Lenny and a group of survivors ran towards Ralph.
They looked in the wreckage for clues as they pulled the weapons and the body away.
Ralph nodded at Lenny amongst the crowd.
"Nice job," Ralph said.
"Nice shooting," Lenny said, glowing.
Suddenly, the two of them disappeared into two small portals like manholes.
Nobody really noticed.
Lenny and Ralph appear on an empty set of a 70's game show.
A cheesy theme song with horns plays in the background.
Ralph pulls Deerborne out, ready to shoot the whole place up.
"What the - "
"You guys like it?" The glow appears.
"No!"
"I told you," a flying bird says, fluttering in. Bigger than a pigeon or dove, smaller than an eagle...maybe it is a hawk or a great bustard.
Anyways, it is Lenny's bird.
"Hey! There you are!" Lenny says excitedly.
"You guys want something different?" The glow asks.
"Yes," Ralph says, covering his ears from the game show tunes.
"Fine," the glow responds.
The set falls over like a high school musical and they are back in the endless field of forever where Ralph started.
Lenny looks around, smiling.
"This is beautiful," Lenny says.
"What was your entry place?" Ralph asks.
"Not this," Lenny replies.
"You two are causing trouble for everything!" The bird says, flying and flapping around constantly.
"After is not supposed to be like this," the glow adds. "You aren't even supposed to see us again!"
"It's not our fault!" Ralph yells. "I killed Wolfram and I've been stuck in this bad war movie for what seems a lifetime."
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The glow does not respond, and the bird finally lands on the ground and hops around.
"And give us your names," Lenny demands.
The glow and the bird do not respond immediately.
"And be something else than a glow," Ralph yells.
The glow then turns into the outline of a human male like it did briefly before, but it just looks like a scary invisible man.
"How is this?" the glow smiles.
"Horrible," Ralph responds. "What can we call you?"
"Call me...call me...just call me Glow," the invisible man finally says.
"Original. And you?" Lenny asks the bird.
"58," the bird responds.
"58? Why 58?" Lenny shakes his head.
The bird nearly flies up and rips Lenny's face off. "I said call me 58!!!"
"Fine," Ralph says, calming everyone down. "Please explain to us a little more what is going on. I know. I know. You can't explain something you don't know."
"That is true. But it is also true that there are things you can never know," Glow offers. "You are not allowed to have all the answers. I'm sorry, but that is how After works.
This isn't your world. This isn't even your reality. But you are here. And it is your job. And there are rules. But things are breaking."
Glow actually seems sad.
"The portals. Why do you allow them? If you don't want anomalies to escape, don't have portals!" Lenny nearly yells.
"The portals are random. They, like the people who are trying to leave, are anomalies. They are connected somehow," 58 explains. "In your reality, you could call it luck. Or karma.
Or chance. But it is more than that. In your old life, people seemed to have favor on their side. They could will anything to happen. They could bring people around them. For good and for bad."
Ralph and Lenny think about that.
"Look," Glow starts, "you two are probably some of the most powerful people here in After. Ralph, because of your bravery and Deerborne. Lenny, for the gift of you being able to close portals.
But things are getting out of hand. Ralph, you have fallen in love with a citizen of After. Lenny, you are fitting in too well in After. You two are throwing the whole thing off."
"What do you want us to do about it?!" Ralph snaps.
"Well, we are assigned to you again," 58 responds, flying around and landing on Ralph's shoulder. "What that means, we don't know. It's never happened before. We are just supposed to introduce you
to After, give you your gift, and confuse you really bad. Not be your, uh, guides."
"You've been bad at all of that," Lenny responds.
"Thank you!" Glow says, smiling. "We are trying to learn your mannerisms."
"Wolfram. Why does he keep coming back?" Ralph asks.
Glow frowns.
"We don't know. But he has. And we are afraid he will get back your reality. He has broken the system somehow."
58 then flies over to Lenny's shoulder.
"And we think, if we doesn't get back to the old reality, he will destroy this one. He'll destroy After. He's killing others like you."
Ralph and Lenny look at each other.
"What do you want us to do?" Lenny asks.
"You have to stop Wolfram," Glow says intently. "That's all there is to it."
"Why us?" Ralph asks.
"We don't know," 58 coldly says through its beak.