Operation Tenley (19 page)

Pennie felt a crack under her. She jumped off the water. “Time is about to restart!”

“Full strength!” a Fair Force yelled. “Commander, we need full strength.”

Something was wrong. Fair Force had begun slipping out of the vortex. Fierce winds were bombarding it now and it wasn’t just the water that was cracking, but the ground. Big chunks of land were pulling apart and the Log Ride had begun to shake.

Pennie jumped off another crack just in time.

“More power!” Dan yelled above her.

Instead of lifting up farther, the whirling vortex was sucked sideways into a gigantic swirling tornado.

Bodies spewed out of the tornado and crashed onto the ground. One of them was Lady Fairship. Her hood had blown off and her sleeve was torn. The same crystal eight could be seen hanging around her neck. Laraby noticed it just before Lady Fairship produced a jetpack from her tool belt, strapped it on, and shot upwards again.

“Jet packs!” Dan ordered the rest of the Fair Force, some of whom were still spewing out of the tornado. “Evacuate now! Everyone!”

The Fair Force who had been assigned to stay behind with Pennie pulled out his jet pack and shot upward along with the rest of the Fair Force.

Streams of white lines were all that remained.

Water gurgled down the log ride. Time had resumed.

“
Family is always there to catch you when you fall!
”

Pennie turned to find Laraby sprawled out on the ground next to her. “Laraby! Are you okay?”

There was no time to answer.

A scream pierced the air.

High above them, Tenley’s arms were flailing as Holden gripped her ankle.

They were both falling over the side of the Log Ride.

Just before impact, blackness absorbed all of them.

Mother Nature’s Garden

Tenley landed on a pile of leaves.

“This is the worst field trip
ever
.” She spit a leaf out of her mouth and straightened her sash. “Where’s that little kid with the bunny? Did I get on TV?”

Tenley’s hair was tangled with angry-looking branches and swipes of dirt crisscrossed her face. When she stood, her soaking wet short shorts were ripped clear up one side. “Not my short shorts.”

Holden had landed a few feet away. He was in the same basic shape as Tenley: a ripped sleeve hung down one shoulder and his face was covered in smudges. He inspected his cast, but it looked intact. “That was freaky.”

“Ya
think
? One second we’re on the Log Ride and I’m hurling that small child up to its father, and the next second I’m falling through the air and landing here, in this”—she glanced at the trees and bushes—“weird-looking forest, with
you.
Dan? Mr. Ming
-bay
! Where are you?”

Holden stood. “This place is
kind of
weird.”

“It looks worse than
our
garden.”

For as far as they could see the foliage was dark. Tree trunks were bent over and broken. The trees that were still standing had plenty of leaves but all of them were black. The ground was covered in broken branches.

“Maybe this is the new theme park. The VR one,” Holden said.

“Very Rich?” Tenley crinkled up her nose.

“Virtual Reality.”

“Well, they obviously ran out of money before they finished it.”

“Maybe it’s like a virtual reality survivor game. We have to find our way out of this post-apocalyptic forest.”

“Omigod. Do you see cameras anywhere?” Tenley broke out into a power smile.

Holden leapt over a fallen trunk. “No.”

Tenley dropped her smile. “Those shows are so fake anyway. Like anyone could really survive wearing
one
bikini for an entire
month
.” She checked on her sash. “We gotta get going. I have to find out if a video of me saving that small child can get uploaded to my YouTube, like
right now.
”

The ground snapped. Everywhere Holden stepped, there were dry, cracking twigs. “I just remember falling through the air and then nothing.”

“Ow.” Tenley’s hair caught in a branch. She pulled it out and noticed the black grime on her Ugg boots. “My Uggs! That’s it. I’m outta here. There’s gotta be an exit.” She hurried off.

Holden gathered a handful of leaves. “I’ve never seen these kinds of leaves before,” he muttered to himself.

“Whoa!” Tenley screeched. “This is ba-
nanas
.”

Holden dropped the leaves and hurried over to where she was standing. “Are those daisies?”

“Who plants black and white flowers? Isn’t that, like, so eighties or something?”

“
No one
plants
black and white flowers. We’re in a theme park.”

“We had better set designs in third grade.”

Holden plucked a daisy. “It’s strange though, these are real. Not plastic or dried up or dead or anything. Just colorless. It’s like,” he twisted the stem around in his fingers, “the color has been drained out of it.”

Tenley pulled a face. “Whatever. They’re ugly.”

“I think they’re kind of cool.” Holden lowered his voice and glanced around. “Hey. You think we’re the only ones here?”

Tenley put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m flattered, Wonderbread.”

“Bolt.”

“But I’m interested in Dan.” She dropped her arm. “Well, he’s interested in
me
. I’m pretty sure.”

“You’re right. There’s gotta be an exit somewhere.” Holden walked away.

“Wait! Don’t leave me here!” Tenley hurried after him.

After a few more steps, Holden stopped. “Look at that.” He squatted down to a flat stone with writing across it. “It’s in Latin or something. Can you read it?”

“Sorry, I can’t read weird.”

“I wish I had my phone. I could translate it.” Holden stood, turned away, and tripped. This time he landed on his cast. He clenched his jaw and sat up. A glass bottle rolled under his foot. “
Tornado
?”

“What?”

“That’s what is says on the label.”

Something was swirling around inside of it.

“I think there’s a bug in there.”

“Ew.”

“Wait—” When he looked closer, he saw a tiny tornado howling inside. “That is
so cool
. There’s a mini tornado in there.”

Tenley grabbed it. “Let me see.”

While she studied the bottle, something else caught Holden’s eye. A shiny object under a pile of twigs.

“Wait a minute.” He pulled it out. “This is Pennie’s.” It was her crystal eight. “Pen-
nie
?” he shouted. “Pennie? I know you’re here. Can you hear me?”

When no answer came, he slipped the crystal eight into his pocket. “At least we know she’s here, too.”

“Listen, Wondernut,” Tenley said, dropping the bottle on the ground. “Before you get all crush-gone-bad, I think I should tell you that Pennie’s planning on leaving soon.”

“She is?”

Tenley nodded. “I don’t know where. I just know she’s leaving.”

“Well, I bet you’re going to miss her then.” With that, he walked on, snapping more twigs underfoot.

“I’m calling my mom.” Tenley followed after him.

“How? You left your phone in the bus. You going to bounce a satellite connection off your earring?”

Tenley reached up to her faux diamond studs, then smirked. “Unless we use your braces?”

Holden dropped his head back and pulled his lips apart. “Like this?”

Tenley tried not to giggle. She covered her mouth to hide it, but Holden had seen it anyway. “By the way,” he said. “That was a good job saving that little kid. How did you do that?”

Tenley looked around to make sure no one was listening. “It’s this weird thing I can do. I sort of think that I want the wind to blow, and then it does.”

Holden stared at her. “That’s impossible.”

“You know what, forget it. I have no idea how I did it. Lucky throw, I guess.”

A shuffling in the brush made them freeze.

“It’s creepy in here.”

“Let’s go this way.” Holden started over to a row of trees. “Do you see how these are sticking up the wrong way?” He pointed. “These are the roots.”

“So what. They’re dying. That’s what happens in LA. Things
die
.”

He studied the roots a little closer.

“Hold it,” Tenley blurted out. “Maybe we’re on a movie set, like
Avatar Twelve
or something. Omigod. This could be my first acting job.”

“I just told you, these are all
real
.”

“So was the forest in
Avatar
. Duh. When you put the
glasses on
?”

Holden turned around in a circle. “Do you remember anything else? Like how we got here from the Log Ride?”

“I remember throwing that kid and thinking I was going to fall over the side of the waterfall. And then, I guess I did.”

Holden stomped on a pile of leaves. “That’s all I remember, too.”

They walked around for a little longer until a field of sunflowers sprawled out before them. Gray sunflowers.

“This place is just legit sad,” Tenley sighed.

Another rustling in the branches shook them. Tenley backed up behind a tree.

“Who’s there?” Holden asked.

When nothing answered, Holden stepped closer to the sunflowers. They were seeping with something. He touched the yellowish green liquid dripping off the petals.

“Tenley, you gotta see this. It’s the
color
dripping of these leaves.” Something buzzed by him. He swatted at it. “Get outta here.”

The buzzing circled him. Holden kept swatting at it but the buzzing grew louder. And faster. A small breeze picked up around him and his hair started to ruffle.

For a split second, he felt his high-tops lift off the ground. He must have imagined it. The buzzing grew even louder and this time his high-tops definitely lifted off the ground. And stayed there.

Holden was floating.

“No way!” He wobbled before widening his stance and rebalancing himself. “
Air surfing
. Tenley! I think I found the ride. It’s
awesome
!”

He lifted higher. Before he could call out Tenley’s name again, he started moving toward the sunflowers.
Over
the sunflowers, actually. He was floating across the field.

When he reached the other side, the buzzing slowed and he hovered to a stop. “That was so cool.”

He tried jumping off the invisible ride but was immediately lifted higher. The buzzing sound sped up and the invisible force took a sharp right. He dipped under branches, barely missing tree trunks.

“Hey game guy!” he yelled. “Can we maybe turn this down a little?”

Instead, he sped up directly toward a thick gnarled tree trunk. Moving too fast to jump off, he tucked his head and prepared to crash. Just before impact, he felt his body swerve right and around the trunk.

Holden looked back at the trunk he’d barely missed. He hadn’t noticed how high he was getting but now he was swerving up and over treetops.

His stomach curled. He was going to throw up.

He closed his eyes. “Get me off of this thing!”

This time someone must have heard him. The noise quieted and he began gliding over treetops, up and down and around in soft circles. He caught his breath and rebalanced himself, just before the invisible force pulled out from under him like a rug.

He plummeted downwards, with arms and legs flailing.

Before hitting the ground, his feet collided against something midair. He fell flat on his butt. He looked down. He was seventy meters off the ground, sitting on nothing.

Mother Nature’s Garden

Only a few seconds passed before Tenley dropped next to Holden.

She opened her mouth to speak, but it seemed the air had been knocked out of her.

“Tenley?”

She shook her head.

“Can you breathe?”

“That,” she managed, “was awful.”

“Don’t look down.”

But she did. And screamed.

She buried her head into her knees. Holden patted the space around him. “It’s a web. Like a giant invisible web.”

“Gross!” She tried to scoot toward one of the two trunks they had landed in between, but her foot was stuck. She yanked on it, which only made things worse.

“Don’t move,” Holden warned.

“That buzz. I thought it was bees. I’m allergic to them.” She shivered. “I was just standing there when something started lifting me off the ground. And even when I tried to jump off, it kept getting higher. And then it just took off—”

“And started swerving around trees?”

“And then everything—”

“Stopped.”

“And I landed here.”

“Same thing happened to me.”

Tenley’s voice cracked. “I really want to go home.”

Holden felt bad for her. She hadn’t even checked on her sash, which had another tear across the shoulder now. She looked truly terrible.

“Can anyone hear us?” He tried to stand but a foot slipped through, trapping him with one leg hanging down. Biting his lip, he put his weight on his broken arm and pulled his leg back up through the sticky web.

“Game Master!” he shouted. “Not cool anymore.”

“
Park per-son
!
”
Tenley yelled.

Something screeched into what sounded like a rusty start.

“Did you hear that?” Tenley asked.

Above them, a gigantic pink petal, the size of a hula-hoop, was creaking downwards. Halfway to them, it jerked to a stop. Then it started again. Just as it looked like it was going to land directly on top of Tenley, the petal jerked violently, swung to the right and then to the left, and finally slammed against the tree trunk across from them, nestling itself inside a branch.

“Snail secretions!” a voice from inside yelled. “Need a filter change!”

“Yeah. Um, hello?” Holden ventured.

The same voice fell into a coughing fit.

“Lame-alarm,” Tenley whispered, rolling her eyes.

The petal shifted around until an antique-looking woman, four feet tall at most and wearing a wilted crown of purple flowers and dead branches, popped up.

“You’re so old,” Tenley said.

“Tenley,” Holden warned, except she was right. The woman’s face looked like it had been sketched in with pencil and her faded red hair was piled high under the wilting crown.