“Oh dear.” Cameron pressed his fingertips together under his chin and sighed. “This is not good.”
“You know what she’s talking about?” Trevor asked him.
“It means her bones are weaker than a normal person’s,” Cameron explained, staring down at Nika as though she were some specimen in a lab. “She’s more susceptible to injuries.”
“So, how bad is it?” Trevor asked.
“After a fall like that,” Cameron said. “She could have multiple broken ribs, punctured lungs, internal bleeding.”
“Seriously?” Devin looked skeptical. “You barely bounced off the wall.”
“Brittle bone disease and congenital insensitivity? Talk about a double whammy,” Cameron said, clucking. “You probably should’ve never been allowed on the Adventure Machine.”
Nika wanted to explode with anger. To leap to her feet, shake Cameron by his shoulders, and wipe that smug, condescending look from his face. But she couldn’t do that, because he was right. She never should have convinced her grandfather to let her leave Chelyabinsk. “It’s true,” Nika whimpered, sucking in a shuddering breath. “I need to be stabilized, and I need my doctor. I have no way of knowing how bad my injuries are without X-rays.”
“I could go up alone and bring someone back,” Trevor offered.
“By yourself?” Devin asked.
In an instant, Cameron’s curious smile disappeared. “Yeah, by yourself?”
“One of you could come with me, I guess,” Trevor suggested. “While the other could stay with her.”
“I don’t want to stay down here.” Cameron slid in close to Trevor as if he was about to latch onto his leg.
“Me either,” Devin said. “No offense, Nika.”
“Then just leave me. All of you. I’ll be fine. I don’t want anyone to have to do something they’re not comfortable with.” There was no point in making them all suffer along with her. It wasn’t like they were really her friends anyways. No one stayed friends with Nika for very long. Not after they discovered the true nature of her condition.
“What if we carried you up the stairs?” Trevor asked. “We would be really careful not to bump into anything.”
Nika scrunched her eyebrows in thought. “It’ll just slow you down.”
“So?” Trevor said. “We’re not just going to leave you here with those other creatures hanging around.”
“How many more are there?” Cameron asked.
“I counted six pods the other night,” Trevor said.
“Which means we have four left to worry about.” Cameron winked at Trevor. “Thanks to me.”
“You might cause more injuries,” Nika said. “I’d have no way to prevent myself from falling.”
“How about you walk on your own, then. But we’ll support you like this”—Cameron put his arm over Trevor’s shoulders to show her his plan—“like soldiers do when one of them is wounded on the battlefield.”
“You really want to help me?” Nika asked. “Even you?” She looked at Devin.
Devin looked stunned. “Even me? Oh, because I’m a big jerk, right?”
“No, that’s not it. You have been friendly. It is I who held back. About my conditions. About everything.” Nika pursed her lips, then extended a hand out to Devin. “As long as we go slow, I’m willing to try.”
THE GROUP HIKED the first couple of flights, with Devin and Trevor shouldering the bulk of the burden. Nika didn’t weigh much, but she was too worried to put much weight on her legs, forcing the boys to support her most of the distance. The pleasantly pungent aroma of what smelled like cooked garlic seeped through the walls, permeating the stairwell. Devin breathed in the scent, his stomach tightening with anticipation. He hadn’t thought much about food once they started their adventure, but now that he could smell it, he realized that it had been almost five hours since breakfast.
“Can you smell that?” Trevor asked. “I bet that’s lunch.”
“So what’s going to happen to you now?” Devin asked Nika.
“What do you mean?” She slowed, gripping Devin and Trevor’s suits with her fingers for balance.
“Well, what will your grandfather do when he finds out what happened?”
Nika swallowed. “It won’t be good. He’s very protective of me. I have never been permitted to do much. These injuries will certainly make life more difficult.”
“It’s not your fault you fell,” Trevor said. “If you think about it, if you didn’t try to swing across the hole, you would’ve eventually been grabbed by those creatures. One way or another you were headed for an accident. Your grandfather should be happy you jumped.”
Nika smiled, but then grimaced. “That’s not how my grandfather operates. He finds very little good in accidents. He will blame the Castletons, the Adventure Machine, all of California. He would never blame me outright, but I will be punished just the same. My activities will be restricted more heavily. I won’t be allowed to go outside for months.”
“Say something to him, then,” Devin said. “Tell him it’s not cool to treat you like some breakable doll. It’s your life, you know?” Devin felt sorry for Nika. Of the four of them, she had the most difficult life.
Nika came to a stop. “Say something to my grandfather? It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is,” Devin said.
“Oh really? Then why haven’t you stood up to your father?” she asked.
Devin flinched. “What’s my father have anything to do with this?”
“He’s ruling your life with his camera,” Nika said. “He’s forcing you to act a certain way. To behave differently in order to someday become famous. And you’re not happy about it.”
Devin opened his mouth to argue, but Trevor cut him off.
“She’s got you on that, dude,” Trevor said. “You said earlier about how you don’t really want to be on YouTube. Sounds to me like you should be saying something to him too.”
“Agreed,” Cameron added, his face still buried in the blueprints. “If your recommendation to Nika is to stand up to her grandfather, you should do the same yourself with your father. Otherwise, your words have no bearing.”
Devin frowned. Why were they all of a sudden turning on him? “Look, it’s not like either one of us is going to do anything about it. So let’s just drop it.”
Beyond the exit, the familiar lights of Bortho’s Burgers and Beets & Weeds from the food court poured through the opening. The trickling sound of water from the fountains was a welcome change from the silence inside the Globe. Several banquet tables had been laid out at the center of the food court, brimming with food. Devin and Trevor carried Nika the rest of the way and gently lowered her into a chair next to one of the fountains.
“It says we’re supposed to go ahead and eat.” Cameron held up a note he plucked from a table and handed the folded piece of paper to Devin to read.
Hope you had a great adventure, my friends. We’ll be along shortly. Help yourselves to lunch.
Doug
Devin tossed the note aside and grabbed a warm plate from the stack next to the first covered chafing dish. There were ten platters in all, each containing a different delicacy. Fried chicken legs, enchilada soup with tortilla strips and sour cream, and buttery corn on the cob, so plump, the kernels looked on the verge of popping. Devin discovered the source of the garlicky smell inside the fourth chafing dish: seasoned whipped potatoes with creamy, peppery gravy. He ladled a mountainous spoonful of the potatoes onto his plate and plopped a juicy pork chop across the mound. Cameron and Trevor stacked their plates as well, each of them discovering at least one of their favorite meals among the selections.
“I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I saw all this food,” Devin said, opening a cooler beneath the last table and grabbing two cans of cold soda from the cubes of ice.
“Don’t you think it’s a little strange how Doug somehow knew we would be here?” Nika asked, snapping Devin from his food trance. He had just bitten into a
chicken leg, his eyes closed in satisfaction. “He left us a note, but why wouldn’t our guardians be here as well?”
“Strange?” Devin popped open one of the sodas and dark brown fizz bubbled out from the lid. “Maybe. But no point in letting this good food go to waste.”
“Well, I don’t like it. This whole setup seems odd to me. And aren’t you forgetting something?” She looked expectantly at Trevor. “I want to go to the on-site clinic and see the doctor right away.”
Trevor was working his way through the final third of a rib eye steak. He wiped his chin with the back of his hand. “Your grandfather will be along with the others, won’t he? Maybe we should wait for them.”
Nika gingerly pressed her hands against the table and slid her seat out from under it. “Are you not going to help me?”
Suddenly, Cameron bolted out of his chair, holding his finger to his ear. “Can you hear that?”
Devin sat still to listen, but all he could hear was Trevor chomping noisily on a slab of meat too big for his mouth.
“Stop that.” Cameron pointed at Trevor. “Listen!”
Trevor reluctantly stopped chewing.
And that’s when they all heard it, faint and distant, and almost completely masked by the burbling fountains in the food court. The sound of someone crying.
Not just crying. Bawling.
The owner of the voice wailed and sobbed and howled and blubbered. And in between each burst of weeping, Trevor heard a loud chopping noise.
Thwack!
Devin swallowed and nodded toward Samurai Sal’s, the next booth down from Bortho’s. “It’s coming from there.”
The wailing grew louder by the moment, interspersed with the sharp, rhythmic thwacks, which also seemed to be increasing in volume. The sushi restaurant appeared to be closed. All the lights had been turned off with the exception of a single bulb shining behind the counter. But standing in the preparation kitchen, sobbing and chopping the frozen head of a steely-eyed fish with her meat cleaver, was none other than Shrill Parker.
SHRILL STILL WORE the same horror outfit from earlier, but her makeup looked streaked and splotchy, no doubt the result of all her crying. Cameron tensed. He had hoped never again to cross paths with the disturbed actress. Her little stunt earlier in the elevator had nearly caused Cameron to have an accident.
Thwack!
The cleaver came down solidly on the frozen fish skull, spraying bits of scale and frost into the air.
Cameron desperately tugged on Trevor’s sleeve, his eyes rapidly switching between Trevor and the Butcher’s Bride. “We need to leave,” he urged.
This was not acceptable. Shrill Parker was the last person Cameron expected to see in the food court. A sobbing psychopathic murderer, even one who only acted as such in movies, was not to be trifled with. Cameron eyed Shrill’s cleaver, now covered in gooey fish parts. The weapon was larger than any of his mother’s knives back home in their kitchen. And what Shrill was doing to that poor fish made no culinary sense. She might as well have plopped it into a blender and pressed frappé.
Thwack!
Shrill embedded the blade into the fish, then wiggled and strained to remove it.
“Ms. Parker?” Trevor asked. “Is everything all right?”
Thwack!
Another outburst of sobbing.
“Ms. Parker?” Trevor repeated.
This time, Shrill sniffled, and paused mid-chop, lowering the cleaver. “I’m sorry. I was just…just…” She blinked, recognition dawning in her eyes as a slight smile appeared on her lips. “Oh, it’s you. Aren’t you supposed to be testing the Adventure Machine right now?”
“We are. I mean, we were.” Trevor averted his eyes to the head of the decapitated fish lying on the counter.
“How was the ride?” Shrill asked. “Did it thrill you?”
Nika wrapped her arms around herself. “Not exactly. The ride actually broke down.”
Shrill curled her lower lip incredulously, but then her eyebrows twitched as the faint smile on her lips stretched into a full grin. “That has to be the single most amazing piece of news I have heard in quite some time.”
“Huh?” Devin blurted.
Shrill laughed. “Serves them right. All of them!”
“Who are you talking about?” Devin asked.
“Who do you think?” she fired back, suddenly harsh. “The Castletons, of course. And all those associated with this horrible, horrible attraction.”
Trevor scratched the back of his neck. “Aren’t you a part of the Adventure Machine?”
“Was,” Shrill corrected him, her voice firm. “I was a part of the Adventure Machine, up until earlier, when you and your parents reacted so savagely to my performance. Doug fired me. Decided I was no longer the right fit for the project. That if I caused that sort of response, I would frighten away thousands of potential customers. They threw me out like some washed-up has-been.” She raised the cleaver and stared at her reflection in the blade. “And I suppose I have you little lovelies to thank for that.”
“Thank us?” Trevor asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Textbook behavior!” Cameron blurted. “She’s displaying the textbook behavior of someone with devious intentions.”
Trevor cracked a smile. “What are you trying to say?”
Cameron groaned. “Isn’t it obvious?” Cameron liked Trevor, truly he did. But the boy could be so daft at times. All of them were the same. Why couldn’t they see the writing on the wall? From Cameron’s extensive research in psychology, he knew what Shrill Parker was about to do.
“I hope you brought your bibs,” Shrill said. “Because it’s about to get messy in here.” She unleashed an impressive cackle, which echoed throughout the food court.
“Go, Trevor, go!” Nika urged, yanking on his arm. Though she still leaned against Trevor’s body for support, Nika pulled him away from the restaurant as Shrill reached Samurai Sal’s checkout counter and began climbing over.
The whooshing sound of her cleaver sliced through the air. It hadn’t come close enough to strike any of them, but Cameron felt the breeze from the blade, and he gasped in disbelief.
“Won’t you stay around so I can properly show you my appreciation?” Shrill expertly twirled the weapon in between her fingers.
Despite Cameron’s height disadvantage, he kept pace with Devin as they turned and raced toward the lobby. They arrived at the elevators behind the hotel check-in desk, with Nika and Trevor close behind.
“What’s wrong with this stupid thing?” Devin growled, repeatedly mashing the call button with his thumb.
“Where are our parents?” Cameron demanded. “They should be here. There are cameras everywhere!” He waved his hands frantically at one of the infrared eyes peering down at him from the ceiling. The red light above the camera blipped. “Hello?” he screamed. “I need my pills. I want to go home! And don’t you hit me!” Cameron pointed a warning finger at Nika.
“I’m not going to hit you. But where do you plan on going?” she asked Devin, her voice frantic.
“I’m going to my hotel room, and then I’m calling the police. If this stupid elevator would ever hurry up.”
“There has to be a phone somewhere down here,” Trevor said. “They would have one at the receptionist’s desk.”
“Oh, for sure there is.” Devin smacked the wall while keeping a constant eye on the Gallery behind them. He added a kick for good measure. “But that’s back that way, and I’m not going anywhere near that psychopath.”
“Oh, my little daaarlings!” Shrill stood in the entryway of the Gallery on the other side of the lobby, the cleaver dangling loosely at her side.
Cameron dug his knuckle into the call button, and pressed his ear against the door to listen. “I can hear it moving; at least, I think that’s what I’m hearing.”
The door remained closed as a robotic voice announced that the elevator was out of order.
“Out of order?” Devin cried. “T
his whole place is the worst!”
“Ah, ah, ah,” Shrill’s high-pitched voice squealed from a lot closer. Cameron looked back just in time to see her chopping a wedge of the wall off with her cleaver. “Looks like you have no other place to go.”
There was no way around her. The crazy woman had expertly blocked any chance of escape, and with the elevator broken, like everything else at the facility, Cameron and his friends were trapped. Digging his fingers in the corners of his eyes, Cameron tried to make sense of it all. She was just an actor. Someone paid to frighten them. That was all! The whole scenario seemed fishy, and not just because Shrill had spent the last few minutes hacking at seafood. Cameron desperately tugged on Trevor’s sleeve.
“Can’t you do something?” Cameron pleaded.
“Do what?” Trevor asked.
“Go over there and talk some sense into her. You’re not afraid of anything!”
Trevor laughed. “Yeah, but I don’t think she’s going to listen to me.”
A section of the wall to the side of the elevators suddenly started moving. Cameron blinked, thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him. The entire section collapsed inward as a dark entryway materialized in the wall.
“Hey, guys?” Cameron turned to the others to determine whether they were seeing the same thing.
A heavyset man wearing a sloppy, food-stained lab coat stood in the opening. The man’s eyes were wide and worried, and when he noticed Cameron staring at him from across the way, he waved, urging Cameron to join him. “Yes, yes! Come on!” The man nodded vigorously, his voice booming as he beckoned. The sound was so loud, it startled Shrill in mid-cackle. The rest of the kids momentarily broke focus with the scream queen, their faces contorting with confusion.
“Where did he come from?” Nika wondered.
“Should we go to him?” Cameron asked.
Grabbing Cameron by the back of his collar, Trevor didn’t pause long enough to answer as he led the three of them over to the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Shrill screamed, her temporary trance broken. Then she chucked her meat cleaver at the children. It flew end over end and stuck into the wall as they rushed through the opening and the door to the secret passage sealed behind them.
The World's Greatest Adventure Machine Page 15