Pleasure meeting you," Krause said, trying hard not to adjust his still-damp shorts, which were making his arse itch.

Kyles snorted, blowing smoke all around him, "I can tell by your accent that you’re a hick Southerner. Outsiders don’t come here often, and for good reason. This place is dangerous. What brought a baby-faced sap like you here?"

"My business is my own," Krause said, glaring, "And I’m not a hick. I came from Einesville. Hicks come from Dreisberg."

Kyles let out a terrible guffaw, spewing smoke everywhere, "Outsiders…" Krause sniffed, as the smoke was filling the room now.

"I was kind of hoping he would be off somewhere else…" Mera sighed. Krause nodded and followed her back out the door.

"So why the heck did you come here?" she asked him when she shut the door, "You’re not old enough to be a trader, and nobody comes here just for vacation."

For the first time since he saw the pigs guarding the gate, he looked up.

"If I told you, would you keep it a secret?"

Mera looked at him with those discomforting eyes, then they widened and her jaw dropped in spite of herself.

"You’re…one the kid with blonde hair that those swine are after!"

"Quiet!" he snapped. He turned to see if anybody was in earshot, but this part of the town seemed much less active than the entrance, "You’re right, and I have some things to tell you! Those fat pigs aren’t trying to help. They’re trying to put an end to the world as we know it! There is no war, famine or any of that crap they’re telling you, but there will be worse than that if they aren’t stopped. I’m here to rescue the other kid, my brother Ricky, who is the one who’s supposed to stand up to these pigs and win."

Mera blinked, "No wonder they’re after you…wow…you don’t look too evil to me, but I can’t say if I believe you or not." She seemed to be moving her hand slowly towards her belt.

"So are you helping me or not?" Krause said. There was a creak and a clank behind them, and they spun about to see a fully armored pig shouldering a spear and walking slowly towards them.

"I not help but overhear that you the one we’re after. Stand back, human girl, or I make kabob out of you!"

Krause drew out his brother’s baseball bat laboriously. Mera dove out of the way just in time to avoid a thrust from the pig’s spear, which Krause parried with all his strength. Reeling, the pig tried recovering his spear, but Krause lunged in and bashed the swine’s nose with the butt of the bat. The pig grabbed his face and squealed in pain before reeling backwards and making a big splash in the still water below. Krause grinned and put the baseball bat back on his back. It was the first feeling of satisfaction he had ever gotten from beating up a pig.

"What’s going on out there?" Kyles’s deep, slurred voice called from the shanty. Mera quickly got up and brushed herself off just before the door burst open and Kyles ran out holding a rifle.

"It was a buckwud!" Mera said quickly, "It was climbing the pole and Krause here bashed it."

Kyles looked around suspiciously. Krause glanced at the water. The pigs armor had pulled it down, but what in the name of all things sacred and holy was a buckwud?

"Been awhile since they came around here. But good job, Outsider! Not everyday one of you does something somewhat useful!"

He guffawed his terrible laugh and walked back into the hut.

"So you believe me?" Krause said, quieter.

"Yes," she said, casting her eyes down, "Those pigs have been causing lots of trouble around here, calling us filthy humans when they roll around in mud every hour and eat raw meat without even using a fork and knife! And…you don’t seem the evil, war-starting type. Your face seems too…innocent for that kind of stuff."

Krause rolled his eyes, "Okay, you guys are tougher than we are. You live in a swamp and it’s not everyday somebody drops by for a visit. It doesn’t mean you have to go around calling people maybe a year younger than you babies!"

"Dad’s right about one thing, you’re easily offended!"

Krause grimaced, "Okay, let’s talk about something else. I know that Ricky is here in the swamp somewhere. You people must know this place like the back of your eyelids. Well, what I’m getting at is that I’m gonna need your help if I’m gonna find my brother."

"If only that were true…" Mera said with a laugh, "The forest gets way too thick for exploration north of here, and to the east there’s Water Dragons. But I’m familiar with everything in about a thirty-mile radius. Dad won’t care that I’m helping a wanted and dangerous political criminal almost the same age as I am, just so long as he’s got his pipe root and whiskey." She laughed again.

Krause chuckled, "Well, I know that we’re looking for some sort of hidden base. That’s about it."

"That doesn’t really help much…hm…I think I have an idea."

"This isn’t gonna work," Krause said for maybe the seventh time. Mera was steering the boat through the busy traffic on what looked like the main street. People bustled about on the rope bridges above while hawkers advertised their wares at the top of their diaphragms and boats of all shapes and sizes milled around them. The boat turned a few very tight corners and Krause drew his hood tighter. Two pigs stood in front of what looked like a big, docked flat-bottomed metal river ship, only with a long, nasty spear in front and a strange looking gun on the top. Mera idled the engine and they landed on the dock. The pigs grunted and held out their spears.

"Don’t hurt us!" Mera said in a pleading voice as she climbed out of the boat, "We have important news! One of the wanted people has been spotted!"

The pigs’s spears fell to their sides as Krause climbed out of the boat.

"Is that him?" the smaller guard said gutturally.

"No, he’s the one who spotted the brown-haired kid. Please listen, he’s my brother."

Krause walked up the rickety stairs to the pigs, who were sniffing and snorting at him. He dropped his head lower.

"Sorry…" he stammered, "I’m not very social. It took me enough courage to come here and tell you -"

"Stupid human! Tell us where he be already or I spit you!" the big one snorted, pointing his spear down at Krause.

"I saw…a big sleek, gold robot take him! It said the Pig King wouldn’t take him and that he’d be safe…"

The response was not what they had expected. The pigs looked at each other, their eyes full of anger. The larger pig snorted something, then the smaller nodded assent.

"You two not follow," the big pig told the two of them, then they ran into the boat, slamming the door behind them.

"That’s not what I thought would happen," Krause said when he was sure the pigs couldn’t hear.

"This is interesting," Mera said with a tone of excitement, "It looks like we may have an adventure soon!"

Krause spun around, "I wouldn’t be so happy if I were you! I know these guys, and going against them won’t exactly be an afternoon in the park!"

"You’re as weird as your name, Krause!" she said with a laugh, "Now let’s go see what those hogs are up to."

Mera’s catlike eyes peered through the porthole on deck. Down below she saw the big pig wearing his suit of heavy black armor sitting at a round table with that fat man that vouched for their voices and another smaller pig with a Roman-style helmet. They seemed to be discussing something. Mera slowly opened the porthole and put her ear down to listen.

"Who else has access to the remnant Starmen?" the fat man was saying, "Unless the boy’s a complete liar looking for a quick buck, it must be them. We can’t take any risks. You know that the two boys have reached the first sanctuary, and our sovereign is off elsewhere."

"You have a point," the big pig said, "But we have only twenty. What chance have we against them?"

"We take ‘em by surprise," the small pig squeaked, "And we know whole layout. We deactivate Starman control, and they stand no chance!"

The big pig sniffed, "This place reeks of human! I hate humans."

The fat man grunted indignantly, rather pig-like, "Plug your nose! If you’re going to work here, you better just get used to us."

"I used to your smell, but this smell new…and close."

"Sir, we haven’t time! Who knows what they be doing now?" the little pig squeaked. Mera wiped her brow in relief.

"I say we attack tonight at 22:14 hours. We take rowboats, they easily be replaced," he trailed off, grunting to the little pig. The two left the room. He rose to follow, but only before he sniffed the air one last time and shook his head. Mera turned to Krause, who was hiding behind the foghorn.

"They’re leaving at…nine fourteen tonight in rowboats to attack something, because rowboats are easily replaceable."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh what do you want me to do, go and ask them?" she said. Krause slowly got to his feet and looked around.

"We better get out of here before they find out you heard what they were saying…" Krause said. Mera, for seemingly the first time, nodded in agreement. They quietly slid back down one of the ropes tying the boat to the dock and boarded the little square boat that they came in. Mera fired up the engine and pulled away from the dock probably as fast as that little thing could go. She didn’t stop until the last house was behind them and they were back in the strange, dark forest in the water. She pulled up to the roots of a massive cottonwood and stopped.

"See up there?" she said, pointing up towards the branches. Krause looked up and saw the dim shape of a large box nestled in the lower branches.

"It’s a box, right?"

"No, it’s a clubhouse, weirdo! When I was maybe nine I hung out here with the rest of the kids in town. I had so much fun back then…Follow me!"

Krause summoned up all of his courage and followed her up the rotting ladder made of boards, the whole time thinking he was going to fall to the murky waters below. Miraculously, he made it to the top and into the clubhouse unharmed. Inside, it was surprisingly well-kept for an abandoned clubhouse, with boxes neatly stacked around and a few chairs around a card table. Mera lifted up one of the floorboards and pulled out, much to Krause’s surprise, two long steel knives. These knives were definitely not made for any non-Japanese kitchen! The slightly curved blades were maybe ten inches long, and with the well-carved hilt, they measured maybe sixteen inches. She grinned, tossed them in that air, and gracefully caught them with the opposite hand before tucking them away into her sleeves.

"Where did you get those?" Krause asked.

"I bought them off a trader about two years ago. I’ve been practicing here since then, and I’m not that bad either. I’m taking ‘em along in case it gets dicey. Now don’t stand there with your mouth open! Let’s start planning."

The evening was muggy, and the mosquitoes were even more relentless and numerous than the daytime. Krause squashed one on his arm and looked around the corner of the tall stilts again. He tried not looking at Mera now that her eyes were glowing in the dark, exactly like those of a cat. Some traffic could still be heard above them, but the boats were safely tied up at the little docks. The big neon clock above the Buckwud Bar and Pub read 9:14, and the pigs should be coming around the corner in their big flat boat. Sure enough, the procession of wooden rowboats appeared from around the corner. Mera started the engine and slowly followed. The boats circled around the decaying outskirts of the town and began moving towards the southwest. Mera looked ahead with her cat eyes. Krause thought she must be able to see in the dark, the way she guided the boat around the trees and occasional boulder towering high above the still water. He lost track of how long they pursued the pigs’ boats, but after many mosquito bites Mera stopped the engine.

"I can’t see in the dark," he whispered, "Where are we?"

Her glowing eyes were still fixed straight ahead, "Unless I’m hallucinating, those pigs are heading right into the Quagmire."

"What? They’ve been here for two weeks. Didn’t somebody tell them about it?"

"I’m moving this boat in closer. I have a strange feeling about all this…"

She fired up the boat, this time much faster. She guided it through the dark until Krause saw the big clearing that he had been rescued from earlier that day illuminated by the half moon. He gasped. The nineteen rowboats were in the middle of the Quagmire, at least two slimy brown, dripping tentacles latched on to each. The pigs didn’t seemed fazed at all, at least not from this distance. In fact, they seemed to be hastily donning SCUBA tanks and masks over their armor. The boats went under, and the pigs dove right in!

"Krause…this is getting very weird…" Mera whispered. Before Krause could even nod, the water broke in front of the with a tremendous splash and a huge, slimy and smelly brown tentacle flew out of the water and grabbed their little boat. Mera and Krause screamed, and took a huge breath as their boat buckled, collapsed, and pulled them under with amazing pressure. Krause was being sucked downwards. He felt his hand gripping Mera’s wrist, but he soon lost perception of up and down. His lungs were screaming for air when all of a sudden bubbles were blasting from every direction. The vague sound of some heavy latch opening was heard and he felt himself falling down, then hitting something hard. He gasped for air as he raised his head and looked around with half-glazed eyes. The place he was in was very strange. A small concrete cylinder was all around him, covered in what looked like meters and gauges. The floor looked to be made of some kind of thin white padding. Pulling himself to his feet, he realized that Mera was sprawled face down just a few feet away from him.

"Mera?" he asked, running over to her side, "Are you awake?"

"Fine…" she groaned breathlessly, "‘Cept maybe I burst my lungs open trying to hold my breath."

"What is this place?" Krause wonder aloud as he helped her to her feet.

"I think we’ve just survived a trip to the bottom of the Quagmire."

Suddenly, the sounds of people shouting and pigs grunting were heard from somewhere below them.
"I think we’ve also found the secret base!" Krause said, wiping some brown slime off his shoes. There was a hydraulic blast and suddenly they felt the floor beneath them lowering slowly. They found themselves above what looked like a large, very high-tech laboratory, with large monitors displaying various numbers and graphs on the round walls, scientists in white coats and other odd gadgets that neither of them had never seen before. They were slowly descending in a glass tube to what looked like some kind of glass dome. Normally, the scientists would be making preparations for the intruders, but twenty pigs with swords and spears were attacking. Krause looked as tall silver Starmen warped into the fray, blasting lasers at the swine.

"What’s going on?" Mera shouted to Krause over the noise.

"What does it look like? Pigs are fighting robots! C’mon! We’ve gotta do something!"

Their platform floated into the glass dome and the floor. Krause hit the glass with Ricky’s bat as hard as he could and jumped through the hole he made, with Mera close behind. The battle was heading away from them now, but Krause dodged a stray laser beam that fried a nearby computer and sent a hapless scientist flying from his hiding spot.

"No! Don’t hurt me!" he pleaded in a nasal accent, crawling up against the wall. His left leg appeared to be at a wrong angle.

"What the heck is going on?" Mera said, "And is this where a boy named Ricky Lee is?"

The scientist nodded wearily, "Yes, and these pigs want him. I tried reasoning, but-"

"Where is he!?" Krause said, his baseball bat ready in front of him. The scientist gulped.

"Are you…Krause?"

"Yeah I’m Krause!" he said angrily, "Where are you keeping my brother! Answer me or I’ll have to get out the salt and vinegar!"

The scientist’s eyes went even wider with horror, "Please! No! …We haven’t hurt him at all! In cell 6-09, out that big door, five levels down…"

Another stray laser beam blasted a hole a few inches above the scientist’s head, and he fell over in a faint.

"What were you gonna do with the salt and vinegar?" Mera asked.

"I don’t know. People usually think of the worst case scenario when they’re helpless and somebody threatens them with salt and vinegar."

They knew what had to be done. Quickly, they made their way to the door where the pigs and Starmen were fighting, ducking behind the rows of computers, stumbling into the occasional wimpy scientist who ran screaming at the sight of two armed kids. They finally made it to the last row of computers before a twenty-foot mad dash to the big set of doors where the Starmen and pigs were fighting.

"Okay, Krause!" Mera shouted over the din, "I’m gonna open that door! If I have any luck, they won’t even know I’m there!"

"Wait! No!" Krause said, but Mera was dashing out into the open, knives drawn and jumping over fallen pigs and Starmen. She slashed a big pig, which fell to the ground squealing in agony before she hit the button and opened up the doors. Krause barely heard her telling him to hurry up. He took a deep breath, looked both ways and made a break for it. Mera grabbed his arm and pulled him through the door as she shut it from the other side. They fell to the floor, panting. They were in a short white hallway lined with three doors on each side, labeled with things like HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL STORAGE and EXPERIMENT DATA ARCHIVE. From the sound of it, the battle was raging as hard as ever on the other side of the door. Krause and Mera got to their feet and ran to the door at the end, which said LIFT. They were greeted by annoying elevator music.

"Which floor would you like to go to?" a friendly lady’s voice said, "You are currently on Main Lab Level."

Over the tinny music, it seemed the battle had breached the big door. Squealing, slashing and laserfire were much more audible.

"Listen, lady! Take us to the Cell block on Level 6! And fast, dang you!" Krause yelled.

Both of their stomachs lurched as the elevator began dropping very quickly, in a matter of seconds, the friendly voice informed them that they were at Level 6, and their stomachs lurched back as the elevator stopped suddenly. The doors opened and they rushed out, running past each metal door until they reached 6-09. Krause reached for the handle, but a man’s voice from behind stopped him.

"What are you doing?"

They spun around and saw a very buff man wearing a flak jacket with a helmet and holding what looked like a long stick with a glowing blue orb at the end.

"I’m saving my brother!"

The guard growled and lunged forward, wielding his stick. Mera and Krause jumped in, Krause knocking him in the face with the bat and Mera ripping his armor with her knives. He staggered and fell as Krause punched him in the stomach. Mera grabbed the card key from his belt and slid it through the handle. The door released a cloud of strange-smelling vapors and slid open. Much to their astonishment, Ricky stood frozen in place, eyes shut, in a tiny closet-like cell.

"Ricky!" Krause said, "It’s me, Krause! Ricky! Wake up!"

He poked him in the chest, and he only swayed a bit.

"Oh no…is he…?" Krause gasped.

"No," Mera said, "He just looks stunned. But we need to get him out of here fast!"

Krause grabbed his brother’s unconscious body, heaved it over his shoulders, and they began making tracks back to the elevator. But too late! The door opened with a friendly ding and out came half a dozen unfriendly armored hogs, their armor dented with laser blasts and bleeding. The lead pig grunted loudly and led the charge.

"Let’s get out of here!" Mera said, sprinting off down the long hallway. Krause followed as fast as he could, panting and puffing.

"Wait! Come back…"

The pigs were gaining on him, twenty, now fifteen feet! He dropped his unconscious brother to the floor and drew his bat. Mera appeared right behind him, swinging her knives. Krause blocked a strong blow from the leader’s sword as Mera hissed disturbingly similar cat and swung her knives at a smaller pig, sending him squealing to the ground. Krause dashed in for an attack, but a rude bash to the head sent him swinging wildly into the little band of pigs. He came back to his senses, with a skull-splitting headache, and realized he blindly felled three pigs. The big pig was gloating over him. The hideous swine raised his sword for a huge blow when he gave a terrible squeal and fell to the floor with a clank and a thud. Mera was standing behind him, a knife stereotypically in her hand. A bleeding cut stretched across her cheek, but other than that, she looked fine.

"Thanks…" was all he could say. Being bashed in the head with a sword hilt hurt more than he thought it would!

"Woah…we just killed six pigs. Are you okay? It looks like your head’s bleeding or something."

"I hurt like crap…" he moaned.

Before they could say anything else, the elevator door opened again, and out rushed four scientists in white coats, led by a tall man with a red beard, coke bottle glasses, and a sleek pistol in his outstretched hand. He looked at hall, then at the pigs, then at Mera and Krause.

"What in the name of Isaac Newton happened here?" he asked, panting slightly and never lowering the gun. Krause stumbled to the ground with a groan.

"I don’t think I’m the right person to tell you," Mera said, trying her best to keep her voice somewhat clam despite the gun pointed at her head, "But these two boys are fighting against the Pig King. We followed the pigs here, and we found Ricky. Ricky’s the one who will defeat the Pig King…at least that’s what Krause said."

The scientist in the lead lowered his pistol a bit, "You two killed all these pigs?"

Mera nodded, then slipped the knives back into her coat-sleeves, "We did, and I want to know why you captured Ricky and kept him here, and why these pigs know about you!"

The scientist frowned, "I see you’ve broken him out. I shouldn’t have trusted that guard with the card…Heh…that rhymed…But you’re not getting any answers. You two will rejoin Ricky in suspended animation! At them!"

The four scientists drew the long sticks with blue orbs at the end and ran towards Mera. She drew her knives swiftly and began brandishing them fancily, grinning as she began to juggle them, then finally fell into an impressive fighter’s pose with the scientists backing away, impressed but obviously frightened.

"What are you doing standing there? Stun her!"

The scientists hesitated, "It looks like she’s about to mince us…"

"You yellow cowards!" the man snarled, waving his arms in the air, "Get her, now! Or you’re fired! I can’t believe it! My own men, afraid of a girl!"

Mera broke out in a laugh and the man’s face grew furious, "DON’T INSULT US! I’M GONNA TAKE YOU APART, YOU CAT-EYED BRAT!"

Mera hurled her knife, which glanced harmlessly off his shoulder. He realized that he was hit and fell sighing to the floor in a faint. The four scientists gasped.

"Now nobody’s touching Ricky if I can help it," she said coolly, trying not to laugh, "And now explain to me who you guys are, how the pigs know who you are and why you captured Ricky. Get Krause some medical attention while you’re at it! Don’t just stand there with your mouths open!"