Battle of Bones (Anomaly Saga #5)

26

"How'd you even know that was in there?" Preston asked Chandler.

"I suppose I didn't," Chandler said, "but the door looked similar to the one in the weapons room back in the training gym, so I thought it a good bet."

Camellia had to take a moment to think to make sure that really didn't make sense. "You saw a weapons room and thought, 'Oh, that'd be a perfect place to store a computer!'?"

Chandler shrugged. "There was one in the other weapons room."

"Computers can be very useful as weapons, Camellia," Preston said matter-of-factly. "You can throw them at people or cyberbully them over Reddit."

"Found them!" Catricia exclaimed. She turned her screen around to show the little red dot on the Google map.

Camellia squinted at it. "Where is that?"

"No idea!" Catricia said. "I am not familiar with the geography of Earth."

Camellia took the laptop and zoomed out on the map. Her eyes widened once she recognized a label. "They're in Russia?" There didn't appear to be anything in close proximity to the dot. She swapped to the Google Earth view. "They're . . . in the middle of a forest."

"You found them in a forest," Preston pointed out.

"Yeah, but not in Russia," Camellia said. "Catricia, you're sure that's them?"

"As sure as I can be," Catricia said confidently.

"Catricia knows what she's doing," Preston said with a dismissive wave of a hand. "If she says they're in Russia, they're in Russia."

"Right, I'm not doubting her abilities, it's just . . . weird." Camellia chewed on her lip. "If Chaps would just get back soon-"

"Did somebody say Chaps?" a familiar, disembodied British voice said. Chaps' skeletal form materialized in front of them. "That was perfect, Camellia; thank you. I was waiting for someone to mention me so I could make a dramatic entrance. Did it work?"

"No," Camellia said as Preston enthusiastically answered, "Yeah!"

"Anywho, you all can come down now!" Chaps announced, and soon appeared Leta, followed by two men, a woman, and a girl. It had quickly become quite the gathering at Chaps' place. "I suppose some introductions are in order, yes? All right, we've got Catricia, Camellia, Preston, Alice, Chandler, Chaps (that's me), Leta, Daniel, Jenna, Leo, and Ariana. Everyone get all that?"

"Wow, we have a lot of people here," Alice said. "This could get confusing."

"I see what you mean," Chaps said. "I don't know how we got to this large of a group! But the more, the merrier, I say."

"Hold on," Leta said. "Where's Joe?"

"Who's Joe?" Daniel asked.

Preston jumped up. "Joe M-"

Fortunately, Preston was unable to finish his sentence, for Joe came tumbling into the room at that very second. He stood and dusted his suit off. "My apologies. A scarecrow stole my shoe and I had to get it back. I also brought this." He held up the box that contained Bramble's head. "Now, what were we talking about?"

"We were talking about River and E," Camellia said, bringing the conversation back around. "Those two we recovered at the site of the vanishing door? Catricia tracked them down, and it turns out they're in the middle of a forest in Russia."

"Wait - vanishing door?" Daniel said. "The door that seems to disappear and reappear in various different areas, typically woods, and leads to a supernatural forest full of all sorts of terrors and anomalies like mosswalkers and elder sharks?"

"Uh . . . sure."

"I know all about that!" Daniel said. "I got stuck in there myself, three or four years ago. I spent a full year there, tracking everything I learned about the place. Unfortunately, I lost the journal sometime before I got out."

"Do you know anything about two girls named River and E?"

"I don't recognize the names. But if you pulled them out of the door before they were ready to leave, it's quite possible they were sent back. And if they appear to be in Russia, then I'd wager a bet that the door is currently in Russia."

"I'm sure that must excite you two," Joe said, eyeing Preston and Camellia suspiciously. "The thought of going to Russia."

"We are not Russian!" Camellia said.

"Hold on; Jack, didn't Casey have something in his research about a disappearing door?" Alice said to Chandler.

"I think you're right," Chandler said. "It was only a small news article, though, if I remember correctly. I don't think it'll be of much help to us here."

"No, but this means that Casey's speculations about this all were true!" Alice said. "How it was bigger than just the hotel and everything."

"He said something about a living skeleton, too."

"True!"

"Mind letting us in on what you're going on about, Mork and Mindy?" Leta said.

"It's a long story, but our friend Casey Diamond did a whole lot of research on these sorts of supernatural things," Alice said. "Vanishing doors in forests, living skeletons watching weddings, little girls made of yarn . . ."

"It was only one wedding, you should know," Chaps said, "and you couldn't have expected me not to attend one of my BFFs' wedding."

"Was that little girl Ariana?" Leo asked, a hand on the young girl's shoulder.

"Possibly," Chandler said. "If she's made of yarn."

"Casey will be thrilled to hear about this!" Alice said.

"Perhaps your friend's research could be of some use to us," Joe said. "How about this: Alice and Chandler can stay here and touch base with their friend. Perhaps Leta could stay with them for more training. Maybe she should train Daniel, Jenna, Leo, and Ariana, too . . . And that would leave Chaps, Camellia, Preston, Catricia, and me to go to Russia! Any objections?"

There were no objections.

"Fantastic! Off we go!"