cold, thin air: Volume 2

by C. K. Walker

  As I eagerly approached the turn-style for Mayhem Mountain Tyler spoke up behind me. “Listen, can we run into town and grab something to eat before we ride Mayhem?”

  “You really want to ride Mayhem after we eat?” Asked Koji.

  “Good point.”

  “It only goes upside down once,” Dani rolled her eyes.

  “Twice,” I said. “Don’t forget the inline roll.”

  “Yep, twice.” Scott said. “Plus it’s a two minute ride. If your food isn’t sitting well, you’ve got a long wait ‘til it’s over.”

  “Look,” I said, “Let’s ride it a couple times and then go eat. When we come back we’ll see how we feel.”

  Everyone nodded and we started walking through the line-ways up to the platform. When we reached the loading dock, I was excited to see our favorite green car sitting on the track.

  “Front!” Brandon and I yelled simultaneously as soon as the train cars came into view. Everyone behind us groaned.

  “I’m staying here,” Charlotte said. “I’ll just work the launch pad thingy.”

  “Still scared after all these years, Char?” Scott teased her.

  “Shut up, Burnout.”

  Scott laughed and tousled her hair before running and jumping into the first car behind Brandon and I. Dani got in next to him and then Tyler and Koji took the second car. We pulled the shoulder restraints down and they locked in place.

  “Ready?” Charlotte asked.

  “Yep!” Brandon yelled back, “Send the car through!”

  Charlotte pulled the lever and the brakes disengaged. As the car moved forward I turned to Brandon.

  “Did we get the green car on purpose?” I yelled to him as the coaster clacked around the load platform and began the clattery climb up the first lift hill.

  “Yep! We sent cars through here all morning but I made sure Rich knew to leave the Green Machine in the loading bay.”

  “Awesome.”

  As the train climbed up the lift hill I made no attempt to hide my utter glee. I looked out over the expansive park and couldn’t believe it was mine. Every track, every car, every turn-style, every screw, from the front gate to the overflow parking lot in the back, it was all ours. How I wished I could go back in time and tell a young me waiting in the two hour line for Mayhem Mountain – one day, you will OWN this place. And as we crested the hill and the train fell into the first drop, I realized I essentially had gone back in time. At least, I was screaming like a 12 year old, as was everyone else behind me.

  We dipped into the first tester hill and then banked hard and up, to the second lift hill. We dropped from there, down into the vertical loop, banked around a set of gift ships, up briefly and then down a small hill into the inline roll. When we arrived back at the loading bay we were all screaming and whooping. Charlotte didn’t even have to ask, just smiled at us and sent us through again.

  We went twice more before we finally got off the ride. Koji walked over to check out the control panel while the rest of us taunted my sister.

  “You sure you don’t want to go, Char? It’s awesome.”

  “Nah, I’m good. I have no problem being the carny for this ride.” She laughed.

  “Come on, Charlotte, just one time. One time and we’ll leave you alone.” Tyler urged.

  “No, no, no, no, no. No way. Not interested. I’ll ride anything else, though!”

  “Hey, do you guys know what Track B is?” Koji asked.

  “Track B? What do you mean?” Brandon walked over to Koji at the control board and raised an eyebrow. “That’s weird.”

  “It’s probably just the track they use to get the cars into the storage bay,” Scott said with a shrug.

  “No,” Koji said. “That’s called a transfer track. Track B has to be something else.”

  “Yeah, well I’ve been on this ride enough times to know that there is no other track.”

  “Yep,” Tyler agreed with me. “He has.”

  “So…should we try it?” Brandon tested.

  “Fuck no.” Said Charlotte. “If you don’t know what Track B is that means the contractors don’t know about it either. Which means it hasn’t been inspected in at least 20 years. That’s suicide.”

  “Look,” Koji said, “if there is indeed a Track B than even the most incompetent of engineers would have found it during an inspection.”

  “And Rich cleared this entire ride,” Brandon nodded. “It’s probably just the ride in reverse. We’re good.”

  “Well, we’re in,” announced Scott from the other side of the track, though Dani didn’t look quite like she agreed with him.

  “Mark?” Tyler asked.

  “Yeah, I guess I’m in. What the worst that could happen: we get funneled into a repair bay?”

  “Alright, then I’m in too.” Tyler said hesitantly.

  Koji shrugged. “Here goes nothing.”

  He flipped the switch over to Track B and a moment later a loud metallic scraping some distance away filled the park. The sound lasted almost a minute. I studied the familiar silver roller coaster under the pink sky of the setting sun but I saw no physical changes to the track. I looked over at Brandon and a shrug of his shoulders told me he didn’t either.

  “Shall we?” Scott asked gesturing to the train cars we’d just disembarked. I gave Charlotte a questioning look but she shook her head emphatically no. So it was just the six of us again.

  “It’s only right you two take the bow of the ship.” Tyler gave a mock salute. “O Captains, my captains.”

  I laughed and hopped into the right side of the front row. Brandon crawled into the seat next to me. Tyler and Koji got in behind us and Scott and Dani took the back. We pulled the shoulder bars down and they locked into place.

  “Are you sure about this?” Charlotte asked when everyone was settled.

  Dani said something from her place a few rows back but all I heard was Brandon yelling “Pull it!”

  The brakes released and the train rolled away from the platform and into the twilight of dusk. The lights had lit up on the track while we’d been arguing and the roller coaster looked absolutely beautiful. I was filled with awe and reverence at what this place truly meant to my friends and me. It was a symbol of our youth and innocence and blissful ignorance of the world. It was our own little bubble of happiness.

  The coaster again climbed the lift hill and from the top Brandon and I studied the track but in those few seconds I saw no difference. Brandon looked over and I shook my head at him disappointedly. By the time we reached the vertical loop halfway through the ride it was clear that there was no Track B. But it was hard to be upset because I was still on Mayhem Mountain and still found it an impossible challenge not to smile.

  We banked around the now brightly lit gift shops, up the small tester hill and then back down to the inline roll. Except…the inline roll was suddenly above us. We’d missed it. Instead the track now descended into a large, square hole in the ground behind the gift shops – and we were headed directly into it.

  I was in too much shock to scream or even move. The black hole swallowed us in an instant and we descended into complete darkness. I felt a comfortable pressure leave my shoulders and realized that the shoulder bars had released. I gripped the front lip of the ledge of my seat and heard the terrified screams of my friends behind me as the coaster suddenly spun into what felt like an inline roll. I was too scared to do anything but hold on for dear life though some part of my brain registered that the g-forces of the roll probably would have been enough to keep me in my seat if I had let go. Probably.

  We came out of the inline roll and dropped again - hard. As the roller coaster dropped the room suddenly lit up around us and I saw the track below arcing up into a light tester hill. As we hit the bottom of the hill the shoulder bars lowered mechanically. The car went over the small tester hill and then braked to start up another tall lift hill. I took my first breath since dropping through the ground and looked around, tuning out the screams of
Dani and Tyler behind me.

  We were in what can be described as a cavernous room and I only assume it stretched to the farthest reaches of the park above. There were lots of vertical loops, high drops and sharp curves that put the track perpendicular to the ground. Throughout the entire sublevel building lamps dotted the wall every 30 feet. They put out a dreary, yellowed glow for as far as the eye could see. But many were burnt out and in parts the track disappeared into darkness.

  But in the dull, yellow edges of the light I saw something in the distance that registered in me a horror beyond death. Far away from us, within a section of shadowy track, I saw the high crest of a peak hill which almost reached the ceiling of the giant room. And then the track just…ended.

  Suddenly the horrible reality of the world outside my mind began to bleed in. Dani was screaming uncontrollably, Tyler was crying, bawling even, Koji was yelling at Brandon who was looking straight at me, hitting my leg hard and repeating my name. As the cars continued to climb I finally gave him my attention. I didn’t want to be alone in the fear anymore.

  “What is this?” was all I could think of to say.

  “We have to get off this ride. We have to get off this ride, Mark.”

  “I fucking know, man.”

  “We’re going to die.”

  “I fucking know, man!” I yelled as we reached the top of the lift hill and dropped over the other side. I squeezed my eyes shut until I felt the shoulder bars once again release and I bit my lip to keep from crying. I opened my eyes and choked as I watched the track ahead up us bend up into a vertical loop. I reached up and tried to pull the shoulder bar down but it was locked in place.

  “Hang on! Hang on to the seats!” I yelled as loud as I could.

  As we approached the loop I felt the brakes engaging, slowing the car, and a tow cable catch beneath my feet. We were being pulled up through the loop, but too slowly for gravity to keep us in our seats.

  As the train began to invert I felt my feet rise from the floor of the car. My hair fell over my face and my butt left the seat. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the screams of terror from behind me. I concentrated on my death grip of the ledge of my seat as we rounded the track. We remained upside down for what felt like eternity. Finally the pressure began to ease, my butt dropped to my seat and my feet to the floor. The white noise subsided from my ears and I heard Koji’s screaming.

  “Tyler! Fuck, fuck, he fell out. Fuck, he fell, he’s dead, man, he’s dead.”

  “He hit the track down there.” Brandon yelled at me, wide-eyed and crazy looking. I was finally seeing the Brandon from my youth. The shoulder bars descended again, this time locking in tighter.

  We came out of loop and sped up and down several tester hills. I tried to study the track ahead of us as we went through the safer parts. I thought I saw water reflecting off of metal somewhere in the distance. Brandon sobbed in his seat.

  “Mark, what are we gonna do? I don’t wanna die, man. I don’t wanna fucking die.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry, I’m fucking scared, too.” I answered him.

  We banked around a corner of the room and the shoulder bars released again. This time we dove into a curve that put the left side of the train parallel to the ground – and it was a long drop to the ground. I gripped the edge of the seat tightly as before but this time I kept my eyes open and was able to catch Brandon as he began to slip out of his seat.

  By the time the train righted itself, I couldn’t tell who’d been lost. Most of the screaming behind me had turned to loud sobbing or silence. The shoulder bar didn’t reengage and I felt the car’s brakes slow the train down again. I didn’t have to even look up to know what was coming next.

  It was another vertical loop. This one was larger and taller and I knew we’d be upside down for longer. Someone behind me began screaming again, Dani I think, as I tried to take measured breaths and position my aching hands back under the lip of the seat. Brandon did the same and looked over at me as the car started up the loop with tears streaming down his face.

  “I don’t wanna die in here, man.”

  I shook my head back at him because I couldn’t think of anything to say.

  I felt myself start to cry as we reached the tipping point of the loop and my feet again left the floor. Before we were even completely upside down I felt my back begin to slip down the seat. I thought if I lost my grip, I could try to grab for the shoulder bars as I fell.

  The car suddenly stopped and I opened my eyes to see we were completely inverted. I grunted loudly at the pain and immense effort it was taking to keep my grip on the seat. The car started to move again slowly and I heard Brandon say something to me. I looked over at him just before he slid out of the car. One second he was there, next to me, and the next he was falling, falling away to the end of his life.

  I saw Brandon try to grab the shoulder bar on the way out but it slipped right out of his hands. I watched him fall and I saw him break his back on the track below and he stopped moving. I stared down at him as the car continued to move slowly around the loop and he stared back up at me, dead, or dying. By the time the car hit him on the way out of the loop, he was completely gone.

  The shoulder bars re-engaged and we went through a dreadfully long period where nothing happened. We were secured in our seats by the restraints as the coaster spent what felt like several minutes racing over hills, banks, curves, even an inline roll.

  With less adrenaline pumping through my veins, I felt the shock begin to wear off. It was replaced by a panic and fear unlike I’d ever experienced. I decided that was the point of this section of track: to build and facilitate an unbearable fear.

  I felt the brakes engage finally and I looked ahead to find the loop we were surely entering but there was none. We were high, almost to the top of the ceiling and we slowed to a stop on a straightaway. Directly ahead was a drop and at the bottom of the hill, a series of four different tracks, with a transfer stack just before they split off. Each track had five or so feet of color – red, orange, green and blue – before racing off in different directions.

  I felt an urgent shaking of my shoulder and turned around to hear what Koji was saying.

  “Which track are we connected to?”

  I looked at the transfer stack.

  “Green.”

  “Where does green go?” It was hard to hear him over the sound of Dani’s sobbing from the second car. I tried to trace the green track through the building, constantly losing it and finding it again. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed to end at the lift hill I’d seen earlier. The hill with no track at the top.

  “It ends at that hill,” I yelled back at him and pointed. Dani cried louder.

  “Fuck.”

  While we were stopped I rubbed my hurting hands together. As I looked down at them I noticed something new in the car. At some point a small, blinking panel had flipped over in the wall at the front of the car. It had four colored buttons and an old analog timer. The timer was so old and damaged that though the numbers were clearly changing I couldn’t see what they were.

  “We get to choose,” I said and explained what I was looking at.

  “Can you see which track ends where?” Koji asked.

  I followed all the track as best I could but the rails circled and slid in between each other. It was hard to tell which track went where.

  “I think the blue track ends in that big pool in the corner. The red track ends in a wall coming out of a drop and the orange one just drops into a hole in the floor like the one we came down here through. I think.”

  “There’s no way out, dude,” said Scott from the second car. His voice was unsettlingly calm. “They’re just telling us how we’re going to die.”

  “We can still find a way out of this.” I answered quietly, more to myself than to him.

  “Choose the pool,” Scott said, and I could hear the tears in his voice. “I’ve heard drowning isn’t an awful death.” Dani sobbed l
ouder.

  “No! Choose the hole in the floor,” said Koji. “It’s possible it drops down into another cavern like this. There might be more track which means more time to figure out how to live.”

  “You don’t think we’d be the first to choose that option, do you?” Scott asked him. “And no one that went missing ever came back. There’s just more death in that hole.”

  “I don’t want to die like this,” Koji begged. “And at least it’s a chance.”

  Dani cried in the back and offered no suggestion. It seemed the decision was up to me and I had to make it fast.

  I knew I didn’t want to die by dropping off the track. I didn’t want to drown. Perhaps the quickest death was the wall. More than likely we would all be killed instantly. Less suffering, less time to think about our fates. But the truth was, I wasn’t even entirely sure that I had followed the tracks right anyway. It was all educated guesswork and my time was up.

  “The orange. Let’s go down to the second floor, if there is one.”

  Scott and Dani said nothing and Koji choked out the last words I’d ever hear him say.

  “Push it before it chooses for us.”

  Before I could think about it any longer I pushed the orange button and committed us to whatever death it led to. We heard the metallic scraping of the track transferring below. Once the orange track was securely connected, the brakes on the car released and the train rolled slowly toward the drop. Dani started screaming again.

  As we dropped down the hill I got a better view of the orange track. There was a vertical loop ahead that didn’t look as high as the others we’d been through. If fact, it looked like there was a chance a fall from it wouldn’t necessarily kill us. If it wasn’t an optical illusion and if the shoulder bars disengaged for that loop we might have a shot at living through this. I yelled back to everyone behind me.