Episode 8 - Chapter 70

 I cleaned up the mess as best I could, prepared our drinks and hurriedly returned to the living room.

“Well?” I asked, as I handed Mary her coffee, “What have I missed? That thunder can't have been a coincidence. Frightened the life out of me, so it did.”

“A message from the Forest,” my wife replied, that smug told you so twinkle in her eye. She shuffled forward in her seat, her excitement releasing itself through the fidgets. “Raven's back on the team,” she said proudly, “Now we're waiting.”

“Is that true?” I asked Oak a I took my seat. He nodded dourly. “Waiting for what?”

“For Raven's return,” he replied, “Or at least another message, or further instruction from the Forest.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 69

 “We must apologise,” Strauss says with some confusion, “But we're not sure we follow your thinking.”

“It's simple,” Robert replies, becoming quite animated. “I don't have to see the market, you don't have to see the market. The only one of us who does is Fi, and she can. The rest of us aren't going there. The only place I need to see is my meadow. The only place Raven needs to see is mum and dad's house.”

“But if we are to accompany all three of you,” Strauss responds, “Don't we need to see all three places?”

“Maybe not,” Robert tells him, “Maybe you wont see any of them. As long you're with us, maybe we have to guide you.”

“However you want to crumble that cookie,” Fiona interrupts, “I suggest we slow down before we crash into the market, whether we can see it or not.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 68

 All four occupants of the car fall silent for a few moments, the hum of the engine becomes their soundtrack. Fields pass them by, birds fly over head, clouds transform and mutate in a light breeze.

It's Fiona that speaks first. “The market,” she says, “We're getting closer to it, how can you not see?”

“This is the Weave,” both Raven and Strauss reply in unison. “A place that is real to you, m'lady,” the driver continues, “Is not necessarily there at all to anybody else.”

“Hang on,” Robert interrupts, “Are you saying a place can be there and not there at the same time?”

“Quite so, Mister Robert,” Strauss confirms.

“Then it shouldn't be a problem whether we can see it or not,” Robert replies, “We aren't going there.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 67

 Strauss puts the car into gear, revs the engine and they're off, through the hole in the cavern wall and into the world beyond.

“You really can't see the market?” Fiona asks her husband with a touch of disbelief. “You don't see its' central scroll reaching for the heavens?”

“Nope,” Robert replies apologetically, “Sorry.”

“Well what can you see,” she presses him further, “Describe it to me.”

“I can see the road,” he says, “Stretching straight ahead to the horizon. I see the luscious green fields at the side of the road. Over there on the left,” he points out of the window, “There's some woodland, not too far away. And to the right, some hills, the occasional tree, a few hedges.”

“That's what I can see,” she says frustratedly, “You can see everything I can see, except the market?”

“I hate to break this to you,” Raven interrupts, “But he's not the only one.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 66

 “B-b-b-but...” Fiona stammers, struggling to be heard over the screams of a child in agony.

“But nothing,” Raven says, shaking her shoulders once more, “Focus!” He points to the new opening in the cavern's wall. “Can you see the market?” he demands.

Fiona follows his arm, looking through the hole at the world beyond. “Yes,” she replies, making out shapes in the distance, “It's a long way away, but I can see it. What about the baby? We have to do something for the baby.”

“Put it out of your mind,” Raven replies, “It's a distraction, nothing more.” He turns to Robert. “And you, can you see it?”

Robert peers through the gap. “I can see a road,” he says brightly.

“That'll do for now,” Raven taps Strauss on the shoulder, “You know what to do now.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 65

 As the carnage around them slowly dissipates, the driver and passengers of the car are surrounded by the agonised screams of an infant in great pain.

“Oh no,” Fiona says, anguish and panic creeping through her. “What have we done? What have we done?”

Raven grabs her by the shoulders. “Look at me,” he says, shaking her roughly, “We've done nothing. None of this is real.”

The screams are all around them, deafening and inescapable.

Fiona shrugs to break Raven's grip, but he holds tight. “We've harmed a child, you stupid man,” she cries in his face.

He shakes her again, even more violently this time. “I'm not a man,” he says sternly, “You'd do well to remember that right now. If we've done anything here, we've harmed the idea of a child, which is being used to distract us. Now focus, can you see the market?”

Episode 8 - Chapter 64

 Fiona nods her reply, reaching out to squeeze her husband's hand.

“I'll do my best,” he says quietly, squeezing back.

“Are we set?” Raven asks them both.

They look at each other for a moment. “We are,” Fiona says, while Robert gently nods his head.

“Right then,” Raven turns back to Strauss, “Fire at will, as they say.”

Strauss makes some adjustments to the panel in front of him, instinctively knowing which dial to turn and buttons to press.

“Here goes nothing,” he says, pressing a final button. The result is two rockets blasting from the front of the car, screaming through the tunnel to explode in a cloud of flesh and blood and smoke before them.

“Did it work?” Raven asks moments later, as the cloud begins to clear.

Episode 8 - Chapter 63

 “It's the most impossible place,” Fiona tells Robert, “Imagine a busy market, like the one we go to in Nearsham. Now, instead of the usual market stalls, try and picture them made out of giant books.”

“Books?” Robert asks, mildly incredulous.

“Yes, books,” she replies, “Books of all shapes and sizes. And not just books either, there's scrolls and magazines and parchments and all sorts.”

“Okay,” he says, “I'm trying to picture that.”

“Now the stalls are selling everything you can imagine,” Fiona continues, “Not just fruit and veg, meat and cheese, that sort of thing. They're selling costumes and props from films and television, weapons straight out of comic books, anything you can think of.”

Robert closes his eyes to concentrate. “And that's where we want to go, is it?”

Episode 8 - Chapter 62

 “So,” Raven says to Strauss, “Where is it that we want to be?”

“You each need to return to the place where you entered the Weave,” Strauss replies. “For the girl, that's the Market of Fictions, the boy came in via a memory, and you?”

“His parent's house,” Raven replies.

“We would suggest,” Strauss says, “That his imagination is the more fertile mind, and so more use to us if needs be, so our first stop should be the market.”

“Agreed,” Raven concurs, turning to Robert and Fiona. “Right,” he says, “We're going to try something different. We're going to try and blow a hole in these walls. Beyond them, we need to be on the right path for the Market of Fictions.”

“I don't know what that is,” Robert tells him.

“I do,” Fiona reassures him, “I can describe it for you.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 61

 “Well?” Raven asks, “Is there any reason we can't just blast our way out?”

“None that we can think of,” Strauss replies, “Save that we know not what lies beyond.”

“True enough,” Raven agrees, “But that's also the truth of our current course. We assume we know what lies ahead, but this is the Weave...”

“We agree,” the driver says, “But perhaps we can manipulate circumstances to our advantage...”

He tilts his head briefly, nodding towards Fiona and Robert.

“We are in the company of Wake Walkers after all,” he says, “One of whom is seemingly altering our reality without even knowing.”

“You think we can stack the deck?” Raven inquires.

“With a little encouragement,” Strauss says, “We are certain of it.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 60

 It all happened so quickly. First the thunder, which felt like it rolled through the house, shaking the very foundations. It gave me quite the start, I can tell you. It had barely finished when we heard the sound of breaking glass in the kitchen, and my husband's profanity.

“Edward!” I shouted in admonishment, but it was more a reaction to my own surprise and shock than anything he'd said.

“Sorry,” he called back, “We've had a little accident. Cleaning it up now.”

I was about to reply when Oak's face caught my attention. He was rubbing his chin again, lost deep in thought.

“What is it?” I asked him, “Did the thunder mean something?”

“That was the Forest, giving new orders” he replied, “We are to stand down. Everything is on hold. We wait for Raven.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 59

 “I think a drinks cabinet would be nice,” Fiona says, “I could murder a gin and tonic right about now.”

“A scotch would suit me,” Robert adds.

For a moment Raven pauses, expectant, watching the rear chamber of the car. But no, nothing happens, and he turns his attention back to Robert.

“Anything else?” he asks.

“I'm sure there'd be ways to deter any pursuers,” Robert says, “You know, like scattering spikes behind us to burst tyres.”

Another light comes to life on the panel.

“And?” Raven asks.

“I don't know,” Robert replies, “I'll have to think about it.”

The car is moving very fast now, travelling out of the stomach cavern into what Raven presumes will be the intestines.

“Given that we've got all this fire power,” he says to Strauss, “Is there any reason we can't just blast our way out of here?”

Episode 8 - Chapter 58

 “Machine guns,” Robert says without hesitation, “Both front and rear.” Two more lights begin to wink on the panel. “With automatic targeting, of course. And rocket launchers, with a variety of different rockets!”

A switch on the panel suddenly transforms into a dial, with a red button in its centre.

“There'd be some kind of plough thing at the front,” Robert continues, “For bulldozing obstacles out of the way, and a propeller at the rear, for times like this, when it's stuck in water.”

Two more switches light up, both green. Strauss flicks the second, they hear a whirring noise behind them, and the vehicle begins to pick up speed.

“That's very good,” Raven says to Robert, “Any other accessories you can think of?”

Episode 8 - Chapter 57

 Raven taps Strauss gently on the shoulder, then points to the newly revealed panel. “Go on,” he says to Robert, “What kind of defences?”

“Well for a start,” Robert replies, “I'd have thought there'd be a way to electrify the exterior, so that a shock could be given to anyone trying to cling on.”

In front of their eyes, one of the switches on the new panel lights up red, blinking on and off. Raven raises his eyebrows at Strauss, as if to say “Why not?” Strauss in turn reaches forward to flip the switch. Nothing happens for a moment, then a crackle of electrical current envelops the exterior of the vehicle, they hear the sound of flesh burning and the unwelcome purple bodies fall from the car.

“I see,” Raven turns back to Robert, “What other defences would a car like that have?”

Episode 8 - Chapter 56

 “We're afraid not,” Strauss says to Raven, “The surface out there is too slimy and wet, there's nothing to give us any traction.”

“Well we've got to get moving somehow,” Raven replies, “Before those things start to bog us down.”

“Hang on,” Robert says behind him, “Strauss, didn't you say this car is an unused redesign of the batmobile?”

“Not that vehicle precisely,” Strauss tells him, “But certainly something along those lines. Why?”

“Well, if it is a car for some sort of comic book hero,” Robert tells him, “I'm pretty sure it'll have some fairly kick ass defences, if not some actual weapons.”

In front of him, Raven sees an unassuming panel suddenly open, revealing a variety of switches, buttons and dials.

Episode 8 - Chapter 55

 Strauss puts the car into gear, revs the engine and they shoot off towards the opening. The vehicle takes a third hit, causing them to swerve, but he quickly corrects their course.

“Urgh,” Fiona says behind him, pointing at a the window. Outside, a purple lump the size of a football has attached itself to the window. “What the hell is that?” she asks her husband.

“How the hell should I know?” Robert replies, “I'm just a tourist here, like you.”

A dull thump and another swerve announces the arrival of a fourth foreign body.

“Could be any number of things,” Strauss tells them, “Could be pepsin, an enzyme or an anti-body of some kind.”

“Does it bloody well matter what it is,” Raven demands, “Whatever it is, its' job is to destroy us.” He turns back to Strauss as the car is hit a fifth time. “Can we go any faster?”

Episode 8 - Chapter 54

 “Down is where we are most certainly going,” Strauss says.

The tunnel before them unexpectedly opens out into a large cavern. The vehicle is no longer being propelled at the head of a giant tidal wave. Instead, gravity has taken charge, the car plummeting into an unknown but distinctly unattractive liquid.

“What's that smell?” Fiona almost retches, covering her nose and mouth.

“Does it matter?” Raven asks, looking all around. “There's probably going to be a selection of unsavoury aromas before we make it out of here. There!” He taps Strauss on the shoulder, pointing to a large opening at the far end of the cavern. “That's it. Step on it.”

Before Strauss can do anything, they feel something slam into the side of the car, rocking them a little.

“What's that?” Robert asks.

“That's what we want to avoid,” Raven replies just as the vehicle takes a second hit.

Episode 8 - Chapter 53

 “Either way,” Raven continues, “Once we arrive in the stomach, we have to keep moving. The environment will react to us as if we were just another protein, so the pepsin will be on us without hesitation.”

“So where are we going to move to?” Robert asks.

“Through the intestines,” Raven replies, “And on to the way out.”

“You keep calling it that,” Fiona says frustratedly, “But it's not the way out is it? It's the bum, isn't it? We're going to be poo!”

“You have a better plan?”

“Unfortunately no,” she says, “But I just had to say it out loud, to prepare myself.”

“That's fair enough,” Raven turns back to Strauss, “Are you ready? I imagine we're going to be there soon.”

“We are,” Strauss replies, “Though we don't know where we're going.”

“Down,” Raven tells him, “Just keep going down.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 52

 The car hurtles through the tunnel, propelled by the force of the black tidal wave. Inside, all four occupants are holding their breath with dread anticipation.

It's Raven who speaks first. “Just for the hell of it,” he says, “I'm going to assume we're in a human digestive system.”

“Is that wise?” Strauss asks.

“Is anything?” Raven quips in reply, “We know we're in something that lifts a cup to drink, so let's go with human....or at least humanoid.”

“Okay,” Robert says, “We're about to end up in someone's belly. How does that help?”

“Well it means we might have an idea of what's coming,” Raven tells him, “And if our assumption is right, a map to the way out.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 51

 “You should be careful what you ask for,” Robert says, panic in his voice, as the cave around them suddenly darkens.

Turning, Raven sees that this is because the mouth of the cave is blocked by some sort of container, filled with a dark liquid. The container tips towards them causing the liquid to spill out.

“We're going to be taking the express route,” he shouts, “Strap yourselves in.”

Robert watches as the container keeps tipping, more and more liquid pouring into the cavern, a huge tidal wave heading straight towards them.

“Hold on tight,” he shouts. The wave reaches the rear of the already fast moving vehicle, quickly flooding all around it, lifting it over the tongue. The cave walls around them wobble for a moment, then the car is shot through the rest of the mouth and into the tunnel beyond.

Episode 8 - Chapter 50

 It came out of nowhere, literally. I'd had a little look out of the window a few moments earlier, while I was waiting for the kettle to boil, and I'd seen the sky was cloudless. The stars were twinkling away like they always did, which had added to my favourable mood. Then it was as if it was all around us, a huge roll of thunder, monstrous and vibrating. It gave me such a shock I almost jumped out of my skin. I didn't, obviously, but I did drop a mug and knocked over the jar of coffee, spilling it everywhere. That's when I swore to myself, louder than I intended, because Mary shouted my name in shock.

Episode 8 - Chapter 49

 “How very gracious of them,” Raven says in reply to Fiona, “You can open your eyes now.”

She does just that, blinking a few times to take in their new surroundings. “Ewww,” she says, “We really are in something's mouth.”

“We are m'lady,” Strauss says, “But not for long, the esophagus beckons.”

He presses a sequence of buttons and switches on the dashboard.

“We have put the vehicle into 'water' mode,” he says, “Which means we are effectively in a sub-marine now. We believe once we've left the mouth area, it may be best to allow the naturally occurring juices to dictate our course.”

“You're the driver,” Raven tells him, “We're in your hands now. Just get us into that stomach, quick as you like.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 48

 The car bumps over the front teeth, splashing into a puddle of saliva resting along the tongue.

“Don't stop,” Raven barks at Strauss, “We need to be out of here before whatever this creature is knows we're here. There!” He points ahead to giant tonsils hanging at another cave.

“You seriously mean for us to enter the digestive system?” Strauss asks, “Not knowing anything about it?”

“That's the way out,” Raven replies.

Strauss sighs with dismay, but his foot stays firmly on the accelerator and the car shoots along the tongue leaving a wave of saliva in its wake.

“The sign has changed,” Fiona says, eyes still firmly closed.

“Oh yes?” Raven inquires, “What's it say now?”

“It's a hand, waving,” she tells him, “With the words alternating between Thankyou for calling and Please come again.”

Episode 8 - Chapter 47

 “Well if you insist,” Strauss says, applying more pressure to the accelerator.

Raven can see the opening now, and there are most certainly teeth. Huge white blocks lining the base and top of the hole.

“Whatever that mouth belongs to,” he says, “They've certainly got a good dentist.”

“We'll be sure to be thankful for that,” Strauss replies, “When they're grinding us to a pulp.”

“That wont happen,” Raven tells him, “We wont be in there long enough.”

“Hang on,” Robert calls behind them, “Pages don't have mouths. If this place is the blank page of writer's block, what's a mouth doing here.”

“That's Warp reasoning,” Raven turns to him, “You're in the Weave. The explanation could be free association: a page has a foot, things with feet often have heads, heads have mouths. Viola!”

“Here we go,” Strauss shouts as the vehicle races into the opening.

Episode 8 - Chapter 46

 “Doesn't matter,” Raven snaps, “Keep going.”

“You can't be serious,” Strauss replies, “Just drive into the mouth of god knows what?”

“It's still gaining on us,” Robert calls behind them.

“Do you have another option?” Raven asks the driver.

“The original plan?” Strauss replies, “Take control of the pen?”

“No, I don't think so,” Raven says, “Behind us, and rapidly gaining ground, is our certain doom. “We're out of time.”

“Guys?” Robert shouts, voice thick with panic.

“And I don't think he's in any position to concentrate,” Raven continues, nodding over his shoulder. “Besides, a mouth leads to a stomach, stomach leads to intestines, and so on. That's our way out of here.”