Carnival World Boxed Set (Episodes 1-3) Page 3

  Ryan had been in the advanced computer-science lab. Physics wasn’t where his passion lay. His plan had been to get rich in computers and come back to Crooks a wealthy man. That would have shown Darien and Nicole and all their friends.

  But he also took a few university courses in physics to round things out. He understood some of the theories. He’d taken some course on quantum theory and the possibility of parallel worlds. He didn’t understand everything and wasn’t even close to grasping the math behind it all, but he certainly wasn’t going to tell Darien Burton that.

  “So the university has a time warp machine and it zapped us?” asked the girl twin.

  “I admit it’s a stretch, but they were working on a quantum computer. I saw the thing for myself. Maybe something went really, really wrong. It’s possible something happened there and it kicked us out of our own universe and into this one.”

  He’d paid more attention to the two shapely graduate research assistants assigned to the project than the computer itself. Samantha and Ginny were their names. But that was something else the others didn’t need to know.

  Most of the kids were taking this in, but not Darien. He balled up his fists and his neck tensed.

  “Says who?”

  “Says Einstein, moron,” answered Ryan. Ryan could feel it building. Darien was slipping back into his old high school self. This time Ryan wasn’t going to back down.

  “You want to die?” It was the standard lunchroom threat. This time there wasn’t going to be a lunchroom response.

  A nearby wooden sign declared “You Must Be This Tall.” Ryan took a swing at it with his new “sword.” The heavy iron bar whistled through the air again. Ryan felt a slight jolt as it hit. The sign broke in two. That shut Darien up fast.

  “That’s right. You don’t have your offensive line blocking for you.”

  “Put that away and fight,” Darien said. He’d already taken a step back.

  Ryan was enjoying this.

  “I ain’t putting this away. Not ever. Don’t you get it? This ain’t home. I’m playing for keeps.”

  “All right, say I believe you. What are you suggesting?” Summer asked.

  It was just like Summer Vaughn to be a buzzkill. Ryan had loved being in charge. But now he had to think about what to do next. That was a lot scarier, and Ryan wasn’t sure. But he couldn’t tell them that.

  “Head to Cedar Falls. Even if I’m wrong about the space warp, they’ve got the university there and all these old civil defense facilities.”

  “That’s stupid,” said Darien.

  “What’s your idea, then?” asked Ryan.

  Then it was Darien’s turn to struggle with coming up with a plan. He stuttered for a few seconds before he spoke.

  “We... We stay right here. Somebody will come get us.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a plan,” said the girl twin.

  Darien remained defiant. “Yeah well, that’s what we’re doing.”

  Darien waved Nicole over. She looked around timidly and slowly sidled next to him.

  “You can wait here if you want. That sounds perfectly safe,” said Ryan.

  The girl twin walked toward Ryan. Her brother grabbed her arm.

  “You’re not thinking of going with that guy, are you?”

  “It’s all right. I think I know him,” was her reply.

  Ryan smiled at her. There was something familiar about her. She stood by Ryan. Her brother reluctantly joined them.

  “Maddie,” she said. “This is my brother Justin.”

  “I’m Ryan.”

  Everyone now looked to Summer and her brother. Summer gulped, realizing they expected her to say something. The little kid grasped her hand.

  “I have to get my brother home safely,” she said. With that, she walked toward Darien and Nicole.

  “Thought you were smarter than that, Summer,” said Ryan.

  Darien grinned at him as if he won. Truthfully, Summer did represent the tiebreaking vote.

  But the idiot obviously wasn’t watching his girlfriend, Ryan said to himself. I don’t think Nicole was too pleased at all.

  Nicole was trying to keep from screaming again. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real. She kept hoping that someone would jump out and yell, “Surprise! We fooled you!” Maybe it was some crazy new show from MTV. But with every second that it didn’t happen, Nicole grew more and more panicked.

  Nicole stared at all the rust around them. When she was a little girl she’d seen a small advertisement in the paper for an automobile sealant. It showed a cartoon car with a little girl and her puppy inside. The car was being devoured by a big red blob with the words “rust” on it. Nicole went to bed that night and had nightmares that the rust monster was going to eat her too.

  To this day, it made her edgy just to see metal turn red and crumble away. In her mind she knew it was just oxygen and metal binding. She’d learned that in science class, but it still freaked her out. To her it always looked like the rust was growing, spreading and eating the metal, like some monstrous slime mold or cancer. That’s what it looked like here.

  The carnival looked like it had been attacked by the rust monster. She could see the tracks it made across old rotted wood and dried-up plastic as it crawled from one metal victim to the next. It spread like a cancer, eating away at everything it touched. She knew it was harmless—well, at least as long as you didn’t cut yourself. People didn’t rust. But maybe they did and no one knew about it? People had iron in their blood, after all. Maybe rust just waited until no one was watching, then jumped out and attacked. Maybe that’s what it was doing now. Maybe it was about to spring out and take them all.

  Her mother’s voice echoed in her head. Control yourself. Don’t go to pieces. There are people watching.

  That was her mom’s answer to everything. It didn’t matter what was happening as long as Nicole looked poised and ladylike. Nicole wondered how poised her mother would be in a situation like this. More than likely, she would be screaming her head off as well. The thought of that nearly made Nicole burst out laughing. She stifled a giggle and hoped no one noticed. They’d think she had gone crazy.

  Even here it still mattered what others thought of you.

  But no one noticed. Everyone had been busy listening to Ryan and Darien argue. But now the talking was over and everyone was choosing sides. The twins had gone over to Ryan. That’s when Nicole noticed Summer Vaughn and her brother heading over to her and Darien.

  “You have got to be kidding. We’re not hanging out with them,” said Nicole. It was almost a reflex. It was what she would automatically say at school. She’d been doing it forever and didn’t even think about it anymore. It was almost like breathing to her now.

  There was a split second when she thought about apologizing. But she wasn’t sorry. It felt good to say it. It made her less afraid. It took her back to her home, her friends, and her parents.

  Darien answered, “What do you want me to do? Tell them to sit at another table?”

  Nicole shrugged and muttered, “Well...”

  Nicole hoped that was still an option. It wasn’t because she hated Summer Vaughn. In reality, she didn’t think much about Summer at all. But she needed to cling to something normal and familiar. If that meant being mean to this plain beanpole of a girl, that was just her tough luck.

  Back in high school Nicole followed Katie Parsons, the head cheerleader and queen of Crooks’ social scene. Nicole was part of Katie’s inner circle, which wasn’t always peaches and cream but it beat being on her “list.” Summer was definitely on Katie’s list. Nicole didn’t know the exact reason, but she suspected it was jealousy. Summer was a real blonde while Katie had fake hair and a fake tan. Summer was smart and Katie definitely wasn’t. And Summer was an easy target. The girl could have easily taken over the school, but she had no idea how the game was played. She was way too nice.

  Even now, Summer approached unsure of herself. Her feet were already slidin
g backwards. Nicole could sense that one word in her direction and she’d turn tail and go over with Ryan Mulvaney. But her little brother was all smiles.

  “Hi!” He was like a puppy dog.

  “Hi kid,” said Nicole.

  No fair, she thought. The kid’s adorable.

  “I’m glad we picked you.”

  “Hey, thanks,” said Darien.

  Great, now they were stuck with them. Darien wasn’t going to send a fan away.

  “All right. I guess they can stick around. It’s only for a little while,” Nicole conceded. She thought it might even work out. Jabbing at Summer would keep things normal and keep Nicole from going crazy.

  Summer watched Ryan and the twins head off for a different part of the park. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was the same type of feeling she had when her father packed his suitcase and split on her, Sam and their mother.

  She looked at Darien. “It is only for a little while, right?”

  “Sure. You don’t really believe all that time warp crap, do you?” Darien answered.

  “I just think it’s a bad idea to split up.”

  “Everything will be fine. Trust me,” said Darien.

  “So what now?” asked Nicole.

  Darien didn’t answer. He just stammered again. “Um. Eh.”

  “I’m glad you thought this out so thoroughly,” said Nicole.

  As much as Summer wanted to tell her to shut it, she didn’t think fighting would be a good idea.

  “We should find a spot to sit down. Someplace where they can spot us.”

  “Yeah that sounds good,” said Darien.

  But Nicole complained, “Gross! This place is dirty.”

  Summer rolled her eyes. “If we find a clean spot, it’s yours.”

  She saw Nicole giving her the eye. Great, Summer thought. This wasn’t going to be easy. But nothing with Nicole ever was.

  In middle school, she was paired up with Nicole for a social studies project about Africa. Needless to say, Summer did all the work. All Nicole did was bitch and complain and make rude comments about Africans.

  Summer didn’t want to cause problems, especially with a girl like Nicole who had the ear of the popular crowd, so she sucked it up and didn’t breathe a bad word about it. The teacher raved about the report, which came complete with a diorama Summer constructed on her own.

  She imagined that it was probably the first and only “A” Nicole had ever received on her school work.

  Darien was feeling pretty confident as he walked away with Nicole, Summer and little Sam. He’d won that round against Mulvaney. Now all he had to do was find a place to hole up and wait for the cops or somebody to show up. Darien had no idea what had happened and he didn’t want to guess.

  It was weird to be sure, and creepy. It was like the haunted house exploded all over the place, he thought.

  He was trying to make fun of it but deep down, the place unnerved him. Darkness began to creep in as the sun lowered. The wrecked tents and rides grew darker. They began to look like shapes in the darkness, skeletal hands grasping at the sky, billowing ghosts hovering just above the ground, dark insects the size of cars gathering around them.

  The place looked scary. But it was the silence that struck Darien the hardest. He couldn’t hear cars in the distance, even though he knew the highway was in walking distance. There weren’t any birds chirping or insects humming. He’d been out hunting just a few weeks before with his dad and the forest was alive with animal chatter. There was none of that here. It was like some giant glass had been set down over the entire carnival, cutting them off from everything.

  It was crazy, but space warps and magic kingdoms? There was no way he could swallow that. Whatever had happened had to be limited. There had to be people out there who were worried about Darien and Nicole and the others. They would send help. They had to.

  Darien didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t.

  His group settled on the picnic pavilion as their spot. It was just a short distance from the caterpillar ride. Like everything else it now looked rusty and old, but the large canopy was still intact and looked solid as ever. That would give them some shelter. The picnic tables were all still there in lined rows. They had a place to sit down.

  Rather, Darien, Summer and Sam had a place to sit down. Nicole took one look at the bench and pulled out a small cloth from her purse. She furiously wiped the bench.

  “This is disgusting,” said Nicole.

  Summer stretched out and watched her clean. “You should probably stay away from the porta-potty.”

  Nicole whirled on her and hissed, “Shut up!”

  Darien and Summer grinned. He knew he shouldn’t. If Nicole kept on getting wound up, who knew where it could lead? But it was too easy. Nicole had always been a clean freak. Darien couldn’t even let out a small burp without her making a scene.

  But he might just rile her up again if it meant Summer would smile. She lit up the place. He tried to remember why he hadn’t talked to her more at school. A lot of people at school said she was a loser, but he’d never thought that. She always seemed nice and friendly. There were things about school he just didn’t get. The way girls went after other girls was one of them.

  Darien was about to say something to Summer when he heard a loud crack. He nearly jumped out of his seat. After the strange quiet, the sound was like a cannon going off.

  Across the fairgrounds he saw Ryan, Maddie and Justin running around. They were attacking the wooden stalls around the fair. They were breaking them up into planks and sticks, then carrying the wood away. Ryan kicked over a snack vendor cart and pulled out several individually wrapped snack cakes. He still had that sword/crowbar thing with him. He used it to smash another game stall to pieces.

  If Ryan didn’t have that weapon, Darien would have taught him a lesson. Once they got back to school he’d make sure Mulvaney regretted that. Darien would have his teammates with him then. But he wouldn’t have them join in. No, they would just stand by and make sure Mulvaney didn’t cheat again. Then he’d show Ryan. But maybe Ryan would be in jail for vandalism by then.

  “Idiot’s going to get himself thrown in jail when help arrives,” Darien muttered.

  “Are you sure?” asked Summer.

  “Sure about what?” Darien wasn’t sure about anything but didn’t dare say it. The girls had put their trust in him. He had to come through.

  “About help arriving?”

  Summer’s face was pinched in worry. It was already late afternoon and help hadn’t arrived thus far. Darien hoped they were on their way, but there was a gnawing feeling in his stomach.

  They watched as Ryan and the twins ran off not just with firewood but also cakes, popcorn and beef jerky.

  “Shouldn’t we get some food too?” asked Summer.

  “I’m hungry. I want dinner,” said Sam.

  Darien gave him a smile. “Don’t worry buddy. Pretty soon we’ll be safe and we’ll all go to Louie’s Diner. And we’ll have chili mac and hot wings and milk shakes.”

  Darien could picture them all at a booth with plate after steaming plate in front of them. He could almost taste Louie’s chili mac. It wasn’t much; macaroni, hamburger, canned sauce and cheese so orange it glowed in the dark. Now Darien felt like he could eat a ton of the stuff and still ask for seconds.

  WHAM!

  Nicole smacked the back of his head and knocked him out of his reverie. “Cut it out, idiot! Now we’re all starving.”

  Summer and Sam sat next to each other and looked like they were ready to eat the picnic table and bench.

  “Sorry. I was hungrier than I thought,” said Darien.

  “It’s all right. We should look for something to eat. Just to snack on,” Summer said. She rubbed her arms. “Maybe build a fire too. It’s getting a little chilly.”

  Darien nodded. “I suppose they wouldn’t be too mad at us.”

  Nicole was up and ready to leave. “They hav
e no business being mad. We’re the ones that got—whatever this is—happen to us. Somebody is getting their behinds sued.”

  Nicole sounded more pissed than scared. Darien suddenly didn’t feel that victorious, or that sure anymore. He had to admit that whatever had happened, help was at least a day away. It might even be farther away than that.

  Maybe a universe away, he thought.

  He quickly banished the thought. That sounded too much like Ryan talking. And he wasn’t going to let that conniving little weasel into his mind.

  Maddie approached the old wooden fence with her brother and Ryan. The planks were loose and most had fallen off. On the other side lay dark woods that made Maddie shiver to look at them.

  “Yay. Firewood,” said Ryan.

  “Don’t we have enough already?” asked Justin.

  Ryan kicked down some planks. “That was kindling. That’s what you use to start the fire.” He stacked fence planks on Justin’s arms. “You make a fire with just kindling and it dies out in a few minutes.”

  He added more planks to Justin’s arms. “Once you light the kindling, then feed it larger and larger pieces.”

  He put even more planks in Justin’s arms. Maddie tried not to giggle. Her brother could barely see over the pile of wood he held.

  “That way the fire burns longer and we stay warm all night,” said Ryan. He handed her a single plank and they smiled at each other. “Of course, we could just all snuggle together to stay warm.”

  “Okay. Okay. You win,” said Justin.

  Maddie watched her brother trudge back to their camp by the old carousel. After he was gone, Maddie and Ryan looked each other over.

  “You said you know me? How do you know me? I think I would have remembered you,” said Ryan.

  “It was middle school,” said Maddie.

  “Oh?” Ryan suddenly sounded a little chilly. Maddie guessed that middle school wasn’t a pleasant time for Ryan. It wasn’t for most people. But she was sure he wouldn’t mind this memory.