Land of Oz - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: In Which We Are Introduced to the Land of Oz

D was choking. She gasped and gagged for air. She coughed and hacked. Her eyes were still tightly closed, and she wondered what had happened. She was afraid, however, to open her eyes because she didn’t know for sure what she would find. Though the explanation of why she was coughing so much would be a good reason to do so. She steeled herself for what she might see and opened her eyes.
She found herself lying face down on the floor in a thick layer of dust. Well, that was certainly the reason for her struggle to draw air, or clean air at the least. She put her hands flat on the ground and pushed herself up. The sharp pain in her side reminded her of the blow she received to the ribs that winded her so. She looked around and did not see Diggs. She was still clothed and did not hurt anywhere other than her side, so she was certain he hadn’t raped her. Where had he gone, and what had he done to her? At least it was over. But where was she?
This was not her father’s bedroom. There was dust covering everything. The curtains hung over the tall windows were moth eaten and ruined, and were a fine gray. In fact, everything in the room seemed to be some sort of shade of gray. There was an old couch against the wall, and a low coffee table in front of it. There were tables next to the windows filled with clay pots, but they were lacking any plants whatsoever. The large entryway to the next room was flanked by two thin pillars, the paint on which was peeling and yellowed.
D convinced her body to let her stand up. The air up high was not much better than that on the ground, and she knew she needed to get out of the room as soon as she could. But, interrupting this train of thought, a large book came flying at her head. She moved to the side and it merely struck her in the shoulder. It was heavy enough to hurt and surprise her though, and she reeled over a bit. When she looked up, there stood a small girl in front of her. Then she realized that she was mistaken and it was actually just a very small woman, about three feet in height. She had a dark bandana with holes in it covering much of her face, but her eyes had severe malice in them. She was holding a long knife out and pointing it menacingly at D.
“Whu gha, whatidi?” asked the small woman angrily.
“I…I don’t understand,” replied D in a small voice.
“Who are you? What are you doing in my house?”
“I’m sorry, you live here? I don’t even know how I got here.”
“Don’t believe you!” said the woman, jabbing the knife toward D. D raised her hands up, showing she had no weapon and no intention of harm. The woman’s mouth dropped open, and she made a small sound in the back of her throat. “Human? Human!”
The woman’s reaction was nothing but astounding to D. Was she not a human herself? “I don’t understand. What’s going on? Where am I?”
“Human, you’re Human. Haven’t seen Human since the old days. The past times. The Girl-Savior.” She still held the knife out, but the force and intent were fading.
“You aren’t Human?” asked D, still groping for answers.
“No, Munchkin. In my language, Munkinkin.”
“Munchkin? I’ve never heard of them. I really don’t know where I am.”
“You lost? You’re in the province of Munchkinland, near the town of Gangin. What’s your name?”
“I’m D. Who are you?”
“Ekinki. D, like the Girl-Savior Dorothy? D short for Dorothy?” By now the knife had dropped altogether. The Munchkin had lost all doubt for D’s story. She seemed to place humans upon a pedestal. Higher than herself, perhaps. It confounded D to be held in such esteem. She was embarrassed.
“No, my full name is Dana, though I don’t like it so well. I call myself D.” She held herself out to the small woman, but it was not taken so she withdrew. “So, how did I get here, what is this house?
“My house. I take it from the Girl-Savior, when she came. Her house it was, came from the twister. Don’t know how you got here. Not sure how others get here, but they do.”
“Where on Earth does Munchkinland lie? How do I get back?”
“The Land of Oz. Not Earth. Humans come from Earth. You’re in Oz now. Stuck here. Don’t know how to get back.”
“Well, how do I get to Gangin? Maybe someone there can help.”
“You take the Yellow Road, but you don’t want to go to Gangin. Only one who knew how to get back to Earth was the Wizard. He left ages ago, in the old days. Was going to take Dorothy with him, but she got left behind. He was a fool. Fool!”
“Where did he live? Are you sure he’s gone now?”
“Gone for good I thinks. I thinks you stumble into Oz once, go home you never get back. One way trip it is. You picked a bad time for travel, girl. Oz is dying.”
“Dying? What’s happened?”
“The Girl-Savior saved us from the witches, East and West. This house fell on East, killed her dead. She melted West with water. Strange to hate water so. Wizard left and something worse came. A big evil, Dashkin. He was killed dead long ago, but was biding his time to come back. They all come back. Probably spurred on by East and West in death. The good witches, North and South went into hiding on the isle of Azgad. Haven’t seen them in so long. Just watchers now, I guess. Dashkin sent his armies out, destroyed the world, the cities. Killed most of us Munchkins. I and four are the last. We stay hid now. Gangin is long destroyed, and the monkeys stay there. You be careful there.”
“Well, alright, I should be going then.” D still thought she would find someone at the next town. She was also quite sure this small woman was off her rocker. No matter what Diggs had done to her, he couldn’t have sent her to another world. That would be physically impossible. Besides, there was no other world outside of Earth that people had access to. This was all just a very odd state of affairs, or perhaps even a dream.
“Here, take this,” said Ekinki, throwing the knife to D, who caught it quite easily to her surprise.
“Won’t you be needing it?”
“No, have more,” she mumbled, and steadily continued mumbling into nothing. And then without warning, and without D even noticing, Ekinki had disappeared. D slipped the now sheathed blade into her belt, keeping it out of plain sight so no one would see it. She didn’t figure she would need it, but a small fear in her told her that the woman wasn’t lying or demented. She pivoted in a haze of dust and walked to the front door. Turning the handle she pulled the door open onto an open field of blackened grass capped with dark black clouds.
It looked like it had once been a wheat field, or corn perhaps. It had obviously been burned. It still smoldered slightly. It took up all the land around. Possibly thousands and thousands of acres of rolling hills. In the distance, hard to make out against the clouds, were the remains of a city. There were towers and buildings, gates and walls, everything crumbling and burning and completely decimated. Running through the center of the town was the only thing of color, the only thing not burnt and ruined: a shining road made of yellow cobblestones. That must be the Yellow Road Ekinki talked about, thought D. She was starting to worry that the woman may not have been lying to her.
She struck out across the burnt field and toward her goal of Gangin. She wasn’t sure why it was she was drawn to the town. She was now sure she wasn’t going to find anyone who could help her out in that ruined place. How could anyone live there? Ekinki said that’s where the monkeys are now. What does that mean? The remains of the crops crunched dryly under her feet as she stepped. She smelled something odd, then. Not the burning of the wheat or corn, but something chemical. Something foul. She looked down to find that her shoes were burning, melting. D picked up her pace until she was running. She moved so swiftly that she had crossed the field and reached the Road in no time at all. Her tennis shoes were still smoking when she stopped, but they would be fine. Just a little damage, nothing to worry about.
Gangin lay just two or three blocks’ distance away. As she walked toward the ruins she looked about her to get a feel for the land. It seemed that Munchkinland was a farming community, since everything that surrounded Gangin was farmland. The strange thing was that D could not see any farms or farm equipment anywhere. Either they were very far away or there was another explanation for the layout of the land.
The other immediate thought on D’s mind was what the woman Ekinki had said about the Girl-Savior, Dorothy. Apparently she had landed here in that house so many years ago, killing a witch with the building. But how does someone travel with a house? Something about a twister, but it seemed so odd. How could she have come here? Perhaps finding this answer would help her get back home. Of course, this was a nice difference from her parents. She was on her own, and she could decide for herself what she wanted to do next. D could just imagine what her mother would say in the same situation. She thought about her mother just closing her eyes and sitting on the ground refusing to believe any of it at all. It made her giggle a bit, until she realized that she was entering the outskirts of Gangin.
Initially, before the attacks, the town had had a great wall with a metal door closing the gate. The Road led through the gate and into the center of town. The metal door was still closed now, but the walls on either side were crumbled and D could simply walk through them, over the rubble. There had once been great towers with peaking roofs twisting and turning in a great parody of gravity. The buildings had all been brightly colored and they shone with brilliant light. Now they were charred and black, and everything continued to smolder.
It was quite sad, actually, because D would have liked to see it in its former glory. But before she could imagine this any more, a shuffling sound came to her right, from the half standing corpse of a building. She stopped and turned toward it.
“Hello?” she yelled out. The girl continued to stare intently in that direction, though nothing answered for some time. When it finally came, it was nothing she had expected.
A sound came that was something like, “Whashhallz!” and then it was silent again. D was not sure what to do and took another step toward it. The sound repeated itself and a piece of terracotta flew out of the wreckage at her. It shattered on the ground not too far from her.
“Is there someone in there?” she asked again, more frightened now. Whatever was in the dead structure screamed loudly and a heavy burst of air pushed her back. Suddenly, a great winged creature broke into the sky. It wasn’t a bird, however, it was something else. Silhouetted against the wan light of the clouded sky, it was next to impossible to tell. D thought that it was flying away, as if it was scared, but this was in fact incorrect. The thing flew up several hundred feet, which took all of fifteen seconds, then arced up and over, and began to dive toward the girl. As it sped closer and closer, it became more detailed. Finally it was visible enough for her to tell what it was. Speeding on and on was a screaming winged baboon with wild eyes and a great open slavering maw.
Paling in terror, D dove to the ground just as the creature swung for her. It missed and rose up into the air again. As it did, it made another unique sound that was something like “Whikitchkikka!” This sound met a response of the same from three or four places in the empty town. Slowly, one by one, the sky filled with flying monkeys. D screamed and began running and the monkeys set on her at full speed. The first one, which she had avoided, was much closer and started at her again. She stopped, looking up at it, and pulled out the knife given to her by Ekinki. She supposed these were the monkeys the woman had spoken of, but damn her for not mentioning that they could fly.
It stayed its course completely, diving directly at the girl. She stood ready; at least she thought she was ready. When it hit, it hit with the full force of gravity and wing propulsion. It caused D to roll onto her back with the monkey still gripping firmly. She placed her hand under the monkey’s jaw, at its neck, and held back its head. It continued to bear its teeth and bite at her, dribbling saliva all over her face and arms. The yellow eyes flashed, and for a brief moment D felt undeniable terror lock he up entirely. Then, as if she were not doing so herself, she swiftly plunged the long blade into the side of the attacker. It screamed and its pupils contacted. Blood poured out of the wound, covering the knife and her hand. It was crying now, and its companions were flying faster to help their fallen comrade. As it slowly lost blood, the monkey relented, and D brought up her legs and kicked it away. It got to its feet once and then fell again, gurgling slightly before it stopped moving altogether.
D was tired. This was not something she had ever done before. She killed an animal, although it was in self defense, and she felt terrible. But now more were coming, and they were close. She was certain that she couldn’t hold them all off, but perhaps she could continue to run. She put the sticky knife into its sheath and ran toward some cover. There were several overhanging walls in the burning remains, and D set off to hide in an old doorway. It was a long way away, and the monkeys were getting closer. She could hear them cackling. Then she was struck again, this time from the back. Falling forward with a monkey grasping her back, she struck the ground heavily. The monkey bit her squarely on the shoulder and she cried out. This is it, she thought. I found myself in a strange world and on my first day I’m going to be killed by a flying monkey.
But suddenly she felt the monkey being torn away from her abruptly. In the immediate distance there was screaming and a wet hacking and slashing sound resounded. So tired, but intrigued by what could be happening, D turned over. What she saw was minimal; a dark figure appeared to be killing the monkeys. It did so swiftly, and with little trouble. After it finished, it let out a small roar and stepped toward her. It reached her position and stood directly over her, a dark shadow of about seven feet tall completely silhouetted against the sky.