The Impossible Race: Cragbridge Hall, Volume 3

by Chad Morris

  The sound of fighting once again demanded Abby’s attention. Coach Adonavich leaped high, kicking a soldier in the face and knocking him unconscious, but another fired his weapon. The athletic coach stumbled. She was shot again before Mr. Trinhouse stunned the soldier with the gun he had taken from a security bot. The coach fell to the ground.

  “No!” Coach Horne thundered. The giant coach punched a soldier so hard he flew back several feet and slammed into another man with a gun. But two more attacked.

  Carol had picked up Abby’s mother’s stun gun and was doing damage of her own. Derick was swinging his piece of metal, barely dodging soldier fire.

  This was impossible. The Ash. Soldiers. They were outnumbered and outgunned. They couldn’t hope to last long. Plus an army of men was attacking above them to get inside the school. Muns had them trapped.

  She only had one choice. “Derick, Carol,” Abby screamed, “into the light!” She grabbed Carol and pushed her in. She pulled Derick into the white just as another soldier fired.

  The Last Secret

  For a moment it was as though Abby had stepped into light itself. She had to hold her eyes closed for several seconds at a time, then blink over and over. She kept trying to focus on anything, to figure out where she was, and especially how it might help.

  “This is crazy,” Carol said. “You pushed me into some light world. I can’t see a thing.”

  “Where are we?” Derick asked.

  Abby felt relieved to hear their voices. She couldn’t see them through the light. “I don’t know,” Abby admitted, shading her eyes from the light with her hands. “Grandpa said this was the last secret.”

  She blinked a few more times and saw a couple of darker spots in the white. Then Abby heard a voice, a voice that brought comfort all at once. “Hello.” It was her grandpa. “And welcome to a place you probably never thought existed.” He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure that’s the best way of putting it.”

  Abby squinted as she looked around. Her eyes were getting used to the light and she could see some varying shades of color against the white background, but she still couldn’t focus. She saw an image of her grandfather, wearing his usual blazer and slacks, his cane by his side.

  “If you have made it here,” he continued, “you already know my secrets of being able to pass into the past, and the present, and the future, but this is a space between. It is outside of time.” He spoke the last words slowly and deliberately. “That may take a moment to think about. But when you step back into the basement of Cragbridge Hall, it will be the exact moment when you left. No time will have passed, for you are not in time now. Everything that happens here is independent of any time.”

  “I think he just hurt my brain,” Carol said.

  Abby thought she understood, but wasn’t sure. Thankfully, her grandfather had more to say. “If you think of time like a street, normally we travel forward through the present toward the future. With the Bridge you can change directions and drive the other way—through the past. Or for the future, you can speed up down the road. You can also pull into a side street and explore another neighborhood in the present. But this . . . this is as if you simply park the car. You are not traveling anywhere.”

  On a certain level it made some sense. If it was possible to travel into the past, and to different parts of the present, or even into the future, there could be a time or space between.

  “I didn’t see this one coming,” Derick admitted. Abby could see him fairly clearly now. He still held the piece of the Bridge he had brought from the basement.

  Abby took a deep breath. It felt wonderful. She was out of the stress, out of the barrage of bullets, away from the Ash, out of the last moments before Muns triumphed.

  She sat down, safe for the moment.

  “As you can see,” Grandpa said, his image gesturing toward the out-of-focus shapes behind him, “I’ve spent quite a bit of time here.” He grimaced and then laughed. “I guess time isn’t the best word to use to explain it, but . . . that doesn’t matter.” He slouched a moment. “It began when I had something I didn’t want to face. It could have been a presentation, or a heated debate, or,” he said, his voice dropping, “just feeling lonely after my wife passed.” He cleared his throat. “It has been a place where I could escape.” He pointed behind him. Now Abby recognized that the other splotches of color were inventions. There was a simulator, a metal shop machine for making lockets and keys, a Chair, parts of avatars, and more. A few chairs and tables surrounding the machines were covered with various parts and charts. It was like Grandpa had another lab entirely.

  “You can bring anything here,” Grandpa explained, “and as long as it doesn’t need a connection to the outside world, it will work. I have brought many things, though I also had to bring a generator to power them.” His image paced back and forth. “This is how I was able to invent so much in one lifetime. I could come here. As long as I had the patience, I could work on inventions like the Chair, or the brain sync for the avatars. I had all the time I wanted. It was also how I was able to make all the lockets, the box, the cube, everything I’ve used to share secrets.” He coughed. “I could get more done than was humanly possible because I wasn’t tied to human time.”

  Abby had always been amazed at how much her grandfather could do. Knowing about the space outside of time made her feel better. He’d still had to earn it, to work it all out, but he could do it without pressure or hurry. And he had more time than the average person, which allowed him to achieve more.

  “This would be so awesome for homework,” Carol said, gesturing with her hands as usual. She carried something that Abby couldn’t quite make out. “Or to study before a test you have in five minutes. You could even take a nap and go in all refreshed and everything.”

  Abby’s eyes became completely acclimated just in time to see that Carol still held a stun gun she had picked up in the basement, and it was pointed right at Abby.

  “Carol,” Abby said calmly, “please don’t point that at me.”

  “Oh,” Carol said, surprised. “Sorry about that. It would be terrible to accidentally shoot you now, but the bright side would be that we would have enough time to wait for you to wake up.”

  “It’s still not something you want to go through,” Derick said, who had obviously experienced it.

  The white wasn’t as brilliant anymore, but was just as clean and vivid. Abby began to pace, pushing experimentally against the white ground. It didn’t feel hard or soft; it was just there, just existing. There were no walls or ceiling or sky. It was simply more white—a place without anything.

  “I think we have a lot more than homework or a test waiting for us when we go back,” Derick said.

  “Yeah,” Abby agreed, taking a few more steps, “but at least we can take as long as we want to decide what we’re going to do.”

  “True,” Carol said, setting down the stun gun to be extra careful. “Maybe we should do some yoga. You know, relax a little. Then we can figure out how to fix up that mess with clear minds.” Carol stretched her legs out, bent forward, and twisted her body.

  Derick tilted his head, trying to make sense of Carol’s stretch. “That doesn’t look relaxing at all.”

  Abby walked around the inventions. She tried to breathe deeply, tried to think it through. “Okay,” she said. “The first problem we have to face is that the basement is filled with soldiers who are trying to destroy the Bridge.”

  “Second,” Derick said, “we have an army of soldiers attacking who will fight their way through Cragbridge Hall down to the Bridge to join the others. I don’t know if they’ll take prisoners or just shoot people. They were doing a number on the avatars.”

  “Third,” Carol said, “I don’t think I can get up.” Her legs and arms were twisted together and her body was off-balance on the white ground.

  “Please, Carol,” Abby said, looking down at her friend, “it’s not time to joke around.”

  “Oh, I’m not jok
ing,” Carol responded. “I’m totally stuck.” Abby walked over and lent her a hand.

  “Third,” Derick picked up where they had left off, “Grandpa and Mom, and probably Dad, have the Ash.” There was a slight tremor in his voice. “They’ll die soon.”

  “Fourth,” Abby said, continuing on, her voice determined, “I think Coach Adonavich may be dying too. She was shot several times.”

  “Oh, I hate Muns,” Carol said. “I hate him more than pollution, bad movies, playground bullies, terrorists, people who leave a bunch of really insensitive comments on the web, thieves, raisin cookies when you really thought they were going to be chocolate chip, and people who kick puppies!” She shook her head. “No, that doesn’t even get it started. I hate him more than—”

  “Just stop,” Derick cut her off. “Let’s think about this.”

  “We also have the huge problem that Muns now has keys and spheres,” Abby said. “He can change anything in the past or invade the present. And with our Bridge under attack we can’t really stop him.”

  Derick paced for a few moments. “So, to sum it up: the good news is we have all the time—or moments outside of time—we need to think about what we should do. The bad news is that our situation might be impossible.”

  They all stared at each other.

  “Wait a minute,” Carol said. “There has to be a way. I mean, we have a time machine.”

  “Yeah,” Abby said, “but it’s being attacked.”

  “No, wait,” Derick said. “She has a point. What if we could somehow get past the soldiers and use the Bridge to go back in time. Couldn’t we stop this?”

  Abby thought for a moment. “Grandpa taught us over and over again that we shouldn’t go back in time to change tragedies, but I don’t see any other way.”

  “I’m pretty sure,” Carol said, “that when an evil madman is changing time and is going to conquer the world and ruin the future and destroy everything that’s good and pretty and fun and awesome that it’s an exception.”

  Abby nodded. “But even if we could get back in the basement and stall the soldiers long enough to use the Bridge, where in time would we go?”

  “It would be intense, but we could go back in time and kill Muns before he caused all this trouble,” Derick suggested.

  “That’s gross,” Carol said. “Though part of me wouldn’t mind going back in time and kicking Muns super hard, right in the shins . . . with metal boots.” She paused. “That shoot fire.”

  “Metal boots that shoot fire?” Derick asked.

  “I bet I would look good in those,” Carol said.

  “We could go back and stop the Race,” Derick suggested. “Maybe visit Silverton or leave a message for Chief Shar tipping them off that the blond beard guy is totally working for someone else.”

  “That sounds like a good idea to me,” Carol said.

  “But then Muns will still wake up and try something else crazy,” Abby pointed out. “If we go back in time, there has to be a way we can really stop him, keep him from ever coming after us again.”

  “Why don’t we go back to the beginning of the year,” Carol said, pacing around with her finger tapping her temple, “before Muns first attacked, and send in the police or something?”

  “I don’t know,” Abby said. She was sitting on the white ground. “First off, I’m not sure the police would believe us. Plus—this is going to sound a little silly—what if we do that and we don’t remember what we’ve been through?” She pulled back her hair. “I mean, wouldn’t it eventually be like none of this ever happened?”

  “Yeah,” Carol said. “I think that’s the point.”

  “But,” Abby said, “although this year has been crazy and dangerous, it’s also the year I made friends with you. What if it changes that? And it’s when I finally figured out that I just might be . . .” Her words trailed off, as she got lost in thought.

  “Might be what?” Derick asked.

  Abby looked up. “Might be worth something. Might be something kind of like what Grandpa says I am.”

  Derick nodded. “I know it sounds cheesy, but you are.”

  “Oh, yeah, you are!” Carol said, and pumped her fist. She took a couple of slow steps. “And to tell the complete, don’t-hold-back-anything truth, this year has been really important to me too.” For once, Carol paused and slowed down as she spoke. “I know I act all crazy and excited, and I talk fast and flirt a lot with cute boys.” She winked at Derick. “And I really like that, especially the boy part.” She winked again. “And a lot of the time I do feel that excited, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes it’s a bit of an act.”

  Abby had never thought of that before. She thought Carol was always naturally excited.

  “And I know,” Carol continued, still speaking slower than normal, “some people think I’m just silly. Some people even think I’m annoying.” She raised her hands. “Can you imagine that?”

  Abby shook her head, though she’d heard others claim Carol was annoying. She glanced at Derick; she could tell he was trying hard not to respond.

  “Well, I’ve always been around a lot of people; but sometimes I’m lonely. There’s a difference.” Carol paused again. “But this year, I made the best friends I’ve ever had in my whole life.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “See, I even cried. And that wasn’t even a fake I’m-just-acting tear. That was the real deal.” She looked at it a moment on the tip of her finger, then turned to Derick. “Do you want to keep it?”

  “No thanks,” Derick refused.

  Carol shrugged and flung the tear to the side. “And with my best friends, I helped save the world. Not bad for an annoying girl.”

  “Not bad at all,” Abby said. “And you’re not annoying.”

  “I know, right?” Carol said. She took in a deep breath. “Your turn.” She pointed at Derick.

  “My turn to what?” Derick asked.

  “To reflect on the year and tell us what you learned and how good of friends you made and how you really think I’m cute,” Carol said.

  Derick flashed a worried look at Abby, a look that asked if Abby had told Carol about the message he had sent when he thought he was going to die.

  Abby shook her head.

  “You do think I’m cute,” Carol said, watching the brother and sister interact. “I knew it. I knew it.”

  “Why would you say that?” Derick asked, forcing the question out.

  “Because of the look you just gave Abby. You were all like, ‘Did you tell her? Because I know I’ve told you how I think Carol is absurdly attractive and fun and funny.’ But Abby was like, ‘No, I didn’t tell her, but you totally did tell me that.’ See? You think I’m cute!”

  “That’s not what happened!” Derick defended, his face reddening.

  “Then why are you blushing?” Carol asked.

  “I’m not.”

  “Your cheeks are red.”

  “No, they’re not,” Derick denied. “They just look that way against all this white.”

  “Whatever,” Carol said. Then she added in a whisper, “You totally think I’m cute.”

  Abby smiled wide. It felt good. She knew she had more than her share of troubles to deal with, but it was nice to take a break, to remember her brother and her friend. In fact, it helped her remember why it was so important to try to save everything: to help people like them.

  “We’ve got big problems to deal with,” Derick said. “I’m not reflecting on the year, and we’re not talking about how cute anyone is.” He blushed a little more, but not as badly as he had before. “Let’s stay on topic.”

  “My point was,” Abby said, “that I’d like to keep all I’ve learned this year. Maybe there’s a better way than changing it all. Plus, I kind of think Grandpa wouldn’t want us to change it. He taught us that it’s during the most difficult times that normal people become heroes. And maybe . . .” Abby paused for a moment. “Maybe that’s us.”

  “Okay,” Derick said. “What if we only go back in time
far enough to stop Muns, but not too far back? When would we go?”

  For several moments, the group of friends all stood, lost in thought. Abby got up and walked around the inventions, thinking hard. A possible plan came into focus. Would that work? But that would only solve half of the problem. She paced some more. But what if she . . . ? That might do it. It may be the only way to keep Muns from destroying everything.

  She thought through the scenarios a few more times. Finally she spoke. “I think we only need to go back about fifteen minutes,” she said. “I think if we go back to the time right after you stopped the bombs, I know how to stop Muns. It will take two parts of a plan and we’ll have to work fast.”

  Carol rubbed her hands together. “Am I going to love it?”

  Abby smiled. “You just might. But first, we have to figure out how we can get back into the Bridge and have enough of a chance to go back in time about fifteen minutes.”

  Derick glanced around the room. “I’ve got an idea for that. It’s not much, but it might work.”

  Fifteen Minutes Ago

  Derick had his hands full. He looked down at the weird array of objects he carried. He hoped it would work.

  For several moments, he stared at what he thought was the way back to the basement of Cragbridge Hall. He wasn’t sure where the exact step was that would get him back into the room with the Bridge and the fight. It was easy traveling from the Bridge to wherever or whenever they wanted to go; but once they were there, they couldn’t see their way back. He looked over at his sister. “Are you ready?”

  She took a deep breath. “No, but let’s do it anyway.”

  “Yeah,” Carol said, and tried to make her voice low. “Let’s do this!”

  Derick stepped forward.

  Nothing. He was still in the white space.