CHAPTER 152

In a desperate attempt to accomplish something, the planes dropped their bombs. The bombs fell only halfway to the ground before they rocketed back into the sky and exploded. It was like a 4th of July show on steroids, and Beth cheered when it came to an end.

If you count to a million out loud and say "Ready or not, here I come," I'll give you a hint. Jenny's laughter was distorted. You can get as many hints as you want!

"You know what? Fuck you. I'm not even going to look." War sat down with his legs crossed. "I'm the personification of War. I'm immortal. You will go mad long before I do."

Quitter, Jenny replied. Quitter-Quitter. Quitterquitterquitterquitter...

"Lady Beth?" Reggie took her by the hand as Jenny's voice steadily grew louder. "I think it's time we take our leave."

"I agree."

The two of them waited in space for a minute before the others returned. The horsemen looked defeated, and War appeared in a golden nimbus of light. He looked at Murray with a scowl.

"I end my turn." He moved away from the group and contemplated the Earth.

Quitter, whispered Jenny. You needed a lot of hints.

"Saying hot and cold didn't accomplish anything," Famine muttered.

"I would like to reassure everyone that only a couple of minutes passed during the last round," Murray added. "It is Pestilence's turn."

Pestilence attacked Irkutsk from Siberia. They won the first two rounds, but Jenny's mysterious troops didn't make a single appearance. Instead, the doll just appeared in Pestilence's hands both times.

The horseman, clearly lacking creativity or patience, had promptly torn her apart.

On the third round, the shadows gobbled up Pestilence's troops without a sound. Jenny didn't bother taunting Pestilence like she had War. Instead, a group of people arrived holding bug nets and glass jars.

Puzzled by this development, everyone watched in silence as Pestilence was stabbed with a knife and the bugs were rounded up and caught. Beth wondered if Pestilence's consciousness was contained in just one specific bug or all of them.

The glowing bugs were then separated into individual glass jars. The humans laughed maliciously as they shook them, jostling the bugs inside.

Whoever keeps their bug alive wins a prize! Jenny announced. The humans let out a cheer as they separated. And don't forget, they love to listen to music and need to eat shit to survive!

"This is inhumane!" Famine declared, then looked at Murray. "You can't allow this!"

"Sounds like you're just mad that you didn't think of something equally insidious," Beth responded. Through the months of torture fighting these guys, it occurred to her that they could have put her in a POW camp and starved her to death, or something similar. Instead, they had focused on the brutality of her death rather than breaking her spirit.

Jenny had been infinitely more calculating in her strategy, and had zero qualms about torture of any kind.

Murray said nothing. Beth and Reggie stepped out of the round and waited. When Pestilence reformed, their shoulders were slumped forward as if under a heavy strain. The horseman buzzed something at their brothers, and War's face turned bright red.

"If you back out, I will kill you myself!" he declared.

War's statement was very curious. She had been under the impression that a horseman couldn't be killed. Was War just angry, or did he mean it?

Pestilence buzzed some more, but then shrugged their shoulders.

It was Jenny's turn. She cackled maniacally and added troops to territories that needed them then ended her turn.

Famine looked uncertain. The horsemen had been cocky the entire game, but now were avoiding eye contact with each other. Their morale had taken a heavy hit.

When Famine attacked, he stood on top of a building while commanding the Hunger. The dark beings tore through the city, looking for any sign of Jenny or her army. The search went on for quite some time before the Hunger began to disappear.

"How is she doing this?" War asked, his voice unusually quiet.

Famine looked over at his brother. Sweat had beaded upon his brow as it became clear that Jenny had won the die rolls.

Pop goes the Weasel began to play, and the group turned to see a Jack-in-the-Box on the ground, its mechanical arm moving by itself.

"I'm not going near that," Famine declared.

Jenny appeared on the roof, her body as large as a small child. She flickered in and out of existence as she picked up the Jack-in-the-Box and walked toward Famine.

Don't be a baby, she told him. After all, it's just a child's toy.

Famine backed away from her until his back was against the edge of the roof. He looked over the side, nodded to himself, and jumped.

There was a loud clang of metal, and Famine was tossed back onto the roof by a metal ladder with legs like a centipede. Beth gasped when she saw it, suddenly realizing exactly what kind of troops Jenny had picked.

Tick tock, motherfucker. Jenny played the final note, and the lid of the Jack-and-the-Box lifted away to reveal a tube-like creature made of fangs that expanded and swallowed Famine whole. Everyone on the roof save for Murray cried out in alarm as the mimic shrank down and pulled itself back into the Jack-in-a-Box.

Moments passed, and Jenny looked around at everyone.

This will take a while, she announced. They digest things really slowly. And it hurts the whole time that you're dying. Her laughter ricocheted around them.

"There's no way he fits inside there," War pointed out.

They're bigger on the inside, Jenny replied, then looked at Pestilence. I should have done this with the jars.

Pestilence made an alarmed buzzing sound.

"You can quit after this turn," Murray said. "But not during."

War turned to argue with Pestilence just as a tiny drop of black blood squeezed out of the Jack-in-the-Box. Beth and Reggie disappeared, leaving the horsemen to their torment.