Maddrax: Volume 4 (English Edition)

By Ian Rolf Hill, Lucy Guth, Simon Borner and Néstor Taylor

With the stolen glider, Aran Kormak finally gets a chance to take revenge on Commander Drax. He manages to track his nemesis down to Numbeeg (aka modern Nuremberg), but his surprise attack doesn’t go as planned when Aruula reaches for the Bodyswapper...

Matt and Aruula also investigate a parallel world area in Coellen, formerly the city of Cologne. There they meet an alternate version of their dead friend Rulfan, who leads a resistance against Daa’mures. Unfortunately, they also come across an alternate version of Matt’s dead nemesis Professor Jacob Smythe!

Meanwhile, in 1942, director Harry Paul Liebwerk prepares to shoot his cinematic magnum opus, “Inside the Demon Crater”, featuring the seasoned actress Greta von Bonnier. But when they travel to the filming location, billowing lights appear and real lava dragons emerge from the craters!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J-Novel Pulp
• Release date: Jul 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781718329461

Book preview

The Story So Far

By Ian Rolf Hill

This introduction is meant to give you a quick insight into the MADDRAX universe. For those of you who want to know the whole story, please check the extended synopsis at the end of the volume.

---

On February 8th, 2012, the comet Christopher-Floyd crashed into the Earth. United States Air Force flight commander Matthew Drax was deployed to observe the comet’s approach. When Drax and his squadron made contact with the Comet, however, they were flung five hundred years into the future.

During this time, the world as he knows it changes drastically: human civilization undergoes extreme degeneration, to the point of now resembling the Bronze Age: the world’s once-great cities lie in ruins, there are no longer any official forms of government, and people regress to living in clans and tribes, moving through the wilderness like nomads and calling themselves the Wandering Folk. Earth’s plants and animals have also mutated in bizarre and dangerous ways.

Upon exiting the timeslip, Drax crashes alone in the Alps. His passenger, the scientist and professor Dr. Jacob Smythe, triggered his ejector seat out of panic and is now missing. There is no trace of Drax’s other comrades.

Attacked by mutated, semi-intelligent giant rats called Taratzes, Matt is saved by a barbarian warrior named Aruula. As she finds his name, Matt Drax, difficult to pronounce, she gives him the nickname Maddrax. A telepath, Aruula is instantly able to understand Matt, and the two form a connection. Soon after, Aruula falls in love with Drax and remains by his side throughout his adventures.

In London, Matt and Aruula meet a group known as the Technos, whose ancestors survived the comet’s impact in bunkers beneath the city. By avoiding the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the group has not only retained its twenty-first-century intelligence, but continued to invent and innovate. However, this knowledge has come at a price: due to their centuries-long stay in the bunkers, the Technos have depleted immune systems, and are only able to visit the surface in protective suits. The community in London offers to connect Drax with other Technos around the world. The journey brings Matt and Aruula to America, now known as Meeraka in the language of the Wandering Folk.

Along the way, they encounter the Hydrites, an anthropomorphized species of fish-people. Later, it is revealed that they are not mutants, but rather an alien race who initially settled on Mars, where they were known as Hydrees. When Mars began losing its atmosphere hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Hydrees traveled along a tachyon-based time beam to Earth, where they took the name Hydrite and settled the undersea frontiers.

One of the Hydrites—a man named Quart’ol—begins traveling with the pair, ultimately sacrificing himself to save Matt’s life. In the aftermath, Matt and Aruula are separated before they can reach Meeraka. While Aruula is forced to travel with the Neo-Barbarian Rulfan (son of a London Techno and a barbarian woman), Matt Drax reaches the coast of the former USA.

In Washington (now Waashton), Matt learns of another bunker-based civilization, one calling itself the World Council and claiming to be the true global political leaders. The council’s president—General Arthur Crow—is a power-obsessed dictator looking to cement his grip on the world. A rebel group, the Running Men, seeks to thwart his plans. The Running Men are led by Mr. Black, a clone of the last US President (and a certain beloved action movie star).

During the clash between the World Council and the rebels, an outside consciousness takes control of Matt Drax. This turns out to be Quart’ol, who at the moment of his death, transferred his soul into Matt’s brain. Quart’ol brings Drax to an undersea city of Hydrites, Hykton, in order to have his consciousness implanted in a clone of his original body.

Matt returns to Waashton where he reunites with Aruula. Together, they are forced to flee from the World Council and end up in Los Angeles (now called El’ay). There, they meet the android Miki Takeo, who becomes one of their closest friends.

Meanwhile, the World Council plans a mission to the ISS, where they hope to find information about the comet’s impact. Matt is forced to travel on a repaired space shuttle to make the trip and recover the data. From space, Matt is able to see that life began evolving much faster near the site of the comet’s impact in Siberia than in other locations.

Together with Miki Takeo, Matt organizes an expedition to Crater Lake. The World Council also catches wind of the discovery and a team is en route. On the long and dangerous journey to Crater Lake, Aruula is possessed by a strange consciousness which calls itself GREEN and is a type of plant-based hive mind. Upon Matt and Aruula’s arrival at Crater Lake, the warrior reveals that she is pregnant, and that her child also possesses plant DNA. GREEN has apparently manipulated the embryo’s development, whereby its gestation is changed. Cruelly, Aruula’s child is taken from her womb by an unknown creature before she can give birth.

Shortly thereafter, Matt and Quart’ol make a shocking discovery: Comet Christopher-Floyd was actually a spaceship!

The ship was an ark belonging to an alien species known as the Daa’mures, who were searching for a new homeworld and crashed on Earth. The Daa’murian consciousness is stored in green crystals, whose energy is not only responsible for humanity’s degeneration, but also the mutations of other species. Their motivation is clear: the Daa’mures are using the mutations to find ideal host bodies in which to rehouse their minds. A further surprise comes in the form of information that the spaceship is also a cosmic being, known as an Oqualun or Wanderer.

When Matt accidentally destroys a Daa’murian egg, he is instantly declared enemy number one. Together with his friends, he flees to Russia. There, he meets with a group of Technos who have created an immunity serum from the blood of Mr. Black, allowing various bunker inhabitants to visit the surface without protection. They also confirm that Matt’s body has been flooded with tachyons, which slow down the aging process—possibly as a result of the time slip.

Matt annihilates the Daa’mures’ mutant army and couriers the immunity serum back to London, where he forms an alliance against the Daa’mures with General Crow.

The Daa’mures succeed at reactivating the Wanderer, which sends out a planetwide electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and takes all remaining technology on Earth out of commission. Chaos breaks out, and the Technos are forced to flee their bunkers without protection. As if that were not enough, Matt and Aruula learn that the Daa’mures themselves are only one of countless servant races created by the Wanderers to protect themselves from their enemies: the Warriors, cosmic hunters of unimaginable strength.

Matt and his allies are able to hold off the Wanderer, but the Warrior is quickly on his target’s trail. In order to overcome this threat, Matt searches beneath the Antarctic ice to find a long-lost legendary weapon created by the Hydrees: the Surface Reamer. A grand artifact of unimaginable destruction, it is naturally being pursued by General Crow as well. He attempts to force Matt to fire the Reamer at Washington, hoping to eradicate the Running Men in the process.

However, Matt manages to change the target coordinates at the last second. Instead of hitting Washington, Matt targets an area in the Appalachian mountains, where General Crow was operating a factory building organic robots. The shot effectively exchanges a region five kilometers in diameter with a bubble containing its counterpart from almost million years into the future, The Earth is left defenseless against the Warrior.

With the help of a converter that harnesses the Earth’s magnetic field, Matt is able to reload the Surface Reamer, only for it to backfire when the Warrior comes into range. The Warrior destroys the Earth, and Matt only has one chance left to fix things: entering the time bubbles created by the misfire, which lead to both the past and future.

While traveling through various parallel worlds, Matt meets the archaeologist and time traveler Tom Ericson in the year 2304. Ericson works for a group of evolved humans from the future who call themselves the Archivists. Their goal is not only to collect technical achievements from the parallel worlds but also to remove any dangerous time lines and continuities from existence. Matt, therefore, gains an opportunity to quickly reload the Surface Reamer and defeat the Warrior. Unfortunately, too late, and the Moon is launched from its orbit into the Reamer’s firing path, threatening to crash into the Earth.

Matt and Aruula travel through a wormhole at CERN and are sent to a far distant ring planet system. There they meet another alien species called the Kasynari. They offer to assist humanity with the evacuation of Earth through the use of a portable wormhole generator. In reality, their goal is to feed off the mental energy of human brains. Only by doing so they are able to maintain the camouflage required to protect their home planet.

Ultimately, it is revealed that the true threat is another Wanderer: like the Daa’mures, the Kasynari are servants of the Oqualun. However, their plan fails and the camouflage screen is nullified. In order to help the Kasynari and save the Earth, Matt and Aruula make contact with the species from whom the Kasynari adapted the wormhole technology: the Pancinovas. With their help, the pair are able to transport the Surface Reamer from the Antarctic to the ring planet system and give the Kasynari a weapon to use against the Warriors pursuing the Wanderer.

And that’s not all! The Pancinovas manage to perform the impossible: They create a gigantic wormhole that sends the moon back to its orbit, saving the Earth before returning to their own solar system. However, the wormhole passage to the ring planet system has collapsed. Contact is lost between Earth and the established colony on the moon Novis.

Before the collapse, a military hardliner named Colonel Aran Kormak also had a lucky break and escaped the collapsing wormhole. Doing so triggered a chain reaction with unexpected consequences: all across Earth, regions measuring exactly fifty kilometers in diameter have been replaced with their counterparts from parallel worlds, surrounded by near-impenetrable forests of thorns.

Brand New Perspectives

by Ian Rolf Hill

Lightning flashed above the dome’s pulsating glow. Aruula held her breath as she watched the dome expand and devour one row of houses after another. At a tearing pace the light approached the glider. The glider seemed almost motionless. It reacted much too slowly.

Come on! Aruula muttered, drenched in sweat. Come on!

A blink of an eye later, a powerful force shook the aircraft. Bright light billowed into the cockpit. Blinded, Aruula closed her eyes.

That was...

...verrry dangerousss! Ydiel summed up before cautiously sniffing the algae that the Hydrites had left them as provisions.

At the moment, they were in Rymaris, a Hydritic city located approximately three hundred kilometers north of Rome. Maybe it was the illuminated dome situated five hundred meters below sea level that had triggered Aruula’s memory of the recent events. They had gladly accepted the invitation to spend some time in the underwater city following the exhausting action of the past few days. A short break would do them good.

Matt nodded at Ydiel’s remark. You can say that again. Above all it was a close call! Yet again.

He was overjoyed that they had survived their adventure in Rome mostly unscathed. With one exception. He had been informed that the arrival of the wild Hydrites had been accompanied by a violent incident during which their leader, Shin’loa’s father, had been killed by a member of the group.

Aruula had already talked to Shin’loa, who blamed herself for the escalation. Ever since the incident she had tried her best to keep the Circle of Contemplation, as they called themselves, together. If, and only if, all of them definitively renounced the consumption of meat and fish, they would be allowed to stay permanently.

But it was all up to the Hydrites now; Matt didn’t want to meddle. Besides, he had enough other problems to address. Currently, the chief issue was the fact that the events in Rome had been caused by an Archivist, a mysterious creature from Earth’s distant future. Normally, they were a peaceful species who had made it their mission to clean up temporal anomalies and preserve technological treasures from all periods and parallel worlds in their Timeless Room.

The Archivist known as Pater, however, differed from his colleagues. In order to create a fief over which he could rule, he had used stolen artifacts to infiltrate a parallel world, one where Rome had taken over the world. Playing the part of a gray eminence, Pater had pulled the empire’s strings—and reacted in a most unpleasant manner upon realizing that the world shift had significantly reduced his sphere of influence.

Well, that was all water under the bridge now. In the end, Rome, including Pater himself, had been devoured by the energy bubble. All that remained of him was the hand of his right arm, which he had lost when the glider had crashed. And the BagBox, which had been salvaged by Aruula. Aside from the Bodyswapper used by the Archivist to crown himself pontifex maximus of the parallel Roman world, it contained a variety of unknown artifacts whose potential power worried Matthew.

Aruula examined Pater’s severed hand, which she had cut off from the arm with her sword. She only held on to this body part because the BagBox’s locking mechanism was linked to this hand. Without Pater’s hand, it was impossible to open the jet-black box that was bigger on the inside than its outside suggested.

What will we do with the BagBox? Aruula spoke up.

Matt shrugged. I’ll think of something, he replied vaguely. In his thoughts, he added, something to make it permanently disappear from the face of the earth. Its contents were much too dangerous to risk having it fall into the wrong hands.

Aruula’s next question surprised Matt. Do you think the Archivists have something to do with the parallel world areas? It seemed that she had also noticed the possible implications of Pater’s presence.

Matt sighed heavily. I wonder about that myself. We know they come from the future, and they can access various parallel worlds from the Timeless Room. But usually, they don’t interfere on such a large scale.

Aruula grimaced skeptically. That didn’t prevent Pater from trying to subjugate an entire world.

Pater seems to be an atypical Archivist. Just like—

He just barely stopped short of uttering a name: Samugaar. The mad Archivist who had controlled Aruula and had made her do things that still caused her nightmares all this time later.

Seemsss like who? Ydiel asked curiously.

Matt managed to keep a poker face rather than glaring angrily; after all, the Dinoroid didn’t know. Someone very similar to Pater, he replied while circling his index finger on his temple. A megalomaniac who had lost his marbles.

Ydiel tilted his head. Lost hisss...marblesss? I don’t underssstand.

The warrior from the Thirteen Islands snorted. Don’t worry about it. Even I don’t always understand his bizarre idioms. Maddrax comes from a different time, and it shows in weird things he sometimes says. He means to say that Pater was crazy.

Crrrazy and dangerousss!

As I said.

We should get the BagBox to safety, so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, Matt changed the subject back to the major issue. I suggest taking it to the Refuge of Knowledge.

Good idea, Quart’ol affirmed. There, Juefaan and Basti Eisenmann can take a closer look at it.

"Sorry, but that’s a bad idea, Aruula countered, considering what Basti recently did."

Confused, Quart’ol glanced at Matt. Why? What happened? Did I miss something?

You...could say that, Matt answered in Aruula’s place and quickly brought the Hydrite up to speed regarding their encounter with Vitaal MacLeone. Quart’ol appeared visibly shocked, since he knew the old retrologist.

But you can’t blame him for trying to seize that opportunity for himself, Quart’ol said. Even if he was careless and too trustful.

Matt smiled faintly. Sometimes he felt like he was talking to himself in the presence of the Hydrite. Nonetheless, Aruula’s concerns are justified, he replied. Therefore, I only want to initiate Juefaan. And since the BagBox can only be opened with the Archivist’s hand, he pointed at Aruula’s macabre trophy, it shouldn’t be too difficult to keep it secure.

Let’s hope so, by Wudan, Aruula grumbled. She remained skeptical—which was a good thing. The fact that they didn’t always agree was an advantage when confronted with the thorny questions of ethics and morality which often arose during their journeys. But I trust you! she concluded with a hesitant smile.

Matt looked at Ydiel. Trussst you! the Dinoroid repeated, and Quart’ol nodded in agreement.

Then it’s decided, declared the Hydrite and the former commander almost in unison, prompting laughter from both of them.

Matt enjoyed this brief moment of lightheartedness.

When do you plan on leaving? Quart’ol asked finally.

In principle, as quickly as possible. But it should be fine if we wait until tomorrow morning. Only after replying did Matt realize the meaning of the Hydrite’s words. Wait a moment—you don’t want to come along?

Quart’ol shook his head. No. I’ll stay here and do everything in my power to prevent the Hydrite Council from denying our brethren the opportunity to integrate—especially after the tragic incident. But I would be more than glad to welcome you as guests for tonight. We will get you to Triest tomorrow morning. You’ll get provisions too. Besides, you probably need some time to yourselves following all the stress.

Matt looked into the eyes of Aruula, whose face had turned slightly red hearing the Hydrite’s words.

Offer accepted, the man from the past answered.

He observed Ydiel from the corner of his eye. The Dinoroid examined the BagBox from all angles and repeatedly glanced at the Archivist’s severed hand.

Matt decided to keep an eye on the box. He did trust Ydiel, but their young friend was still a scientist and naturally curious. Moreover, he belonged to a species with a completely different value system. Matt couldn’t blame Ydiel for grasping at every straw that held the potential of returning him and his people back to their homeworld—the straw, in this case, being the artifacts inside the BagBox.

The Dinoroid had noticed Matt’s stare but luckily misinterpreted it. Offer accepted! he echoed, assuming that the former flight commander awaited his confirmation.

***

Where is Margaux?

Johnson was leaning on the open hatch, staring at Kormak with his red, swollen eyes. He didn’t notice the colonel grimacing in disgust, since the commanding officer had turned his back on the soldier. But even if they had faced each other eye to eye, it was doubtful whether Johnson could have correctly interpreted Kormak’s expressions.

After all, the soldier was hopped up on orym. Almost the entirety of his crew in Knocks was addicted to the drug; it was one of the main reasons why Kormak had managed to conquer the fort in no time.

The soft, undisciplined soldiers virtually craved a strong hand to lead them—someone to take command and tell them what to do. Kormak briefly considered making an example of Johnson, but he quickly rejected the idea. Since pretty much all of them were addicted to orym, Kormak would have needed to punish everyone.

Besides, he currently had more pressing worries. For hours now he had been brooding over the technical plans for the glider that he had quite literally stolen from under Miki Takeo’s nose. The tin man had compiled the plans in an electronic manual, which Kormak now studied on the status monitor between the seats.

He still didn’t have enough flight time to have acquired the skill necessary to fully control the aircraft. It was something of a minor miracle that he had made it back to Knocks in one piece and without any damage. But if he was to face Drax, Kormak would need to know the glider and its functions like the back of his hand.

Gone, Kormak gave a succinct reply to Johnson’s question regarding the whereabouts of their erstwhile comrade. Margaux hadn’t just accompanied the expedition to Yutaan but also gone with Kormak to Sub’sisco. There, she had helped her commander as he posed as an ordinary soldier to infiltrate Miki Takeo’s base.

In the end, Kormak had been forced to leave her behind. He didn’t know what had happened to her afterward. Maybe she would eventually return, or maybe not. Kormak guessed that Suzi Quinn had probably shot Margaux as a saboteur.

The thought of the general stirred his rage. He had made it into her bed, and everything would have gone according to plan if not for that bitch Enoya. On top of somehow surviving the Sonoran Desert, she had managed to reach the Oasis of the Hundred, where she had outed him to Quinn. He could still feel the pain in his left hand where the female general’s throwing star had hit him.

What do you mean...gone?

Kormak sighed and turned around on the pilot seat. The sun was mercilessly shining down onto the glider. Inside the cockpit reigned a suffocating heat that made him break out into a sweat.

Margaux didn’t make it. I had to leave her behind.

Johnson straightened and blinked in confusion. Kormak could virtually see the soldier trying to make sense of his reply.

Any more questions, soldier? Kormak hissed in a dangerously quiet voice.

Johnson turned pale. N-No, sir!

Good. Then send in someone who isn’t completely drugged up. Get moving!

The soldier almost tripped over his own feet upon leaving the glider.

Kormak himself also consumed orym, but only to increase the prospects of success for a mission, not to get high out of boredom. Therein lay the subtle distinction. Johnson and his comrade were controlled by the orym. Kormak, however, controlled the orym. It was as simple as that.

Shortly after, Ludewick appeared. Kormak grunted contentedly when he saw that the soldier was still master over his own senses. Johnson said you wanted to see me, sir?

Yes. I want you to take over command during my absence!

Surprised, Ludewick raised his eyebrows. You want to leave again, sir?

Kormak nodded toward the monitor. I’ll conduct a couple of test flights and accustom myself to the glider’s controls. No idea how long that will take. His gaze wandered from the screen toward his subordinate. But I don’t want to come across a bunch of high idiots when I return! Understood?

Instinctively, Ludewick snapped to attention. Sir, yes, sir!

Dismissed!

Ludewick started to turn around but stopped midway. Sir!

Margaux had to stay behind. She’s a soldier. She knows what it means to make sacrifices, Kormak answered the unspoken question without looking up. He focused on the manual.

Yes, sir!

Aran quickly forgot the conversation. His body stiffened, thrilled by what he had just discovered in Takeo’s manual. Suddenly, his heart was racing. If this worked, he would get his revenge sooner than planned. The colonel burst into frenetic activity.

He hurriedly organized himself a backpack with three days’ worth of water and food rations as well as a bag of orym. Then he prepared for takeoff. His hands began trembling slightly upon starting the engines. Gentle vibrations passed through the glider, which shortly after left Knocks’s courtyard behind in a cloud of dust.

As soon as he had flown over the fort walls, Kormak activated the tracking system. It allowed him to locate any aircraft using the same operating system anywhere across the planet. It was quite a useful function, and it would be Drax’s doom.

But the status monitor didn’t detect any signals! Kormak feverishly engaged in troubleshooting. He started with that mainstay of electronic solutions: turning the tracking system off and on again. Repeatedly, in fact. Maybe Drax had preempted him by sending a jamming signal. It was possible that he had learned of the glider’s theft by now.

It was yet another reason for Kormak to hurry. Even if Drax was still unaware of the second glider’s loss, the likelihood of him finding out grew with every passing minute. And then Kormak would have wasted his advantage. Not just the information that he had stolen an equal or possibly even superior aircraft, but above all the fact of his presence on Earth.

Drax and his barbarian tramp still believed him to be on Novis after all. Or maybe they even thought him dead. However, once Suzi Quinn succeeded in contacting them via radio, Drax would quickly draw the right conclusions from her descriptions.

Kormak also considered the possibility that Drax and Aruula were currently on the other side of the planet, making the failed tracking simply an issue of weak signal strength. And so Kormak ascended higher into Earth’s atmosphere, knowing full well how risky that was given his lack of flight experience. He hadn’t made it this far by sitting on the fence. Risks were necessary for success, and so far Kormak’s instincts had been proved right.

The engines howled when he pulled up the glider’s nose. The pressure from the acceleration pushed Aran’s body into the seat. His stomach cramped. His heart pounded. And then...

Pling!

Kormak flinched upon hearing the noise. At the same time, he hazily noticed a point of light blinking on the monitor.

Pling!

The colonel stabilized the flight trajectory and switched to autopilot. Next, he pulled up the tracking system’s map view and zoomed in on the area where the signal had originated. It came from Euree, or more precisely, close to Ittalya.

Just 7,760 kilometers! Kormak muttered and transmitted the course to the autopilot. Piece of cake!

At least the flight would give him enough time to delve further into the operating manual. Aran Kormak comfortably leaned back in the pilot chair, placed his legs on the steering console, and opened up the chapter that had caught his eye before departure.

Takeover protocol, he read out loud and smiled.

***

I feel like our child needs a name!

Right after sunrise, the Hydrites had dropped them on the Adriatic shore. Their farewells to Quart’ol had been brief but heartfelt, and of course, not without the promise to stay in contact and see each other again in the near future.

According to the navigation computer the flight distance to Scotland was just under seventeen hundred kilometers—child’s play for the glider. It would take them two hours at most. The flight gave them more than enough time to engage with the truly important matters of life.

What child? asked Aruula, who was sitting as usual in the copilot chair next to her partner.

Instead of giving her a reply, Matt fidgeted with the status monitor situated in the console between them.

They had left behind the Alps’ mighty massif and were flying over the thick woods of former Bavaria. Over the course of centuries, those forests had developed into a giant, tangled jungle from which occasionally rose clusters of ruins. They floated like islands in an ocean of vegetation—the last witnesses of a long-lost time. His time.

You are prrregnant? Matt was torn out of his reverie by the Dinoroid’s question to Aruula.

The warrior from the Thirteen Islands rolled her eyes. "Maddrax meant the glider, Ydiel."

Matt ignored the underlying sarcasm in her voice. Why shouldn’t they name the machine which they entrusted with their life day after day? After all, they had already gone through a lot together.

Matt explained his reasoning to the Dinoroid, concluding with the following words: Such a name symbolized the bond between the owner and the machine. It’s an old custom from the time when people gave names to their ships before advancing into unknown, hostile waters. Often the name was related to a desire or hope. Sometimes it just honored an important person from our past.

Rekar, Ydiel spoke the name of his brood partner, who hadn’t accompanied him into this world, and chirped quietly. It was still unclear whether Rekar was dead or left behind in the Dinoroids’ native dimension, but the pain of separation was real either way.

Matt knew that the Dinoroid was mourning for his female, even if it was probably somewhat different from human grief. Something like that, he reciprocated and thought of a way to gently inform Ydiel that he and Aruula didn’t have any connection to that name.

How about Novis? Aruula asked. In honor of the friends we had to leave behind?

Matt nodded. Better. Although... he paused. Diagonally ahead, approximately ten kilometers away, he saw a tiny, yellow light. He had only noticed it thanks to his improved eyes, a souvenir from the now-missing Agartha. In addition, they were currently flying at a relatively low altitude due to a thick cloud ceiling.

The light hovered over a city of considerable size. Even from a distance, the mighty, fortresslike walls stood out to Matt. A castle—but not just any. During his deployment to the Köpenick airbase in Berlin, Matthew had often gone on trips within Germany to explore the country. Among other destinations, he had visited the beautiful city of Nuremberg whose landmark was the multi-section castle.

I can’t believe my eyes! The words slipped out of Matt’s mouth. However, he wasn’t referring to the surprisingly well-maintained castle, but the yellow light.

What is that? Aruula leaned forward and squinted her eyes.

Matt was already in the process of changing course. It didn’t matter if the detour would take them an extra hour. If his senses hadn’t deceived him, he had to investigate this light. The mere sight made his mouth start to water. Especially since their food rations consisted only of dry seaweed, which could be turned into a mush of dubious texture by mixing it with water.

If that is what I think it is, we have to go take a look!

Not even twenty seconds later, Matt’s assumptions were confirmed. The two luminous yellow arches forming a golden M on a red sign were unmistakable.

Back in my time, that was one of the most famous symbols across the world, he said. No matter your social status, culture, or religion, everyone recognized this sign.

Isss beautiful, Ydiel chimed in from the back.

It is, isn’t it? Matt smiled. He knew that the Dinoroids had an instinctive aversion to angular shapes with sharp edges. They loved soft curves and arches, and consequently all their buildings had circular or oval layouts.

And what does this symbol tell us? Aruula inquired.

That there is food. It’s a fast-food chain.

Fassst-food?

It means you don’t have to wait long for your order. No idea if there is actually a McDonald’s branch down there. But if there’s even a slight chance to munch on something other than seaweed, we should take it. You have to taste a cheeseburger. Or a McRib. Or the chicken nuggets.

Ydiel leaned forward and whispered something to Aruula, who just shrugged in response.

I’ve got no idea what he’s talking about, she murmured to the Dinoroid. But when he gets that look, it’s best to leave him alone.

Ignoring his companions’ whispering, Matt was already on the lookout for a suitable landing zone. He wanted to avoid touching down in the middle of the city. The glider tended to incite people’s greediness. He still vividly remembered the events in Mérida, on the Yucatán Peninsula.

It didn’t take long for Matt to resolve the problem. Not far from the northern city gates lay a clearing inside the junglelike forest. It appeared that the current residents of Nuremberg had retreated behind the old city walls. The rest of the former metropolis had steadily been reclaimed by nature, like many other postapocalyptic cities that Matt had visited so far.

As such he was all the more surprised about the great condition of the old town. The residents seemed to be doing all right, which must have been partly because the old city walls didn’t just protect them from the wild, mutated animals but also the barbarian tribes.

Matt landed the glider in a former industrial zone in front of a warehouse with holes in its roof from which rose huge trees whose crowns provided shade to the paved forecourt. Grass, vines, and bushes were growing throughout the cracks in the concrete.

Do you think it’s a good idea to show up with Ydiel?

Aruula was right. The young Dinoroid attracted attention with his appearance alone. They needed to avoid any unnecessary risks. He looked too much like a Daa’mure.

You’re right, Matt replied and turned to Ydiel. It’s really better if you stay behind. The Dinoroid chirped in disappointment.

Don’t worry, we’ll bring back something tasty, Matt declared. But it’s better if someone guards the glider.

Okee! Ydiel hissed without hiding his disappointment.

Here, Matt handed the Dinoroid one of the two headsets. We’ll stay in contact with this. Contact us if you think something’s strange or if someone takes an interest in the glider. In that case, we’ll come back right away.

Aruula, who had already stood, took her sword and opened the side hatch. Attentively, she surveyed the surroundings while Matt stopped next to the BagBox.

He briefly hesitated before shouldering it. Better safe than sorry, he commented upon noticing Aruula’s puzzled look.

It wasn’t like he distrusted Ydiel. But scientific curiosity paired with boredom could bear dangerous fruits. Even without any evil intentions, too much bad stuff had happened as a result of carelessness.

***

Aleeksander was an Ignoramus!

And he was proud of it!

The Order was his family; the man had never known his biological parents. He had been an infant when they had dropped him off at the monastery gates. In his eyes, it was the best thing that could have happened to him.

To be fair, he had been incredibly lucky that the monks hadn’t just ignored him. After all, that was the creed by which they had lived for centuries, isolated from the outside world, far away from all the hustle, in the middle of an impenetrable jungle to which the monastery owed its name.

Waldsassen.

Occasionally, an Ignoramus drove a Kamauler carriage to Numbeeg to restock supplies. The monks tried to be as self-sufficient as possible, but they still had to buy some things. Their only means of payment were the thousands of books stacked in the monastery’s library, where a carved figure of their patron saint hung above the altar.

With a sullen look, the Ignoramus loomed over his apostles as they laboriously copied by hand one book after the other. On request, they even translated the books into the language of the Wandering Folks.

While those copies didn’t fetch a high price at Numbeeg’s Novelty-Bazaar, the visitors valued the monks’ work, above all because of the images in the facsimile reproductions. The cityfolk rewarded the monks with barrels of root beer, dried meat, and bread.

Contrary to his brothers, Aleeksander liked driving to the city. He enjoyed the hustle and bustle, because as much as he loved sitting and writing in the dark, dusty library, his brothers’ silence weighed on his mind. At the same time, his brothers were glad that someone volunteered for the arduous journey through the forest.

The Kamaulers’ extreme stubbornness could even put an Ignoramus’s patience to a grueling test. The night was still dark when Aleeksander heaved the panniers of transcripts onto the loading area next to the root beer barrels.

Aleeks welcomed the fact that the Moon was hiding behind the clouds. For the longest time it had hung in the sky above them as a giant, impossible to ignore. Aleeksander knew because he had tried to ignore it to no avail.

Until one night, all of a sudden, the Moon had become tiny again, without any forewarning or dire consequences. Aleeks and his brothers didn’t know what had happened, and they didn’t care either. They just felt validated in their belief that all problems resolved themselves if you simply ignored them long enough.

Aleeksander yawned deeply before combing his fuzzy blond hair with both hands and pulling up the hood of his black robe. It was chilly, and he didn’t intend to catch a cold on the long drive.

Dawn had already begun to illumine the horizon when he hopped onto the driver’s seat with a groan and flicked the reins. The Kamaulers ignored him. Only on the third try did they slowly start moving. The iron-coated wheels creaked as they rolled over the bumpy road.

No lights were burning; the windows of the empty ruins remained dark.

The monastery was indeed one of the few intact buildings in Waldsassen. And since the monks generally only accepted Ignoramuses, the other residents had gradually moved to new homes, mostly in Numbeeg. The last of them had only left during the impending moon collision. Those futile attempts to escape alone had proven to Aleeksander that none of them had been true Ignoramuses.

While the sun slowly rose behind him, Aleeks dozed off on the driver’s seat. The Kamauler carriage’s constant swaying, the creaking and crunching of the wheels, and the aromatic fresh air virtually lulled