But this death-cult bullshit literally broke the game, causing an error that I didn’t notice until the race started.
It’s a bad error, too. Imagine shoving your flaccid wang into a pinhole barely big enough to accommodate a deflated balloon, and then someone suddenly thrusts some prime AAA, pristinely washed, mathematically perfect tootsies right in your goddamned face. Physics are gonna physic. Some shit is gonna break.
So, anyway, the floor boss is canceled. The bugs, who were going to ignore you, are now going to try to kill you. They will not have their invulnerability removed.
A wave of the beetles swarmed up the window, chasing after us. We were turned at a 90-degree angle, and Pontiff scurried us away, moving to the ceiling while Nester cast something to cause them to drop off the wall.
“Carl, can’t those things . . .”
Half of the falling beetles took to the air, their back armor separating and sprouting wings as they swarmed toward us.
“. . . fly?”
[ 76 ]
“We needto wait for Imani and Elle!” I called as we raced along the ceiling of the apartment, dodging a smoke detector. “The real Imani, I mean. We need to make sure they can reach their gate!”
I pulled myself from my seat, activated Sticky Feet to make certain I wouldn’t plummet, and I started hurling Biscuit Packs at the bugs if they flew too close. The small explosions captured two or three of the bugs at a time, freezing them in the cloud of expanding foam before dropping them to the ground.
“There!” Donut called, pointing. Her seat was turned like a Ferris wheel car, keeping her upright.
Imani and Elle’s APV appeared, zooming from under a door, crossing the carpet alongside the man, who was now covered in the beetles.
Our truck rocked as a beetle crashed into us. The electrified shield activated, and the beetle dropped away, unhurt. It buzzed angrily and tried to come back. I dropped a hobgoblin disco ball out the hole in the roof, and it activated as it fell, flashing colorful lights and thick smoke everywhere.
Carl: Get to the gate and get the hell out of there. Good luck!
Elle: We already hit it. Now we gotta get our asses out of Dodge.
Carl: Meet us at the feet of Imani’s dad!
Imani: That’s not my dad. We’ll be there in ten seconds. I castConfuzzledon the room, and it works on the bugs. They’ll be stunned for another twenty seconds.
“Drop us out of here!” I yelled.
We dropped from the ceiling, falling back into the smoke-filled living room. It was difficult to see as we plunged into the room, but the shapes of the frozen shells, rigid like statues, helped guide us.
The bugs were everywhere, but they were just circling, confused, snapping and slicing at each other despite their invulnerability. With the smoke, it reminded me of dropping into deep, murky water. Only with colorful flashing lights. The giant Imani opened the door, shrieked, and slammed the door again as Gucci barked her head off.
Elle: Holy hells, did you see that? Imani, you look like shit.
Imani: Did Gucci not have sewn eyes?
Carl: She didn’t. I don’t know what that means.
We hit the floor with a thump as Donut directed Pontiff back toward the feet of the man, who still hadn’t been ripped open, meaning he was still listed as a shell and not a ruptured hive.
Donut cast yet anotherHole, this time near the supine man’s feet, and Imani and Elle’s APV dropped right in, us following.
Entering apartment 214.
As we fell, Donut snapped the hole shut before any bugs could follow us.
This next apartment wasn’t an apartment at all, but some sort of youth facility. My breath caught in my throat the moment I saw it.
The harsh lighting, the industrial-tile floor, the bunk beds that just went on and on. The headache-inducing stench of industrial cleaner. God. This was clearly some other country, possibly China, and yet it was the same. It took less than a second for it to stagger me. Were they all like this?
A group of children, ranging from about six to twelve, gathered in a far corner, all surrounding another pair of children who were beating the crap out of each other. They were all girls.