Steve balanced himself against the out-of-control tank’s turret and looked down the road. Half a mile ahead, lay a hotel. It was a chain hotel, with colorful lights and awnings to hide the fact that it largely resembled an enormous air conditioner. Even the convention center to its left seemed just a plain box. The only thing noteworthy for the hotel was its massive glass entryway, chandelier and pristinely polished furniture visible to even Steve’s distant eyes. This entryway lay straight down the middle of the out-of-control tank’s targeting scope.

“Gore, we’re about to crash into a hotel!” Steve declared.

“Are there lots of people in the lobby?” Gore asked.

Steve looked at the hotel lobby. People were milling about in what seemed an abnormally large group. “Yes!”

“Then I revise my previous sentiment of our out-of-control status from bad to good! I’m still stuck, though, so that stays as bad news.”

“Gore, stop the tank!”

“I also need to make a correction. Apparently, Burney is able to pass out if he’s been skewered four times. He’s resting comfortably on top of the controls that could stop the tank. Hold on a second.”

A loud crashing noise emanated from inside the tank.

“Okay, so skewering Burney a fifth time does not wake him from unconsciousness. And my sword is stuck. Tell Dawn that those statements are not related,” Gore announced.

“We have to stop this thing!” Steve said as the hotel grew closer.

“Or just hop off. Sorry Gore,” Dawn said.

“Make sure to describe Gore’s crushing of the dozens inside the hotel to Gore in intimate detail,” Gore said.

“You’re not going to crush anybody,” Steve said, tugging at Gore’s legs. However, no amount of pulling on the hell knight’s black armor even shifted his stuck position in the tank’s hatch. “I’m going to get you out and then I’m going to turn the engine off.”

“Not much time left, Steve,” Dawn said, eying the blurred road beneath them. “If you’re going to jump, you’d better do it now.”

“I’m not going to jump, I’m going to stop this thing — I won’t let Gore get crushed beneath a collapsing hotel!”

“We could fire the tank’s gun. That would blow out the doors. And look.” Dawn pointed to the now closer hotel lobby. “There’s another set of doors at the other end of the lobby. We could blow right through the lobby without a scratch, and just ride this thing till it runs out of gas.”

“There are people in the lobby, Dawn, I’m not going to blow them up.”

“I like that plan!” Gore declared.

“I’m not going to do that, Gore.”

“Burney likes that plan, too. Right, Burney?” Gore made a deep-throated scream that sounded nothing like Burney. “See? Burney likes the plan too.”

“You said Burney was unconscious.”

“Nope. He totally wants you to blow up that hotel. Told me himself. He’s quite adamant about it.”

“We’re not going to blow people up!”

“Time’s running out, Steve,” Dawn noted, “Either fire the gun and blow your way through, or crush them with the tank. There is no second choice in this matter.”

“I’m not abandoning Gore and I’m not shooting those people!” Steve insisted, punching Gore’s unmoving armor in frustration. This, however, only caused Steve to clutch his fist in pain and suck at bleeding knuckles.

“You can’t just go about this without hurting anyone. You’re a demon! Take a stand and do something about it.”

“Blow people up!” Gore declared. “I’m fine in here.”

“Abandon them to their fate!” Dawn advised.

“I’m not going to do that. And I’m not going to hurt anyone,” Steve said, his voice wavering with indecision.

“Remember your goal, Steve! This isn’t about you! It’s not about Gore or me! Stop thinking too much and do something!” Dawn shoved Steve hard enough the half demon almost lost his balance. He teetered at the edge of the speeding tank, hands waving for something to grab onto.

“Shut up, shut up!”

“Shut up?”

“Yes, shut up! I’m trying to figure this out!”

“Too late for that, Steve.”

The tank lurched over the curb of the hotel parking lot and made a b-line toward the lobby doors. In that brief moment upon the concrete curb, the tank lost a bit of speed.

Ignoring everything around him, everything but the fact that Steve knew what he believed was right, what he believed he had to do, Steve leapt off the tank.

“Good decision,” Dawn observed, preparing to also jump to safety. She paused, however, when she saw Steve take his leap off the panzer at a run. He rolled through the fall and came up sprinting toward the hotel doors. “Not a good decision!”

Steve ignored Dawn’s yelling, ignored Gore’s echoing threats, and sprinted with the momentum of the fall and whatever speed he could muster. Thinking it the most logical thing to do, Steve tore off his hat and lowered his head. His horns acted like a battering ram against the front door. Shattered glass rained down around Steve as he crashed into the lobby.

The pieces of the front door hadn’t stopped falling before Steve shouted, “Get away! Get away!” to the dozens of hotel guests standing in the lobby. There was something strange about the faces that looked back at him, but Steve didn’t have time to notice. All he saw was the faces of the people who now screamed and ran away, heeding his warning.

Steve only managed to shout one last, “Get away!” before the tank crashed into the lobby. The last thing Steve remembered seeing was the muzzle of the tank’s turret, and Gore shouting, “Room service!”

***

Daisies.

That’s what Steve smelled.

Steve wrinkled his nose, fighting the urge to gag at the smell. He always hated the smell of daisies. He never knew why.

But this time, despite his initial rejection of the smell, he couldn’t get away from its potent stench. It was powerful, stronger than if he’d shoved his face into a bouquet. This confused and alarmed Steve, and he bolted upright, wiping at his nose.

It was then that Steve realized he’d been lying down. The smell of daisies so consumed his thoughts that he had to blink several times before he was able to find enough brain power to allow his eyes to comprehend what they were seeing.

The lobby of that hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas was perhaps normal size. Steve’s rattled mind let him take in the size and simple box shape of the lobby. Then his brain took in the couches, basic furniture and imitation wooden pillars that made a lackluster attempt at adding comforting charm to the hotel’s interior.

All this seemed normal, save that when Steve blinked, he suddenly realized that everything, from the couch he lay on to the panzer tank sitting in the broken doors, was covered in daisies, ribbons, smiling golden sunbursts, and a cake frosting-like amalgamation of pastel-colored decorations. Also, there was a panzer tank in the lobby.

“What?” Steve said, looking around.

The tank that had driven a hole through the hotel’s glass doors was covered in flowers and ribbons. It was decorated so much that it looked like a float in a children’s parade instead of a Nazi war machine. Even the hole it had made was similarly decorated, daisies and streamers flowing in the wind from the missing doors. It looked almost like the whole crashing through the doors thing had been done on purpose, adding a certain emotional eloquence to the lobby Steve couldn’t quite wrap his mind around.

“It’s, it’s…” Steve thought, raising a hand to block the sunlight pouring in through the broken doors. It was morning, and the sunshine added luster to the lobby’s pastel colors. “It’s…” Steve looked at the tank and suddenly found the word he was searching for. “It’s cute.”

“I’m glad you think so!” peeped a cheery voice.

Steve leapt from the source of the squeak and fell off the couch, bumping his head on a daisy-covered coffee table.

“Oh no, are you okay!” the squeaky voice asked. Suddenly Steve felt thin, strong arms picking him up from his shoulders. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!”

“I’m fine, fine,” Steve said, shaking off the bump and hoping it would make the insanity of the lobby disappear. It did not. Steve was still looking at what he felt was the equivalent of the inside of a cupcake, and a bouncing woman who looked like the outside of one.

“Yay!” the woman said, clapping her hands with the repetitious speed of a mouse’s heartbeat as she bounced in glee. She wore a skirt pink as a jellybean and flowing as the hair on a baby duck. Her legs were covered in rainbow stockings that matched her long, rainbow-colored hair. The puffy top she wore was covered with baby blues and greens, with skin-tight sleeves of purple, all of which made her resemble the incarnation of a humanized rainbow.

Steve’s stomach twisted.

“I’m so happy-happy you’re okay! And that you’re awake to enjoy all the fun!” the bubbly girl giggled.

“Enjoy what now?” Steve asked, looking around once more.

Possibly because he was still not sure the tank and daisies were real, or because his mind had hidden this little fact away from him to preserve a last bit of sanity, Steve only then noticed the other people in the lobby.

Costumed and smiling almost as broadly as the colorful smiles painted on their faces implied, dozens of people were making their way through and about the lobby. Steve saw a man with a full felt panda costume playing patty-cake with a woman dressed from head to toe in lime green feathers. Another woman strolled past Steve sipping from a paper coffee cup, a bright yellow tail from her mouse costume dragging along the daisy-covered floor. There were baby bears, foxes and vixens, puppies by the litter, and one man who wore a bright orange pony costume. The pony walked right past Steve on all fours and joined another group of costumed, smiling people who were gathered at the other end of the lobby.

The orange pony paused, reared on its hind legs, and with a rising tune given from a harmonica-playing kitten, the group began to sing.

“Give the world your smile,” the twenty or so costumed men and women sang, “Give the world your love.” The tune was bouncing, uplifting, and the singers swayed with their arms looped around one another. “And all the joy and happy-happy good times will soar like a dove!” Like Christmas caroling children, they swayed and laughed. “So just laugh! And be happy! And share all the love!” With a jubilant cheer, the song was concluded, and the costumed people made their way to another part of the hotel, spreading daisies and streamers and harmonized tunes in their wake.

“Am I dead?” Steve asked with all sincerity.