I groaned as I woke up on the ground covered on debris from the storm. I looked around me to see the tallest trees I think I'd ever seen. Something about this place felt familiar, and yet not all at the same time.

"DG," I groaned as I got up.

"Mom! Dad!" I heard DG call out. "Rose!"

"DG!" I moved towards her voice and hugged her when I saw her. "Thank god you're ok."

"Where's Mom and Dad? Where are we?" she rapid fired her questions.

"I don't know, but I know we'll find them," I assured her. "Where ever we are, it's not Kansas so we need to move." We started to walk through where the trees seemed parted only to stop and stare at the sky and its dual suns. "I take it back. We're not on Earth anymore." We moved forward before we heard something behind us. We both quickly spun around to see something, but there was nothing but bits of our childhood home on the forest floor. We moved back into the debris field looking around for whatever made the noise when we heard it again. DG bent down to pick up a large stick as a weapon in defense.

"Hello?" she called out.

"Do you really think that's the best option?" I asked her quietly. "Who knows who or what is out there."

"It could be Mom and Dad," she reminded me before calling out again. "Hello!"

"Or it could be a wild animal or some madman with a gun who will kill us," I pointed out. She ignored me and moved closer to where a window was laying and I rolled my eyes before following her. We heard the noise a third time and DG quickly spun with her stick between us and them. 'Them' turned out to be two little people, one painted red and the other blue, with spears pointed at us. One had a shield and they both had brightly colored feathers behind their backs. They also had rope tied around their waists allowing them to be pulled, or pull themselves, into the trees above.

"Oh you have to be kidding me," DG said while two more with yellow and red faces dropped down behind us.

"Do they look like they're kidding?" I asked as I placed my back against hers to make sure we could see all of them as two more dropped from the trees.

"Watchful," one of them said. "Be watchful. I like not the look of them." One of them approached us and DG hit him with her stick.

"Back off, Jack!"

"Look not into their eyes," another warned. "For fear they'll turn you into a scree!"

"Who are you?"

"I'm DG and this is my sister, Rose. Who are you?"

"I am Redhat. We are resistance fighters of the Eastern Guild."

"Don't speak of who we be," one of them warned. "We know not of their trickery."

"Trickery?" DG asked him. "Our parents are missing. We're the victims of some sort of natural disaster-"

"Creatures do not fall from the sky lacking magic," Redhat said.

"Mobats fall from the sky."

"Mobats have wings!"

"Wings or not, they're spies! Spies from the sky!"

"No, we're not spies," DG said backing up while pushing me forward. The men surrounding us made room as we moved to avoid us. "We're not spies."

"I don't think they're listening," I told her seconds before we screamed as a net pushed us into the air, trapping us.

"Get them to the camp."

"I hate this place already," I complained as DG sighed.


"Will Azkadelia attack from the east," Redhat asked us. Once we'd gotten to their camp (more like little treehouses connected by rope bridges), they locked us in a floating cage and started questioning us.

"Who?" DG asked. She was sitting on the cage floor, her legs swinging through the hole in the middle as I stood leaning on the "bars".

"The sorceress Azkadelia," the blue one said as though it would explain anything to us. "The one for whom you spy. From which direction will her men come? Will they walk or will they fly?"

"Ok, how many times do we have to tell you guys that nothing you've said has made any sense to us?" DG asked them.

"Perhaps these are just girls," Redhat said to his blue companion.

"Yes, we are! We are just girls," DG sighed.

"Girls who've lost their home and their parents all in the same night," I added earning me an elbow in the shins.

"Azkadelia has raided most all villages searching for the stone," Redhat told us. "Are we next on her list."

"I don't know about any list, but if this is how you treat strangers I'm not surprised you have enemies." The blue one lifted his hand holding DG's locket and squinted at it. On one side was a picture of our parents and on the other us. "You know, could you please put my locket down?" DG asked him and he looked up at us. "It has sentimental value."

"Our scouts spotted these two being pursued by Long Coats on the old brick route on the way to Central City," Redhat told us.

"Or leading the Long Coats their," the blue one said.

"Somebody saw our parents?" DG asked worriedly.

"You say parents, I say spies."

"You seem to say that about everyone," I said. "Maybe you're the spy and you cover your tracks by blaming everyone else."

"There's only one way to know if they speak truth or lies," he said ignoring me. "Strap them to the flayer, and they talk or dies."

"Warm up the blades."

"Squeal as you peel till the truth brings a deal." He dropped DG's locket to the forest floor.

"Hey! You guys are out of our tiny minds!" She screamed at them as they walked away from us. When they'd moved a small distance away, which didn't take long, DG and I looked at our fellow jail mate. He was tied to the ceiling sitting on one of the bars staring down at us. I offered DG a hand as she stood up staring at him. "What are you doing?"

"Up here? Little ankle bitters thought it would be funny to keep me hanging around," he told us.

"Ankle bitters," I said testing out the insult. "I like it."

"Losen that rope and I might have the last laugh." DG and I looked at the rope before sharing a look. "Come on, doll. If mom and pop really are on the way to Central City then you're falling further and further behind."

"You know the way?" DG asked him hopefully.

"Sure," he said and I glared at him. Something was off.

"Sure you do," I scoffed. "Tell us how to get there if you're not lying."

"It's kind of hard to give directions like this," he said and I gave him a look. "Unless you have a better offer." DG untied the rope and the man swung to the floor of our cage. My eyes widened at the zipper down the middle of his head.

"What the hell?" DG asked staring at it.

"Hey, you aren't on first glance either, hunny," he defended straightening his torn up coat. We just continued to stare at him. "What? Is there a problem?"

"Nope," I said popping the p.

"Um, your, uh," DG whistled and raised her hand to her head to motion his open zipper. He looked behind him confused.

"What?"

"Your, um, your zipper's undone," she whispered.

"Oh! Didn't mean to offend." He zipped his head back up and I shook my head at the strangeness. "Gotta be careful not to lose your marbles," he joked and I raised an eyebrow at him as DG nodded slightly. "But, uh, since the sorceress made her medicoats take mine, welll... you flick the abacus." He removed the ropes from his waist and dropped them to the ground.

"Why would they remove your brain?" DG asked him.

"Because of what I know," he told us.

"What is it?"

"What I used to know," he corrected. "Whatever it was." He stared off into space while we stared at him. Was he for real? "Names Glitch on account of sometimes my synapsis don't fire right. Sometimes my synapsis don't fire right."

"You just said that," DG giggled.

"Did I?" he asked before laughing. "There you go. Glitching again."

"This is going to be fun," I said sarcastically.

"And here I was thinking this nightmare couldn't get any weirder."

"This isn't a nightmare or fun," Glitch told us. "This is the O.Z.. The Outer Zone. Used to be a piece of heaven to, till Azkad got her claws into it."

"Azkadelia," DG said connecting the names. "The sorceress of darkness."

"Yep."

"Village raider. Brain thief."

"Long Coats." We looked to the ground to see a long line of men on horseback in black coats.

"No cars then," I mumbled as the munchkins ran along the rope bridges. DG suddenly bent down confusing both me and Glitch.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"I have an idea."

"I'm not going to like this idea, am I?" I asked her.

"Hello? DG, what are-" DG dropped from the hole while holding onto the bottom of the cage and started swinging. "No, it's too high to jump. I really don't think this is a good idea."

"Do you have another one?" I asked him.

"Come back! Come back right now!" We swung a few times before DG jumped and just barely caught the rope on the bridge. I gasped as she nearly fell to her death before she climbed over the rail and onto the bridge.

"Come on, we don't have much time." I dropped to the hole and copied her actions. My own landing was a little easier since she'd gotten the cage moving first. She helped me over the rail and, once Glitch found his courage, we did the same for him. "Come on!" We ran along the bridges to find a way back down to the forest floor.

"Quick before they see us. Shh."

"Take your own advice," I told Glitch but he kept mumbling to himself.

"Oh, look. There's a rope." DG was the first one down the rope, then me, then Glitch. This made me glad I was still wearing my pants from earlier. We heard the sound of a chainsaw as we ran in the opposite direction.