Paraworld Zero (9 page)

    

    

    Still driving frantically, Tonya had no idea of the chaos she’d caused with
her misguided spells; she was more interested in keeping the car in one piece.

    “
Warning! It appears that you may be driving recklessly,
” announced the car.
“In the event that you are pulled over by a police officer, you could face possible suspension
of your driver’s license.
”

    “I don’t think it’s my driver’s license these cops are after,” Tonya yelled.
“Besides, I don’t have a license!”

    Not bothering to slow down, Tonya took a sharp turn into a narrow alleyway.
Butch and Simon flew to one side of the car. Several police vehicles and two army jeeps stood at
the end of the road—leaving nowhere for Tonya to go. She stopped the car and looked back to see
her pursuers blocking the pathway behind her. She was trapped.

    “
If you have been drinking, it is advisable that you stop driving immediately,
” the car
stated. “
Would you like me to call one of your listed designated drivers for you?
”

    “Not now,” Tonya said as she revved up the engine.

    “What are you doing?” Simon cried.

    Tonya didn’t respond. Instead, she slammed her foot on the gas pedal and
raced down the street towards the soldiers and officers sitting in their cars.

    “You’re going to kill us!” shouted Butch.

    He reached over the seat to take hold of the steering wheel, but Tonya held
on firmly. The policemen prepared to jump out of their vehicles. Butch grabbed Tonya’s wand from
her lap and waved it around chaotically.

    “
Stop!
” he commanded, flicking the wand at the car. “
Stop! Freeze! Halt! Stop-Stop-Stop!
This stupid thing doesn’t work!”

    “Here, let me try,” Simon yelled. He took the wand from Butch’s hand. “
Alakazam! Hocus Pocus!
Pretty please?”

    “Give me that,” Tonya said in a disgusted voice. She snatched the tiny wand
from Simon. The two boys closed their eyes and screamed. Within a few feet of ramming into a
police car, Tonya yelled, “
FLY!
”

    The black convertible leapt from the ground as if it were driving up some
invisible ramp. Its rubber tires brushed the top of the first police car and knocked off one of
the flashing red and blue lights.

    The sports car jumped over the rest of the vehicles and landed upright onto
the wall of a high-rise apartment building. Not losing any momentum, Tonya continued to drive.
The wheels whirled against the side of the structure. Falling backwards into their seats, Simon
and Butch opened their eyes in dismay.

    “
Sensors indicate that the alignment of the wheels is no longer properly balanced
,” the car
droned. “
Please have the vehicle checked by a mechanic at your earliest convenience.
”

    “Oh, shut up!” yelled Butch.

    “
Voice prompts deactivated
.
Have a nice day,
” the computer system said before going into standby mode.

    Tonya zoomed over a little boy’s bedroom window, which shocked the child so
much that he closed his curtains and ran down the hallway to get his parents, screaming the whole
way, “There’s a car driving up our building! There’s a car driving up our building!”

    The flying car shot twenty feet above the apartment and came to a slow halt
in midair—like a roller coaster reaching the summit before a great fall. Time seemed to stand
still as Simon, Tonya, and Butch gazed dreamily at the Apache helicopters hovering on both sides
of them.

    Feeling woozy, Tonya turned her head sideways to look at the helicopter to
her left. She imagined the aircraft’s blades twirling in slow motion. “I feel dizzy,” she
whispered.

    Tonya put her hand to her mouth and coughed. When she withdrew her hand, her
palm was wet with blood. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She didn’t know if the
sickness came about by the food she’d eaten, the bumpy ride she’d just had, or by the simple fact
that she was afraid of heights, but whatever the reason, it was enough to make her faint.

    The lethargic dream ended abruptly, and the car began to drop from the pale
blue sky. Plummeting downward with tremendous speed, it appeared as though someone had just
pressed fast forward on time itself.

    Simon felt his small body float away from his seat. He reached out and
grabbed Tonya’s paratransmitter, which was also levitating. Butch seized the other end of the
device and dragged it and Simon towards him.

    Back in the apartment, the little child’s mother ran to the bedroom window
and impatiently ripped open the curtains. “How many times have I told you not to make up stories,
young man?” At that moment, the car rushed by and created a huge gust of wind that blew the woman
backwards onto her son’s bed.

    “See, Mommy, I told you there was a car driving on our building,” said the
innocent boy with a proud smile.

    Outside, Simon turned his head towards the driver’s seat and yelled over the
loud whistling of the car, “Wake up, Tonya.
WAKE UP!
”

    “
Good afternoon,”
chimed the car as it awoke from its sleep mode.
“Welcome to the RX1000 voice-activated guidance system. Would you like your daily
horoscope?
”

    Tonya opened her eyes and responded sleepily, “No, thank you, car.”

    “
Tonya!
” cried Simon.

    Realizing where she was, Tonya grabbed the steering wheel and forced the car
to glide upwards from its descent. Just before taking flight, the rubber tires brushed the same
cop car on the ground as before and knocked out the remaining red and blue flashing light.

    The Apache helicopters chased after them as they flew above the streets of
New York City. Tonya wove throughout the town, darting around buildings and flying under
billboards to lose her pursuers, but the convertible was no match for an army helicopter.
Although the Apaches were armed with air-to-air Sidewinder, Stinger, Mistral, and Sidearm
missiles, the pilots hesitated to fire within the confines of the city. Instead, they tried to
flush the car into the open where they could shoot it down without hurting innocent people.

    All the while, Butch and Simon fought for possession of the paratransmitter.
If it were not for the car’s sudden drops, dives, and jumps, Butch would have easily been able to
rip the book from Simon’s arms.

    “Give me that thing,” Butch said. He shook the young boy against the leather
seat.

    A row of flashing lights came to life on the paratransmitter. Strange
characters filled the digital place markers, and a three-dimensional image of a white planet
appeared on the display.

    “Tonya, something’s happening!” Simon yelled.

    Totally engrossed in her driving, the teenager rotated around the Empire
State Building as if she were following a trail up a tall mountain peak. Unfortunately, both
helicopters were hugging the car so closely that Tonya could hardly maneuver.

    Butch reached into his black overcoat and pulled out his ivory-handled knife.
He plunged the blade deep into the leather seat—just inches away from Simon’s face. In horror,
the boy gazed at the sharp fangs protruding from the gaping mouth of the white cobra in the
handle. He noticed the menacing snake was staring back at him with just one green emerald eye;
its other eye must have fallen out on some previous venture.

    The row of lights at the top of the paratransmitter started to go out—one by
one. Tonya screamed, and both boys turned around quickly to see what was wrong. A blazing stream
of fire blew over their heads, and a giant pigeon came into view. Tonya let go of the wheel and
covered her eyes as she collided with the massive bird in midair.

    At that exact moment, the last light on the paratransmitter went out, and an
explosion of blue electricity erupted all around them. The car disappeared immediately, leaving
the charred remains of a fried pigeon and hundreds of scorched feathers to fall to the
ground.

    Down below, the stubby man drenched in bird turd was trying to convince a
disbelieving police officer of his predicament when the cooked pigeon fell onto the officer’s
car, pulverizing the vehicle to the ground. The officer got to her feet and gazed in utter
disbelief at the burning carcass. The short man smiled, his story suddenly gaining a new level of
plausibility. “Now do you believe me?”

    

    

    Rivers of what looked like thick, red blood mixed with orange oil saturated
the colossal walls of the parastream. The two liquids rippled as waves of energy pulsated through
the cavern in a heartbeat rhythm. A labyrinth of large tunnels jutted in every direction—each
pathway leading to infinite possibilities. The glow of electrical blue light flickered on their
faces as the momentum of the wormhole pushed the car along with tremendous force.

    “What have you done?” yelled Tonya. “The mobile paratransmitter wasn’t
designed to transport this much weight!”

    While being propelled through the vast maze of tunnels, the black convertible
vibrated as though it were about to fall apart. Simon wondered if the journey would ever end as
they passed though dozens of conduits at breakneck speeds.

    Tonya experienced a feeling she had never felt before: car sickness. Butch
and Simon, on the other hand, continued to fight over the magical book. Neither of the boys paid
much attention to the countless passageways that zipped past them.

    “Let go,” Butch growled, raising his knife above his head.

    With his black overcoat outstretched, the sophomore looked like some sort of
demon, especially while standing on the seat and hovering over the boy. Simon’s eyes widened, not
because of the sharp knife but because of the sudden drop he saw that the car was about to make
as it followed the pathway of the slipstream.

    Simon let go of the paratransmitter. “Okay, it’s yours.”

    An evil grin of triumph appeared on Butch’s face as he clutched the magical
book.

    “See ya later,
Francis
,” Simon said, grabbing his seat belt with both hands.

    Confused, Butch turned around just in time to see the car take a nosedive.
The young man soared out of the convertible—along with the paratransmitter—and was swept into
another tunnel.

    Simon dangled in the wind, desperately holding on to the seat belt with all
the strength he could muster.

    “Hold on, Simon!” screamed Tonya.

    She hit the brakes, but nothing happened.

    “
Passengers should always wear their seat belts,
” informed the digital voice of the
car.

    Tonya spun the wheel around and forced the vehicle to become level again, but
in the process, she threw Simon’s small body to the hood. By this time, the car was trembling so
badly that the screws and bolts were starting to come undone. The front windshield ripped away,
and Simon yelled as he slipped down the shiny, black hood.

    Tonya didn’t know what to do. She realized that, without the guidance of the
paratransmitter, she was on her own to steer them to safety, but she didn’t trust herself; she’d
just started school, for heavens sake, and wasn’t experienced with this sort of thing. No one
was, really. After a brief moment of inner struggle, she came to the bitter conclusion that she
had no choice but to manually enter one of the paraworlds—a decision every paratraveler hoped
they’d never have to face. The probability of success was dismal at best, but she had to
try.

    “Hold on just one more second,” Tonya shouted.

    She slammed her foot on the gas pedal. The vehicle sprang forward, fueled by
the last remnants of magical power from Tonya’s spell, and miraculously entered one of the
gateways. An explosion of blue light engulfed the car and sent them hurtling into a new
world.

    For a split second, Simon felt immense pain consume his whole body, but then
everything became calm with a blanket of cold darkness that seemed to absorb every ounce of light
around him. Succumbing to unconsciousness, Simon closed his eyes and acknowledged to himself that
his universe was gone.

Chapter 6
    

    

    Somewhere high above Paraworld Bantu, a spy named Tabatha Burke hid within
the metallic walls of a Raider space carrier.

    “I think she went this way,” yelled an officer, leading a group of soldiers
down a dimly lit corridor.

    Tabatha waited for the tapping of their boots to fade away before she emerged
from the shadows. Her fair skin and big yellow eyes complimented her extremely thin figure. A
black pseudo-skin material covered her entire body from head to foot and showed off her lean
muscles as she pranced. She tightened the hood over her face and rounded a corner with catlike
agility. The hall was empty.