T h e Spirit Worlb own the world, and hunt down anything that threatens their superiority. It’s all bass ackwards; everything’s gone to hell. “The solution seem pretty damn obvious. It would be so easy to tear it all down. No matter how shiny and new they make that building, there’s rats in the walls, kid. Spread a little disease through ventilation system.. . . take out the structural foundation with a little pyrotechnics ... all that steel and concrete.. . it wouldn’t take much to reduce it to rubble. “You know, every time I come to the big city, I think the same thing. You know what’s the biggest problem they got here? Overpopulation. It’s like something was keeping the world under control, and it’s just not there anymore. Too many damn people on the planet. Every time I see so many people walking down the street, I think, ‘What would happen if a few of them just.. . disappeared?’ In the history of the world, would it really make much difference? Maybe OTolley’s would sell a few less burgers andaeequeg’s will sell a little less espresso, but what’s wrong with that? Too many damn people, that’s what’s wrong with the world. Kill ’em off, that’s what we should do. Damn straight. “Hey, I got some cheeseburge rsunder the seat. You hungry?” The Wiberness “Um. .. no,” Gregor explains. “I’m a weget. ..” He stops himself, watching Rat Man’s reaction carefully. “I used be a vegetarian, but those burgers smell.. . um.. . k i d good.” Gregor hates meat, but he starts rummaging through the bag. The taste is foul. Then again, if some SwaggeringJoe Bob has offered togiwe himarideoutof town, he’snotinmuchofapositiontorefuse his courtesy. As long as he’s safe and fed, it doesn’t really matter. Gregorfastw his seat belt and obeys the first law of hitchhiking: Let the driver do most of the talking. 0 . . “Don’t get me wrong, kid. The cities are screwed, but it ain’t that much better outside of ’em. There isn’t much real Wilderness left. That Weaver they tell me about, it’s binding up everything. I thought I would be safe, staying out on my dad’s farm, but I was a fool. A hundred acres all around me, and I lost it all. I had a patch of wetlands on one comer of my property, until the EPA came in and seized it. Those bastards way out in Washington want to regulate everything. Started telling me what I could do on my own land. The webs are everywhere. Phone lines, power lines, barbed wire, television aerials, television transmissions, radio waves - they just keep growing. Every aspect of our life is contained, regulated and controlled. “Wilderness?There ain’t none left. Anywhere the govemment can send its agents, anywhere you can get radio or t h e m , it’s rural, but it ain’t wild. And the human race keeps breeding and breeding, taking up more of the planet. I say its time the planet fights back.” “Fights back!” Gregor asks nervously. “I’m talking about justice, kid. We’re planning to mete out some country justice. We hold our own court, out in the wild. Judges, juries and executioners. If the visions hit you just right, we could teach you a lot about being a Skulker. Or if you like, you could train in one of our armies. We got Kin everywhere, and we are prepared.” I Chapter Two: Infesting the World Gregor tries not to flinch. Militias. These Rat People are all part of some militia. I’d better be real polite. That’s when Gregor notices the paper targets sitting under the seat. One of them has the outline of apoliceman, and several big holes in the center of its head. “’Course, I’m not asking you to join up with what we’re doing. There’s a lot of movements starting out in the wilderness; the one I joined is just one of them. I signed on because I was angry about losing my lands, about losing my rights. Everyone’s looking for someone to blame. Some blame the government; some blame the bankers; some blame the Jews, or the blacks, or the environmentalists, or the UnitedNations. Me, I know it’s all just the signs of the Apocalypse. Soon the whole damn human race is gonna get wiped out when the Wyld fights back. 0 . . “Um.. . the Wild!” Gregordesperately tries tochange the topic, “Yeah, lad. That’s who we are. The force of the Wyld. Chaos but to no awail. unleashed. And you’we just been recruited.” T h e Spirit Worlb “Wait a minute? Didn’t Julia send for you?” “Hell, no, kid. TheRatGodsentme. TheVoices toldmt you’d be in that aUey. Rats work in mysterious ways. One of them steals somedung, takes it somewhere else. Another one knows where to pick that thing up, knows it’ll be there. A third one is waiting to use it. Nooneisable tofollowwhodoes what, ’cause theRatGodmakes a plan for each one of us. We hear, and it’s done.” Gregor casually looks over at the door a few inches away. The locks hawe been broken off. There’s no handle on the inside. The window won’t roll down. His seat belt’s already clicked into phce. He thinkshecouldmakeabreakforit, butthat’swhenhenoticesthe pistol sticking out of Rat Man’s boot. This is all insane. He’s in mortal danger. But he’s also hungry. He decides to play along and gag on a few more of those nasty day-old cheeseburgers. Swldenly , they don‘t taste so bad. 0 . . “’Scuse me. I know it might seem like our family’s a little bit crazy, but you’ve got to widen your perspective a bit. Even the world you see outside that window is just part of a bigger picture. We’re waiting for reinforcements from another dimension. There’s a world waiting outside the one you see, a reflection of everything that happens in this one. Yeah, I see that look on your face - I didn’t believe it myself ’til someone took me there. You’ll see for yourself, and find where the Rat Race has been breeding and building for the last five thousand years. The cities, the wilderness - they’re just a reflection of the spirit world. “That’s the best part of being one of us. We can step out into a world that isn’t as messed up as this one. It’s addictive; we’ve got spirit tunnels goin’ through the whole damn place. Our Kin are holed up everywhere, so the Wolves don’t find us. We’ve got access to realms no one else even knows about, and hiding places where we can watch the places everyone does know. “If you concentrate, you can start to see that other world. Late at night like this, when the white-line fever sets in, you can practically drive there. You just sort of zone out and.. .”
Ratkin · Werewolf