Carnival World Boxed Set (Episodes 1-3) (14 page)

Everyone looked around, but Maddie’s brother was nowhere nearby.

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M
addie’s heart leapt into her throat. Justin wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

A breeze rushed over her. It was hot as an oven and full of ash and smoke. She coughed as the smoke tickled her lungs. It was getting nearly unbearable being this close to the blaze.

“Fire’s spreading,” said Darien.

“We have to find your brother and get out of here,” Ryan said.

They split up and searched. Summer, Sam, Darien and Nicole went together, one way, and she went with Ryan toward the lobby of the motel, where most of the fire had broken out from.

Damn it, where are you.

Just as she thought the words a tugging sensation filled her belly. Something pulled her forward by the stomach. This was normally something that would have freaked her out. But there had been other episodes in the past and she had more to worry about now with the fire creeping closer and closer.

She followed the feeling in her stomach and it led her around back. There she found a ladder propped up against the wall.

Oh you stupid idiot.

She climbed up and found her brother sitting on the roof, legs pulled up to his chest and gazing out as if daydreaming. She could’ve killed him right about now.

“What are you doing here?”

Justin continued to stare out over the tree tops to the road. “This is where the Shanks sat and waited for us.”

“What?”

“The sign,” Justin said.

It had been the light motel sign that had drawn the kids into the trap. They had thought that sign meant civilization. Meant that they would be saved.

“They saw us coming and turned it on.”

From up on the roof, Maddie could see the busted-up road they’d traveled to get to the motel from the carnival grounds. She could also see the other road leading into town. In some places, it looked impassable. She looked out over the wild forest; the trees leaning over like withered old men. And she could glimpse the town but didn’t like what she saw. There were no signs of movement in the streets and only a few visible buildings. Crooks was definitely small with a population of maybe five thousand, but it wasn’t that small. There should’ve been something left behind.

She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered despite the rising heat from the fire encroaching in on them.

“Come on,” Maddie urged.

“Relax the fire was in the other building,” Justin replied, knowing full well he was being foolish.

“Yeah but it can spread!”

It was just the last thing he wanted to admit—that Ryan was right about anything. He really disliked that guy. There was something about him that was just wrong. Which was probably one of the reasons he’d escaped up to the roof. He wanted to take in a deep breath before everything got so messed up again.

“Maddie! What the hell is going on up there?” shouted Ryan from below.

Great, right on queue.

“Come on, he’s waiting for us.”

“Wouldn’t want to upset your boyfriend.” Yeah, he knew he sounded like a dick about it, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted Ryan to disappear and not be flirting with his gullible sister.

“What is your problem?”

“Come on Maddie. His whole thing is an act.”

“Killing the dog wasn’t an act. Rescuing Sam wasn’t an act.”

“You always do this. You always go for the worst option available.”

“No I don’t.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Then you don’t remember Tyler?”

She dropped her gaze and studied the ground. “He wasn’t that bad.”

“Mads, he was a punk ass drug dealer.”

“Whatever.” She gave him a look. “You always complain about everything.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you about Mom and Dad. Because you couldn’t handle it.”

“And you can.”

BOOM!

An explosion rocked the roof. Justin stumbled to the right while Maddie stumbled the other way. If someone saw them and didn’t realize what had just happened, they would probably think they were both drunk out of their minds.

“Hey!” Ryan yelled up at them. “Stop playing around and come on!”

“What was that?” Maddie asked Justin.

“Propane tank. This place must have had its own generator. Come on. The fire’s definitely spread to this structure.”

Justin looked down the length of the roof and saw he was right. White smoke rose from beneath the roof shingles several feet away.

“All right, we’re coming!” she yelled down to Ryan.

Maddie went to the ladder first and stepped down onto the first rung. Justin crossed the roof to follow her down, but he tripped and his foot busted through the damaged roof.

The pain, immediate and sharp, sang up his leg. He’d definitely twisted his ankle or worse.

“Justin!” Maddie crouched next to him in two seconds.

A fireball shot up from through roof a mere fifteen feet away. Fear and desperation took hold of his heart and squeezed hard.

Maddie grabbed his hand and pulled. “Come on! Come on!”

Justin tried to yank his foot free, but he couldn’t. He was stuck, the wooden pieces of the roof jabbing into his calf.

Flames danced on the roof and shot towards them as they were alive.

“Mads! Run!”

“Not without you.”

If only he was stronger. If he’d only worked out more, ran more, did something more, maybe then he could escape.

Maddie looked into his eyes, and squeezed his hand. “Together Justin. We can do this together.”

As he kept eye contact with his sister, a surge of power filled him. It was as if he were being added to. His muscle mass grew, his brain matter doubled in size. Like he existed as more than one person. That he and his sister had merged into one body. One stronger, more powerful form.

With their combined strength they managed to get his leg out of the hole, and together were running toward the ladder just as Ryan’s head popped up.

“What the hell are you two doing? We need to go now!”

Justin followed Ryan down the ladder, favoring his ankle. Blood dotted the bottom of his pants and his shoe. He’d definitely injured himself there.

They all reached the bottom as the others were hauling everything they could back down to the road.

After the group had returned to the broken road, they continued on for a few more miles toward town. Sam’s little red wagon rolled along, now crammed with the stuff they’d acquired from the motel before it burned all the way down. Everyone took turns pulling it as it was darn heavy now and not something Sam could do by himself.

Ryan had been pulling it for the last hour and he was getting tired.

“Everyone take a break,” he said.

They broke out a few of the crackers they had scrounged from the carnival parking lot. It was a meager lunch. Ryan was starving from all the activity of running and fighting but he didn’t want to waste their provisions. It might have to last a few more days before they found anything else.

Everyone was quiet. Summer and Sam sat on the asphalt together, huddled over their meager meal. Darien sat looking out over the yellowed grass and worn trees. Nicole sat nearby, with legs pulled tight to her chest. He didn’t think she’d still quite recovered from almost drowning. Maddie and her brother sat beside each other as well as she inspected his bandaged ankle.

He needed to shake them up a bit. To bang some life back into the group. So they could keep on going.

Ryan walked over to the wagon and pulled out a metal lunchbox. “Come take a look at this,” he told the others. “I found it in one of the motel rooms.”

Sam got to his feet and walked over. “What is it?”

“Just some old lunchbox,” said Justin. “Why’d you bother?”

“Well the thermos inside was still good. Never know when that might come in handy. But then I saw the front.”

The lunchbox was in good shape for its age. It had drawings and images of a Wonder Woman movie. Ryan raised it up so everyone could see it.

“I don’t remember that movie,” Summer said.

“Exactly,” Ryan said. “In our world this movie never happened. There were a few directors who were going to do one, but it never got made.”

“So what?” asked Darien.

“So what we have here is a lunchbox from a world where that actually happened,” Ryan said. “Parallel universes.”

Darien didn’t look too opposed to the idea. A few days ago Darien had scoffed at the mere mention of it. But devil dogs and cannibal motel owners had obviously changed his mind.

“So that means we should go to Cedar Falls then?” asked Justin. “You said they were doing research on the stuff at the university.”

They had been. It had been in conjunction with a project on quantum computing.

“It does support my theory,” said Ryan.

Sam shook his head vehemently. “No. We have to go to Warren.”

Sam had been telling anyone who would listen for the last few days that they should head to the town of Warren instead. He said a carnival barker had come to him in a dream and told him to do this.

“Sam, please,” said Summer. She obviously didn’t believe Sam’s story.

But after all that had happened to them, Ryan wasn’t so sure anymore.

“We can’t know anything else at this point. The way to Cedar Falls may be blocked. The way to Warren may be as well. First thing we need to do is find more supplies. For that we have to head into town.”

“That’s your plan?” asked Justin.

“Yes, that’s my plan.”

Ryan’s cheeks flushed. He was starting to get aggravated by having to explain himself all the time. This leadership thing started to be a hassle. There was always a challenge from someplace. If this is what being top dog was like in school it was no wonder Darien acted like such a giant tool all the time.

Ryan was half tempted to let Burton or Maddie’s loud mouth brother have a go at this. But then he thought of the dogs and the Shanks. Real deadly threats that they had survived. This wasn’t some videogame or high school popularity contest. This was serious. And this was the best decision for the group.

“Get to town. Get supplies. See what’s there. Go from there,” he said in a calm firm voice.

“That sounds good to me,” Summer said.

Justin got to his feet. “Sounds logical. Let’s keep going then.”

Darien let Sam ride on top of the supplies in the wagon as he pulled it down the rocky road. Every once in a while, the wheels would roll over a rock, and the wagon would rattle, making Sam precariously wobble back and forth. Despite all that he’d been through, nearly bit by a mutated dog and almost cooked alive, it still made Sam smile a little.

“Are you hanging on buddy?” Summer asked him as she walked beside the wagon.

“Yeah, duh. Or I’d be on the ground already.”

Her brow went up and she laughed. “Well, excuse me for asking.”

“Sorry.” He dipped his head. He didn’t normally back talk to his sister, but it just sort of burst out of him.

“No, it’s okay buddy. You’ve had a horrible day. We all have.” She ruffled his hair.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything. He looked at the others. They all looked tired and miserable. Nicole still shook a little even inside the two-sizes-too-big jacket she had on. He felt sorry for her. She’d almost drowned. And it didn’t really look like anyone really cared about that, or her.

Sam at least had Summer looking after him. And Darien. And surprisingly all the rest of the group. Even Nicole had saved him in her own way from the mutated dog.

“Hey Nicole,” he shouted.

He must’ve startled her, because she nearly tripped on a rock on the road. Confused, she looked over at him. Her face was pale and gaunt. Even in the twilight he could see the sadness in her eyes. She didn’t look pretty anymore. Just empty in a way. Like a shell.

“What?” she mumbled.

“Do you want to ride in the wagon?”

Darien stopped pulling the wagon and looked at him. As did Summer, and the rest of the group.

“Sam, I don’t think...” Summer started.

He slid off the top of the wagon onto the ground. “Why should I be the only one that gets taken care of? She almost died, you know?”

Summer touched his shoulder. “I know, buddy.”

Sam marched over to Darien. “Can she ride in the wagon, Darien? Would it be too heavy if she did? I could carry some of the stuff in a backpack. I’m stronger than I look, you know.”

Darien looked past him to Nicole. “Yeah I could pull her.”

Sam walked over to Nicole. She’d been just standing there, her arms wrapped around herself, watching it all.

“Do you want to ride?”

She bit on her lower lip, and looked at him, then the others. Sam saw tears starting to fill her eyes. Finally she nodded, and he led her over to the wagon.

She pushed aside some of the supplies and sat in the metal box. “Thank you, Sam.” She wiped at her eyes.

“You’re welcome.”

And with that, Darien started to pull the wagon, and the group continued marching down the busted up old road toward town.

After another two hours of walking they camped for the night. Darien’s arms ached from pulling Nicole and their supplies in the wagon. He didn’t want to give Nicole a ride but Sam had been so earnest when he’d suggested it, Darien didn’t want to disappoint him. He could see the kindness in the boy and Darien didn’t want to see that destroyed because of his indifference to his girlfriend.

They made ‘camp’ on the side of the road on the yellowing scrub grass. Using the clothes they’d found, everyone got a makeshift bed and pillow. It wasn’t perfect but it was way better than when they slept on the hard picnic tables in the pavilion at the carnival grounds.

Summer and Sam settled on the ground together. Maddie and Justin in next to them. Nicole had set up two beds next to each other, one was obviously for him. And Ryan settled off to the side, on his own.

In the distance Darien saw the orange light of the burning motel. He watched as it flickered and glowed and then slowly faded out.

There goes the Astro motel, he thought.

It hadn’t been the Astro Motel, at least not his Astro Motel. The place where he and Nicole had had sex for the very first time. It was still the best night of his life by far. They’d been so into each other, so hurried to be naked and skin to skin. And after they’d finished, they had lain in bed, Nicole sprawled across his chest and watched funny movies. That had been his motel.