Out of This World (11 page)

The Grull took a few steps forward . . . and just as he did so the portal appeared, right on schedule, exactly where he had just been.

Noooo,
thought Zachary miserably. They had been so close.

The Grull continued walking, still holding them like dolls in front of its face. It was leaving the portal behind.

“No!” screamed Zachary. “Stop!”

The Grull laughed and continued walking. “Save your pathetic pleas for mercy, they won’t do you any good.”

Zachary began to panic as they continued to move farther from the portal.

He had to think of something!
And fast
.

But
what
? The Grull was pure cruelty, pure evil, and they couldn’t possibly escape its iron grasp. And they had nothing to bargain with. The only way they were going through the portal was if the Grull put them there itself.

Yeah, like that’s going to happen
, thought Zachary in frustration and despair.

Wait a minute!
He thought excitedly.
Maybe that isn’t such a crazy idea after all
.

Zachary screamed. He screamed louder and longer than he ever had in his life. He recoiled backwards against the Grull's hand as if he had seen the most terrifying thing in the universe.

The Grull stopped, wondering what was going on.

Zachary turned pale and cowered. He began to whimper as if nearly insane with fear, looking and pointing over the Grull's shoulder.

As the Grull turned to look, Zachary shot a quick look at his sister.
Play along
, he mouthed.

To her credit, Jenna did so without stopping first to wonder why. She began screaming uncontrollably and pointing past the Grull, acting as insanely horrified as her brother.

The Grull studied the forest behind it in confusion. It was empty of animals, since every last creature had long since fled from the vicinity of the world’s top predator. So what were they pointing at that scared them so much? And what could possibly scare anyone more than being the prisoner of a Grull, anyway? The Grull was considering these questions when it saw a strange-looking shimmering circle on the ground.

“What is
that?
” it demanded.

Zachary continued his whimpering. “N-n-n-nothing,” he stuttered.

The Grull scratched its head with its free claw, with the only one of its four arms not carrying a human or a carcass. “You're terrified—of that?” it said in disbelief.

“No. N-not at all,” said Zachary, cringing in fear. “Come on. Weren't you going somewhere to torture us? W-w-what are we waiting for?”

“You're lying to me. You
are
terrified of that thing.”

“No we're not,” insisted Jenna weakly as she shuddered uncontrollably, displaying acting skills of her own.

“Okay,” spat the Grull. “You're not. Then I guess in that case you won't mind if I drop you in that thing?”

“
No!
” screamed Zachary in horror. “
Please!
Do whatever you want. Torture us.
Eat
us. We lied about being poisonous. But you can't be
completely
evil. If you have any mercy at all, don't drop us in that thing.”

The Grull was intrigued. “What would happen if I did?”

Zachary's face turned pure white. “It . . . it . . . it . . . h-holds you,” he stuttered. “For five or ten minutes. I don't know what it does but it’s the most agonizing thing in the universe. I was in it only once. I lost my voice from screaming and I f-f-finally passed out from the pain.”

“Really,” said the Grull in delight. “That sounds like fun.”

“
No!
You can't be
that
cruel.”

The Grull laughed. “You really don't know anything about the Grull, do you?”

The towering, armored monster walked to the edge of the portal and extended his human captives over its center. They both closed their eyes and screamed insanely for all they were worth.
           

Come on
,
come on
,
come on
, thought Zachary with all of his might as he continued screaming.
Come on
!
Drop us in.
DO IT!

The Grull took extreme pleasure in their screams and struggles. “Enjoy yourselves,” it said happily. “And if you can't, maybe it will make you feel better to know that when you've passed out from the pain, I'll be here to greet you when you wake up.”

Wearing a cruel expression on its face and with a maniacal gleam in its eye, the Grull dropped them in the center of the portal.

They felt a minor disorientation and then, once again, they were on firm ground. A world away from the Grull.

They had done it again. They had found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. If only they could have seen the stupefied look on the Grull’s hideous face as they vanished from its world.

Elated, they opened their eyes to see what world they would find themselves on this time.

And what they saw made them almost wish they were back with the Grull.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Trespass

Jenna saw it first and shrieked again. Zachary opened his mouth to scream but was so paralyzed by fear that no sound would come out.

It was a giant wasp.

It was about the length of a long car, and it stood on six thin legs watching them through huge compound eyes that bulged out from its face like two black mesh domes. Its red, sweptback body tapered in at the middle and then flared out again toward the back. Its thin wings were pitch black, matching its eyes and the two antennae protruding from its head. Its sleek body made it clear to all observers that this was a creature built for only one purpose: killing.

And it was twenty feet away.

Jenna’s knees became weak and she barely managed to remain standing. In escaping the Grull they had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

The wasp’s head darted around and surveyed the area behind itself. “What?” it said in obvious alarm. “What's back there?”

The wasp could talk?
Apparently so. In fact, its voice, at least as it was interpreted by the language transformer, was soft and feminine.

It continued to look behind it and backtracked a few steps toward the dumbstruck humans. “I don't see anything. What is it that you're so afraid of?” it asked in confusion.

Zachary tried to speak, but nothing came out. He finally found his voice, but it was thin and high pitched. “You can talk?”

The wasp pivoted its head to face Zachary. “Of course I can talk. Is the danger gone?” it asked worriedly.

“Uhhh . . . yeah,” answered Zachary thinly. “False alarm.”

The wasp turned its head one last time, just to be sure. It turned back again to face the two humans. “Well that’s a relief,” it said. “Can you two tell me where I am?”

Jenna exchanged a puzzled look with her brother. “You don't know?” she squeaked, regaining her voice also.

The wasp frowned. “I wouldn't ask you if I knew,” it pointed out. “As you can probably tell from my appearance, I'm not from here. I know it's hard to believe, but I think I might be from an entirely different
world
even.”

“It’s easier to believe than you’d think,” said Zachary. “We're not from this world either.”

“How remarkable,” said the wasp.

“How did
you
get here?” asked Zachary.

“It was the strangest thing. I was with my husband and seven children in my home when the air started shimmering strangely. The next thing I knew I was standing here. About one minute later you two appeared from nowhere and started screaming.” The wasp paused. “Frankly, my nerves are shot,” she continued, her voice breaking as though she was about to cry. “And I'm so worried about my babies. I hope they're okay.” She visibly struggled to bring her emotions under control. “How did you two get here?”

“Our parents disappeared the same way you did,” answered Zachary. “And we're looking for them.”

“Oh that's terrible. You two are children. You poor things,” she said sweetly. “And here I was feeling sorry for myself.”

“You didn't know we were kids?” said Jenna.

“Heavens no. I've never seen your kind before, or anything even close.”

The wasp began to walk forward to continue the conversation.

Despite knowing that she was intelligent and seemed kind and gentle, the two humans couldn't help but back away nervously at the same pace at which the wasp advanced.

“Are you okay?” she asked gently.

“We’re okay,” replied Zachary thinly. “But I'm going to be honest with you. You may have never seen anything that looks like us before, but where we're from, we have creatures that look like you.”

“Yeah,” chimed in Jenna. “Only they're not intelligent, and they're thousands of times smaller.”

“Really?” said the wasp with genuine interest.

Jenna nodded. “Really. We call them
wasps
. And the thing is . . . well, the thing is that even though they’re tiny compared to us, most humans are terrified of them.”

Jenna could handle spiders, for the most part, but once the Lane family had returned home to find a wasp flying around the family room and she had set speed records fleeing the house while her dad tried to kill it. Even her dad, who was usually very brave about spiders and snakes and things, had looked extremely nervous when he had trapped himself inside the house with the wasp holding nothing but a rolled-up magazine for a weapon.

“Terrified?” said the wasp in disbelief. “Why? What are wasps like on your world?”

Zachary shuddered. He knew more about wasps than he wanted to. A few months earlier he had been watching a movie in which alien creatures incubated their young inside living humans. After growing, the alien offspring would exit their human hosts by
bursting through their chests
. His dad had told him these aliens were patterned after wasps. Zachary couldn’t believe that anything this grisly was actually happening on Earth, so he researched it further on the Internet. Unbelievably, his dad had been right. There were wasp species that paralyzed insects and then injected them with eggs. Once hatched, the baby wasps, called larva, would devour the still-living insect—
from the inside
. Then they would cut a hole in their dead host and fly out. Just the thought of this made Zachary’s skin crawl.

“What are wasps like on Earth?” he repeated, deciding to keep his answer short and skip the gruesome behavior that had just come to mind. “Well,” he said simply, “they’re very aggressive. And they can fly. But the scary part is that they have stingers with poison in them— and they’re not afraid to use them.”

The wasp nodded. “I see. Now I understand why you’d be uncomfortable around me. But I can assure you I would never hurt anyone. Many millions of years ago we were similar to the creatures you describe, but our stingers no longer contain any venom nor would we ever use them. And even though we have wings, our kind have grown far too big to fly. We’ve become a very peaceful species. Please, children, don’t be afraid of me,” she pleaded. “I’m scared myself. I just want to get back to my family.”

They both knew that this being was intelligent and friendly. But the sight of her continued to make them want to run for their lives, regardless of what their brains tried to tell them.

“We know you won’t hurt us,” said Jenna for them both. “And we’re trying to fight it. But I’m afraid this instinctive fear at the sight of you is pretty strong.”

The wasp sighed. “I’m so sorry. We have creatures on our world that we are instinctively afraid of, so I understand. I'll leave now so you can avoid any further discomfort. I hope you find your parents,” she finished sincerely. She began walking away sadly.

Even when the wasp was moving away from them its movement sent shivers down their spines. Human instincts developed over many thousands of years screamed at them to let the wasp leave. But as she got farther and farther away, their rationality and sense of fairness became stronger than their fear. They had a hurried discussion and quickly reached a decision.

“Don't go,” they said in unison. They would just have to suffer until they could get their nerves under control. This poor being seemed like a wonderful . . . person. It wasn't her fault that she looked like a colossal wasp. And it wasn't her problem.

It was
their
problem. And they would have to find a way to overcome it.

The wasp turned to face them.

“We're all in the same boat,” explained Zachary. “I think we should explore this world together.”

The wasp smiled. “Oh, I couldn't agree more,” she said happily. “But are you sure you can overcome your discomfort?”

“Positive,” said Zachary with far more certainty than he felt.

“Great,” she said, walking up to them.

They forced themselves not to retreat, but it took all the willpower they had.

“My name is Lisgar. I'm a Swishmer.”

Jenna and Zachary introduced themselves and the trio began exploring their surroundings.

The world they were on was overcast and misty, and it was obvious that it got plenty of rain on a regular basis. Water was everywhere. Not an ocean, or even a large river, but lakes, ponds, streams, and brooks.

There was no obvious direction to take, so the group chose one at random. The two humans described everything that had happened to them since their parents had disappeared. Throughout the discussion Lisgar was wonderful; always interested and supportive. She always seemed to know the right thing to say and everything about her was gentle and protective—the exact opposite of her fierce and threatening appearance. It wasn’t long before they realized her appearance no longer made them uncomfortable.

Lisgar was a member of the only intelligent species on her world. They were vegetarians, and unlike wasps on Earth, their antennae ended in six, finger-like tendrils that were able to hold and grasp objects as easily as could a human hand. Lisgar spoke lovingly about her world and the family that she had left behind, often becoming emotional when she spoke of her children.