Casey stopped struggling. “What do you mean, your ‘last’ pin?” she asked, curiosity getting the best of her. Athena didn’t say anything. She just looked at Casey, waiting for her to put it all together.
Casey started to think about it. Athena had given her the pin. She’d known about the AAs in Houston. She was an AA herself, for goodness’ sake. And while Casey had never been a fan of fantasy or make-believe, she had seen enough movies and read enough books to know when something was, well, alien. That meant there was only one obvious conclusion she could draw. “The place I saw,” she finally said softly, “you’re from there.”
“Yes,” Athena confirmed.
“So…it is real. It exists. Now?” Casey asked, her fear replaced by growing excitement. She opened her mouth to begin a barrage of questions, but before she could, Athena spoke.
“But if you don’t come with me, it won’t exist for much longer,” the little girl said.
Casey raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”
“Because they built something they shouldn’t have,” Athena answered cryptically. “Now, do you want to keep asking me questions until someone arrives to murder us? Or”—Athena’s eyes sparkled as she got to the real reason she had been there all along—“do you want to go forwards?”
Casey didn’t waste any time getting back on the road. And this time, she made sure she was the one driving. While Athena might not really be a child, Casey was pretty sure trying to explain that to a cop would be difficult.
“Just tell me where we’re going,” Casey said as they crossed into Arkansas. They had been on the road for hours, listening to spotty radio while Athena fiddled with the tool in her neck.
“Pittsfield, New York,” Athena answered, giving the ratchet-like tool a firm twist. She was clearly trying to make something work but not having the best of luck.
“What’s in Pittsfield?” Casey pressed her. She shifted in her seat. The truck’s shocks were shot and the ride was anything but comfy. If they were going all the way to New York, there had better be something pretty amazing waiting.
Athena jiggled the ratchet. “Someone who can get us back in,” she answered vaguely.
Casey whipped her head to the right. “You mean into Tomorr—”
Before she could finish saying the name, Athena gave the ratchet another firm twist, and suddenly, a beam of light erupted from her eyes. A second later an image popped up on the windshield in front of her. She had turned herself into a human—well, AA—projector!
Out of the corner of her eye, Casey watched as a different little girl with big blue eyes and pouty lips pointed up at the stars. “I wanna go there,” the girl said to someone off camera.
“But it’s so far away,” a male voice pointed out, its tone gentle. Something about the voice sounded familiar to Casey. She struggled to pinpoint it but came up blank.
“It’ll take a long time,” said a woman, also somewhere behind the camera. “What if you go all the way up there and there’s nothing?”
The little girl didn’t even hesitate. “But what if there’s everything?”
Casey’s mouth dropped open. How had she not seen it right away? Or recognized the voices? That was her! Talking to her parents. She remembered that night. She couldn’t have been older than three or four. Her father had taken her out to look at the stars the way he had every night since the day she was born. They used to spend hours lying on the grass, picking out constellations and trying to see satellites. But they hadn’t done that in years. Why was Athena showing it to her now? And more important, how had she even gotten that video?
“What was that?” Casey asked when she had finally composed herself. Too many emotions had been dragged to the surface as she’d watched a younger, more hopeful version of herself. “How is that in your head? Have you been spying on me?”
“Not spying,” Athena said, correcting her. “Assessing.”
Casey shook her head. What was the difference? She needed more than that. “So you’ve been following me around since I was three?”
“Of course not,” Athena said as though that was ridiculous. She explained that the video had been uploaded from YouTube as part of her research. “I only found you a month ago, when you started destroying government property, which just so happens to be one of the search parameters for recruitment.”
“Recruitment for what?” Casey asked.
Athena shrugged. “I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
“Hold on,” Casey said as another thought flitted into her mind. “You said you gave me your last pin. So you’re recruiting me for something but you won’t tell me what it is…and I’m not even your first choice?”
“You were a choice,” Athena countered. “Let’s be proud of that, okay?”
Sheesh, Casey thought. Apparently, the warm-and-fuzzy button had not been part of Athena’s programming. Would it have killed her to at least pretend Casey was slightly important? That gave her pause. If she wasn’t important, why had the robots back at Blast from the Past tried to kill her?
“Based on my personal experience,” Athena answered when Casey posed the question, “I’d assume it’s because you were being uncooperative.”
Casey let out a fake laugh. So Athena hadn’t gotten the empathy button, but she had apparently gotten the sarcasm button.
“You know what I think?” Casey said. “I think they tried to kill me because they want to keep that place I saw a secret. Am I right?”
“I should warn you,” Athena said, “ask me one more question and my Countermeasure Protocol kicks in. I will shut down.”
Casey raised an eyebrow. Oh, yeah? she thought. How naive does Athena think I am? “You said they built something they shouldn’t have. Did something happen over there?”
As if she were a lamp whose plug had just been pulled, Athena instantly turned off. Her entire body went limp and her eyes closed. Casey could almost swear she heard what sounded like a computer drive going into sleep mode.
“Son of a—!”
CASEY WAS getting really tired of driving. And listening to preachers on the radio drone on about hellfire and pestilence and the end of days. It was not uplifting or cheery or even remotely entertaining. She was beginning to wonder if it was possible to drive yourself insane on lone car trips through the middle of nowhere America. But she didn’t really know what else to do.
As the truck continued to speed down the highway, Casey suddenly heard a low hum. It grew louder and louder. Looking at the passenger side, she let out a gasp as Athena’s eyes opened and she sat up.
“I thought I broke you or something!” Casey shouted after she was sure Athena was okay. “What if a cop pulled me over and I had to prove that you’re not dead because you’re not technically alive, which then begs the question ‘What are you doing driving around with a robot from the future?’”
“Not the future,” Athena corrected. “I was built in 1957.”
Casey stifled a groan. “There weren’t robots in 1957,” she pointed out.
“Sure there were,” Athena said, correcting her. Then she eyed Casey, taking in the teenager’s red, tired eyes and shaky hands. “I should drive.”
“If you’re driving, you’ll turn off again and crash us into a tree if I ask you why your head has a video of me from when I was a kid!” Casey shouted.
Athena hesitated, choosing her next words carefully. Then, ever so softly and with what actually sounded like genuine heart, she said, “It’s in my head because I’ve been looking for someone like you for a very long time. Now, please, pull over.”
While Casey wanted to argue and, frankly, wanted to keep pressing Athena to explain all her ominous one-liners, Casey had to admit she was tired. Really, really tired. So she slowly pulled over to the side of the road and let Athena take the wheel. Moments later they were back on the highway, heading north.
For a while, the only sound in the cab of the truck was the preacher on the radio, who was still going on about human weakness and
damnation. Listening to the man, Athena cocked her head. “Quite cheery,” she said, her sarcasm programming still fully functioning.
Casey shrugged. “It’s the only station,” she pointed out. “The end of days is all we got.”
Her words had only been in jest, but as soon as Casey mentioned the end of the world, Athena’s eyes went dark. If Casey hadn’t known any better, she would have thought Athena was about to cry. Leaning forward, the robot switched off the radio.
“That city,” Casey said after a moment, realizing that the nerve she had struck in Athena clearly had to do with Tomorrowland, “why would they build a place like that and not tell anyone it was there?”
“Because special places are for special people. Like you,” Athena replied.
Casey shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Special? She was just a girl who happened to like space and who happened to be sitting in a truck with a robot from the future/past who was taking her to some random place in the middle of New York State. “This guy we’re going to see,” Casey said, letting out a huge yawn as her eyes began to close. “What’s his name?”
“His name is Frank,” Athena said with a small smile. “Frank Walker.” And he is special, just like you Casey Newton, she added silently. Just like you…
Casey was dreaming she was falling. The wind whistled in her ears and whipped at her clothes. Looking down, she saw the ground getting closer, and closer, and…
Slam!
Casey woke up with a jolt. She was lying on a dirt road as the sun rose over a nearby hill. She sat up, confused. How had she gotten there? And more important, where was Athena? As if on cue, tires squealed and she saw the truck, with Athena at the wheel, peeling away.
“Hey!” Casey screamed, scrambling to her feet. “What are you doing?” The truck just kept going. She had totally been ditched!
Trying to get her bearings, Casey saw that she had been unceremoniously dumped at the end of what looked like a long driveway. An old rusted mailbox sat at the end of the drive, the name Walker written on the side.
Walker. Frank Walker. That was the person Athena had mentioned in the truck. Well, at least she’d had the decency to bring Casey to the right destination.
Sighing, Casey wiped the dirt off her jeans and began walking up the driveway. She could make out what must have once been beautiful farmland on either side. But it looked like it had been neglected for a long, long time. An old rusted-out combine sat in one field, weeds growing up and over it. Nearby, the barn’s doors were open, hanging off hinges at odd angles, the once red paint now a dull gray. Casey felt oddly sad as she looked at the place. It seemed so isolated, so abandoned.
Wooooofffff!
Apparently, it was not as abandoned as Casey had thought. Looking toward the sound of the deep barking, Casey let out a scream. A huge dog was racing around the side of the house—right at her! Turning on her heels, she began to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction.
Behind her, the beast kept coming, his four legs covering ground far quicker than Casey’s two. And then, just as it looked like Casey’s journey was going to end in a rather unhappy way, there was a loud clink and the dog was jerked backward. He was attached to a long chain!!
Putting her hands on her knees, Casey struggled to catch her breath. She kept one eye on the dog as he paced at the end of the chain, drool hanging from his jaw. When she stood up straight, the dog lunged instantly and began to bark. Casey didn’t move. Once again the dog went back to pacing. The exact same way he had been pacing a moment earlier.
Casey cocked her head. She moved a bit closer. Again, the dog barked and lunged and again, he began to pace—the exact same way. And what was even weirder was that the ground beneath the dog was pristine. There was no track in the dirt from the pacing. No paw prints or puddles of drool. It was completely untouched. Wait a minute, Casey thought. If there are no marks on the ground and the dog keeps doing the same thing over and over again, could that mean…
With a new theory in her mind, Casey stepped forward and let the dog lunge. This time, she didn’t move. The big creature’s jaws opened wide and then closed right on her arm. But nothing happened. The dog simply passed through Casey. It was a hologram!
“That,” Casey said as she smiled and made her way past the harmless guard, “is cool.”
Walking up to the house, she climbed the front steps and crossed the porch. Then she knocked on the door. While she waited for someone to answer, she glanced around. The porch was in no better shape than the rest of the place. But what was odd was that right above the door, in pristine condition, was a high-tech security camera. What on Earth could this Walker guy have in this dump worth securing? Casey thought as she knocked once more. Inside, she heard a muffled noise, but still no one came to the door.
“I can hear you,” Casey called out.
There was a beat and then “Go away!” a gruff male voice shouted from somewhere inside the house. “Didn’t you see the dog?”
Casey nodded at the camera. “Yeah, it’s a hologram,” she said. “How did you do that in daylight?”
There was the sound of shuffling inside and then Casey heard footsteps moving closer to the door. Clearly, she had piqued the guy’s interest. “Who are you?” the man asked. “What do you want?”
“My name’s Casey. You’re Frank, right? Frank Walker.” There was no response. But Casey had not come that far just to give up. And Athena had said this guy was her way into Tomorrowland. Come hell or high water, she was going to get this Frank guy to open the door. “I want you to take me there,” she said. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the pin, and held it up to the security camera. “The place I saw when I touched this.”
Casey lowered the pin and waited. There was no way Frank Walker, whoever he was, would ignore the pin. She was sure that at any moment, he would open the door.
Vwwwwwoompv!
Before Casey knew what was happening, there was a bright burst of light, and a giant pulse radiated from the door. It hit Casey square in the chest and sent her flying backward through the air. She landed with a crash a dozen yards away, the wind completely knocked out of her.
And only then, when her eyes were watering and her breath was coming in gasps, did Frank Walker open the door.
DURING THE whole ride to New York, Casey had been trying to picture what the mysterious Frank Walker would look like. For some reason, she’d imagined him as a young, geeky kind of guy, wearing glasses that he had to keep pushing up the bridge of his nose and unfortunate mismatched clothes. She expected him to be full of optimism and ready to jump into an adventure. So she was rather surprised to find herself looking up at a grizzled older man with a salt-and-pepper beard, wavy hair, and kind eyes, who was most definitely not geeky-looking. In fact, he was kind of handsome—for an older dude. He was also, Casey could tell instantly, very unhappy.
He stormed over, picked up the pin, and stared down at it, a mixture of curiosity and anger in his eyes. “Where did you get this?” he snarled.
“A little girl,” Casey gasped, still trying to catch her breath. “She ditched me here.”
A flicker of emotion flashed across Frank’s face and his eyes softened. But as fast as the flicker had come, it went, and Frank’s eyes turned cold again. “Wherever you came from, kid? Go back,” he said, turning to leave.
Casey sat up, a wave of pain causing her vision to blur. “No,” she said. “I need you to take me there.”
Frank stopped and slowly turned back around. Casey was shocked to see how tired he looked at that moment. He held the pin up. “What you’re looking for? It’s over. It doesn’t exist anymore,” Frank said bitterly. “What you saw was a commercial that was recorded decades ago. An invitation that never went out because the party got canceled. You were manipulated to feel like you were special. But you weren’t.” He stopped and looked her straight in the eye, wanting to drive his point home. “You’re not.” Tossing the pin back at Casey, he stormed back toward the house.<
br />
“So,” Casey murmured, “that’s a no?”
In response, he slammed the door. A moment later, it began to rain.
Great, Casey thought. Now I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere with a very grouchy jerk and I’m going to get soaked. She let out a sigh and pushed herself to her feet. One way or another, she was going to get Frank to help her.
Frank knew that Casey was outside waiting for him to change his mind. He also knew that was never going to happen. She could sit out there till the cows came home, which would be a while, since the farm hadn’t had cows in decades. He wanted nothing to do with Tomorrowland, Athena, or any of it. That place was dead to him.
It wasn’t, though, not really. Hearing someone else talk about it and knowing that Athena had been so close infuriated Frank in the way only something truly important could. He knew that to Casey he must look like a tired, uninspiring man. But once, he had been something different….
As Frank glanced at the screen displaying the security monitor footage from the front door, his eyes grew wide. Something very large and very on fire was heading straight for the house! Leaping into action, he raced into the kitchen and grabbed a fire extinguisher. That particular one was of Frank’s making, so it was quite powerful.
With the extinguisher at the ready, Frank ran out onto the front porch and down the stairs, holding down the nozzle. Then he took aim at the approaching ball of flames. As it got closer, Frank realized what exactly was on fire—the old combine! Confused, Frank shook his head and waited until the combine was close enough. Then he squeezed the trigger.
Instantly, an icy mist shot out of the nozzle, covering the combine and freezing its engine. The flames went out as they were buried under a thin layer of snow, and finally, the combine ground to a halt barely a foot away from where Frank stood.
With the combine unable to cause any more damage, Frank had time to think about what had just happened. How could the combine, which hadn’t been running in years, catch on fire, start moving and end up aimed directly at his house? And then it hit him. He had just fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book: diversion. When he turned around, his thoughts were confirmed. Casey stood on the front porch, a smile on her face. With a little wave, she went inside and slammed the door.
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