A thousand feelings hit me all at once. I was fucking furious, but then I thought of Holly, scared and all alone, and my heart broke. I was sad, but no, fuck sad, I was devastated. But how could we have known another Ravana Storm would hit? It had all turned to shit so fucking fast.


    The shaman pulled up on the hill across from us, and for a second, he was alone. I wasn’t sure how many of his troops had been hit by the storm, but I heard the roar of engines racing up to him. We only had a second.


    He called out to us in a slippery, whispery voice. “Sakata has delivered you unto us, for us to feast on your meat and your intellect. The Sleezenak will have vengeance, for I have heard how you slew Enak. I am Enok, and I will slay the slayer, me, and my brides.” I could understand what he was saying, thanks to Opal, but I knew Billie and Khanna were clueless.


    “That’s not going to happen, Enok, and if you try, you’ll all fucking die. If you don’t want to meet Sakata in person, you’ll leave us the fuck alone.” I knew there was no way I could talk sense into this big iguana dickhead. I thought about leaping over and grabbing the pickax, but we’d been lucky to survive their initial attack. I wasn’t going to press my luck. Not yet.


    Enok big lizard face broke into a smile. “You have a third woman among you. She was taken by the storm. Or perhaps she made it to the other side. Either way, we will find her. We will use her flesh for the glory of Sakata!”


    Suddenly, my whole vision went red. I’m pretty sure I’d never felt that much fury before. Holly was gone, and this lizard fuck was trying to tell me how much he wanted to kill and eat us.


    I roared, "Opal! Spear mode!" I shouted.


    Betsy shifted into a spear, and I hurled it with all of my might. It went from my hilltop to his hilltop and right through Enoch''s heart. Actually, it went through Enoch and out the other side to slamming into the grass.


    My anger got the best of me when I realized what I’d done. "Oh shit, I threw Besty."


    Well, I had to get her back now.


    "Khanna!" I shouted. "Get on Billie''s bike and get out of here. Head back home. I’ll be right behind you.”


    Billie''s lips quivered. "But what about... what about... what about Holly? We can''t just leave her."


    I didn''t want to yell at her, but I found myself roaring. "We are not leaving her. We are getting my tool, and we''re getting reinforcements. Then we''re going to murder every last one of those Sleezenak mother fuckers."


    Both Khanna and Billie had never heard me sound like that. And to be honest, I sounded like a roaring monster, but I didn''t care. We’d been split apart for the first time since we''ve come to K’Shaul, and I found the whole situation intolerable. I hadn’t survived all this time to lose someone I cared about. I had built a house for all of us—all four of us. And to have one person missing? Well, it felt like I might as well torch the roof myself.


    Khanna knew enough not to argue with me at that point. She jumped onto the back of Billie’s bike. They took off and I was glad. I gunned my back and raced down my hill and up the other side.


    My bike roared up the other side, full throttle, and I was going so fast I hit the crown and found myself in the air. The rest of the Sleezenak were coming up the other side, and I buzzed through them with pure murder in my heart. I had reloaded the magnum, so when I got to the top, I had one hand on the accelerator while I shot lizard bitches left and right.


    I saw my spear, picked it up, and then did donuts, spraying mud. And originally, I thought the lizard bitches were coming after me, but no, the situation was far stranger.


    Like Enak before him, Enok got to his feet, since these Sleezenak shamans were so damn hard to kill, since they had the blessing of Sataka or whatever. However, Enok was only standing there for a second when another Sleezenak slicked off his head with a stone ax.


    “I will be leader now!” the murderer hissed.


    Two other Sleezenaks dropped their bikes, and both went for the power crystal pickax.


    “I am to be shaman now!” one hissed.


    “Nay, I am to be shaman!” the other answered. “I will grow in stature and power. Sakata will bless me as master of the harem.”


    “No, me!”


    Other Sleezenak joined in the fight, all of them trying to grab the power crystal pick. But the minute one had the weapon, another would come and grab it. On and on it went. It seemed that not all of the Sleezenak were females, and now, the ambitious males were fighting one another to take charge. I was reminded of male elk rutting with each during mating season.


    For a second, I thought about grabbing the pickax myself. That was a big damn crystal on it. If I had it, maybe the Sleezenak would leave me alone. However, there was no way of getting it without being swarmed. I didn’t think I would take over the Sleezenak harem because I couldn’t tell the males and females apart.


    There were hundreds of Sleezenaks, some on bikes, some in trailers connected to bikes, and some in sidecars. There was just too many to fight, and if I got mired down, I didn’t trust my new healing ability that much.


    Besides, my main mission was to find Holly. I was betting she was alive and on the other side of Lava World. We needed time for that liquid rock to cool and we needed an army to wipe out the Sleezenak once and for all.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    With stones from slings whizzing by my ears, I raced my bike after Billie and Khanna across the landscape. I was so very glad we weren’t walking. No, we had the bikes, and we could chew up the miles easily. We ripped through the grass to find the hard dirt underneath, and while it wasn’t pavement, it wasn’t bad.


    We buzzed back as fast as we possibly could, all the way to where the Dinosaur Swamps began. At first, I thought we''d have to leave our bikes, but then I saw the wooden walkways, and without stopping, I drove my bike onto the slats. The Sleezenaks might’ve been psycho lizard bitches, but their bridges were sturdy enough to handle me and my bike.


    Billie and Khanna followed me through the Dinosaur Swamps. Our bike engines didn’t have the roar of Harleys, but they were loud enough to send a herd of Stegosaurus running through the black water.


    I realized during the fight that we’d left a lot of camping gear on that hilltop. Well, we could go back and grab it. I wasn’t going to waste a second of time. We had to find Holly.


    I cursed myself. I should’ve tried to find where the Sleezenaks had gone. I’d been na?ve to think that they had left for good. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.


    We made it back to Rainforest World, to Jack’s and Reggie’s normal hunting grounds. Of course, it was daytime, and so they weren’t there. I called out to them. “Jack! Reggie!”


    Billie and Khanna looked pale. It had been a little over an hour, and yet, it had felt like a lifetime since we’d seen Holly.


    “Opal, scan the area. Any sign of Jack and Reggie?


    Affirmative five hundred meters to the Tyrannosaurus rexes in question. Due East. Metabolic rates are slowed. Possible explanation is that they are sleeping.


    “We’re going to wake them up. We have to because the Sleezenaks are in the process of getting a new leader.”


    “What’s going on?” Billie asked.


    I explained to them about what I’d seen and heard after I’d killed the new shaman.


    Billie sighed. “I couldn’t understand a thing that guy said, but I was pretty sure he was an asshole who wanted to kill us and eat us? Was he an asshole that wanted to kill us and eat us?”


    “Pretty much,” I said. “The males are now fighting to get the magical pickax. The one who wins takes over the harem.”


    “Damn, I thought all the Sleezenak were girls.”


    “Guess not.”


    Billie got a determined look on her face. “Fuck those lizard bitches. We need to talk about Holly, Sid. What happened to Holly?”


    Khanna was absolutely silent. We’d lost a member of our Enclave.


    Seeing her so silent broke my heart a little more. “We’re going to find her. But first, we’re going to get help. You guys stay here.”


    “We’re coming with you.” Billie got off her bike and hit the kickstand. She was completely comfortable around the motorcycle.


    “Where did you learn to ride?” I asked.


    “I had a bad uncle,” Bilie said. “The only thing he was good for was letting me ride his motorcycle around the church parking lot for hours on end.”


    Khanna came up to me. “Sid Marshall. We find Hol-ly, yes? We go back and find her. Please. Hol-ly is part of our Enclave.”


    “She is,” I agreed. “Come on.”


    We all marched through the rainforest until I saw a path I’d not noticed before. There were broken ferns and broken trees that led to a wide glade where the grasses had been flattened.


    We crept through the ferns. There, in the glade, we saw the two T. rexes, snoring loudly. Both of them. They were nocturnal, mostly. Maybe it was because the sentient fungi covering them didn’t like the sunlight. Well, good, because New Ireland had been cloudy and dark all day long, and evening was coming.


    “Stay here,” I said to the girls.


    I went to walk into the glade but found a power crystal. It was a small one, but I grabbed it anyway.


    <<<>>>


    Inferna Energy detected! Power Crystal detected. Utilizing crystal. Charged to 99% of full.


    This unit is 1% away from optimal functionality. Please charge to 100%.


    <<<>>>


    I only had a few crystals left, but I wasn’t worried. That pickax was probably a 5X crystal. I did want to ask Opal how much Inferna energy our bikes used.


    I had to pause for a minute. How do you wake up a sleeping dinosaur?


    Sounded like a bad joke a seven-year-old would tell you. I didn’t have a punchline.


    “Jack! Reggie! Wake up! I need your help!”


    Jack opened one eye and stared at me. Sid, you have not brought food stuffs. Black Colony will not be pleased. Oh, right, you do not call us by our color. You refer to us in a series of strange syllables.


    “You said you were going to go talk to Reggie, right?” I asked. “How did that go?”


    Reggie is suspicious of you, and they are upset about Green Albert. They have a resentment against you for the murder of their friend. I liked Green Albert as well, but I also understand your position. You wished to remain alive and breathing in your own World Beast body. There is a violence in nature that we understand.


    Reggie kept on sleeping, snoring loudly.


    “Look, Jack, here’s the problem. We lost one of our friends to the Ravana Storm, and we have to find her. In the way are the Sleezenaks, those were the lizard people you ate before. One of my many meals I provided you.”


    Yes, the reptiles. They were indeed delicious. Would you know where we could find more?


    “Yes,” I said. “But it’s far away. We’d have to journey there, and I’m not sure Reggie would want to go that far.”


    At the mention of his name, the big black T. rex woke up. Why are you talking to the strange stick man with yeasty feet again? I told you I am not pleased that you spoke to him of the Way of Molzo. I also remember what he did to poor Green Colony.


    Jack immediately responded. He has more reptile meat for us. We only have to follow him. It would be a far journey, but Sid has brought us food stuffs on many occasions. Our friendship could be beneficial.


    Reggie rose to his feet and roared. Big crow-like birds flapped away. But what of Green Colony? They were to join us in the fight against Yellow Colony, who has betrayed the Way of Molzo!


    Jack stood and roared as well. We agreed not to talk of Yellow Colony! For now, let us help him. Perhaps he can help us find Green Colony. He has mystical ways. He can speak with us, can he not?


    Reggie made a loud grunting noise like when my uncle got made the Denver Broncos lost a football game. Yes. He has mystical ways. Maybe if he helps us find Green Colony we trust him more.


    I was losing patience. The longer we messed around there, the longer Holly would be gone. If she was still on K’Shaul. If she was still alive at all. And if she could evade the Sleezenaks. So I just blurted out, “Isn’t Green Colony dead?”


    Jack snorted, his huge nostrils flaring. Death is not always death for the Colorspore Colonies. Death Spores come for Green Colony’s World Beast. Green Colony is forced to flee. Maybe Green Colony is alive but looking for a new World Beast. Maybe Green Colony has been dispersed into the Great Cloud All Around, never to return.


    I was curious about Yellow Colony, but at that point, it seemed like a sore subject. It seemed safer to just focus on one color at a time. If I could find Green Albert, it would go a long way to winning his trust.


    Jack was easy, but Jack seemed a lot smarter than Reggie.


    “Okay,” I said. “Point me to where I might look.”


    It was Jack’s voice in my head that gave me the impossible news. Everywhere. Green Colony is now everywhere and nowhere at all.