Voodootown

Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Ju Ju

Ju Ju stepped to the edge of the plywood, craned her neck to the side to get a better look down the street.  Something was moving quickly toward them, but it didn't look like a doll.  Even from a distance, it looked like a doll-sized tire with gray side walls.

Twister was looking down a different street, didn't see the thing coming at them.  Ju Ju stepped forward, grabbed her little voodoo doll with both hands and reached out.

"What is it?" Twister asked.

Ju Ju nodded down the street at the wheel.  "I've got it."

"I can pin whatever it is and be right back, stay by Flow," Twister said.

"No, I mean I've got it.  Already."  Ju Ju shook her hands and the wheel veered left and right.  She straightened it, slowed the wheel as it got closer to them.  As she stopped it, she could finally see it was a doll that was curled up into a wheel.  It's back seemed to be covered with a dirty rubber tread.  "It's Roller.  He did deliveries for Petro."  She gave her doll a twist and Roller collapsed onto the street, shaped like a doll again.  With him splayed out on the pavement, Ju Ju could see that he didn't have one of those slave collars.

Twister stood over him, pin pointed at his chest.  The twisted pin that was already embedded there showed that Roller had volunteered to help Midnight.  "Information.  Now," Twister said.

Roller didn't move, couldn't move, Ju Ju realized.  She relaxed her hold on him.

"Now," Twister said.  "How many has he sent through the portal?"

Roller looked at the portal, then back up to Twister and Ju Ju.  Ju Ju held up her doll once more and Roller nodded.  "Thousands.  About half the town so far."

Ju Ju's heart sank.  If Midnight was able to take over other places, it would be almost impossible to protect Danica.  "Where?  Nearby towns?"

Roller shook his head.  "All over.  He kept asking which of us spoke foreign languages.  He's going all over the world."

Twister looked over at Ju Ju.  It was like looking into a mirror, Twister looked so distraught by the news.  "If he doesn't radiate out slowly, they won't be able to trace it back here," Twister said.

"So no chance of help."  Ju Ju wished she could trust Twister.  They had almost been friends once, but Ju Ju knew she didn't get to have friends.  She couldn't count on anyone.  She glanced back at Flow, who was close enough to have heard what Roller said.  She couldn't trust him either, no matter how nice he seemed.  And the charms that he had made worried Ju Ju.  She worried what Danica might do or think if she found out what Ju Ju had kept from her over the years.

"What do we do with him?" Twister asked.

"Pin him," Ju Ju said.  "Pin him and leave him."

"Take that pin out of his chest," Flow said.  His hand was held out for the pin.  Ju Ju hadn't expected something like that from Flow.  They had all seen what Doctor Midnight did to his last kapo after he had taken its pin out.  But she reached down, yanked at the pin.

"No, please," Roller said.

Ju Ju jerked her arm up and the pin came free.  She walked onto the plywood over to Flow and dropped the twisted pin in his hand.  He pulled a black rectangular box out of his bag.  One side of it had a few dials and a tiny screen.  He pointed the box at the pin, adjusted the dials for a moment then shook his head.  "It's lo-jacked.   Can't take it home to study it."  He tossed the pin into the quicksand.

A sound from down the street made Ju Ju turn away from Flow.  Towering above the nearby buildings, Doctor Midnight walked toward them. 

Roller batted Twister's pin aside, rolled sideways, then reformed into a tire and headed toward Midnight.  The two met at the end of the block, on the other side of Twister's row of hexes.  Ju Ju could still hear Roller's voice.  "I stopped them for you, sir.  I kept them here."

With barely a glance down, Doctor Midnight snapped his fingers over Roller and the ex-kapo burst into flame.  Midnight kicked the flaming doll to the side and looked over at the portal.  "And what are you up to?" he asked.

He raised a hand and Ju Ju heard a muffled rumbling sound below her.  She looked down at the quicksand and saw bubbles pop out of it.  Flow laughed behind her.  "Thought so," he said.

Ju Ju exchanged one look with Twister and grabbed her doll.  She focused on Doctor Midnight, felt him through her doll.  She smiled and Midnight froze in place.

Ju Ju stepped off the plywood onto the street.  "Flow, you are amazing," she said.  "I love this charm."

"Ju Ju, you're vulnerable out there.  Get back on the plywood," Flow said.

"Should we have some fun with him, or go straight to business?" Ju Ju asked.  She raised one of the doll's hands.  It felt so good to see all of this end, she couldn't resist a little revenge.  She would just make him dance a little bit.  She pulled her doll's hand high.

Doctor Midnight's hand didn't rise.  Ju Ju looked down at her doll and tried again.  The human turned to her and shook his head.  "Stupid little thing," he said.  "You thought your power would work on me?"

He raised his hand, but not at Ju Ju's command.  The ground rumbled.

"Ju Ju!" Flow said.

She tried to step back toward Flow, but felt a wall behind her.  She looked at Twister, saw the other doll blur, but a wall went up between them.  Before Ju Ju could move, there were walls all around her, no more than an arm's reach away.  Flow had warned them that Doctor Midnight might have scavenged enough of Brick's skin to take his power.  She knew she should have stayed on the plywood, over the quicksand.  Flow had said Bricks couldn't build any walls without a foundation.  It all made sense, but she hadn't thought of it when she believed she had control of Doctor Midnight.

She crouched, prepared to leap up, but bricks and steel beams crossed over her head.  Through a shrinking hole, she saw Midnight standing over them all.  Then the hole filled in and everything went dark.