by Eliza Taye
“I just want my granddaughter to be okay. I am so worried about her and she keeps talking nonsense.”
“That’s okay, ma’am. I need to ask you a few questions before I ask you to get your granddaughter so that we can evaluate her.”
I quietly closed the door and stepped back away from it.
This wasn’t going to work.
I needed help—serious help. No one was going to believe me by myself. I needed to return to Oceania and bring back Dylan and Dr. Wilcox. They would know how to help me convince the adults here of Oceania’s existence.
Grabbing a jacket out of my closet, I sprinted over to the window and slowly opened it. The window creaked as I pulled it up. I snapped my head over my shoulder at the door to see if it opened.
It didn’t.
I waited for another thunderclap to push open the window. Diving forward, I then tumbled out of it, pushing it solidly back down. Crouching low so the cop in the police cruiser wouldn’t notice me moving, I froze when a lightning bolt disrupted the sky and only moved when the light from it disappeared.
Edging over to my bike, I hurriedly mounted it and began pedaling away across the field behind Gran’s house. The adrenaline from wanting to get out of there made my muscles feel new and invigorated. They easily pedaled me onto the road and the few miles to the restricted beach.
Once I hurled my bike to the ground, not bothering to hide it, I snuck underneath the fence. With every flash of lightning that struck the heavens, I glimpsed the fury of the ferocious ocean waves crashing onto the beach. Out beyond the surf, the swells grew upwards of five to ten feet.
Recklessly, I sped down the loose sand, falling several times as the pain in my tired legs returned. Shaking it off, I pressed on toward where I had stashed the SCUBAPS. I grabbed it and put it on, rushing to the line of incoming waves. Just when I was about to enter the water, I remembered that I didn’t have the propulsion device. It would be impossible for me to swim all the way to Oceania, especially with my tiring legs.
Peering around in frustration through slit eyes at the driving rain making it difficult to see, I spotted a seamobile on the shore. I thought it was odd that one would be there. It meant only one thing. Mayor Aldridge knew I had escaped and sent someone after me.
If she was so malicious to have done that, then I had no qualms about stealing the seamobile.
Not wasting time to take off the SCUBAPS, I climbed into the seamobile and turned on the controls just as I had watched Dylan do so many times. I pushed off into the surf and the seamobile took it from there.
I was on my way back to Oceania.
Chapter 27
Sprinting over to the access code panel, I instantly realized how foolhardy my rash decision had been. I hoped and prayed the bogus code Max had given us would still work to allow me inside of Oceania. If it didn’t, I would be caught when the door to the docking bay opened. That is if Mayor Aldridge’s men didn’t already know I was here.
With relief I felt down to the pit of my soul, the door opened when I entered the code and allowed me inside. I immediately ran toward the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened instantaneously, I rushed inside, and repeatedly jabbed the button for the main floor.
Fidgeting restlessly, I felt completely exposed as if I were butt naked in a crowd full of people. I knew someone had to be watching me through one of the cameras at that moment, but it didn’t matter. I had to find Dylan and Dr. Wilcox. We had to return to the surface ASAP.
The doors opened and I took off running. Everyone else around me was walking leisurely, making me stick out like a sore thumb. I got myself onto the train system just before the doors slid shut. Finding a seat, I bounced my leg impatiently as I waited for the train to change course towards Dylan’s neighborhood. Buildings flashed by and I found myself nervously biting my nails, a gross habit I thought I had stopped when I was four, but suddenly resurfaced due to my stress.
The train came to a stop and a few people got off. The doors whooshed closed and it continued. It was as if I was riding on an infinite track with Dylan’s place out far beyond the end. No matter how long I rode, I would never get there.
The end of infinity finally arrived and I plowed my way through the small crowd of people on the train, stumbling out onto the street. I looked both ways to orient myself and then took a left, running as fast as I could, until I saw the characteristically tall white building in which Dylan lived.
Dashing through the lobby straight to the elevator, I took it, and once again stood impatiently as the floors ticked away. When the doors slid open on the forty-seventh floor with a ding, I strode right up to Dylan’s apartment unit and banged on the door.
The voice of an angry man complaining filtered in from behind the door just before it opened. I paused my fist in the air to keep from hitting the man, who looked very familiar. This man was taller than Dylan was, but their faces were almost identical. They had the exact same color hair, eyes, and facial bone structure. I was shocked at seeing them in a much older and taller man.
Only after my initial surprise did I realize the man was staring at me with fury in his eyes. “What is the matter with you? We have a doorbell!”
“I…I’m…sorry.” I stuttered. Gathering my wits and determination, I asked solidly, “Where is Dylan?”
“Are you a friend of his?” wondered Dylan’s father.
“Yes, sir. I need to see Dylan right away. It’s an emergency.”
Dylan’s father leaned against the door and sighed in frustration. “Dylan is on restriction. He cannot see anyone. He was caught doing something illegal and the mayor personally brought him in. He is in so much trouble right now that you cannot even imagine.”
“Please, Mr. Baker, this is really a life or death situation.” I pleaded with him, trying not to whine, but this was becoming ridiculous.
“Josh? Who is that at the door?”
I peered around Mr. Baker at the woman who had stepped into sight behind him. She had short cut brown hair that hung just above her eyebrows. A round face with low set cheekbones surrounded eyes that were somehow questioning and warm at the same time.
Changing tactics, I addressed Dylan’s mom. “Hello, Mrs. Baker, I’m Allie, a friend of Dylan’s. I need to see Dylan, it’s extremely important.”
Josh Baker turned his head over his shoulder, folded his arms, and used his back to prop the door open. “I just told her that Dylan’s on restriction.”
Dylan’s mom merely swatted her hand as if she were keeping a fly out of her face. “Just let her in for a couple minutes, Josh. It won’t hurt his restrictions.”
Dylan’s dad opened his mouth to protest, but I beat him in speaking. “Thank you, thank you very much, Mrs. Baker. I won’t take long.” I smiled at Dylan’s mom and hurried toward Dylan’s room.
Knocking on his door, I barely waited for his grumbling reply before opening it.
“Allie?” Dylan’s eyes grew so wide I thought they were going to pop out. He swiveled his desk chair around and stood up slowly, moving like he was in a daze. “What are you doing here?”
“Dylan, it’s worse than we thought. My grandmother won’t believe me. She and the police in Sunnyville think I have gone crazy. When I tried to tell them about Oceania they said it was a story I made up from being kidnapped and held somewhere. They won’t believe me.”
“But how did you get here?”
“That’s the worst of it. A seamobile was left at the beach…our beach. The mayor really does know everything. She has someone up there in Sunnyville. I know it. We have to return to Sunnyville with some sort of irrefutable evidence of Oceania that we can show everyone. I need you and Dr. Wilcox to come back with me.”
“That won’t be possible.”
“Why not?”
“Dr. Wilcox is under house arrest just like me. Guards are at his door just like my parents are here guarding me. The mayor came up with this big story on how I hacked a database and changed the grades of ever
yone in my class. It’s all a lie, but it did the trick with my parents. I’m not going anywhere with them here.”
“Okay, but is there any way I can find proof of Oceania and bring it back with me?”
“Hey, you’re not going back to the surface alone.”
“But you said…”
“I know what I said.” Dylan smiled mischievously and hurried over to his desk. Reaching underneath the area where his chair was supposed to be, he dropped a panel revealing a high-tech device that resembled old-style laptops. “Say hello to my Hacker 3000. It helps me get into any system I would like.”
“So how is that going to help us?” I walked over to stand by Dylan.
“I’m going to hack into the database that runs all of the data analysis for my parents at the lab. If I put in some false information showing that one of their analyses came up with significant results, they’ll go running to the lab and forget all about guarding me here.” Dylan’s fingers began flying away at the touchscreen keyboard.
A voice came from outside Dylan’s door. “Visiting time is up; you need to leave now, Allie.”
“It sounds like your mom is calling me out.”
Dylan nodded but didn’t quit his typing. “Meet me just outside the building. Be careful, though, the mayor thinks you escaped. That’s probably why the seamobile was at your beach. She’s looking for you. I’ll be out soon.”
“All right.” I turned and left Dylan’s room, closing the door gently behind me. Walking to the living room, I saw Dylan’s mom sitting next to his dad on the couch. “Thank you once again.”
“Did you get it solved? Your life or death situation?”
“Yes, ma’am, I did.” I ignored the glare coming from Dylan’s dad as he glanced up from the reader cradled in his hands, and I left the apartment.
Feeling a little relaxed knowing that I would have help, released the tension I didn’t realize I had in my shoulders, as I pressed the elevator button. It took a while for it to arrive, but when it did, I stepped inside joining the three other people already standing there. Glancing at the side panel, I saw the button for the lobby had already been pressed, so I merely stood there quietly until we reached the ground floor.
At the lobby level, I waited until I was the last one to leave the elevator and decided to wait outside the lobby doors. I tried to shake the paranoid feeling that all the cameras in the vicinity were turning to monitor me, but I couldn’t help it. I just felt watched.
I don’t know how long I waited, but suddenly, sirens and alarms went off. I noticed Dylan’s parents run out the door first, then not long after many others followed them. In the throng of people rushing out, I was thrown into the corner. I pressed against the wall of the building, trying not to get knocked down and trampled as people continued to flow out of the lobby.
Out of nowhere, a hand flew out and grabbed my wrist. “Allie, we need to go!” shouted Dylan above the roar of the sirens and scattering people.
I didn’t protest, but instead, allowed myself to be led through the crowd. We were lost in the midst of people and I realized this was the perfect cover.
“Did you do this?” I asked.
Dylan took a chance to glance back at me with a grin and a nod. “Yeah, I figured it would ensure my parents got out of the building if the faulty data points didn’t. Also, it allows us to be lost in the crowd, which creates the perfect diversion.”
I couldn’t help shouting out, “Brilliant!” and laughing.
In the confusion, we easily boarded a train and were probably not noticed by anyone in doing so. The train to Central was empty except for one teen our age sitting by himself in the corner.
“Hey, Devon,” greeted Dylan moving over to the other guy.
“Dylan! Hey, man, I got your message. It said you needed my help?”
“Yeah, I need to bypass some guards and I need your skills.”
Devon nodded and smiled wide. “Ah, yeah. I know what you mean. You need me to kick some guard butt so you can get in and do your thing.”
“Of course, what else would I ask your help for?” Dylan laughed and did that weird handshake I saw him do with Max a couple days ago.
“Hi, Allie, I bet you don’t remember me. I was at Dylan’s party two days ago.” Devon held out his hand.
I smiled warmly and shook his hand. I stared at him, trying to remember him amongst all the people who were at the party. He had a handsomely chiseled face with skin much darker than Max’s. He was somewhat taller than normal, skinny, and had great posture for a guy. He seemed very kind, but also maybe somewhat of a jokester. Then it hit me, he was one of the guys on Dylan’s team one.
“Oh, yeah, I remember you. You’re the one who took the motorcycle portion of the competition.”
“Yup, that’s me. I would have taken the fighting portion, but Dylan insisted he had to go against Samantha so he could take her down.”
“Well, yeah, if you had taken that part of the competition then there wouldn’t have been a fair chance for Samantha. She would have been defeated in the first ten seconds.”
“Well, I didn’t get the nickname Triple F for nothing.” Devon grinned wide, sporting ultra-white teeth.
“Well, we need that now.”
I frowned at both guys, puzzled. “Triple F? What do you mean?”
Devon responded to me. “Triple F stands for Fists and Feet of Fury. I know every kind of self-dense and fighting style there is. I want to go into Sports Medicine and also be a Physical Trainer for our sports teams.”
“Yeah, Devon knows every type of martial arts there is. He’s kind of a freak at it.”
“Hey, don’t hate my skills just cause you don’t have them.” Devon playfully punched Dylan in the arm. “Are we almost there?”
“Yeah, we’ll be there soon. When we get there, all you need to do is subdue the guards. Allie and I will find a way into Dr. Wilcox’s lab.”
“Dr. Wilcox? You mean the engineering quack. You still hanging out with him?”
“Yeah, I am. He’s pretty cool.” Dylan paused and then added, “Well, sometimes.”
The train stopped and Dylan looked at both of us. “You guys ready?”
“Come on, man, we don’t need a pep talk. Let’s go.” Devon darted off the train with Dylan and me following close behind.
We ran to Dr. Wilcox’s place and instantly noticed two guards standing on either side of the stairwell down to Dr. Wilcox’s basement laboratory. Devon took them down so fast I would have missed it if I had blinked. He waved us on and we took the stairs down to the lab. At the bottom, two more guards stood waiting. This time, I did blink and both guards lay unconscious on the floor. I had missed everything.
“Hey, Devon, do you think you could keep watch while we’re inside?”
“Yeah, of course. If I hear anyone coming, I’ll do this.” Devon whistled in a great imitation of a bird’s chirp using his hands to amplify the sound. “Got it?”
“Yeah, let’s go, Allie.”
Dylan and I entered Dr. Wilcox’s lab and immediately began calling out for him.
“I’m over here.” Dr. Wilcox came into view tangled with all sorts of wires. “I’m glad you’re okay, Dylan. I had no idea what they did to you when they caught…oh.” Dr. Wilcox noticed me for the first time. “Allie, why are you here?”
“There’s really no time for explanation, Dr. Wilcox. We need some kind of proof that Oceania exists. We need a blueprint or building record. Any sort of records on supplies being sent here in the early days. Anything.”
“You’re going to take that back to the surface, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but we need to hurry. I’m sure that Mayor Aldridge is on to us now.” Dylan began shifting his weight from one foot to the other in annoyance.
“Right, right.” Dr. Wilcox hurried over to his computer and began typing away.
After about ten minutes, he placed a small input drive into Dylan’s palm.
“This is for you to take. I’m no
t sure if Allie’s world has the technology for this, but it can be scanned or put into a computerized device to be read. It has all of the blueprints of Oceania as well as census records. It proves this place exists and that there have been people living here for nearly 150 years. There’s also a bit of construction footage of the city. This should be enough to convince your people of our existence, Allie.”
I nodded and impulsively gave Dr. Wilcox a hug. “Thank you so much for all you’ve done. I hope we can be successful and our worlds will be joined again just like they were always meant to be.”
I stepped back and Dylan tugged on my arm. “Come on, let’s go.”
We ran up the stairs to where Devon stood waiting for us.
“Where to next? I’m guessing that you two are on the run and will need my help to get out.”
“Yeah, that is kinda the issue. Do you mind going all the way to the docking bay with us?” wondered Dylan.
“The docking bay?” Devon dropped his folded arms and glanced in confusion at Dylan and me. “Why the docking bay?”
“Yes, Dylan, tell him why you need to go to the docking bay so badly?”
All of us spun around to see Mayor Aldridge standing behind us, swarming with guards.
Chapter 28
Mayor Aldridge’s smug smile made me sick to my stomach. She thought she had won, but she hadn’t. Not yet. I was still up for a fight.
Once again, Devon was there for us. Fists and feet went flying so fast I once again could barely see his moves. He certainly earned his nickname, but eight guards were too much for anyone. I chipped in by throwing my first ever right-hook on the square jaw of the guard to my left. My hand hurt so much that I cradled it in my left as I kicked the same guard hard in the shins. As he grabbed his leg, I used the moment to kick him over onto the ground. Turning around, I saw another guard trying to grab me, ducked and kicked him in the butt to make him go forward.