Dark Ride (12 page)

Chapter 33

Still contemplating their exit from the room with the tub, a temporary peace has stilled the restless teens.

Jack breaks the calm by suggesting, “So we press on? Hope there's an exit somewhere down the line?” He's ready to keep moving.

“I'm in,” Mason declares.

Amy nods.

Scotty pulls out his cell phone. “Guys, what if I call my parents? They can get a hold of someone outside the ride. They can send someone in to get us.”

“No!” Jack and Mason chime in unison.

“Why not?”

“Just no, Scotty,” says Mason, who glares at him with heavy stern eyes.

“Scotty, if you call your parents, then we're totally busted. We can make this right.”

Scotty considers Jack's words and looks at the phone.

“Oh, it doesn't matter anyways—it's dead. That's funny, I charged it last night.”

“Well, that puts your latest brain surge to rest,” Mason remarks in mock relief.

A low hum reverberates through the room.

The words of the narrator silence them and several seconds pass.

“Okay, were moving from bizarre to creepy,” Mason admits.

“Let's get to the next room,” Jack asserts. Inside his head the last rhyme resonates, and he thinks,
Finish the story…. Or
lose their lives—what did that mean?
Mason and Scotty pass cautiously through the next set of doors.

Jack holds up, waiting for Amy. He desires some acknowledgement and hopes for a sign that things are still good between them. So he offers, “Amy?”

“You left me, Jack.”

“Yeah, I'm really—”

“You left me,” she repeats as she passes on by.

Jack realizes,
She's still mad
, and he feels dejected but tells himself,
I can't blame her.
As he passes the threshold to the next room, the words “the foursome argues and rues the day” haunt him. Somehow, Jack believes, the ride knows what they are doing.

Chapter 34

In a remote section of the woods, standing beside a great oak tree, a tall lady and an elegantly dressed man speak in hushed tones. During their conversation, a fat grey squirrel climbs down on the outstretched hand of the tall slender lady and starts chattering. After a moment, the lady beams excitement and exclaims, “They are here! This is wonderful!”

She lovingly stokes the squirrel's tail and asks, “Where are they now?”

The squirrel clicks into her ear.

“Excellent, the time is truly at hand. You must both watch them. Do not interfere, unless you have to. No harm must come to them. Their safety is of the upmost importance.”

“Yes, milady,” confirms the man in a polite English accent.

“Has the wolf behaved?” the lady asks.

“He has tormented a few of the subjects, and we lost a pig, but otherwise, all is in order,” the man answers.

“What a vile creature. You must keep an eye on him. He must not actually get to the girl, only pursue her.”

“Yes, milady,” the man agrees.

“When the time comes, he cannot destroy all we have worked for. He must do his part for the common good, or we shall intervene. Do not fail me. Freedom for all is at stake.”

The squirrel begins chirping away.

The lady responds, “Ah, my child, you have done well.” Nodding her head, she says, “Now, off with you both, my children. Let me know of their progress.”

The lady pauses and takes a deep breath, and says, “This is the day we have waited for. All of our dreams, all of our hopes rely on these noble children. If they succeed…. Imagine it—we can all be free.”

Chapter 35

Jack is the last to enter the room and is taken aback by their new surroundings. He had grown accustomed to the outdoor scenery of the last few rooms. Now, to his surprise, they have entered into a creepy old laboratory, but it is simply incredible. Shelves line the walls, and all sorts of books, vials, and beakers adorn every corner of the room. On top of a
waist high metal shelf sit three cages, including one with two live white mice. Also, behind a metal table stands a narrator mannequin holding his book, and next to the narrator is another set of doors.

“Jack, this is awesome! Look at these books,” says Scotty as he pulls volume after volume from their resting places and reads the titles. “
Hexes and Curses, 101
;
New Uses for Newts
;
Undetectable Poisons
;
Batty about Bats
. Oh man, two giant books dedicated to love potions!”

Mason pulls back a sheet that covers a human skeleton lying upon a flat metal gurney. “Would you look at this? It's all so real.”

Amy taps the top of the cage where the mice are imprisoned and says, “They're so cute! Maybe we should set them free.”

“I don't think we should be messing with any of this stuff,” Jack says. “Guys, aren't you forgetting about getting out of here? It's starting to get late. We are supposed to be meeting the Carnahan's by—”

There is a hum and a crackle.

For the second time, the same words have been uttered by the strange figure. “Finish the story.”

“He's telling us what to do,” says Jack, who walks to the mannequin and reads the words that were just proclaimed. A curious thought enters Jack's head:
What if I simply turn the page of the book? I could look ahead and see what's coming.
His hand shoots to the page corner, but the pages are stuck together and none of them will move.

Jack says, “The book, the narrator…. It's telling us to finish the story. I think it's trying to guide us, help us.”

“Jack, you don't believe that those rhymes have anything to do with us, do you?” asks Mason, who turns his attention away from the skeleton and looks at Jack.

“Yes, I do. The last two times the voice has spoken, it's said to finish the story. It's obvious Mason. And this time, he's telling us to go through those doors ahead.”

“It may be obvious to you, but how does that help us any?” asks Mason. “I mean, what does it mean? What story?”

“I don't know,” Jack thinks for a second and then suggests, “Okay, what about this: In the ride, there are four characters, right? Well, you remember the ride ends when they chop down the beanstalk?”

“Yeah,” Mason responds and nods.

“Well, maybe we're supposed to finish the story and the narrator is leading us back to the beanstalk.”

“Are you kidding me, Jack? You think we're supposed to beat some Giant by chopping down some beanstalk? That is ridiculous.”

The rebuke stings a little, but Jack knows that somehow he's right. Still, he adds, “At least it's a direction.”

Mason considers, then counters, “For all we know, the voice is simply part of this undiscovered part of the ride. Maybe someone's watching us.”

“Do you see any cameras in here, Mason?” Jack challenges.

“No,” replies Mason, who looks anyway.

Jack takes the opportunity to make a point, “It can't be a coincidence. It's too spot-on.”

Looking to Amy for support, Jack is disappointed as she once again turns her head away from his gaze.

“What story, Jack? Look you're getting carried away,” Scotty declares, much to Jack's agitation. “I agree, though, that we need to move on.”

“Scotty, get your head out of those books,” Mason calls down at the boy.

After placing a book on the ground, Scotty grabs Lucky and begins to head for the exit, but then turns back to a shelf and fiddles with a couple of the brightly colored vials and a brown piece of paper. His eyes are spellbound by the different effects within his grasp.

“I said let's go,” states Mason at the door motioning for the others.

Scotty ignores Mason, though, and reads the simple writing on a slip attached to a vial. It says, “Pour the contents of the yellow vial into the blue cylinder. Mix evenly by moving the cylinder clockwise.”

Mason, who had already exited, returns to the room and asks, “Scotty, what on earth are you up to?”

“Hold on a second,” responds Scotty. The boy's tongue is licking his bottom lip as he carefully pours the contents of the yellow vial into the cylinder. Slowly he swirls the contents.

Pop
! A small explosion in the cylinder causes it to vibrate, and Scotty drops it to the floor. It shatters, and a small cloud of red smoke wafts into his face.

“Now you've done it. What were you trying to do?” Mason questions.

Scotty, slightly panicked, wipes his face with his shirt sleeve. “It said, 'Strength Potion.' I was just trying to—”

“Oh brother, Carnahan, leave this stuff alone and let's get outta here.”

Mason once again attempts to leave the room, but Scotty remains standing while he re-reads the instructions.

Mason yells, “Scotty!”

Chapter 36

Clyde stumbles in the dark in the room where the tailor and his apprentice stand as he's in route to the fuse box. Another attempt to revive the radio fails. He thinks, “If Gwen is pulling my leg with some sort of prank, it's a good one.” But, Clyde knows that Gwen is not a prankster.

The dim light of the room provides just enough clarity for his eyes to see that something is missing from the chest of the tailor, the badge.

“Great, why can't people just leave well enough alone?”

Scanning the room, Clyde peers from corner to corner looking for other missing pieces of the ride. After a sigh he leaves the room, and for the next few minutes he endures more stumbling from stepping around trees, rocks, and other various props that had been placed for the atmosphere and enjoyment of the riders. Finally, making his way into the room with the fuse box, he opens the lid.
Everything looks fine
, thinks Clyde,
but what's this…. A loose wire?
He jiggles the wire back and forth until the ride suddenly comes to life.

Clyde hears a faint noise from behind the doors ahead that sounds like voices. He wonders,
Are the kids coming back? Did they leave the ride? I told them to stay! Well, I can't blame them. All cooped up in this—

The sound of more voices comes from behind him.

Okay, Clyde, get a hold of yourself. Someone's just coming in to check on you. Maybe it's Gwen.

The whispers grow louder and come from ahead of and behind Clyde, who experiences an unwelcome familiar feeling creeping up the back of his neck. Suddenly, he hears exactly what he had refused to recallcalliope music. Through the mental walls of his memory, the face of Douglas Finch appears. He realizes he must get back to the kids.

Chapter 37

Reluctantly leaving the lab behind, Scotty moves through the doors into the unknown. He is still wiping his eyes as he moves. The smoke had made his eyes itch. As soon as he takes one step into the new room, he is met with a cold blast. It feels like he has just stepped into a freezer. The pudgy boy is awestruck by the brilliance of the new landscape. The floors, walls, and small pine trees are all covered in a thick blanket of snow. After looking down at the white powdery substance, he cannot help himself and proceeds to roll up a snowball and throw it at Mason. The snowball aimlessly falls an inch short of its target.

Mason looks down and asks, “Oh, you want some of this, do you?” He quickly creates a large snowball himself, and Scotty begins to back up, playfully. Mason launches the ball, and it hits Scotty with a dull thud on the side of his neck.

“Owww,” Scotty moans, holding his wet neck.

“You shouldn't play games you can't win, bud,” Mason mocks.

“Guys, this is not the time for that,” Amy scolds.

“What is that over there? Look,” says Jack, pointing.

The others gaze firmly on what they perceive to be a green stick on the ground just under one of the four pine trees. After further observation, though, Scotty realizes that the stick is alive. It is actually a small green snake on top of the white mass. Scotty hates snakes, and it seems to him that this one is looking directly at them. It makes little difference to Scotty that the snake is only about one foot long.

“Don't move, guys. It's afraid of us,” Mason cautions.

Scotty does not budge. Years ago, his father had cornered a snake under the hot water heater in the Carnahan garage. It was as small as this one, but his father had forced Scotty to join him in getting rid of the reptile. He was handed a rake while his father held a shovel. Following the instructions of his father, Scotty poked at the snake with the end of the rake: once, twice, three times. However, it only seemed to encourage the creature to stay put. When his father walked out of the garage to grab a trash bag, Scotty decided to try again. This time, as soon as the rake touched the body of the animal, it darted from its hiding place and made a straight line toward him. Lashing out in anger, the snake struck at Scotty's leg. Perhaps it was the hum of the heater, but Scotty had not noticed that the snake had been making a rattling sound; however, after it had sprung, the tail was visible. Luckily, because of the winter weather that day, Scotty
was wearing jeans. The teeth had not penetrated his flesh, only the loose end of his pants. Scotty slung his left leg out and slammed the rake down on the reptile's back. The force of the well-aimed blow severed the snake in two, but the head kept its lock on Scotty's pant leg. At this point, his father returned and grasped the top half of the snake from Scotty's pant leg, threw it on the ground, and made another stab at it with the shovel. The snake's hideous eyes were still open, and ever since then, Scotty never wanted to look at any snake's eyes.

Scotty, though, now finds himself looking into similar reptilian eyes. He thinks,
This time, I don't even have a rake.
None of them dares to move, but they need to get away from the unwavering snake and move on to another room. This time, there are two new sets of double doors: one straight ahead and one to the left.

“Okay,” says Jack. “When I count to three, let's cut to the right and make a dash to the door ahead.”

“No, Jack, it would be easier to get to that door on the left,” Mason retorts.

Scotty thinks,
Of course they are arguing.
They have been doing it all night.
He is growing tired of it.

Amy shivers and yanks the hood of the borrowed red sweatshirt over her head while Jack and Mason debate the merits of their own plans without taking their eyes off the snake.

“Look, we need to keep going forward, Mason. If we deviate from the plan—”

“What plan? We're just trying to get out, so let's just go left.”

“No, it's—”

“Guys, that's enough!” interjects Amy, a little more assertive than usual. “It's too cold to stand here shivering. Let's just go one way or the other.”

“Okay, okay. We'll go to those doors,” Mason concedes. “I just want to get out of the cold.”

Satisfied with Mason's acquiesce, Jack moves to the right.

Suddenly, the snake jets out with astonishing speed, blocking Jack's path.

“That takes care of that,” Scotty fearfully advises.

Mason moves to the left, but once again, the snake shoots in that direction and cuts off an escape to the door.

Shaken by the speed and menace of the reptile, Amy yells, “What do you want?”

Despite the harrowing situation, Scotty is struck by a sudden urge to laugh by contemplating the notion of his sister having a conversation with an animal.

The snake lifts its head from the ground, and, like a cobra, it hovers there swaying right and left. Then to their astonishment, it says, “Would you be interested in making a deal?” The snake's voice is ominous and foreboding, and it continues, “I merely want you to get me out of this cold room.”

Scotty's jaw drops, and Mason looks to Jack in complete shock. Jack can only stare at the thing as Amy steps back in amazement.