The Outskirts: The Sky Raiders (Jace x OC) BOOK 1

The Sky Raiders: 44

Chocolate chip cookies the size of hula hoops floating in a pond of milk gave me my first warning that something was out of the ordinary. I squinted out the window in the morning light. Bushes and small trees grew intermittently on the muddy bank beside the pond. Rocks and sticks littered the shore. Everything looked like a normal woodland pond except for the creamy white liquid and the huge, unmistakable chocolate chip cookies doubling as giant lily pads.
Mira had woken Twitch, who had slept on the floor, and I had woken Cole, who slept on the sitting opposite seat.
Mango had visited before sunrise to confirm that the legionnaires were veering north and south of them-not into Brady's Wilderness.
"Guys," I said. "Check this out."
"What is it?" Mira said.
Jace leaned forward, still looking adorably sleepy, to look out my window, then promptly snapped more awake. "Are those cookies?"
"And milk," Mira said.
Twitch sat up, stretching. Still on the floor, he was too low to see outside. "Everything all right?"
"Yep," Cole said. "Just a cookies-and-milk pond."
"I want one," Jace said. "Stop the coach."
"Yesssssss," I said. "Count me in!" Jace gave me a high-five.
"We have food," Mira said.
"Dried meat and biscuits," Jace said. "No cookies."
"They're probably stale," Cole said. "The milk has to be spoiled."
"Come on, Cole." I whined.
"It doesn't smell spoiled," Jace said. "This is shaping. The normal rules don't always apply."
"Could be a trap," Mira said.
"I'm just the guy to spring it," Jace said. "Remember that castle with the candy garden? Best day of my life."
"We're being chased," Mira said.
"We haven't stopped all night," Jace replied. "The bird told us we're ahead of them. It's time for breakfast."
"I don't know guys." Cole said. "It's to sketchy."
"Please, Cole!" I said giving him my best puppy dog eyes.
"Woah." Jace said. "Remind me to never argue with you."
Cole looked over to Mira, defeated. I smirked. It always worked.
"Okay fine." Mira said. "Stop."
The autocoach immediately responded.
"You'll be careful?" She asked.
"I'll dive blindfolded from the highest tree I can find." Jace said. He opened the door and hopped down, golden rope in hand. I followed him out with my sword.
"You coming, Cole?" Jace asked.
Cole fumbled for his sword. "Sure."
Mira placed a hand on his arm. "You don't have to go?"
"Giant cookies," Cole said by way of explanation as he jumped out of the carriage.
"Come on," I said, running toward the pond.
At the edge of the milky pond, I crouched and cupped milk into one hand. "It's cold." I brought my hand to my lips. "Mmmm. This is really good."
I shook the milk from my fingers. Jace stood and cast his rope out to the nearest cookie. The golden rope wrapped around the target multiple times. With a flick of his wrist, the rope yanked the oversized cookie out of the milk, but it broke apart, soggy remnants splashing down.
"Not very solid," Jace said.
He ensnared another cookie, then hauled it in slowly, bringing it to where me and Cole stood. "Help me get it out."
Working together, me, Jace and Cole managed to lift it out of the milk, my hands sinking into the underside until reaching a more solid portion. I had milk dripping down my arms and all over my dress.
With our prize between us, we shuffled back to the autocoach. Mira got out as they drew near.
"You're not bringing that in here," she said.
"Why not?" Jace asked.
"It's a gooey, drippy mess," Mira said. "We'll eat some out here."
"Yes ma'am." Jace muttered.
"Break off pieces," Cole suggested.
Using two hands, Mira snapped off part of one of the edges. The chunk was too big to take a normal bite, but she gnawed at it. "Wow, this is good."
Twitch got out as well and snapped off a piece. His eyes lit up when he tried a bite.
"Get some for us," Jace said. "We're too busy holding it."
Mira set her piece aside and broke off three more.
"Should we chuck it?" Jace asked.
"You want any, Bertram?" Cole invited.
"No time to bother," the old man replied. "I'm just here on holiday with my grandniece and grandnephews."
Swinging our arms, we heaved the cookie sideways, and it whumped down, flattening a circle of tall grass. They accepted their hunks from Mira. "We should go." She said.
"I'm changing first." I said gesturing to my milk soaked clothes. Everyone got out of the coach so I could change back into my leggings and blue jacket that Asia had packed for me.
"Much better." I said, strapping my sword to my waist.
"Let's get going." Mira said.
"They won't follow us in here," Jace said. "Nobody wants to do battle with milk and cookies."
They all climbed back into the coach. The cookie tasted freshly baked, with a hint of warmth as if  it had barely cooled. The soggy parts were extra good. I only had one chocolate chip in my picce, but it was bigger than my fist.
We chomped on our cookies as the coach rolled along. Eventually, I got full. "Anybody want the rest of mine?"
"I'm done," Jace said. "They're too messy to store." He tossed it out the window.
"Leaving a trail of cookie crumbs?" Twitch asked.
"They won't know we did it," Jace said.
The rest of us chucked our pieces as well.
I watched out the window, looking for another cookie pond or anything else out of the ordinary. I didn't have to wait long. The next clearing they passed was full of upright dominoes, each bigger than a mattress, white with black markings. Hundreds of them formed a winding path, ready to fall if the first toppled.
"That is so tempting," Cole said. "I love knocking over dominoes."
"We can't stop for everything," Mira said. "One of these times it will be a trap."
"I can't believe somebody didn't tip them over a long time ago," Cole marveled.
"Maybe somebody did," Mira said. "They might stand back up on their own. Don't forget, these were shaped. Who knows what they can do?"
"Use the bow," Jace said. "Target practice."
"Right," Cole replied, excited. Jace had returned the bow the storage compartment last night. Lifting the hatch, he retrieved it and handed it over.
Once the domino was in full view, Cole released the arrow. The domino rocked backward and fell into the next, creating a clattering chain reaction. The dominoes fell fluidly, the motion snaking around the field until the last slapped down flat.
Everything seemed very quiet after the noise of the dominoes had stopped—until we heard some distant roars, long and low and savage. They all looked at one another.
"Maybe not the best idea to announce our presence," Twitch said.
"The baddies will figure out we're here either way," Jace said.
"We wouldn't want to try to sneak by them or anything," Mira said.
"Sorry," Cole said. "I wasn't thinking."
"If we have to blame somebody," I said, "the guy who shot the arrow is first in line."
"I don't want to place blame," Mira said. "I just want to live. I vote we stay in the coach from now on."
"I'll second that," Twitch spoke up.
"Thirded," Cole said.
"I'm going to keep my options open," Jace said. And I nodded, in agreement.
"Majority rules," Mira informed us.
We looked at each other, before holding up our wrists. "Doesn't rule us. We're free." Jace said.
Mira rolled her eyes. "I'm technically a princess. I could declare this a monarchy."
"You're even more technically a fugitive," Jace pointed out. "No offense."
"Whoa," Cole said.
As they curved around the next bend, a cupcake the size of a hill came into view—vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. Everyone crammed to his side of the coach to have a good look.
"Rethinking your policies?" I asked.
"I'm still full from the cookie," Mira said. "Besides, how do you even get started on something that big?"
"We'll need mining equipment," Cole said.
"Check out my side," Twitch said.
Everyone went to the other side of the coach to stare at a lemon meringue pie as big as a circus tent. In front of the epic pie, s'mores the size of card tables were scattered among the wildflowers, oozing marshmallow from all sides.
"Journey over," Jace said. "We've found our new home."
"Do you see anybody else here?" Mira asked.
"Their loss," Jace said.
"Free food everywhere," Twitch said, "and not a person in sight. What does that tell you?"
"More for us?" I asked, earning a high-five from Jace.
"Very funny," Mira said.
"We get it," Jace said. "It's too good to be true. There must be a catch. It's just fun to joke around."
"It might not even be a deliberate trap," Mira said. "But the boy who made this place disappeared. Something went wrong here. People avoid it for a reason."
They heard a faint banging up ahead. As the coach advanced, the sound grew louder.
"Are we about to learn the reason?" Cole asked.
"We should get ready," Jace said, suddenly serious.
Cole put on his shawl and held his bow. Jace pulled out his rope, I kept a hand on my sword The volume of the pounding increased.
After passing through an orchard of gummy fruit and jelly beans, they found the source of the booming an enormous red-and-black checkerboard with a rapid game in progress. Each checker was as wide as the street I lived on, and either slid or jumped to a new square when moved. The checkers moved on their own, and no side ever paused.
Jumped checkers waited in stacks beside the board. As they watched, kings were made on both sides, and black soon won. Immediately the checkers returned to their starting positions, and a new game began.
"Those would squish you flat," Twitch said.
"No kidding." I said, bewildered.
"Not if you stay away from the board," Jace said.
Out the window on his side, I saw a ten-story Ferris wheel turning briskly, all the cars empty. At one side of it, across a small stream, a herd of vacant bumper cars jostled with one another on a broad black surface. Beyond the two attractions, off in the trees, I glimpsed the top of a roller coaster.
"Kendal, look over here," Cole said. "This place is awesome."
"What are those?" Jace asked.
"A Ferris wheel and bumper cars," I said, joining them. "Rides from our world. This kid had to have come from Earth."
The autocoach trotted along, the pace never changing. I continued to watch out the window. As bizarre as some of the sights were, the surrounding environment made them weirder. A hot-fudge waterfall crept down an otherwise normal rocky slope. Hamburgers the size of cars populated a brushy field beside thornbushes and boulders. A group of plastic action figures the size of real people posed within a grove of birch trees.
In many ways, Brady's Wilderness felt like a crazy dream come true. So much of it was silly and impossible. If they weren't being chased by legionnaires, if they weren't trying to find Mira's lost powers, and if this place had a safer reputation, they could have so much fun here.
I wondered if our lost friends were seeing sights like this. In Junction City, was Dalton encountering the equivalent of giant pies and fudge waterfalls? Was Jenna using something like a Jumping Sword or Jace's rope? I hoped they were experiencing at least some good things to help make up for their new lives as slaves in a foreign world.
"More cookies and milk," Mira said, peering out her window. "Whoever Brady was, the kid liked to eat."
"Look at the different kinds," Jace said.
I saw a creamy pond crowded with what were either oatmeal or maybe peanut butter cookies. Another contained chocolate cookies with white chips. A third featured huge pale cookies with cinnamon on top—probably snickerdoodles.
"Anybody want to go fishing again?" Jace asked. "We might kick ourselves tomorrow when all we have to eat is dried meat and biscuits."
"I don't trust this place," Mira said. "Let's keep survival the priority."
"Why just survive when you can feast?" Jace pressed.
"I'm still stuffed," Cole said. "They look good, but I doubt I could eat much."
In the distance, they heard the rich call of a horn blowing, long and low, the note rising a little at the end.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Legionnaires?" Twitch guessed.
"Mango would have warned us," Mira said.
"What if they got her?" Twitch suggested.
Another horn answered, closer this time. Two more sounded from different directions. Then a brassier instrument let out a blast.
"Was that a trumpet?" Cole asked.
"Look!" Twitch shouted, pointing.
I followed his finger to the milk pool with the snickerdoodles. Something was rising out of the milk near the edge of the pond, as if walking ashore from the depths.
A dripping skull emerged, followed by shoulder bones, then the rib cage and the arm bones. The skeleton held a rusty shield in one hand and a corroded sword in the other.
The pelvis rose above the surface of the milk, followed by the femurs. Very little tissue clung to the bones mainly Just some rotten tendons and ligaments at the joints. After leaving the pond, the skeleton jogged toward them, bones shiny with milk residue.
"What is that?" Cole said, his voice pitched higher than normal. In any other situation I would have teased him about it.
"That is why we listen to Mira," I said.
"Look the other way," Mira said.
Several skeletons jostled one another as they exited the woods on the other side of the road. The fastest moved at a trot. A couple walked. One was missing a leg and hopped along using a spear as a crutch. All had weapons—a few swords, a sledgehammer, a crowbar, even a rock.
"Fun's over," Jace said.
Horns and trumpets blared ahead of them, behind them, and from off to the sides. In the distance, I  heard the unmistakable squeal of bagpipes.
"This is an ambush," Twitch said. "They waited for us to get in deep, then sprang the trap."
"Looks that way," Jace said. "At least they're not too fast."
Leaning my head out the window and looking back, I saw the skeletons struggling to keep up with the autocoach.
All but two were slowly falling behind.
From off in the trees to their right, a bellowing roar overpowered the horns and trumpets. The ferocious challenge struck a primal chord.
Mango flew in through the window. "We're in trouble. Skeletons are coming from all sides."
"How many?" Mira asked.
"Hundreds," the bird replied. "Thousands, maybe. Graveyards of them. They're all heading toward you. And there are worse things—savage creatures like nothing I've ever seen. You're going to have to abandon the autocoach. You'll be easy prey in here."
Did I have what I needed? I had my sword.
Anything else? What about food?
Up ahead, the ground rumbled with monstrous foot-steps. Leaning out and peering ahead, I saw a dozen skeletons running toward the front of the autocoach. A few wore mismatched Viking armor. A big skeleton in the front held a longsword in both hands and wore a horned helmet.
But the skeletons weren't responsible for the ground quaking.
Coming up behind the bony warriors lumbered a dull orange Stegosaurus with maroon markings. Although obviously made of plastic, it was roughly the size of a school bus. Jagged plates protruded along its spine, and the tail had four spikes. The stegosaurus roared, showing razor teeth.
Weren't they herbivores? Apparently, not this one.
The enormous plastic dinosaur charged toward the auto-coach, bowling over the Viking skeletons like bowling pins and crunching bones underfoot. Undistracted, the galloping beast maintained a head-on collision course with the trotting brick.
A mightier roar drowned out everything for a moment.
I looked up to see a Tyrannosaurus rex bounding toward them down a long slope, coming from the side, its plastic reptilian mouth a thicket of cruel teeth.
Me, Mira, Jace, and Twitch had already abandoned the autocoach, but Cole froze.
"Hey! Brainless!" I yelled at Cole. "Out! Now!" I dragged him to the door across from the T-Rex and yanked him out.