“And I can’t tell you who gave it to me until you tell me what you know, which I’m figuring is not much,” Casey replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, then I suppose our business here is done,” Hugo said.
Casey had no intention of leaving the store without answers. But she knew that she needed to play the next part smartly. “I suppose it is,” she said. Then, committing to her bluff, Casey turned and headed for the door.
“When you touched it,” Hugo called out behind her, “you saw something, didn’t you?”
Casey stopped in her tracks. He did know something! Slowly, she turned around. A part of her didn’t want to give away too much, but another part of her, a bigger part of her, desperately wanted to talk to someone else who had seen what she had seen. And clearly, Hugo and Ursula had seen something.
Her voice barely above a whisper, she finally said, “I think I saw…” She paused, knowing she was going to sound crazy if they did not in fact know what was going on. Her next words came out in a rush: “I think I went to the future.”
Ursula smiled at Hugo and then looked back at Casey. “You didn’t go to the future, honey…” she began.
“You went to Tomorrowland,” Hugo finished.
Casey nearly squealed. It had been real. She wasn’t crazy! There really was a place where her dreams could come true. But then Hugo spoke again, dashing her hopes.
“Technically, you didn’t ‘go’ there,” he clarified. He pointed at the pin. “This little gizmo here beamed a guided tour into your head. Don’t ask me how. These people have developed technologies we haven’t even dreamed of yet.”
Casey’s mind was reeling. “Wait,” she said, focusing on Hugo’s words. “What people?”
As if he had been waiting a long, long time to deliver an explanation, Hugo puffed out his chest and took a deep breath. “Have you ever wondered what would happen if all the geniuses in the world decided to actually change it?” Hugo’s voice was filled with reverence, and he seemed to be focused on something unseen to the naked eye. “But where could they even do such a thing? They’d need a place free from politics and bureaucracy. A secret place where they could build whatever they were crazy enough to imagine.”
A secret place where anything was possible? Casey’s mind raced as she thought of all the amazing people from history and the kind of world they would create. Artists like da Vinci, inventors like Einstein, thinkers like Plato. What would a place like that be called?
“Tomorrowland,” Ursula said, answering Casey’s unspoken question.
“Like in Disney World?” Casey asked, just then making the connection. She had been to that part of the theme park many times. It was part of growing up in Florida. But she had never thought of it as anything but just another attraction.
Seeing the confusion in Casey’s eyes, Ursula went on. “The theme park was just a cover for the real thing,” she explained. She leaned in, her tone growing conspiratorial. “Walt was one of them—the secret society of geniuses.”
Not wanting to be left out, Hugo jumped in. “Every single major leap in technology going back to the turn of the twentieth century came from them. Electricity…flight…”
Ursula took over. “Television…the Internet. Designed and perfected over there decades before we were ready for it here. All of it culminating in a fully functional, fully populated City of the Future.”
“You mean it’s somewhere out there?” Casey asked.
Hugo reached down and picked up the pin. This time, Casey let him. “Indeed it is,” he confirmed. “The only way to see it, however, is through contact with one of these. But it’s just a fleeting glimpse.”
Casey couldn’t help asking the obvious. “Why would they make them?”
“Rumor has it they were about to go public,” Ursula answered. “The pins would have been the first part of the rollout campaign. Call it the world’s greatest movie trailer.”
As his wife’s words sunk in, Hugo smirked at Casey. It was immediately clear that they hadn’t shared all that information out of the kindness of their hearts. They had given something; now it was Casey’s turn. “So,” Hugo said, a hint of greed in his voice, “where did you get the pin?”
“I DON’T KNOW.”
Casey didn’t see any reason to lie. Ursula and Hugo had seemed up front with her, so the least she could do was be up front with them. But apparently, they did not approve of her answer.
Ursula looked at her and then blinked rapidly. Just like Hugo had done when he’d first heard Casey had a pin. The tic made Casey a little nervous and she stepped back. Ursula broke the silence. “What do you mean, honey?”
“It was just in with my stuff,” Casey said, shrugging. “I don’t know how it got th…” Her voice trailed off as she heard an odd thunk coming from near the front door. “What was that?” Now she was really nervous. And then she saw Ursula’s eyelid flutter. Not wink—flutter, as though her eyelid was getting stuck somehow, or her brain wasn’t sending the full message. It was creepy—and not exactly human-like.
Casey knew when it was time to throw in the towel. Trying to act casual, she reached for the pin. “Thanks for your time, guys, but I’m going to get going now.”
Her fingers closed around the pin—just as Hugo’s hand came down on hers. “A thousand dollars if you tell me where you acquired the pin.” Casey pulled her hand away. “Ten thousand,” Hugo offered, his enthusiasm scary.
Beside Hugo, Ursula’s eyelids did another funny flutter. “Was it a girl?” she pressed. “A little girl?”
Casey was now completely weirded out. What was wrong with these two? Why were they so obsessed with who had given her the pin? And what little girl? “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, beginning to head for the door. “So you guys have a great day and enjoy your freak-out.” She had taken only a few steps when she heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being cocked.
Slowly, she turned around.
Hugo stood there, holding a shotgun. But it wasn’t a typical shotgun. Its various parts were exaggerated and the barrel seemed to glow from within. Beside him, Ursula pulled out a ray gun—or rather what Casey assumed was a ray gun because it looked like something Captain Kirk or Spock would shoot.
“This is a joke, right?” Casey asked. While she was still pretty scared, it was hard to take the pair seriously when they were holding weapons that were almost cartoonish.
Fzzzzzzzzzaaammmm!
A blue-green bolt blasted right past Casey’s ear. Behind her the wall vaporized instantly. Clearly, they weren’t joking.
Diving to the floor as another blast shot over her head, Casey began scrambling away from the laser-touting duo. Crab-crawling her way down one aisle, she found herself face-to-face with a mannequin holding a gun that looked rather similar to the one being fired by Ursula. Maybe it would work the same way?
Casey jumped to her feet and pulled the trigger, but the only thing that came out was a few meager sparks. Their prey in sight, Ursula and Hugo again raised their weapons and stalked into the aisle. “Where. Is. The. Girl?” Hugo asked as he pushed Casey farther and farther back until there was nowhere left to run. She was trapped.
And then…crash!
The storefront window shattered into a thousand pieces as something flew through it. A moment later a football-shaped piece of chrome slid to a stop in the middle of the store. It began to spin, faster and faster and faster.
Looking back at Hugo and Ursula, Casey saw them both dive to the ground. She didn’t have a moment to wonder why before the chrome football detonated, sending a flickering blue light bursting forth. It took the shape of a bubble, and as Casey watched in disbelief, it began to envelop everything it touched—including Hugo and Ursula!
But it didn’t stop. The blue bubble kept coming, closer and closer to Casey. And then, just when she thought it would suck her up, too, the bubble stopped—an inch away from her.
Letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she ha
d been holding, Casey shakily got to her feet. She took stock of the store. Everything inside the bubble was frozen in place. Toys that had begun to fall off their shelves hung suspended in midair. The mannequin Casey had stolen her gun from was leaning at an impossible angle, stuck. And in the middle of it all were Hugo and Ursula, trapped in mid-motion. They hadn’t ducked fast enough, it seemed.
And just when Casey was pretty sure the day could not get any stranger, a pale little girl jumped through the broken window.
“We have to go,” Athena said as she pulled out a large ray gun. “Now!”
The blue bubble was already starting to get smaller. Objects began to fall to the ground as they were released from its energy and returned to the normal flow of time. It was only a matter of time before Hugo and Ursula were free, as well.
Still, Casey didn’t move. Her feet felt glued to the floor, and her mind raced at a million miles per hour.
“Listen to me,” Athena said, trying to snap Casey out of it. “We need to go or you will die.” She dragged Casey behind the counter. “Through that door there’s an exit. Just stay behind me—”
Athena didn’t get to finish her sentence, because at that moment, all the blue energy was sucked back into the chrome football. Instantly, everything that had been frozen became unfrozen—including the blast from Hugo’s weapon. A crackle of plasma flew over the girls’ heads, barely missing them. Free, and now really ticked off, Hugo lunged closer, coming in for the kill.
“Move!” Athena shouted as she vaulted over the counter, slamming her legs into Hugo as he rushed at them. The force sent them both flying through a wall. Struggling to their feet, they began to fight.
Casey watched as the odd pair traded jabs. For a guy who seemed to embrace the hippie lifestyle, Hugo was a slick fighter. But so was the girl, and despite her size, she held her own. Engrossed in the fight, Casey almost didn’t notice that Ursula had recovered from her own freeze and had picked a long spear out of a display case. Then she rushed at Athena.
“Watch out!” Casey screamed, catching sight of Ursula just in time.
Athena’s head whipped around and then she ducked to the left just as Ursula hurled the lance. It missed her, but barely. It did not, however, miss Hugo. The spear hit him right in the chest, impaling him to the wall behind him.
Casey’s jaw dropped. It dropped even farther as she saw the girl yank the spear out of Hugo like it was a toothpick and then draw it back like a weird thin baseball. Letting out a shout, the girl swung. The spear whizzed through the air and slammed into Ursula’s head with such force that it knocked it right off her body!
“Ahhhhhhhggh—huh?”
Casey’s scream was cut short when she noticed the distinct lack of blood—and the distinct fact that while no longer attached to her body, Ursula’s head was still very much alive. In fact, it looked right up at Casey and said, “You are in error.”
Were these two…robots?
As if to confirm Casey’s thought, at that moment, Hugo’s body, which had collapsed to the ground after Athena de-impaled him, began to twitch. Then it got to its feet and began to spin around the room. “A secret place where they could build whatever they were crazy enough to imagine,” Hugo said, his voice getting faster and his tone shriller as he began to sound like a broken record. “Crazyenoughtoimagine, crazyenoughtoimagine.” Then he began to beep. Loudly.
While Casey had no idea what that meant, Athena did. She raced across the room, then grabbed Casey’s hand and yanked her through the door and into the street outside…just as the store exploded behind them!
The force knocked Casey to the ground, where she lay stunned. In a period of less than an hour, she had learned about Tomorrowland, met crazy store owners that did not seem to be human, come face-to-face with ray guns, and been saved by a strange little girl. Turning to see if the other girl was as shaken as she was, Casey was surprised to find her already on her feet.
“Get up,” the girl said. “They’ll be coming.”
“Who?” Casey asked, struggling to stand on shaky legs.
Athena didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she just pushed Casey in the direction of a nearby parked car and then punched out the driver’s side window. She unlocked the door, opened it, and gestured to Casey. “Get in.”
By then Casey’s disbelief had transformed into outright shock, and she began to moan.
“Casey, get in the car,” Athena repeated.
“How do you know my name?” Casey asked.
The little girl didn’t answer Casey’s question. She managed to get her into the passenger seat and then hop behind the wheel. Slamming her foot onto the gas, Athena peeled away from the curb, leaving the burning remains of Blast from the Past firmly behind them.
Casey was silent as Athena drove them away from the center of Houston and continued into the outskirts of the city. She barely registered that the little girl, despite being nowhere near old enough to have a license, drove expertly. Athena adjusted her mirrors, checked for cars when changing lanes, and, of course, kept a close eye on the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following. But after a while, Casey’s internal freak-out turned outward, and she whipped around in her seat. “What. Just. Happened?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“Two AA units targeted you for extermination,” the girl said as though that were obvious. “All AA’s are equipped with an explosive charge to avoid detec—”
“AAs?” Casey repeated, cutting Athena off.
“Audio-Animatronics,” Athena explained.
So they had been robots! That answered one question. But Casey still had one more. “Who are you?”
The girl smiled. She had been waiting many, many years to introduce herself. “My name is Athena,” she replied. “I’m the one who gave you the pin.”
“THE PIN?” Casey repeated. Athena had given her the pin? But why hadn’t she just handed it to her in person? It would have saved Casey a whole heck of a lot of trouble.
“Yes,” Athena confirmed. “And I really wish you hadn’t run off before I had a chance to give you some rather necessary context.”
Casey almost laughed out loud. That was rich coming from the girl who had snuck the pin into Casey’s things and then disappeared. Casey had simply gone after answers. Speaking of which…“Who are you?”
“I’m a cruder,” Athena answered. Then she shook her head. That was not what she had wanted to say. “I ma…reee. I’m a recruton—” Athena twitched. Something was wrong. As though it were just an everyday sort of thing, Athena reached down and pushed something on her side. A small compartment popped open—right out of her body!
Casey shrank back in her seat as Athena pulled out a small tool and then unceremoniously jammed it into a wound on her shoulder and began to twist. When Athena seemed satisfied the problem had been fixed, she stopped twisting and put her hand back on the wheel. The tool stayed sticking out of her shoulder.
“Oh, God,” Casey whispered when Athena was finished. “You’re one of them.”
“Obviously.”
Obviously? Was this girl serious? Did she not see how truly wacky it all was? Did she think that Casey hung out with robots or AAs or whatever they were on a regular basis? No, Casey thought. This whole situation is anything but obvious. And she wanted nothing more to do with it.
Before Athena could stop her, Casey stretched her long leg over the center console and slammed her foot down on the brake. The car hadn’t even come to a complete skidding stop before Casey had her door open. She threw herself out and then began running across the road. Behind her, she could hear Athena telling her to stop, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to stop. She was going to keep running all the way back to Florida if she had to. Athena might be some weird robot from the future or wherever, but she had shorter legs. Casey could stay ahead of her—she hoped.
Honnnnnnnnnk!
The loud blare of a truck sounded behind her, causing Casey’s steps to falter. The thunk that followed made h
er stop completely. Turning around, she saw Athena’s body flying through the air before landing in a heap nearly forty yards away from the pickup truck that had hit her.
As the driver got out, his face ashen, Casey pondered her options. One: she could keep running. Two: she could go make sure Athena was all right (even though last time she checked, AAs could take a pretty tough beating and keep on ticking). Or she could go with option three: take the truck and get the heck out of Dodge. Yup, she thought as she began to backtrack toward the truck. Option three was the way to go.
Slipping into the driver’s seat, Casey put the truck in gear and gunned it. Behind her she heard the truck’s owner shout, but she didn’t turn around. If she turned around, her resolve might weaken and she might end up going back. No, Casey told herself. Athena will be just fine. She’s probably in shut-down mode or sleep or something. Then Casey looked in the rearview mirror and her eyes grew wide. Athena was not in shut-down or sleep mode. She was on her feet and running after the truck! Even crazier, the girl was actually catching up to the speeding vehicle!
“This isn’t happening,” Casey began to mutter. “This isn’t—”
But it was. Ba-dump. The truck bounced ever so slightly as Athena jumped into the flatbed, a frown on her face.
Slamming on the brakes, Casey tried to dislodge Athena from the flatbed, but all it ended up doing was sending Athena straight through the open back window and into the cab with Casey. Athena reached out and yanked open the steering wheel’s cover, revealing the wires inside. As she ripped at them, the engine began to sputter.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Casey screamed as Athena jerked off the door handle and tossed it out the window. There was no way for Casey to escape now. They were stuck in the stopped truck.
“Please stop yelling,” Athena said calmly.
“Let me go!” Casey yelled, thrashing about in her seat.
Athena became less calm. “I will not,” she said. “I gave you my very last pin, young lady, and I am not about to let it go to waste.”
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