William Wenton and the Lost City

by Bobbie Peers

  “I’m going to go in and check,” William said. “Maybe his battery died, and he can’t move.”

  “We’ll go together,” his mother said, pushing the door all the way open.

  They stopped in the front hallway and stared.

  The brown stuff they’d seen in the windows covered the entire floor and came up to his father’s knees. It was sawdust or wood shavings—the entire house was covered in sawdust.

  “Dad?” William whispered.

  But his father didn’t respond.

  It seemed like the sawdust absorbed all the sound in the house. And William wasn’t even sure if his voice was audible. He started down the hallway, wading through sawdust.

  His father stood frozen, staring at something in the living room.

  William stopped a few yards from him.

  “Dad?” he said cautiously.

  “In all my life I’ve never seen anything like this . . . ,” his father whispered.

  William walked over to stand beside him and peered into the room.

  All their furniture was gone. Sawdust lay in deep drifts up against the windows, as if there’d been a snowstorm.

  “What happened?” William asked.

  “Don’t know,” his father said. He leaned over and picked up a fistful of sawdust, letting it sift between his fingers. “It kind of looks like all the furniture was pulped,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Pulped?” William said. “What does that mean?”

  “Shredded, destroyed,” his father replied. “It means that everything in here is gone. . . .”

  Suddenly a terrible thought occurred to William.

  “No . . . ,” he said before turning and running to the stairs.

  “Wait,” his father called after him.

  But William raced up the stairs, taking them three at a time. He rushed into his room and stopped.

  This room looked just like every other room in the house. The floor was covered with a thick layer of sawdust. The bed, the chair, the bookshelf, and the big desk that used to belong to his grandfather were all gone. Everything was just wood shavings.

  “No . . . no . . . no . . . ,” William repeated as he waded over to where the desk had been.

  He dropped to his knees and started digging through the sawdust. But in vain. His heart sank.

  The desk was gone. . . .

  And with it, the thumb drive with his grandfather on it.

  William heard his father’s voice behind him:

  “We have to go. Now!”

  4

  The Wenton family sped down the highway.

  It was too dangerous to contact the police, his mother had said. If someone could destroy their house, they were presumably also capable of coming back and doing worse things. The police were no match for that.

  “The most important thing now is to get away and contact the Institute ASAP,” his father said.

  William was trembling, but he needed to think. If the thumb drive was really destroyed, did that mean his grandfather was gone?

  “Don’t worry about Grandpa,” his father said, as if he’d read his mind. “All we need to do is activate the backup.”

  William took a breath.

  “But to do that we need to get to the Institute. Relax, William. Grandpa will be back again soon.”

  William sank into the seat. His father’s words had helped him calm down, but he still had a shivery feeling. Taking care of the thumb drive had been his responsibility. His grandfather had trusted him, and now William felt like he had let him down.

  He tried not to think about it. His thoughts turned back to what had happened at their house. Who in the world had destroyed everything in it? And why? He held on to his mysterious package even more tightly. He hadn’t had a chance to tell his parents about it. But he had a terrible feeling that the package had something to do with all this.

  While he sat there thinking, he noticed his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. A dancing mailman with no face grabbed him and chained his foot to the heavy pyramid. The only way William could free himself from the pyramid was by solving it. But he didn’t have much time. It was a ticking bomb. Suddenly he was surrounded by half-naked Mr. Humburgers who were coming closer and closer, sneering malevolently. He took a step backward and suddenly realized he was standing by a cliff. A mechanical hand appeared out of nowhere and gave him the last final nudge, which was all it took. He fell.

  • • •

  William awoke with a start and looked around.

  He was still in the backseat of the car, which was traveling at high speed. He didn’t know how long he’d been asleep, but it must have been a while, because it was completely dark out now.

  His parents were in the middle of a hushed conversation. And it didn’t seem like they’d noticed that he was awake.

  “. . . but why can’t we just call them?” his mother asked.

  “We’ll wait until tomorrow,” his father said. “I need time to think.”

  “Think about what?” his mother said, irritated. “Are we just going to drive around without any purpose? Besides, your battery is dead. You can’t even get out of the car. We need to drive to the airport and get to the Institute. That’s the safest place to be right now.”

  His father didn’t answer, just sat there staring out into the darkness ahead of the car.

  “Can we stop?” William said. “I have to pee.”

  His mother glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

  “Do we have to?” his father asked.

  William nodded.

  “Okay, but be quick. We need to get as far away as possible,” his father said.

  “We’ve already come quite far,” his mother said, and then looked out at the endless wheat fields around them stretching far off into the darkness.

  She slowed down and pulled off to the side.

  “Stay nearby,” she instructed as William opened the door and got out.

  He pulled his jacket closer around himself and strode out into the field. The cold air prickled in his nostrils. The sky was clear and full of stars.

  The hum of the engine rumbled gently behind him as he walked, and soon he heard only the sound of the wind and the rustling of the wheat around him.

  It suddenly felt like he was the only person on the planet. He looked up at the stars and wondered if Freddy was out there somewhere. Freddy had been a candidate at the Institute with William, but he had vanished through the Crypto Portal along with Abraham Talley. Were they together now? William couldn’t imagine anything worse than being alone with Abraham. Abraham was the only one in the world, apart from himself, with luridium in his body. But unlike William, Abraham chose to use the powers the metal gave him to benefit himself. And now he’d traveled through the Crypto Portal to bring the luridium back to earth. William’s eyes slid across the night sky. Before Abraham’s assistant, Cornelia Strangler, had dissolved, she’d said that he would return, which was a frightening thought. Maybe what was happening now had something to do with Abraham.

  William kept walking and noticed two stars hanging low over the treetops, twinkling more brightly than all the others.

  “Not so far, William,” his mother called from somewhere behind him.

  He was out in the middle of the field now. He couldn’t quite shake the thought that there was some connection between the strange pyramid in his backpack and what had happened at their house.

  He looked up. The two glowing stars above the treetops shone clear and bright. William was taken aback. Had they gotten bigger?

  Now he could hear a rumbling from somewhere nearby.

  The sound reminded him of a lawn mower. And it kept getting louder. He looked around. Everything was still deserted and dark. But those two stars had grown even brighter and bigger. It was as if they were getting closer.

  Without taking his eyes off the stars, William walked backward through the wheat stalks.

  They couldn’t be stars. As they came closer, he realized they were two ex
tremely bright lights. William backed away, faster and faster.

  The lights stopped in the air and hung there.

  William also stopped.

  He didn’t move a muscle.

  He had only one thought in his head: Please don’t let it be Abraham Talley . . . please don’t let it be Abraham Talley . . . please don’t let—

  Suddenly the whole area was bathed in light.

  William spun around and raced to the car, yanked open the door, and threw himself in.

  “DRIVE!” he yelled.

  5

  William looked out the rear window at the lights coming after him.

  “What is it?” his mother exclaimed.

  “Just drive!” his father cried.

  His mother stepped on the gas, and the car raced down the deserted road.

  The engine whined, and blue smoke rose from the front tires. The smell of burning rubber filled the car. And along with the smell came a paralyzing fear.

  Cornelia Strangler had almost killed William, and the smell of burned rubber had always followed her. But he knew it couldn’t be her—she had destroyed herself in the Crypto Portal.

  William had never seen his mother drive so fast. With clenched hands, she gripped the steering wheel as the car zoomed along the country road, while the lights followed them relentlessly. William held on as best he could and tried to see what exactly was behind them, but the lights blinded him. They were like two evil eyes.

  They had left the wheat fields and were now surrounded on all sides by trees.

  “In there!” his father shouted, pointing to a narrow dirt road.

  “I don’t know . . . ,” his mother said skeptically.

  “Turn!” his father insisted. “It’s our only chance.”

  His mother spun the wheel hard, and the tires squealed as the car swerved off the paved roadway.

  The lights following them abruptly stopped moving and hung in the air out on the main road.

  “It stopped!” William cried.

  Branches whipped the sides of the car as it raced down the narrow gravel track. The lights behind them grew smaller and smaller until they disappeared behind the trees that blocked out the moon. The car’s headlights were the only source of illumination.

  “How far should we go?” his mother asked. “We don’t even know where this road leads.”

  She had her hands full keeping the car on the narrow road. Every now and then the wheels slid off into the ditch along the side, but each time she managed to maneuver the car back on track.

  “There,” his father called, pointing to something a little way ahead of them. “A road.”

  His mother turned the wheel, and they pulled out onto a wide, paved road. This one was lit with bright streetlights. After the dark journey through the woods, it was almost like driving out into the daylight.

  “Did we do it? Did we get away?” his mother asked.

  “I don’t know,” William said. “I hope so.”

  He got up onto his knees on the backseat and stared out the rear window. He hadn’t seen even a glimpse of the lights since they’d turned onto the unpaved road.

  The car’s tires squealed as his mother suddenly slammed on the brakes. William was flung forward and smacked into the back of his father’s seat. The car skidded along the road before stopping.

  William cautiously sat up. He looked at his parents, who were motionless, staring out of the windshield. Ahead of them, two lights hovered in the air as if they were waiting for the family. And this time William could see more than just the lights.

  A UFO-like object with four propellers hovered in front of them. It was black, had no windows, and was twice as big as the car they were sitting in.

  “It looks like some kind of drone,” he whispered.

  It started to move toward them.

  “What do we do now?” his mother asked.

  “Back up,” his father whispered.

  The drone shot toward them at tremendous speed.

  “BACK UP!” his father yelled.

  His mother put the car in reverse and floored the gas while turning the steering wheel hard so that the car spun around.

  “It’s over us,” William said, leaning over by the window and trying to look up. He could just barely make out the edge of the drone directly above them.

  Suddenly there was a bang on the roof, and the whole car jerked upward. The keys hanging from the ignition jingled, then started reaching toward the ceiling as if an invisible force were pulling them. William grabbed his backpack, which was also moving up. The last thing they needed now was for the metal pyramid to start shooting out sparks.

  “What’s going on?” his father yelled. He was floating over his seat. Only his seat belt prevented him from hitting the car’s roof.

  William’s mother screamed.

  William pressed his face against the side window and looked down. They were already high above the ground. The trees beneath them became small matchsticks, and the roads turned into little lines crisscrossing the landscape.

  “It must be a magnet,” he said. “It picked us up with a magnet.”

  The drone increased its pace, and soon all William could see of the world below was a blur of green and brown and blue.

  His mother was still clutching the steering wheel. But they were trapped. And up here there was nothing they could do to get away.

  6

  A couple of hours later they were still in the air. The propellers hummed furiously, and the strong side winds rattled the drone. William had tried to figure out what direction they were going, but all he could see below was a vast ocean.

  His mother was initially hysterical, convinced that the magnet would let go of them, and it was all his father could do to calm her down.

  William leaned back in his seat. He focused on his breathing. Most of the panic he had felt was gone now.

  The sun was finally coming up on the horizon.

  His mother was quiet. She lay with her head on the steering wheel, not saying a word. Maybe she was asleep. Or maybe she’d just given up. His father was still hovering halfway up to the ceiling, held down only by his seat belt.

  “There!” his father exclaimed, pointing. “Land.”

  William straightened up again. Sure enough, over there, a strip of coastline came into view way ahead of them. They sat in silence, watching as the coastline grew and became clearer the closer they got.

  And soon William recognized it: the white cliffs of Dover.

  “We’re in England,” he announced.

  His father nodded.

  After flying over land for an hour, the tone of the propellers changed, becoming deeper. It sounded like they’d slowed down and were flying lower. William pressed his face to the window and looked out.

  A large white building towered high above the fields below them. An enormous park extended out behind the building. William could see the wind rustling the tree leaves and creating small waves on the shiny pond in the middle of the park. The whole area was surrounded by a tall fence, and a long gravel road led from the wrought-iron gates up to the main entrance of the white building.

  “It’s the Institute,” William said.

  His parents exchanged looks.

  “They could at least have told us they were behind this,” his father grumbled. “Then we wouldn’t have had to spend the whole night with our hearts in our throats.”

  William agreed. It was strange that Fritz Goffman had basically had them kidnapped. He decided to ask Goffman about this when they arrived. But right now, the relief at learning that the Institute had fetched them far outweighed his anger at how it had been done.

  A short time later the car was carefully deposited on the gravel outside the Institute’s front entrance. With a clank, the magnet released, and his father flopped back down.

  William opened his door and got out. He looked at the drone, which was already high above them.

  It really was a strange way to bring us to the Institute, W
illiam thought as the drone disappeared over the roof of the building.

  He scanned his surroundings. In spite of everything, it was good to be back. This was what he and his grandfather had been counting down to every morning.

  His mother got out of the car and looked around. “I’ve only seen this in pictures in Grandpa’s old photo album. I . . .” Her words trailed off as the Institute’s huge front doors swung open.

  “Did you have a nice trip?” a deep voice inquired.

  William recognized it right away. He turned and spotted the tall figure of Fritz Goffman, leaning on his white cane at the top of the broad stone staircase. He was accompanied by his two chauffeurs.

  “No . . . we didn’t have a nice trip,” William’s mother said, crossing her arms defiantly. “It was actually very uncomfortable.”

  “Oh?” Goffman said. He continued down the stairs, stopped next to William, and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

  “I’m Fritz Goffman,” he said, introducing himself to William’s mother, “head of the Institute.”

  “I know who you are,” William’s mom said. “I’ve seen you in pictures.”

  William looked at Goffman. There was something about him . . . something strange, out of place. William couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was different, something in his eyes.

  “We were hunted like animals,” William’s father said, sticking his head out the passenger-side window. “By that flying food processor.”

  William’s mother continued complaining, but Goffman appeared to be thinking about other things. Instead of responding, he pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket, read it, then folded it meticulously before returning it to his pocket. When William’s mom was done talking, it was quiet for a moment.

  “I’m truly sorry,” Goffman eventually said. “My instructions were for you to be treated with care. When we heard what had happened to your house, I thought it would be best to get you here as quickly as possible, and the drone happened to be in the area.”

  “Those drones clearly weren’t made for human transport!” William’s father barked from the car.