Over the Rainbow

“Jimmy!” I whined, hanging from his arm, “My stomach is killing me.”

“I think we should be coming to a orchard or something pretty soon,” He said loosening the tie around his neck.

“Oh look! Apples!” Jimmy was right, we hd walked right into apple tree heaven, but something told me this wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “Do you think it’s alright for us to have some?”

Jimmy was looking around suspiciously, “Maybe we better move on…”

I shrugged and turned around to face him, but there was a big, beautiful red apple blocking him from my view. I will admit that I’m not one for red apples, but I was so hungry it didn’t matter. I just needed something in my stomach.

Reaching up tentatively, I gently plucked the apple and immediately regret it.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” I spin around to see the tree looks pissed.

“I- I was getting an… apple?” That’s is scary as fuck.

“Did you ask if you could have an apple?!” one of the tree’s branches snatched the apple right out of me hand.

“I- I- I-“

“Don’t listen to him Lane, those apples are no good anyway!” Jimmy tugged me into his side as he glared at the tree.

“What’s wrong with our apples?!” I held my breath as I noticed we were surrounded by the living trees.

“All those nasty maggots that are attracted by rotten fruit!” He exclaimed, pushing me behind him and indicated that I was supposed to start running.

I did the best I could in the hooker shoes- and trust me my best wasn’t much. Jimmy caught up with me in no time and handed me a couple apples with a smile guiding me away from obscene spitting trees.

“So!” Jimmy said brightly as we sat on a grassy hill, me eating the apples.

I was about to respond, but a huge puff of purple smoke interrupted me.

“Hello Lane,” the witch sauntered over; Jimmy, ever so protective as he was, pulled me behind him.

“What do you want with her?” The witch laughed in his face.

“Just to see how’s she’s doing, though not well if she’s with a brainless oaf like you!” She fixed him with a hard cold stare as she talked to me, “Lane, I wouldn’t get myself mixed with the likes of him. He’ll only bring you down,” she chuckled; “He’s not smart enough to help you out. On second thought, stay with him. Makes things easier for me!”

She threw a fireball at our feet and we both jumped and fell over, rolling down the steep hill. I could hear her laughing before a thunderous sound was audible and the noise was gone. After that noise died down I could hear voices, one being Jimmy and the other… I don’t know.

I clenched my eyes shut; everything was sore and I’m pretty sure I ripped my skirt. I must have hit my head on a rock when I fell down the hill because I had the world’s worst headache. When Jimmy started calling my name I looked at him, but he kept changing appearance. He kept going from his formal scarecrow self, to a casual looking human- both looked extremely worried. I closed my eyes one last time before I was met with darkness.

“She’s coming to,” I heard an unfamiliar voice state as I blinked several times at the night sky.

“Laney?” I heard, I shook my head and looked at my scarecrow friend.

“Yeah Jimmy?” I noticed we were next to a small fire. It was pretty.

“Oh thank Oz!” Before I knew it I was in Jimmy’s arms, and loosing air.

“Jimmy! Jimmy! You’re suffocating her!” I could detect the amusement in the unknown person’s voice.

“Oh,” he held me at arms length and gave me a sheepish grin, “Sorry.”

“S’alright Jimmy,” I smiled back before looking behind him at the stranger. “Hello?”

“Oh right! Lane, Zacky. Zacky, Lane,” I smiled and he returned it as he reached out his hand. I shuddered when I shook it; he was so cold.

“Sorry,” he must have noticed. “Hard to stay warm when you’re mostly metal.” He gave a short laugh before rubbing the back of his neck, “But once you do get warm, you have to worry about over heating…”

I raised an eyebrow at him; Jimmy answered my silent question, “Zacky here is a cyborg!”

“Oh, cool,” I smiled lightly. Taking him in, I could notice subtle patches of metal on his skin and a slight whirring noise when he moved certain parts of his body. “Whoa,” My eyes widened at the metallic ax he was leaning against; it looked really sharp.

“I’m a woodsman on my spare time,” Zacky broke through my thoughts; I just nodded before shaking my head and smiling at them.

“So what are you when you’re not on your spare time?” I asked, still a little dizzy as we sat back down, Zacky put his hand on my shoulder and steadied me; I gave him a smile in gratitude.

“A doctor,” I raised my eyebrows. “I don’t like seeing people hurt, and the modem in my brain allows for unbelievable data processing speeds. I’m an expert in areas such as neurology all the way to pediatrics.”

“That’s very cool,” I nodded my head, “I wanted to be a doctor for about five minutes when I was nine. What do you do Jimmy?”

It occurred to me that we talked all that much ourselves, “I’m a scientist.”

“Head scientist,” Zacky nudged him and Jimmy blushed; I ‘oh-ed.’

“What kind of science?” I love science. I double minored in basic physics and organic chemistry while in college.

“Ag,” I stuck out my tongue and laughed, the boys laughed along with me.

“I failed botany twice before I passed the class,” I smiled at the memories.

“What do you do now?” Zacky asked.

“Maid at a hotel,” it didn’t bother me that I was suddenly remembering things that I had no recollection of hours ago.

“You live to serve?” Zacky raised an eyebrow.

“Hardy. I serve to live. It was either room service or exotic dancing-“

“You should have taken the second choice. I think you’d be great at it,” Jimmy said firmly, I smiled and shook my head no.

“Hard life?” Zacky smiled sadly.

“Not really. Just… demanding,” I tried my best to describe my life. My job isn’t hard, hell it wouldn’t even be demanding if my manager would get off my back.

My manager… What was her name again?

“You okay?” Zacky looked at me, concern evident on his face.

“Yeah… How did you find us?” I didn’t know if I was okay; my head still hurt.

“The witch took something of mine so I went in search of her. I started running towards her when I saw her smoke; then you guys came down the hill. I broke your fall,” he smiled.

“Oh… Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t hurt you or anything did I?”

“I’m fine!” He laughed. He had a metallic silver tint to his skin under the moonlight; next to the fire he just looked abnormally pale. “You, on the other hand, hit your head pretty hard, and it doesn’t look like it’s the first time either. Normally I don’t tell patients who have head injuries to sleep, but you look like you need it. You’ll be fine, so get some rest.”

I laid down and stared up at the stars, the men beside me mumbled to each other as I started to succumb to sleep. Right before I was out, felt something being laid gently on my body, I looked over my shoulder to see Zacky smile softly at me.

He’s got a heart of gold that one.

“Lane,” I looked back at Jimmy, “We’re heading onto a military base. You need to stay close.”

I stopped and fell back in line, linking my arms with the scarecrow and cyborg. Not much was said as we made our way through the base; all that could be heard was wild animals calling to each other. And then there was a roar. My stomach dropped and I whimpered, pulling two men closer to me.

“Relax Lane,” Jimmy laughed, “It’s just the lion king.”

Zacky snorted his laughter as I stared ahead, pulling them a faster with me.

Now, I may be no expert, but I do know things that roar are generally big, and Jimmy just said it was a lion. Lions eat meat. I’m meat. My fear is justified.

The boys laughed at me every time I jumped at the lion king’s call. It sounded like it was getting closer.

I stopped dead in my tracks at the next thing I heard.

“Trespassers will be executed!”