They’d taken out the giant’s legs. He crawled, screaming on the ground like a baby, his voice loud enough to make my inner eardrum shake.
“Okay, Kit, you’re up,” Damien screamed, as Dawn swooped through the gateway and landed on Earth.
What? Now? Already? We blow up about a hundred of the bastards and now it’s time?
The thought terrified me. Everything was happening too fast. I wasn’t ready. Ronnie, Maxine, Brisk, and Nox were waiting at the entrance, and sagged in relief at the sight of me. It was mayhem, people screaming orders and running all over the place, and right there, in the middle of it, I saw Master Aki’s limp form at Ronnie’s feet.
“Kit!” Damien shook me and I met his gaze. “You have to collapse it now. You need to end the Dream Wars.”
This was the moment, the reason everyone was running around and risking their lives— because they believed in me.
Stepping off of Dawn, I allowed my shaky legs to pull me to the opening. Jeremy was there, hunched over a laptop and off to the side.
“I’m glad you didn’t die,” he told me without meeting my gaze.
I wanted to cry, because it was actually a very sweet thing to say coming from him. “Thanks, buddy.”
Stepping into the opening, I tried to shut out everything around me. There were still some army personnel in front of me, in the Dream War, but they should theoretically be okay once I collapsed it. They would just be standing in Oregon on Earth. I needed them there because an onslaught of ghouls had arrived and I needed their protection.
“Open that puppy up as big as you can and fold it in on itself,” Damien urged.
Yeah. Collapse an entire dimension like it was no big deal...
God help me.
Thirteen
Chaos reigned around me as I stood there in the gateway between our two worlds, but an eerie calm settled into my skin, into my entire being. This was it. The culmination of everything I’d ever wanted. Succeed or fail, no matter what, it would be over today, and I would truly be able to say I gave it my all. Taking deep breaths, I allowed my power to pulse from my skin, in and out with my breath. As I did, the gateway became bigger, then a bit smaller, in and out. Two army personnel took away the devices that had been holding the gateway open and now it was all me.
I could do this. I was literally the only human on Earth capable of this. It had to be me.
“Her hippocampus is lit up like a Christmas tree!” Jeremy observed from his computer, no doubt taking readings from my helmet.
I ignored him and focused on breathing.
The ghouls were advancing, shots firing back and forth from the army.
I focused on the breath.
I bargained with the big man upstairs: God, if you help me do this, I’ll never miss another Sunday at church.
Breathe.
Grabbing hold of my full power felt like pulling a hot iron out of the fire. It was wild and raging and I threw it all at the layer just between our two worlds. The opening that had been the size of a car now quickly bloomed to the size of a giant redwood tree. I pushed.
More.
Faster.
Harder.
I wanted to reduce this fucking evil world to rubble, to nothing. It was already cracked and broken and that gave me hope that I could bring this sucker down today.
“Slow down, Kit, I’m detecting seizure activity!” Ronnie called out from where she stood over Jeremy’s shoulder.
I couldn’t slow it, or stop it. The power had taken over me. I grabbed the edges of the Dream War and ripped it wide open. My eyelids twitched; I thrust my hands out and pushed the opening back as far as I could. I could no longer see the edges, but I could see the sentries and ghouls burning up right before the US Army that held the line to protect me.
It was working.
“Kit, fucking take a break!” Ronnie snapped, and lunged for me.
Someone held her back.
“I… cant... won’t,” I growled, feeling my legs go weak.
“Let go!” Damien shouted at someone, who also must have held him.
I pushed all of that away, let everything go into the background.
The breeders were frantically clawing at my mind, trying to take me down, and a low throb started at the base of my skull. Their power was nothing compared to what it was before, but holding them off while trying to collapse an entire dimension…
My vision turned blurry.
“KIT!” Ronnie screamed with desperation.
Building up all of my power, my body vibrated as a tremor laced its way through my nervous system.
With a giant scream, I thrust everything I had outward into the Dream War and watched as the world literally collapsed in on itself, revealing a stunning view of Mount Hood.
I held it in my mind and envisioned the dimension peeling away from our planet like a banana peel and then just falling away into the abyss.
“KIT!”
I couldn’t stay standing any longer. As I fell, the blackness took me, but I did so with the certainty that I’d ended it. The Dream War was dead.
Epilogue
Three Weeks Later
I had a pretty bad seizure when I collapsed the Dream War, but luckily it didn’t cause any brain damage. I’d just needed a brief stay in the hospital for observation. I’d had no reoccurrences since then. The entire planet saw sudden piles of ash appear of out thin air as I’d peeled away the alien reality and exposed the creatures to our atmosphere.
That night, humanity fell asleep with hope in their hearts and a healthy dose of fear. And, collectively… we dreamed.
The entire world slept and dreamed and it was glorious. Future generations would never know the horrors we lived through
