Chapter 3

chapter three "RIFTERS!" Skaelka shouted again. "EVERYBODY! WEAPONS UP! WE GOT RIFTERS!" "Rifters?" I cried out. "I never heard of any Rifters!" "Quint!" Jack yelled, shaking our buddy by the shoulders. "What's a Rifter? Tell me about Rifters!" "I don't know, Jack!" Quint said. "I don't know all the things!" "Hey, monster pals!" Dirk barked, as an Ogre stomped past. "We need information here!" Just then, our flying friend Fern swooped past. She quickly gave us the scoop—

JUNKERS CLUNKERS, BANDITS, RUSTLERS. "Ohh, like pirates?" Jack said. "I love pirates!" Suddenly, a crooked metal arrow came screaming through the air! I tackled Jack an instant before the arrow hit him. "Never mind. Hate pirates," Jack grumbled as— WHOOSH!

A creature zoomed past us. Three more arrows hit the ground in its wake. I watched an Ogre stomp past—and saw the Rifter riding it. He was hurriedly jamming more arrows into a rusty, paint-splattered crossbow. "I don't think these Rifters care about us," I said. "They're hyper-focused on that neon- colored creature." The creature was zooming around like a pinball! It made an impossibly sharp turn, causing the pursuing Ogre to slip, and the Rifter atop him cried out as— EJECTED!

It was pure chaos. And suddenly—I was at the absolute center of that pure chaos. Because the blur creature was zipping toward me. We were eye-to-eye. And in a moment we were going to be head-to-head— by which I mean, his head was going to be crashing into my head at many miles an hour. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I cried out, jumping back, then staggering, falling, and finally landing in an abandoned DoomKart.

"June, look out!" I heard Jack call, and I wanted to shout back something like, Yeah, no kidding! but I could hardly even breathe. Right before impact, the blur-creature leapt, springing up and over me. I felt my hair rustle just as— WHOOSH! Whoa

Next there was a flash of steel—it was a rusty chain, being swung by a Rifter. They were trying to lasso the creature. "I'm okay, guys!" I called out, but then— CHONK! The DoomKart jerked forward. My eyes shot down and I saw that the Rifter's chain had hooked on to the cart. "Just kidding! Not okay!" I shouted. "NOT OKAY AT—" YANK! The chain jerked the DoomKart and we SMASHED into an Ogre's tree-trunk-like leg. It was the biggest Ogre: an enormous, awful thing. And in its saddle was the biggest Rifter. "Uh... hi," I said. The Ogre's enormous hand came down. I curled up in the DoomKart seat, making myself small, and lifted the shield over my head.