Dark Ride (14 page)

Chapter 43

Clyde takes a hand towel from his waist and wipes his forehead.

“So you left them there in the Giant's lair?” Gwen asks.

“We've been over this. When I came back to the spot where I left them, they were gone. I just don't get it. Where are they? The ride does not take this long.” He rubs his head. “You said the ride has not stopped working out here?”

“Yeah. You totally confused me when you said the power was off inside.”

Another empty train exits the final set of black double doors.

“Clyde, don't worry, those kids probably got off the ride during one of the power outages you talked about. They don't strike me as troublemakers. They'll come walking out any minute.”

“I hope your right.”

He isn't sure Gwen believes him about the power outage inside, and he can't blame her. He does not want to press the issue. It would only make things more complicated. Still he can't help but wonder if the strange power outages had a connection with all the other bizarre events that had unfolded in the Enchanted Forrest.

“Gwen, you remember that night when you….” Clyde stops himself before asking her about the strange calliope music, but he is tempted to ask her about it now.

“What night, Clyde?”

“Never mind. Just thinking aloud.”

“Clyde, what are you not telling me?”

He wants to tell her. He wants to let someone else in on the dark secret of the ride he had kept hidden from all of the other employees. It would be nice to have someone share the burden. Still, when we had told the police all he knew about the Douglas Finch incident, they thought he was loony and dismissed the information way back then. However, tonight was the first time he had heard that ominous music for himself. In the end, nevertheless, he decides not to pursue the matter with Gwen, although the guilt yanks at his already strained nerves from leaving the kids.

“Nothing. Just getting too old for this stuff, Gwen. It's getting late. Look, I am going to radio for some help. I'll get another employee to go back in with me. I think you should look for the parents. Not sure who brought them here tonight. The Braddock boy usually gets dropped off. Maybe all of them were, but we need to make sure just in case a parent is lurking around here somewhere. I don't want them coming after you or me because we didn't let them know what is going on.”

“Good plan. Do you want me to call anyone else?”

By the girl's tone, Clyde knows the “anyone else” is Howard Snodgrass. He tells her, “No, not now. No reason to panic him, yet.” But he knows this is a lie.

Although he doesn't want to, Clyde determines to go back into the Enchanted Forrest. His concern for the kids overcomes his reluctance to ever venture into the Dark Ride again.

Chapter 44

“So, we are all good with the plan?” Jack asks.

All three heads nod solemnly. For now, at least, they are on the same page.

Approaching the entrance to the snow-covered room, Amy cracks the door open with her long stick. A cold breeze engulfs the travelers.

“Mister Snake, we have a bargain for you. Are you in there?”

There is a period of silence, and Amy looks back to Jack and shrugs. Mason stands behind Jack's right shoulder, listening intently for any word from the viper while Scotty grips Lucky, who, for his part, is missing a chunk of his posterior and quite a bit of stuffing.

Then, with a feint hiss, the snake says, “I am listening.”

Based on the sound of its words, the teens perceive that the reptile is clearly on the far side of the room.

“Okay, you, stay where you are. Do not move, or the deal is off,” Mason warns.

“I am game. Enter. No one is stopping you.”

Amy places one foot inside the door and tilts her head into the room. The snake is visibly coiled at the foot of the doors they intend to take.

“Stay where you are,” she calls.

“I heard you the first time. I have not moved. What is this deal? Does it involve hurling sharp objects at me?”

With the coast clear, the three boys follow Amy into the room.

Jack chooses to ignore the mocking statement of the snake and coolly responds, “We know you want out. Scotty here was afraid you were going to betray us.” As he says this, Jack starts to shiver and rub his hands together.

“He was the betrayer. Did I not offer you a prize of great value?”

“Look, that is in the past. We talked things over and are prepared to take you up on your offer. Let's just get out of the cold, okay?” Jack urges.

The reptile hisses, uncoils, and inches forward.

“Then I guess we have struck a bargain. One of you will take me to the next room, and I will show you the item.”

“Right,” says Jack. A look to Amy signals that the plan is under way.

Mason steps forward cautiously and says, “I will pick you up—just don't do anything stupid. Oh, and you're not getting in my shirt. I don't care how cold you are.” To his left, Amy inches forward.

The snake's body ripples from side to side as he slithers towards them. Mason kneels down with his hand extended.

When the snake is only a couple of feet from his hand, Mason yells, “Now,” pulls back his hand, and rolls to the right. With a lightning fast motion, Amy slams the stick down at the snake. Then a torrent of chaos breaks loose. The snake has suspected a rouse and darts hard to his left, avoiding the thundering strike, which results in Amy grimacing in pain as the stick reverberates on the hard frozen ground.

The viper is now full of rage. It hisses ferociously and, with mouth agape, lunges.

Jack is caught by surprise, and this time, he isn't able to prevent an attack.

Chapter 45

Scotty has no idea how the snake is able to hurl himself so high in the air. He can only watch as the viper shoots through the air and hits its target. The fangs sink deep into Jack's shoulder.

A look of intense shock washes over Jack's face.

“Jack!” Mason yells from his crouched position.

Amy prepares for another swing, but it is too late. The creature is dangling from the boy's body.

The pain in Jack's shoulder morphs into fury, and he reaches up and catches the snake just under its head. A loud violent yell erupts from him as he yanks the snake hard. It relinquishes its hold, but Jack's shirt rips and flesh tears away as fangs rip from the wound. Staggering, Jack steps back, and with his left arm, he shoves the door behind him open. Then he deposits the snake into the cave room and with a forceful slam shuts the door.

From its new abode, the viper hisses, “You'll never get out of the woods alive!”

All three rush to Jack.

“Oh, man!” screams Jack, “Ahhhh! It burns!”

“Are you okay, Jack?” Scotty asks but immediately chides himself for the foolish question.

“Yeah, it just…. Crud, did you see that? He just leaped up before I could…. Oh, man!”

“Jack, I'm sorry,” consoles Amy. “He just moved so fast. After he bit you, I couldn't take the risk of hitting you.”

“It's okay, Amy. You tried.”

Stretching his shirt at the collar, Jack observes the wound. It's puffy and hot. Two small deep red holes circled in white are accompanied by streaks of torn flesh where Jack had ripped away the snake's head.

“Oh, Jack, it's nasty,” says Amy.

Jack seems unfazed and says, “It will be okay.”

Amy looks doubtfully at him, but he tells her, “No, really, it already feels better.”

“I wonder what kind of snake that is?” asks Scotty, giving voice to the question none of the others want to address. “It could be poisonous, Jack. Should someone suck on the wound?”

Jack forces a smile in spite of the pain and says, “I don't think that will be necessary, Scotty. I'll pass. Look, it's not getting any warmer in here. Things didn't go exactly according to plan, but we're here and the snake is not blocking our way.”

Another grimace from Jack

Chattering, Amy asks, “Are you sure you're okay, Jack? We can wait here a little longer.”

“No,” Jack states, “We are all freezing.” Then after a pause and a deep breath, he adds, “Maybe once were in the next room, we can stop?”

Mason says, “As long as you're okay, all right then—let's go. I say we go back to the lab.”

“No,” counters Jack, “Let's just press on. If we don't find the exit soon, then we can head back.”

Scotty prepares for an argument, so he is surprised to hear Mason say, “Okay.” He thinks,
Wow, that was easy. I guess even Mason has a heart. He's letting Jack call the shots after the bite.

Mason leads the group to the set of doors across the room.

As they pass over the frozen floor, Scotty decides to ask Jack about the snake. “Was it just me or did that snake seem to have a round head?”

Jack replies, “I don't know, Scotty, I wasn't thinking about that. I know what you are getting at, though. You want to know if the snake was poisonous or not.”

Scotty continued, “Well that's not entirely true, you see there are a few poisonous snakes with rounded heads, but it is very uncommon in America.”

“Not sure those rules apply to talking snakes,” Jack responds.

“Jack, most American poisonous snakes have a triangular shaped head, and for the most part, the old story about all triangular-headed snakes being…”

Scotty stops talking as Jack crumples to a heap on the cold, snow-covered floor.

Chapter 46

Not more than ten seconds ago, Jack appeared fine. Now, his fragile body lies shivering on the frozen ground Only Scotty had suspected the worst, and now his suspicions are vindicated: the viper is obviously poisonous. If ever he has wanted to be wrong, it is now. Scotty arrives at the boy's side and calls, “Jack!” looking desperately for any sign of consciousness. Soon, Mason and Amy are there, too.

With anguish and fear in his voice, Scotty announces, “He's poisoned, I knew it.”

“Jack, can you hear me? Please, Jack!” Amy cries.

There is no response.

Jack's eyes are rolled up into the back of his head. He is clearly oblivious to the world.

“What do we do?” Amy asks, looking at her brother and then to the panic-stricken face of Mason.

“I saw a bunch of books on healing back in that lab room,” Scotty says in a rushed tone. “We can at least get him outta here and put him on that table.”

Not waiting for help or confirmation of his idea, Scotty attempts to lift Jack's body. Mason leans down and quickly lends a hand. The boys struggle with the dead weight and drape Jack's arms over their shoulders. There is no time for delay.

Amy kicks open the doors to the strange laboratory. She sweeps the skeleton that had occupied the metal table off to the floor and says, “Set him on here.”

The boys gently pick Jack up and hoist him onto the slab. Then Scotty quickly runs to the nearest shelf and begins cycling through the books. He is soon joined by Amy, who begins pulling book after book off the shelf.

Mason calls to Scotty, “Is it too late to suck out the poison?”

From over his shoulder, Scotty responds, “Maybe not, go ahead.”

He peeks over his shoulder to see if Mason will follow through with it and sees him fumbling with Jack's shirt and then pausing over the wound.

Mason looks intently and then calls out, “Just find something, Scotty—I'm sure it's too late!” Then, looking gravely at the boy, he says, “It's going to be okay. We're going to figure something out. You stay with us, Jack—stay with us!”

Scotty re-focuses his efforts on finding something that can help. He thinks,
Where were those books on healing? Think, Scotty, think!

His efforts thus far are fruitless. He has found nothing on healing. Searching his memory some more, Scotty rushes to the wall on his right and reads titles:
Clairvoyance
;
Modern Magic Uses for Toads
;
Zombies, Zombies and More Zombies
. He realizes this isn't the shelf and looks on the one below where he finds
Do It Yourself Love Potion Reversal Spells
and
Removal of Sleep Hexes
. He recognizes that he is getting closer.

Finally, he arrives at the books on healing. Scotty picks up one called
The Warlock's Book of Healing Potions
. He flips through it in a hurried motion but finds nothing on snake bites.

Mason, for his part, looks down at the festering wound and then covers it back up.

All of a sudden, Amy cries out, “Here, this!”

Scotty drops the potions book and runs to his sister.

Amy hands her brother a book called
Ancient Poison Remedies
. Looking at the index, he sees that Chapter 11 is titled “Snake Bites.”
Here it is!
he thinks and turns to that part. The script is handwritten and hard to read, but it looks just like an entry he would have read from his mother's Rotary Club recipe book.

While Scotty reads the words aloud, Amy searches through the vials, beakers, and drawers of the room for the ingredients. Hastily, she places a vial on the table and announces, “Harpy spit.”

From the wall behind Scotty, Amy announces, “I've got bat ashes and a four-leaf clover!”

Scotty commits the following contents to memory and joins the frantic search. In a drawer just below a large glass jar containing a withered hand of some sort, Scotty finds another of the ingredients. He informs Amy, “Dragon's milk! We need wings of mouth and viper poison—hurry!”

By now Mason has also joined the search, but with reckless abandon is flipping discarded bottles behind him to the floor.

“Be careful, Mason.” Scotty says. “You don't know what kind of havoc is in those vials!”

“Right.”

“Moths' wings!” Amy calls.

The search is nearly complete as the three continue to ravage the lab looking for the last item. Amy pulls the final unchecked container from the back of a cabinet and reads out loud, “Crocodile tears.”

Scotty concludes, “There's no viper poison!”

Mason approaches Jack and says, “Gonna have to take off his shirt.”

Jack's deflated, helpless body twitches as Mason yanks at the garment. He shoots a glance toward Scotty and asks, “You sure you know what you're doing? Last time, you blew something up.”

“I was screwing around,” defends Scotty.

“And what about now? You know what you're doing?” asks Mason, emphasizing the question again.

“I can read a chemical mixture.”

“I don't know, Scotty,” Amy questions.

“If you got a better idea, let me know. Otherwise, I'm mixing this thing up or Jack's gonna die.”

Mason and Amy look at each other. Then Amy gets in Scotty's face and demands, “You promise it's not going to make him worse.”

“Worse than dead? No.” More softly, Scotty adds, “He's my friend, too. Okay?”

This response is good enough for Amy. She hands over the ingredients, and Scotty goes to work. All of a sudden, a thought occurs to him. He calls out to Mason and Amy, “Two drops of viper poison. Viper! The viper—we have to get him. It's our only hope.”

Mason stares at Amy and Scotty and then says, “You're right. I'll go.”