Dark Ride (27 page)

Chapter 96

The impact of the cannonball sends a titanic wave up, part of it is headed toward the piper. The oncoming wall of water forces the enchanter into a defensive position. He ducks but loses his balance as he tries to avoid the avalanche of water. With arms flailing, the flute flies from his grasp and the Piper is knocked to his back. The wall of water then crashes down on the sprawling man.

The music has stopped, and rats scamper in every direction.

Jack shakes off the trance. From the corner of his right eye, Jack sees Amy and Scotty shaking off the effects, as well, near the edge of the pool. Mason's jump into the pool happened just in time. Breaking away from the daze, he turns to see the piper, disheveled and drenched, lying on the ground and fighting his own soaked robes in search of the flute. Jack spots
the instrument on the ground a few feet from the piper.
Time to act
, Jack thinks and bolts forward, free from any trace of a trance. By this point, the piper, too, has spotted the instrument and starts crawling on the ground toward it. As he runs, Jack spots Mason crawling up the side of the trench, and to Jack's adulation, Mason grabs the man's foot, preventing him from a final lunge to retrieve the instrument.

Jack runs past the man to the flute and slams his right foot down on the wooden instrument, splintering it into a dozen scattering pieces.

A scream of rage erupts from the iper.

“Time for a new flute!” Jack hollers victoriously at the man.

The hideous yellow oval eyes of the piper turn away from Jack and scan down to where Mason is clinging to his legs. Raising a knee, the man unleashes a furious kick toward Mason. Jack watches in alarm as a black boot thunders across Mason's jaw. Mason's eyes roll up into the back of his head, and his limp body crashes into the water.

Chapter 97

While shaking off her own effects from the music, Amy is slow to react to the whirlwind of activity. However, the crack of the piper's boot against Mason's defenseless jaw is a visual jolt of caffeine. Upon the subsequent fall of Mason's limp body into the water, she throws caution to the wind and knows what she has to do. Ignoring the now obvious fowl stench of the sewer water, she lunges into the water herself.

A splash of cold seizes her muscles. Amy has never been a strong swimmer; the three summers of swim lessons had been in vain. But now, with Mason's life on the line, her legs kick and arms carve a swath against the flowing current. Several dozen rats, who have returned to consciousness themselves, begin to paddle all around her. Her arms clip a rat, then another. One rat attempts to cling to her like a human life preserver.
No time to worry about them now
, thinks Amy. She sees Mason's back floating to the middle of the pool just ahead. The current aids her efforts by bringing him closer to her. As she continues to swim in his direction, Amy swats away several rats, no longer able to ignore the vermin whose sharp claws dig into her clothes and flesh. Suddenly, she experiences a shot of pain on her tender head from a rat that has crawled on top. While swatting at the rat, she tries not to lose track of Mason. Finally, she succeeds
in yanking the rat off and flinging him away, and then she reaches Mason and turns him upright so he can get a breath.

Dozens of rats begin to swim toward Mason and her.

Amy cries, “Help me, Scotty!” but there is no reply. She looks to the path and sees that Scotty is just standing there looking at the enraged piper.

She yells, “Scotty!” hoping to draw his attention to her.

Scotty, however, continues to stand motionless.

In the midst of fighting away the rats while holding Mason's head above water, Amy checks for a vital sign from Mason.

She calls out, “Jack! He's not breathing!”

Chapter 98

Amy slaps Mason's cheek, trying desperately to snap him back to life.

She yells, “Mason, wake up!”

She is fighting to stay afloat, and her legs are beginning to tire from the constant kicking. Soon, her head dips below the water.

Underneath the surface of the nasty black liquid, Amy sees the rats and realizes that Mason is not the only one fighting for his life in that pool. Also, even while submerged, Amy still isn't able to touch the bottom. Summoning a burst of energy, she lunges with both legs and accelerates upward again, projecting Mason and her above the surface. Then a large charcoal colored rat scampers up her outstretched arm, and a black rat climbs on top of Mason, who remains unresponsive.

“Mason!” Amy yells again and makes a brisk downward swipe with her hand over the boy's chin.

She continues making clumsy swipes, hitting his check, his forehead, his nose, and his ears. However, these do not seem to be having any effect, and Amy thinks,
I have to get to the side of the trench, or we'll both drown.

Although it's less than five yards away, she's not strong enough to reach the side. Instead she steadies Mason and checks for vital signs again. She thinks he has a pulse but can't be sure. He's still not breathing, so Amy wonders,
Should I give him mouth to mouth? I don't know mouth to mouth. Just do something. Mason's gonna die, if it's not too late already.

Having no clue what to do, she decides to blow in his mouth. Even with the desperation of the moment, though, she still hesitates a little before she does and thinks,
I should have taken a class on this.
Nonetheless, she
manages to place Mason's floating form upward with his face inches below hers. She takes her hand and pinches Mason's nose, recalling that she had seen this done somewhere. Then, lowering her mouth to Mason's, she prepares for the attempt and tells herself,
Mason is dead if I don't do this.

Amy places her mouth on Mason's, and as soon as she does so, water gushes into her open mouth. This surprises Amy, and she doesn't notice a gurgling “What” sound coming from Mason's throat. Then, in her arms, she feels Mason stir. He begins coughing, fluttering his eyelashes, and shaking his head.

Mason gasps, “What…. Where?” with his arms flailing and legs kicking.

Amy says, “Stop, Mason—stop! You have to help me.”

He gives another cough before calm breaks over his face at recognition of the familiar voice.

“Can you stay above the water on your own?”

“Did I get her good?”

“Her?”

“The lifeguard.”

Great
, thinks Amy.
He's out of his mind
. However, instead of trying to explain everything, Amy simply plays along and says, “You sure did, but we have to get to the side.”

“Cool.”

It is obvious to Amy that she will still have to guide him to the bank. So, with one arm under his, Amy kicks, along with Mason, to the side of the pool. Although Mason's kicks are quite weak, the extra push is just what Amy needs to succeed in getting them to the side of the trough. And, while Amy is relieved, she isn't able to let go of the idea that Mason had spit in her mouth.

Finally, they reach the side of the pool, and Amy takes one of Mason's arms and drapes it onto the concrete. He is now safe, and Amy asks, “You gonna be okay there?”

“I think so, but I am like so dizzy.”

“Just stay put.”

Amy lifts herself onto the bank and then pauses to see what is going on ashore.

Chapter 99

The enraged piper is on his feet now, and with lightning-fast reflexes, he charges at Jack. Overwhelmed by the sudden attack, Jack steps back. The piper is on him in an instant. A searing pain jerks his entire head forward. The piper grips a handful of Jack's hair, and shoves him to the ground face first.

Scotty watches in bewilderment. Even though he is no longer under the music's curse, he is now frozen in terror. He sees the yellow eyes of the piper turn toward him, and he responds by raising his hands in fear and ducking his head. As the piper advances toward him, Scotty wants to run, but, instead, he cowers and shakes as the man approaches.

“Sorry…. I'm sorry,” Scotty stutters.

Then Scotty sees Jack behind the piper. He's back on his feet and makes a haphazard rush into the back of the piper, crashing into the small of the man's back. Scotty ducks in fear as the piper jolts forward. The mad musician, though, recovers quickly from the blow and turns and lifts Jack off the ground by his throat. Then, with an epic motion of his arm, he launches Jack into the wall of stone to the left. With Jack out of the way, the piper resumes his deliberate march toward Scotty.

“No, we didn't mean to,” Scotty spits out in fear.

The instant the piper is upon him, Scotty tries to duck, but it's too late. The piper has him in a painful headlock. In this fashion, the piper drags Scotty back to the spot of the shattered flute and reaches down with his one free hand and picks up a piece of his prized instrument. He slams it down in disgust and emits another blood-curdling cry from his hidden mouth. Then, while continuing to hold Scotty under one arm, the piper reaches underneath his wet cloak to his belt and draws out a pistol. It is the kind of pistol that Scotty had only seen in pirate movies. The frightened boy tries to turn his head around, looking for any possibility of rescue, but the only other person he sees is Jack, who's lying on the ground motionless.

The piper throws Scotty to the ground and places one of his large black boots on Scotty's chest. Then he lowers the gun to Scotty's face.

“No, don't!” Scotty cries and waits for the explosion.

Chapter 100

Fresh from the water, Amy sees her brother in trouble, and, without hesitation, sprints toward him and launches her entire body into the right side of the mysterious foe just above his hip. The piper is not ready for the new assault, and the blow to his defenseless side sends the piper reeling. At the same time, he relinquishes his hold on the pistol, and it flies through the air and splashes into the pool. The piper tries to recover by wheeling around, but his right foot steps too close to the edge, and with his balance lost, he tumbles toward the water. As he does so, the piper manages to grab Amy by the hoodie. His attempt to drag her into the water with him is stymied, however, by Scotty, who grabs her waist and secures her. The piper then loses his grip and splashes into the black water.

Amy hopes the man is a worse swimmer than she. She anxiously watches as he flails about within his soaked garment. Then she sees an army of rats paddling toward him and witnesses no less than 20 large rodents climb onto the piper's body. He lashes out at them, but the piper is unable to fend off the oncoming rush while ensnared amongst his soaked cloak. It is poetic justice. The very rats that he had tried to drown are now the executors of one horrendous punishment.

Confident that she and her friends are now safe from the rat-covered maniac, Amy turns to aid her fallen brother.

She asks, “You okay, Scotty?”

“I'm fine. What about Mason?”

“He's okay…a little delusional—but what's new?”

The good-natured rib triggers a mutual grin.

“What about Jack, he took some nasty blows?”

Jack! What about Jack?
Amy thinks and then says, “Scotty, get Mason out of the pool.”

Amy rushes away from her brother toward the wall where Jack is leaning and holding the back of his head. Amy thinks he looks so fragile, so broken, and her heart flutters. She bends down beside him and hopes he is cognizant. To her relief, his bright blue eyes are open.

“Is it bad?” he asks.

“Looks fine to me. ‘Course we are about a thousand feet underground in the dark on the banks of a sewer with black, nasty water, so it's easy to beat that.”

The two share a smile. Then, half-joking, Jack asks, “Wanna kiss it and make it better?”

Amy gives him a serious look and asks, “You want me to?”

“No, I, uh…. I mean…. What I meant to say….”

She leans over and kisses his head and then leans back and smiles.

“Better?”

“Yeah. But my lips hurt, too—you think you could—”

“Don't press your luck, Braddock,” Amy teases.

They smile at each other.

Amy asks, “You ready to stand up?”

Before Jack can answer, though, Amy is already pulling him to his feet. He's woozy, and he braces himself on the wall for support.

Scotty approaches the two with Mason staggering alongside. Scotty is holding Lucky while Mason is looking around the room trying to register what just happened.

“What happened to the lifeguard?” Mason lazily utters.

The others exchange a look of concern, but Mason adds, “I'm kidding. There was a squirrel, though.”

“Mason, we may need to see you to a doctor or something,” Scotty says.

“I'm serious.”

“Of course you are.” Mason agrees.

The companions, all worse for the wear, shuffle one by one back to the ladder they were originally heading toward. Scotty and Amy take turns steadying the other boys. Amy, for one, has never been more thankful to get out of a room in her life. She is the last one to the ladder, and before she starts climbing, she gives one more glance in the direction of the piper. Then as she turns her gaze back to the ladder, something strange catches her eyes. She sees, midway down the tunnel, a squirrel, standing on two legs, watching her.

Chapter 101

Jack is the first one up the ladder. The cobwebs are starting to clear from his mind as he waits at the top of the exit for the other three. He sits giving no care to any dangers that may be lurking in this new room. He notices some grass and a tree or two then closes his eyes, just for a second. He thinks about obstacles he and his friends had encountered during the night. In comparison with the last 20 minutes of combat with the Pied Piper, Jack considers his group's overcoming of the other nemeses, such
as the viper, the bear, the spider, and the matchstick girl, to have been a breeze.
It's like every situation escalates in sheer terror
, he thinks.

Jack reaches down to help Amy rise out of the hole while Mason grumbles, “My head feels like a washing machine.”

“You think you might have a concussion?” Jack asks.

“Possibly.” Then Mason thinks for a second and adds, “If I collapse, just roll my body to some corner and come back for me.”

The others are glad that Mason's sense of humor has not been lost. And, even though an hour ago Jack might have taken Mason up on this offer to leave him, things have now changed because of the mutual experience they shared down in the tunnel.

They all take turns recounting the events in the sewer. Mason talks about the squirrel and his heroic cannonball. Jack speaks of his combat with the piper, and Amy retells her rescue of Mason, although she leaves out the part where Mason coughed up water into her mouth, and her final conflict with the piper.

Scotty, however, has taken a seat on the floor and remained silent during the storytelling.

Jack notices this and asks, “Okay, what gives, Scotty? You're being awful quiet.”

Scotty briefly looks up at Jack and then buries his chin into his chest.

As Amy goes through the episode with the piper again for Mason, Jack approaches Scotty and places a hand on his head.

“Scotty? What's wrong?”

Shaking off the gesture, a red-faced, crying Scotty whimpers, “I just could not move. I stood there watching.”

Tears are flowing from his face as he pushes his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

Scotty says, “Mason was drowning, Amy jumped in to help, you were fighting, and all I could do was…nothing.”

“We made it out, didn't we?” Jack notes, trying to encourage him.

“No thanks to me. I was too scared. I was…I'm a coward.”

Jack responds, “You're not a coward, Scotty, so quit thinking you are. We need you in here. You shrunk that spider.”

“Yeah, but only after I sat there watching you and Amy about to get eaten. What about next time? Am I simply going to watch my friends die?”

“No, you're not. It was you who mixed that potion that saved my life. You did that, Scotty. Not Mason or Amy, but you.”

“But what about—”

“No, I don't want to hear it, Scotty.”

Jack's assertive tone surprises himself, but he continues, “Okay, so you froze a couple of times. The three of us, well, we picked up your slack. Look, you are going to have to get up off your can and help us tonight. We can't make it out of here without you.”

Jack's authoritative tone catches the attention of Amy and Mason, who join them.

“You okay, Scotty?” his sister asks.

“Yeah. I just needed a few seconds.”

Scotty rises to his feet.

“Good,” Jack confirms. “We've all had a rough night. I'm not sure how much longer we have to go before we finally get out of here, but we are all on the same page now. All the bickering needs to stop.”

He shoots a look of confirmation at Mason, whose demeanor has changed to something weaker and less volatile. Mason nods.

“Okay, now let me see the map,” Jack requests and holds a hand out to Mason, testing the newfound peace.

Quickly, with no hesitation, Mason hands the parcel over and says, “I think that if the room we are in now is The Chasm, then we are only three rooms away from the vault. But we still have not found any keys.”

“We can worry about that when we get there,” Jack asserts.

“All right, let's get back to business,” Scotty affirms.

Jack holds out a fist to Scotty, who reaches forward and gives it a bump with his.

“So if we're in The Chasm, where's the chasm?” Scotty asks.

All of a sudden, they hear “mah-ah-ah-ah
”
to their right. They now pay attention to the environment of the room and realize that they are standing in a lush green field, complete with goats.

“Huh? Goats?” Jack mumbles.