Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,106

and slow. Because, while anything could happen, apparently not everything could. Some stuff had to follow the rules of the waking world, or the dream wouldn’t have any shape or meaning.

I rocked the car, a burst of flame flickered over the passenger side, and then it finally lurched up out of the soft spot in Reverse. Cutting ruts in the turf, I maneuvered around the mud, aimed at the gate, and then noticed everything else that was happening.

The cannons on the pirate ship were shooting nonstop, while the PA system blared “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)”. The T-bird and Timon’s robot were running around on the big Bucs Vision screens. Any of that could have been distracting, but the real problem was the spectators streaming onto the field and running straight at me.

They weren’t real people, and even though it made me squeamish, I was willing to run over them. But that would slow me down and maybe wreck the car. So I told myself my M16 was on the seat beside me, and when I glanced over, it was. Then I willed myself to split like the lion man’s axe had split me.

I felt a stab of pain inside my head, maybe because Timon was trying to stop me. But then Shadow appeared beside me, just like I wanted, and my other three souls popped into existence jammed into the backseat. I didn’t really have a use for them, but I didn’t know how to split off one and not the others.

I expected Shadow to hang out the window and shoot while I drove. Instead, he slid out of it, hauled himself onto the roof, and car surfed. I assumed he was kneeling, not standing, but I still couldn’t imagine how he was going to keep himself perched up there. But I couldn’t afford to worry about it, either. I had to concentrate on the driving and let him handle the shooting.

Which was what we did. I swerved back and forth, trying to keep away from trouble and find a path to the gate. Shadow did his best to shoot anybody who got too close, and when someone darted into hitting and grabbing distance anyway, he lashed the rifle barrel into the puppet’s face.

After a while, guns started banging from the backseat, too. Startled, I glanced around. Silver had created two more rifles, and Red and Ren were firing out the windows at the onrushing puppets.

It helped. But I still couldn’t find a clear path through the mob. There were just too many of them, and no matter how many we dropped, they kept on charging like maniacs. Silver made a wall to hold some of them back, but they punched through like it was made of paper, either because Timon helped them or because they weren’t really alive.

Finally they swarmed the car like waves sweeping in from all directions at once. Fists hammered my window, and it shattered. The puppets reached in, clutched at me, and pulled, trying to break my grip on the steering wheel and drag me out.

I had puppets climbing on the hood, too, to get at Shadow. Behind them, I could just make out the robot, in position at last and reaching for the T-bird with both sets of claws.

I couldn’t do shit about it, either. Twisted around with the puppets yanking on me, I couldn’t even reach the gas pedal.

But then something boomed. It sounded almost like the fake cannons that had been blasting all along. But I knew the difference because I’d heard the noise not long ago in Showmen’s Rest.

One of the steel dinosaur’s eye windows exploded inward. Lorenzo’s aim was perfect.

And all the puppets either dropped into slow motion or froze completely. The zombie human cannonball had slammed into Timon hard enough to stun him or at least break his concentration.

I thrashed, broke the grips of the hands that were holding onto me, and dropped back onto my seat. I hit the gas, and puppets tumbled off the hood. Then, bumping over bodies, I finally spotted what might be a way out. A narrow one. I sideswiped Timon’s creatures as I weaved along.

Then the mob stopped being paralyzed. But I floored it and smashed puppets out of the way, my other selves fired bursts, and then we were clear. We raced down the tunnel and out into the parking lot.

“Everybody all right?” I panted.

“I think so,” Ren replied.

Shadow tossed his M16 into the car, then swung himself back