They got out of the Glass Plain with barely any time to spare. Just as the moons rose, the fires started again. All going off at once, they created an awesome display of color that blasted Mad and the others with a wave of heat.

Mad dropped his bag and dug through it before he pulled out a clean cloth and went over to Cheshire. "Let me wrap it up at least. If sand gets in it, the wound will fester."

"I told you. We don't have time!" the Viso said, voice impatient and commanding.

Mad didn't answer, ignoring the Viso as he used a little bit of the water from his own canteen to dab at Cheshire's ear, cleaning it. Chesh winced but didn't complain, looking up at him with complete trust.

He kind of wondered if he was worthy of that look.

"Are you deaf?" the Viso started, walking toward them. 

Pausing in his ministrations, Mad's hand slid to the inside of his coat, resting on the warm grip of a gun. He was already shaken from their insane dash across the Plain and worried about Chesh. This guy was really pushing it.

The Viso stopped when Alice appeared out of nowhere. She put her hands on her hips, face angry and fearless, even as the Viso towered over her. "Look, buddy. I don't know who you think you are and I don't really care, but Mad is right."

Mad looked over at her in surprise when she used his first name. He didn't say anything though as Alice continued speaking. 

"We have enough time to at least clean and wrap Cheshire's ear. If you'd been shot we would have done the same for you." She paused and glared at Mad when he grumbled at that.

"Yeah. Sure. 'Course we would have," he finally said under the weight of her stare.

She looked at him for a moment longer, then turned to the Viso. "We appreciate your help, but if Mr. Hatter thinks we have the time to spare, then we have the time to spare."

Going back to cleaning Chesh's wound, he had to fight a smile as the Viso backed down. Obviously he wasn't sure about how to respond. Since he was a Face Card and of a high rank, Mad was sure no one had ever spoken to him in such a way. He was actually a little surprised that the Viso hadn't snapped back at her though.

Mad finished wrapping Chesh's ear. "There," he said with satisfaction. "Now we can go." Turning to the Viso, fingers tapping one of the guns at his waist, Mad said, "By all means, lead the way."

The Viso's eyes caught the movement of Mad's fingers, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but Alice walked past him, cutting between the two men.

Bare feet shuffling in the powdery sand, she said, "Come on. We don't want to give the Ace a chance to catch up, do we?"

They continued on for about an hour before Mad felt they had put enough distance between themselves and the Glass Plain. When he suggested they take a moment to rest, the Viso started to argue, then stopped when Mad glanced at Alice. She was still pushing forward, but her exhaustion was evident.

Looking around, Mad saw that she wasn't the only one showing signs of fatigue. They stopped for a little less than an hour, resting and drinking some. Then Mad and the Viso had them up and on their feet, moving again.

Since he wasn't very familiar with this part of the desert, he was more than happy to let the Viso take the lead. Only a fool pretended like he knew what he was doing when he really didn't. It would be stupid and possibly deadly not to take advantage of the Viso's knowledge. He obviously knew where he was going for he never wavered on their path.

As they walked though, Mad's steps slowed as he started noticing massive tunnels in the low, rocky hills they were passing through. Looking more closely at the entrances to the tunnels, he saw the skeletons of creatures large and small at the openings of some of them.

Remembering something Tamsus had told him about some of the more dangerous creatures in Wonderland, Mad paused long enough to grab his rifles, tossing one to Chesh and a third to Maris. The others had stopped when he had, and they all looked at him as he checked to make sure that the action on his rifle was clear and wouldn't jam. 

The Viso turned when he realized the others had stopped. "What now?"

Mad held the rifle in a way that wasn't exactly hostile, but still let the Viso know he was in very immediate danger of getting shot. Voice flat, Mad asked, "Are you taking us through Jabberwock territory?"

Maris looked around at that and paled, holding the rifle Mad had given him a little tighter into his shoulder. 

The Viso waved an unconcerned hand. "Most Jabberwocks have been hunted down. A lot of these Jabber Tunnels are abandoned."

"But not all of them," Mad snapped, pointing at what looked like a recent meal. "And that's just not abandoned enough for me."

Cheshire growled and herded Alice and Dinah just a little closer to Mad, his eyes and ears flicking back and forth between the tunnels surrounding them.

"That's why we need to keep moving." The Viso had his own rifle in his hands and was watching the area behind Mad and the others. "If we're quick enough and quiet enough, we can get through here without running into any of the beasts."

"Is there a reason you decided to take us this way?" Mad hissed, trying to keep his temper under control. He couldn't believe the risks this stupid Viso was taking.

They were already being hunted by a homicidal nutcase, and now this idiot wanted them to try and slip past a bunch of giant, winged creatures with poisonous teeth, massive claws and a desire to eat anything that moved.

Mad wavered between his need to beat this crazy son of a bitch into the ground, and his desire to get Alice and the others through the desert safely. He turned back just in time to see a neck slither out of one of the far tunnels on the horizon. 

The Viso saw it too, and said, "Well we can't go back. So would you mind if we continued forward?"

Mad inhaled slowly through his nose and, with one arm cradling his rifle and the other hovering around Alice's shoulders, he started hustling them forward.

He'd shoot the Viso later. When it wouldn't draw the attention of a Jabberwock.

Mad heard the Viso mutter something under his breath but ignored it, eyes trailing over each tunnel as they passed it. He had Chesh on point since he had the best ears and better reflexes than anyone else in their group. 

Still, Mad was jumpy.

As they walked, it seemed eerily quiet, like the desert was holding its breath. There was no breeze and heat hung like a heavy cloud around the low hills. Mad felt sweat beading at the crown of his hat and paused to wipe it away.

He froze, hat still in hand as the crack of a rifle echoed and rolled off the rocky hills like sinister thunder. The sound went on forever, or it seemed that way to Mad.

It didn't though, and the sound that came next was much, much worse.

The blood drained from his face as he heard a lingering screech and the whump of giant wings. 

"Tamsus, you bastard," Mad whispered.

Suddenly, the Viso was standing in front of him. "Look, keep following this valley about forty yards and on your right will be a tunnel with black painted over a flat rock on the top of the entrance. Take this." He shoved a coin into Mad's hand. "Take Alice and the others. You'll be safe there."

"What the hell are you going to do?" Mad asked, furious.

The Viso's eyes crinkled up like he was grinning. "I'm gonna go keep that thing busy!"

Before he could argue, the Viso took off, disappearing into the desert like some kind of dark specter. Mad whirled around, looking at Alice, then Cheshire.

"Mad, we gotta go." Cheshire's eyes were tracking the Jabberwock as it flew toward them.

With a sharp nod, he started forward, but was pulled backwards by Alice, her hand gripping his elbow. All he could think as his brain went into overdrive was that for such a little thing, she was strong.

"Just where are you going? We can't leave him out there!" Alice exclaimed, her face incredulous.

"We've got to. He'll be fine. Now come on!" Mad grabbed her hand, pulling her along with him as he started running, the others in front of him. He remembered what Alice had told the Viso when he had done the same thing across the Glass Plain but knew that if he let her go, she would stop running.

Mad heard Alice screaming at him to stop but couldn't, his only thought to get her and the others safely away. He heard, over Alice's shrieks, two shots, then the screeching cry of a Jabberwock.

He saw its shadow just in front of them and dove to the ground, shielding Alice with his body, yelling at the others to duck just as wind rushed over them. A claw cut into his back, shredding his coat, then he heard a hoarse cry that mimicked the Jabberwock's call.

There was the sound of wings moving away, and Mad looked up to see the Jabberwock flying toward a dark, lonely figure on the crown of a nearby ridge. Mad got up, then looked down. His eye was caught by the bright, bloody footprints leading to Alice, and his heart dropped as he saw how the rocks had cut her bare feet.

He had forgotten that she wasn't wearing shoes. Scooping her up, he cradled her to his chest, carrying her as he ran, leading the others forward.

He ran another thirty yards before finding the tunnel the Viso had talked about. Mad yelled, alerting the others and ducked into the tunnel's entrance, setting Alice down as soon as they were under cover. Turning, he found his path blocked by Chesh.

Mad shoved the coin into Chesh's hand, then said, "I need you to take care of them. No arguments. I'm counting on you, Cheshire."

Chesh's face was furious, but he just nodded and walked over to Maris who was looking at the bloodied soles of Alice's feet.

"Where are you going?" Alice asked, her face pale.

He grinned. "Aw. I'm gonna go save that idiot's life."

Mad laughed as Alice opened her mouth in shock. Before anyone could argue, he ran out of the tunnel and sprinted back down the valley until he caught sight of the Jabberwock diving toward the Viso who shot at it once, then jumped, rolling away from it to take cover next to a giant boulder.

Giving his best approximation of the Jabberwock's shrieking cry, he brought his rifle to his shoulder. He let off a few rounds, cursing as the recoil slammed into the still tender wound.

He scrambled for cover as the Jabberwock changed course and came after him instead. It swooped past, then turned back, its great size and weight slowing its movements considerably.

It looked like nothing Mad had ever seen before.

The Jabberwock had a long, thick neck covered in gray scales like a snake's. Its head was like a scaly gorilla's with four bright yellow, diamond-shaped eyes and a mouth full of poisonous teeth like serrated needles.

The neck looped and coiled down to a body like that of a lion, the gray scales dissolving into thick orange fur. Instead of paws though, its feet were like a hawk's talons and it had great membranous wings like those of a giant bat.

It was bleeding from several wounds already, the blood bright pink and steaming. He fired off three or four shots, then turned as the Viso slid down the incline to where Mad was.

"How'd you get over here?" Mad asked.

"Ran!" the Viso yelled over another screech from the Jabberwock

"You really are a crazy son of a bitch!" Mad couldn't help but laugh. The Viso would have had to run across open ground to get to where he was.

"No more crazy than you!" he shot back, laughing as well.

Mad shrugged. "The others are safe. I couldn't let you stay out here and have all the fun. So what's the plan? How do we kill this thing?"

"Aim for the brain. Fill it full of lead." The Viso rose, snapping off another shot.

"Oh, thank you for that little bit of information! I didn't know that if you shot something in the head, it would die!" Mad said this as sarcastically as he could manage while also aiming carefully at the Jabberwock.

He watched in satisfaction as the thing's head jerked and bright pink splashed to the earth. His mouth dropped open when the Jabberwock just screamed again and flew toward them.

"I told you," the Viso said, "fill it with lead!"

"Right," Mad muttered. He had to stop to reload his rifle.

"Damn," the Viso growled.

"What?" he asked with dread.

"I think you just pissed it off." He looked at Mad with accusation, like Mad had been the only one shooting at the thing.

"I've been told I have that effect," Mad said with a sigh. "Okay. So what do we do now?"

The Viso stood. "I'm gonna go with run."

"Run?" Mad asked in disbelief.

"Yup. Run!" He dragged Mad to his feet and they took off running back to the tunnel he had left the others in.

They sprinted down the valley and Mad whooped when he saw the tunnel and could just see Alice and the others waving them forward, shouting encouragement.

Mad grinned, certain they were going to make it.

Then he was certain he'd left his stomach on the ground as he and the Viso were snatched up into the air, the Jabberwock's talons digging into his sides.

He heard Alice scream, then he was rushing through the air, being carried across the desert, heading east.

"The wing!" He heard the Viso shout. "Shoot the wing! We gotta turn it to the Sea!"

Wiggling around, he tried not to think about the likelihood of being dropped. He yanked one of his revolvers up since his auto pistols were pinned beneath his coat by the Jabberwock's claws. Mad almost dropped the gun but tightened his grip and managed to squeeze off a shot, watching in satisfaction as the bullet smashed through one of the delicate bones in the wing.

The Jabberwock screamed and swerved south. Faster than Mad would have thought, they were suddenly over open water, looking at the sparkling blue of the Sea of Tears.

"Kill it!" the Viso yelled before shooting repeatedly into the thing's head, Mad following suit.

Just as Mad was running out of ammunition in his second revolver, the Jabberwock faltered. The Viso fired one more round and the thing tilted sideways.

He shoved his first revolver back into its holster then held as tightly to the other as he could.

Mad held his breath just as the Jabberwock smashed into the water, back first.

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This was drawn by @Browniegirl678

It is completely amazing and exactly how I pictured the Jabberwock when I was writing. I just want to say a huge thank you to her for this amazing artwork. It really means a lot that my writing was able to inspire something so awesome from someone so talented!