18 Conifer Village / The Coniferian Job, Pt 3

Previously, on Usagi Days: Ruby and Anemone enter an abandoned sister village, Firgrove Village. They find the shipping container the Professor had briefed them on. Anemone goes downstairs to retrieve their objective. Back upstairs, she is greeted by a horrifying sight …

- 18.1 - Anemone Sees the Monster -

Anemone's heart was pounding in her chest. Her hands were shaking.

She had only caught a glimpse of the monster before she slammed the door shut out of sheer terror.

A tall, lanky humanoid figure, its spindly arms thrashing as it ran on all fours. Chasing after the Usagi. Nearly three times as tall as the car.

All Anemone could see was its back. Horrible, grey leathery skin stretched over a protruding rib cage. The spine, a series of jagged bumps that jutted out of the skin. Those long, spider-like limbs.

She really didn't want to know what its face looked like.

Anemone had never seen anything like it. What was it?

A mutant? Orc experiment gone wrong?

Anemone shuddered.

She could hear the Usagi's engine revving in the distance, as it climbed up and down the inclines of Firgrove Village. The monster hot on its tail.

Anemone trusted Ruby's driving, and the Usagi's capabilities, enough to believe they could evade it.

But what about her?

What was she supposed to do now?

BEEP-BEEP-BEEEEEEEP!

BEEEEEP-BEEEEP-BEEP!

As if Ruby had read Anemone's mind, she seemed to be trying to signal an answer to the question via a series of honks.

Anemone, muttering: "That's great, Ruby. But I don't speak 'car horn'."

- 18.2 - Anemone Peeks Out Through the Door -

The car's engine was growing closer, and the sound of its frantic honking, louder.

Ruby was heading back toward the shipping container.

Anemone opened the container door a crack, just wide enough to peer out.

Ruby was approaching from a distance, the Usagi at full throttle.

… In reverse.

- 18.3 - The Usagi Backs Up -

The rear of the Usagi was speeding toward the container. Fast.

Behind the vehicle (or … in front of it?), the monster was still giving chase. Anemone could start to make out its face. A snarling mouth full of sharp teeth. Empty, black eyes. The look of a vicious predator after its prey.

Ruby continued to honk.

Anemone started to understand. She opened the shipping container doors all the way.

"Here goes nothing," she whispered to herself. "Do your thing, Rubes."

She kept her eyes locked on the rear of the Usagi. Trying as hard as possible to ignore the sight of the monster, growing in size as it drew nearer.

Then it happened. The back hatch of the Usagi began to rise, the door lifting open. An invitation.

Anemone backed up. She planted her heels into the metal floor of the shipping container. Ready to go.

Ruby hit the brakes. Tires screeching. Smoke, the smell of burnt rubber.

Anemone broke out into a run, timing her jump to land in the back of the Usagi just as it came to a stop that aligned it perfectly with the opening of the shipping container.

Ruby, in the driver's seat: "Ha! So you DO speak car!"

Anemone, struggling to right herself in the backseat: "… Okay, that was pretty sick."

- 18.4 - Ruby and Anemone Look for a Way Out -

Anemone closed the rear hatch as Ruby floored it.

She banked right—hard—and narrowly evaded the monster, which had made a grab for the Usagi. Caught off balance, the monster crashed into the shipping container.

Anemone, still in the backseat, watched through the rear window as the monster scrambled back up almost immediately, and resumed the chase.

"We're dead if we go back to Conifer through the woods. Where's the main road leading out of this town? "

Ruby: "Yeah, about that." She nodded directly ahead, where a massive rockslide had barricaded the road ahead. "You're looking at it."

Anemone, sighing: "Yeah, figures."

Ruby slammed the brakes, and the car came screeching to a halt just before the pile of boulders and rubble. The monster was closing the distance behind them.

"Annie?"

"Yeah?"

"Hold on to something."

Ruby shifted in reverse. She threw her arm over the back of the passenger seat, turning her head back to get a better view through the rear window.

Then she punched the gas, sending the Usagi flying backwards.

As they gained speed, Ruby cranked the wheel hard to the left. The back of the car swung out, the front of the car sliding into a drift, until the car had made a complete 180. Now they were staring at the oncoming monster.

Ruby shifted into drive again. They took off, dodging past the monster one last time, and headed for the Backwoods entrance.

- 18.5 - Ruby and Anemone Return to the Backwoods -

Ruby: "Did you find the thing?"

Anemone: "Yeah. It's in my pocket."

"Show me."

"I'd feel a lot better if you focused on the task at hand instead."

"Oh. … Right."

Anemone looked in the rearview mirror. The monster had followed them into the forest, and was gaining on them.

Anemone: "What even is that thing?"

Ruby: "Relentless, is what it is. (Ugly, too.)"

Anemone: "Even if you drive perfectly, this thing is going to follow us all the way back to Conifer. We have to get rid of it."

Ruby, navigating the turns and twists of the dirt road as fast as she could: "Yeah. I know."

"Got any ideas?"

"Maybe. … Maybe."

- 18.6 - Ruby Has a Brilliant Idea -

The forest opened up. They had reached the mountain pass again.

Halfway through the pass, Ruby began to slow down. Until she came to a complete stop.

Anemone: "Um … Ruby?"

On their right, the cliff dropped steeply away to the trees below. They were practically tottering on the edge.

Ruby, gripping the wheel tight, eyes locked on the rear mirror: "… Wait for it."

The monster burst into the mountain pass behind them. It let out an ear-piercing screech as it raced toward the Usagi.

Anemone, head jerking back and forth, gaze switching from the monster behind them to her friend in the front seat, back to the monster again: "… Rubes? What are we doing?"

Ruby, almost whispering: "… Just a bit … more."

The monster leapt in the air.

… And landed on the top of the Usagi.

Ruby: "NOW!"

She sent the car forward, and they took off into the rest of the Backwoods.

- 18.7 - Ruby and Anemone Have a New Problem -

The monster thrashed and scratched at the car's roof.

If the winding, loose dirt road hadn't been treacherous enough, now Ruby had the monster's frantic movements and added weight to contend with as she fought hard to keep control of the Usagi.

Anemone: "What were you trying to do back there!? I thought you had something cool up your sleeve!"

Ruby, embarrassed: "… Yeah. Me too."

"WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!"

"Look. I've made some mistakes, you've made some mistakes … Let's just forget this ever happened."

The monster above them screeched.

- 18.8 - Ruby Has Another Idea -

The car wobbled from side to side as the monster moved around, the vehicle buckling beneath its movements.

Its claws raked across the metal roof, a terrible screeching sound that vibrated through the Usagi.

Anemone, shuddering: "Like nails on a chalkboard. That roof is not going to last. It's getting in here, whether we like it or not."

Ruby was pushing the Usagi to its limit. Her knuckles white, brows furrowed in concentration. Every turn was a struggle, the difficulty amplified by the unpredictable movements of the monster. Not only did Ruby have to navigate through each turn, she had to fight to keep the car from careening into the trees. (Or worse.)

They didn't even have enough room on the road to try and swerve and shake the monster off.

All they could do was keep driving.

Then, Ruby had another thought.

"… Hey, Annie? Do you remember the entrance to this place?"

Anemone was confused, at first.

But then she remembered.

- 18.9 - Ruby and Anemone Go Fast -

Anemone: "It'll only work if you go fast. I mean, fast."

Ruby: "Easier said than done, right?"

The monster screeched, clawed at the roof.

Ruby slammed the roof with a fist. "Shut up! You're not part of this conversation!"

Anemone, unable to help smiling, just a little bit: "It kind of is, though."

- 18.10 - Ruby and Anemone Reach the Final Stretch -

They were nearing the end of the Backwoods.

Anemone remained silent, and allowed Ruby to focus. She had to nail these last few turns, to keep momentum, to keep speed.

She believed in Ruby.

Even as the monster tore a hole in the roof, she believed.

Even as a single claw began to poke inside and feel around, she believed.

Even as Anemone was face to face with that terrible, grey flesh, she believed.

The Usagi was coming on the last turn now.

Ruby braked, turned, went into the turn, straightened out—and then floored it.

The car sped up through the final stretch of dirt road, toward Conifer Village.

And toward the wooden archway gate at the Backwoods entrance.

- 18.11 - Ruby and Anemone Return to Conifer Village -

The moment they crossed the threshold into Conifer Village, they heard the splintering of the wooden gate as the monster smashed into its top beam at full speed. The monster's screeching stopped in an instant, cut off with a sickening crunch of bone and gristle and sinew against the wood of the gate.

The Usagi screeched to a halt inside Conifer Village.

Ruby and Anemone looked back.

The wooden archway was shattered, the top beam having snapped in half. Pieces of wood lay scattered in the dirt, fanning out in a wide arc where they'd been thrown.

The creature was lying on the ground, a little inside the Backwoods, its head and limbs bent at grotesque, impossible angles, pieces of the broken gate strewn around its body.

It was no longer moving.

Ruby and Anemone looked at each other.

Then they both slumped back into their seats, and each breathed a sigh of relief.

Ruby, after a while: "Can I see the thing now?"

Anemone nodded slowly. Without a word, she pulled out of her pocket, a single 20-sided die.

She handed it over to Ruby, who held it in her hand, feeling the weight of it.

Ruby: "Oh. Yeah. This seems worth risking both our lives for, sure."