Dark Ride (26 page)

Chapter 91

Jack has been descending the ladder for at least five minutes. So far, the teens have all climbed in silence, dwelling on the fate of the match girl. As Jack climbs, he's taking inventory of this whole ordeal, which he realizes has probably been the most agonizing thing in his life. He snuck out of his house, stole a goose, was nearly killed by a poisonous snake, was almost eaten by a bear, was chased by a wolf and a venomous spider, and came close to being set aflame by a little girl. Plus, his relationship with Mason is on thin ice, although the ordeal with the girl had at least brought them a little closer to the same team. On top of it all, the one positive aspect about the night has been a budding relationship with Amy, but Jack senses that things have cooled off a bit, and those first forays of flirtation back at the roller coaster seem like a long time ago to him. In fact, he even thinks about how this new “thing” he and Amy have going has been like a roller coaster itself with her taking his hand one minute and siding with Mason the next.

Breaking the silence, Mason informs, “I can see the bottom.”

The climbers let out a sigh of relief.

Jack takes a peek, himself, and he, too, can see the bottom. He doesn't hurry up and eventually arrives on a smooth concrete slab of a floor. They are in a long narrow room, and lit torches adorn the walls. Two lengthy walkways are visible on either side of a large trough of water that has been etched out in the concrete floor. Black water spills down from an opening at the top of the wall on the far end of the trough. It ripples and splashes until it disappears through a metal grate at the end closest to them.

Amy and Scotty are looking around, and Scotty offers, “Some kind of sewer, I think.”

Mason is also surveying the tunnel-like room and says, “Hey, that thing about crocodiles in sewers…that a fairy tale, right?”

“A myth,” Scotty responds. “Different thing.”

“So, no crocodiles?” confirms Mason.

“I dunno. I haven't ever been here before,” answers Scotty.

“Let's just stay alert, okay?” Jack advises. “In this place anything is likely to happen.”

Everyone nods in agreement.

Jack asks, “So where to now?”

“Looks like there's another ladder up ahead,” Scotty points out.

A black ladder is at the other end of the room on the same side of the trough that the group is on.

“You okay, Amy?” Jack asks.

She simply nods, looking dazed and bewildered. Her hair has been singed, and it is tussled from the constant scratching she has been doing since the incident. Still, in this moment, Jack thinks Amy is as pretty as ever.

Amy offers Jack a little smile and motions to her hair, asking, “Is it bad?”

“Looks fine to me.”

“Yeah, ha ha.”

“'Course we are about a thousand feet underground in the dark on the banks of a sewer with black, nasty water, so I am not sure there's any sort of fashion code down here to abide by.”

She laughs a little and Jack smiles. He thinks how “the roller coaster” just went on the up.

“Not sure what we would have done if you guys hadn't found that hatch,” Mason confides. “Finch did not do a very good job with that little detail in his map. He should have written wooden hatch or something like that. It sure could have saved us time.”

Jack bristles at the mention of the map. Even though all is clearly not settled between them, a temporary truce is understood, and none of them wants to restart the bitter infighting they had experienced over the last hour or so.

A rumble of hunger rips through Jack's stomach, but right now he's too exhausted to care.

“Sure could use a rest,” he says.

“You can say that again,” Mason responds. He ruffles with the work belt adjusting it around his waist.

Meanwhile, Scotty has found Lucky on the bank of the nasty water. He picks him up and declares, “At least he didn't go for a swim.”

Noticing Lucky enveloped in Scotty's embrace, Mason confidently says to the others, “You see, my prize has been a hero more than once. Here, Scotty, no need to carry him all the way.”

“No, I've got him, Mason,” Scotty answers. He appears to be almost jealously guarding the bear.

“Give me the bear, Scotty. I don't want you getting too attached. Lucky here deserves a place of honor in my room.”

Scotty begrudgingly hands the bear over.

And with that, the group begins to move toward the other ladder. Jack is walking next to Amy. Their hands brush and then clasp. This causes Jack to stand a little taller.

As they continue to the ladder, Jack looks around more at their surroundings. He is particularly confused by the room and wonders,
Why a sewer? Every other room in this place has related to some fairy tale or nursery rhyme? What's this all about?
After they walk a little further, Scotty hunches over and confesses, “I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.”

Amy, still messing with the top of her head, says, “We have to keep moving, Scotty. We're all tired, but we can't just stay here.”

The long walk to the exit is tedious and the tuckered-out group gazes right and left, expecting something to emerge from shadow.

Then, just as they are a few feet from the ladder, Jack sees movement from a small crack in the stone wall to his right.

Amy shrieks, “Rats!”

A procession of more than 50 rats spills out onto the floor and begins running around and in between four sets of legs.

Chapter 92

As they dance and weave to avoid the rats, Scotty looks at the crack in the wall and sees 20 more grey and black rats scurrying out. These repulsive looking rodents aren't anything like the pleasant lab mice they had seen earlier in the night. Some of the larger ones could pass for small dogs.

Sniffing and squeaking, the rats fill the space below their feet. One hideous rat scampers over Scotty's right foot. He kicks the varmint, and it lands on top of another but scurries around again.

“Just get up the ladder,” Jack proposes.

“I can't move! These things are swarming!” Amy cries.

“They're just rats. Keep going,” Mason demands.

The flowing water accompanied by the loud squeaking and clicking of hundreds of tiny feet is almost deafening. Nonetheless, from somewhere in the room, the teens are just able to make out the faint sound of music. It is soothing music, the kind you hear from an Irish wooden flute. The music begins to rise in volume, eventually eclipsing the sound of the rats, and it seems to have an effect on the rodents, for they start to line up in two single-file rows, standing on their hind legs and facing the end of the tunnel. Then they slowly edge forward in a bizarre trance, almost marching in time with the music.

The group is mystified by the vermin parade and have halted their progress toward the ladder while staring at the marching rats. Something, though, causes Scotty to look to his left, and he sees a man walk into the tunnel from a hidden passage. He's wearing a long green cloak that flows over his body and drapes over the top of his head like a cowl. Scotty can't make out any features of the man's face except for two bright yellow circles, which seem less like eyes than two beams of light, but he does notice that the man is playing a wooden pan flute. The instrument glides across where Scotty suspects his mouth would be if he could see it. The tune it produces is simply enthralling.

A sense of peace envelopes Scotty and his body longs to join the mice in following this elf-like individual back to the ladder they had originally descended. He is unable to resist, and he, too, beings to march.

Suddenly, Scotty realizes that he knows who this is, the Pied Piper. He tries to say something, but he can't. He's caught in the Piper's hypnotic music.

Chapter 93

Jack is also lured by the piper's tune. He can't stop his feet from moving toward the ladder he doesn't want to ascend. He tells himself to step right, but the order isn't followed. One foot at a time, he follows the procession. As the line turns, he catches a glimpse of the strange cloaked figure
playing the wooden flute. Jack tries to pivot his foot again, but he can't. He wants to call out, but his mouth feels full of cotton. Amy, Mason, and Scotty walk before him in the same hypnotic shuffle.

Jack tries to will his mind to free himself from the trance, telling himself,
Wake up!
But this has no effect. The piper's music is controlling his actions, and he also realizes that it's having an effect on his emotions, too, for when he looks at Mason, he has no more feelings of enmity for his friend. Strange remorse for his actions fill Jack's thoughts:
Why did I sneak out in the first place? Why did I force Clyde to let us on? Why did I get out of the ride? Why did I steal that goose? Why was I such a jerk tonight to Mason?
Soon, though, all feelings of regret also begin to wash away. Jack is having a hard time thinking. The music is soothing him.

The beat of the music quickens, and his feet begin to march faster. Jack tries to speak again, but his lips and tongue do not move. In another attempt to fight the music-induced haze, he blinks. This makes his eyelids grow heavy, but Jack is comforted a bit in knowing that he retains some control over his body.

The group passes the ladder they climbed down. Jack thinks,
Now we're really going the wrong way.
Up ahead, he can hear the sounds of pouring water. He wonders is this is a drainage system. He hopes it is and that it has lots of pipes, one of which he may be able grab on to.

Before his eyes shut, he sees the rats at the front of the procession begin to dive into the water ahead to their left. Jack remembers that rats are able to swim, but these are sinking because they remain stiff in a trance.

Suddenly, Jack realizes,
He intends to drown us!

The gravity hits Jack, knowing he won't be able to swim in this state. He watches in despair, on the brink of unconsciousness as the rats continue to file into the trough of water. His last thoughts before blacking out are of Amy.

Chapter 94

The march continues, and all of them are caught in the midst of the bizarre parade of rats. The stark realization that the piper is intending to drown them all has hit Mason as well. However, like Jack, he cannot fight the march to his doom. A feeling of genuine regret passes over him as well, and he wonders why he had been so argumentative with Jack. He asks himself,
Did Jack have a point about the narrator and the map? But if he
was and if only three of them get a happy-ever-after, what if I'm not one of the three?
He also thinks about Scotty, and when he considers the way he has treated him, his feelings soften. Finally, he acknowledges the way he had always tormented Amy by picking on her. Now he wishes everything had been different.

Weary and dazed, Mason fights to stay coherent. While he lumbers forward, he feels an odd sensation near his right ankle and realizes that something is tugging at his shoe. This gentle tugging breaks the daze just long enough for Mason to slightly tilt his head to the right and down.
Is that a squirrel?
he thinks. The creature has now hopped onto Mason's foot, and his first reaction is to shoot his leg out and send the rodent flying; however, the trance prevents this from happening. His mind clouds again, and Mason simply chooses to ignore the foul thing. After a few more steps, though, more odd sensations break the fog. This time odd pricks scratch up his leg, and Mason thinks, “Oh, just great, that thing is climbing up my leg. This is not getting any better.”

With blurry eyes, Mason notices that the rodent has climbed out to where Lucky rests in his grip. Then he sees a curious thing: the squirrel is chewing at the scorched plot on Lucky's stomach. It looks up at Mason and displays a large clump of fluff in its mouth. Mason tries to communicate,
Get off me, you varmint!

The destination of the parade looms closer, and more rats are flinging themselves into the water.
No, no, no
, thinks Mason. Meanwhile, the squirrel climbs up Mason's neck. In order to shake off the rodent, Mason tries to lurch his head forward, but he cannot. The squirrel then latches onto his hair and drags himself to the top of his head. At this point, while it looks like Mason is wearing the rodent like a hat, the most curious thing happens. He feels the squirrel shoving fluff into his right ear.

Chapter 95

Could this be?
wonders Mason,
Is the squirrel helping me?
The sudden realization startles him but also encourages him. He feels the tiny feet tickling him as they scamper around the base of his neck in order to place fluff into his left ear. Then, just like that, the music dulls to Mason and then dissipates. He can no longer hear the piper, and the dreamlike trance wears off quickly. Meanwhile, the squirrel has scampered down Mason's leg and retreated out of sight.

Mason is able to stop marching now under his own power, and he does so, pausing to think quickly. He realizes his best plan to save his friends is to catch the piper off guard. Resuming the march, he fakes a stupefied expression. Just ahead, he sees the others approaching the water.
Think, Mason, think
, he tells himself.
Should I charge the piper?
he wonders. He decides there is not enough time since the piper is about 20 yards away and by the time he would get there, the others would be in the pool. Mason turns to get a gauge on the piper and risks blowing his cover. Fortunately, though, the green-clad little man continues to skip while playing and doesn't appear to notice anything unusual. Currently, the piper is approximately six feet from the edge of the pool, and an idea springs into Mason's head. Of the group, he knows that only he would be capable of pulling this off. Readying his body for the motion to come, he tenses his legs, envisions his actions, and thinks,
It's now or never.

With reckless abandon, Mason runs in a short arc, looping around a section of the pool, and then heads straight toward the piper. Mason then launches himself in the air toward the pool with the piper exactly opposite him. The adrenaline rushing through his limbs sends him higher than he ever dreamed. In midair, he tucks his legs under his arms in preparation for what will perhaps be the greatest cannonball splash of his life. At the apex of his jump, he watches as the piper catches a glimpse of the famous “Chick cannonball.” There is nothing the odd little imp can do now but await the coming splash.