Maybe if I post this ULTRA-COOL chapter people will read my story...
CHAPTER TEN
The sun slowly dipped behind a hill, painting the blue skies with a faded orange light, but the figure standing on that hill didn’t notice. He didn’t care when that sun completely disappeared beyond the horizon, and the night shadows began to lengthen, and the orange light faded further to a light pink. He didn’t look up as night fell across this section of Mudos, head bowed to his chest.
He had failed his mission.
Abe, the greatest Mudokon hero of all time—and almost the only Mudokon hero of all time, except Big Face—had never failed anyone before. He had rescued his people from slavery all his life. 99 from RuptureFarms, 300 from the SoulStorm Corporation, dozens more from the Slog Huts, Splinterz, Magog Motors, FlubCo Fuels, and countless other factories that had been the scourge of the land.
But now his tally was changed. He’d failed them. He’d let them go.
Somehow, Lord Fragg had not only been smart enough to purchase biotics for his short legs, but the Glukkon had also had enough of a brain to get away from Abe. No one had ever done that before. He had killed Popper Sligs, Armored Sligs, Gunner Sligs, BigBro Sligs, Vykkers, Interns, Puds, Chumps, Wanna-Be’s, Big Cheeses, and Glockstars…but not Fragg.
He had stood here on this very hill, watching the stream of Sligs lead MeechCo’s Mudokons into the wilderness.
He had stood here on this very hill, watching a small stampede of Scrabs run free for the first time in years.
He had stood here on this very hill, twenty-seven years ago, searching for the entrance to the Almighty Raisin’s Cave.
He had stood here on this very hill, thirty years ago, and for the first time in his life had used the power of Shrykull.
How he wished he could do that now.
Abe clenched his fists, and turned to the north—did all Mudokons have strangely built-in compasses, or was it something installed by the Glukkons in RuptureFarms, or was it an effect of all the Glukkon brews he’d been drinking, or was it just him as the Chosen One?—and began walking.
Just because he’d failed by himself didn’t mean he could fail with others. He hadn’t talked with Alf, Lowrn, Grunn, and Ferg in six years, not since they’d surrendered him to a posse of Sligs and nearly gotten him killed. Beyond that, they had been the ones to first drink SoulStorm Brew, and had shoved him in the Big Well, and had abandoned him when he’d had to cross the Black Lake, and had still pretended to be his best buddies when he returned unscathed from each of these conflicts.
Abe still didn’t like the way they had misused him…but now perhaps he could use them.
Almost as an afterthought, he pulled a small pad from his pocket and, without looking, pushed the DETONATE button.
The sky was suddenly lit with orange again, as MeechCo blew.
Abe didn’t even turn to look. He’d done this many times before.
Now it was time to enlist some help.
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