“Where are we?” said Ruby.
They drove right into the tent and were nearly trampled by an elephant. Corey swerved sharply, and a man on stilts blew a stream of fire out of his mouth.
“Matt! This is a circus!”
Matt suddenly remembered the compass in his hand. He looked at it. No, this was not where he had put the settings, he was quite sure. He shook it a little, pressed the dials. A tiger leaped toward them, roaring with claws outstretched. Everyone screamed, and then it was gone. They shot into the void again and touched down to earth in the midst of a sea of soldiers fighting with swords and bayonets. A cannon shot and exploded a barricade, and then it was gone again. They sped through time and space as though they were on a film tape in rewind. Every now and then the VW bus paused to see where they were before speeding off again. He caught glimpses of things—trees, mountains, buildings—and for a brief moment they looked to be coming in first in a chariot race, until they were whipped away again.
Finally they bounced down, and whether they’d arrived at their destination or the bus had simply had enough, they screeched to a stop.
10
New Crew, Old Crew
February 21, 3021 BC
Wrangel Island
Matt slammed back on the seat, his neck cracking a little.
Ruby groaned beside him. “Did we make it?”
Matt looked out the windows. The landscape was all white and gray. No buildings or people. He could feel cold air seeping through the doors. “I think so,” said Matt.
Corey unwrapped his hands from the steering wheel. “That was crazy,” he said breathlessly. He was quite pale.
“I thought we were going to die,” said Ruby.
“We’re okay,” said Matt. “We’re fine. We made it.”
The three children just sat there for a moment, taking in the stillness and the silence, allowing their discombobulated brains to settle.
The side door of the bus flew open.
Matt’s jaw dropped. There was his mother. Her long dark hair was ratted and tangled, and her normally tan face was ashen. Matt started to shiver. He wasn’t sure if it was the cold air or the rage on his mother’s face.
“We might die now,” said Corey, his voice cracking.
A pair of legs dropped down from the top of the bus, and their dad fell to the ground. He grunted, then pulled himself up on the footboard of the bus, gasping for breath. His hair looked like a porcupine with quills flared outward, and he was breathing very hard and fast.
“Get out,” said Mrs. Hudson in a low growl that made Matt’s neck hairs stand on end. “Now.”
The children all got out of the bus quickly but cautiously, like they were moving around a wild beast that might rip them to pieces if they made any sudden moves. Mr. Hudson clutched at his chest and leaned against the side of the bus. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack, but Mrs. Hudson didn’t seem too worried about that. She stood in front of her children, fists clenching, jaw pulsing. Matt thought she looked taller than he remembered.
“Explain,” said Mrs. Hudson. “No excuses. No lies. You tell me the truth right now.” Matt looked at Corey and Ruby, but they were both looking at him. Of course this was all his doing.
Matt reached for his compass and held it out for his mother to see. It was all greasy and sticky with peanut butter. It looked more like a toddler’s teething toy than some powerful, magical object, but he knew she knew what it was the instant she saw it. Whatever explanation she was expecting, Matt was fairly certain she was not expecting this. “What. Is. That?”
“I . . .” Matt’s mouth suddenly ran dry. He couldn’t talk. He looked to Ruby, pleading for help.
“It’s a compass,” said Ruby. “Matt made it.”
Mrs. Hudson blinked. “He made it?”
“That’s what he’s been working on in Gaga’s basement all this time,” said Ruby.
“And it works!” chimed Corey. “Isn’t that amazing? He’s like . . . like Iron Man and Doctor Strange all in one!” He was clearly trying to make this sound like it was all good news, something to be celebrated. Matt did not think it was working.
Mrs. Hudson looked around at the snow and ice, like she was just realizing that they were no longer in New York, and it was definitely not summer. “A compass,” she said. “You built a time-traveling compass . . .”
Mr. Hudson had now composed himself enough to put his glasses on and observe their surroundings. The bus had landed on top of a cliff jutting out over an icy ocean. The shore was peppered with some kind of animal lazing on the icy rocks, dipping into the water. Walruses, Matt was pretty sure. He could see their large tusks, and their barking snorts and grunts filled the air. A few polar bears also roamed the beach.
Behind them, the land looked mostly barren, only a few pitiful plants on the snow-covered ground. The rocks and crags were covered with giant icicles. There wasn’t a building in sight, nor any other signs of humans. In the distance were a few mountain ranges, and roaming on the plains was a herd of large, furry animals that Matt could not quite make out. Maybe buffalo? They moved up and down like a dark wave on the white horizon.
“Matt,” said Mr. Hudson, keeping his eyes on the creatures. His voice sounded strange. “What year is this?”
“Oh. Uh . . . we’re somewhere in 3021, I think.”
Mrs. Hudson’s eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. “I’m sorry? Did you say 3021 BC?”
“Give or take a year or two?” Matt hoped he wasn’t off by too much. If Jia had been discarded here, he didn’t think she’d survive very long. He looked around, hoping to see some sign of her. A trail of footsteps. A flag signaling for help.
“We traveled over five thousand years in one shot?” shrieked Mrs. Hudson. “Mateo! You’re not supposed to travel that far that fast!” Mrs. Hudson groaned and clutched her head. She started muttering in Arabic. Matt heard her say she had a headache and they were all going to be sick. Matt was feeling a bit queasy himself, but he wasn’t about to admit it to his mom right now.
“We have to get out of here,” Mrs. Hudson snapped. “Everyone back to the bus. Matt, give me that . . . that compass.”
She held out her hand. Matt reached for his compass. It was practically a reflex to obey his mother’s commands, but Ruby reached up and stopped him.
“It’s Matt’s compass,” she said. “Only he should be allowed to use it.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” said Corey. “The maker is the taker.”
Mrs. Hudson blinked, clearly taken aback. “I understand Mateo made the compass,” snapped Mrs. Hudson. “But that doesn’t mean he automatically knows how to use it. We could have all died traveling the way you did.”
“It doesn’t mean you’d do any better,” said Ruby, defiantly. “It’s not the Obsidian Compass. It might work a little differently. You might not even know how to work Matt’s.”
Matt couldn’t believe how bold Ruby was being. The expression on his mom’s face made him want to bury himself beneath the snow.
“You children think this is a game,” she said. “You’re lucky we didn’t all die on the way here. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
“Why do you say that?” said Ruby. “Why do you assume that because we are children we don’t know what we’re dealing with? Don’t you remember that we’ve time-traveled too? We traveled dozens of times. Do you think Matt could have even built the compass if he didn’t have an idea of what he was dealing with?”
Mrs. Hudson pressed her lips together and took a deep breath. “Matthew,” she said, turning to her husband. “A little help?”
Mr. Hudson bent down toward Matt. Matt flinched and clutched his compass to his chest. “Don’t worry, I’m just looking,” said his dad. He pulled his glasses to the tip of his nose, studying the compass. He sniffed. “Smells like . . . peanut butter.”
“That’s the magic ingredient!” said Corey. “Isn’t that awesome?”
“Peanut butter? Ha
!” Mr. Hudson laughed. “Incredible. Genius.” Matt took a breath. Maybe he wasn’t in so much trouble, but then his mom started talking again.
“Yes,” Mrs. Hudson snapped, sneering at her husband. “It is incredible. C’est magnifique! But what’s even more astonishing to me is that you decided not to tell us that you’d built such a compass in the first place. Instead you steal a bus, nearly run us over, and travel five millennia in the past! What on earth were you thinking?”
“I just . . . we wanted to find Jia,” he said.
Mrs. Hudson’s expression softened just a little. “Jia?” she asked. “Your friend from Vince’s crew? Why do you think she would be here?”
“Well . . . ,” said Matt, digging his feet into the hard snow, “we sort of borrowed Dad’s map.”
Mr. Hudson whirled, his eyes blazing, all warmth gone. “You stole my map?” he said. “Where is it?”
Alarmed by Mr. Hudson’s sudden flash of temper, Ruby very quickly produced the map. Mr. Hudson snatched it from her. “You had no right to take this. If you had wanted to know something, you should have asked.”
Ruby stood up a little taller, pushing back her shoulders. “And you would have told us?”
“Of course we would!” said Mrs. Hudson. “Did it ever occur to you that we might be able to help you? That I have just a little more experience time-traveling than you do? That your father is the only one who really knows how to read that map? What you did was reckless and foolish! What if something happened to you? What if you had gotten stuck? What if Vincent were to—”
Mrs. Hudson’s lecture was interrupted by a strange rattling. The Hudsons all whirled around. The rusty VW bus was bouncing and shaking like there was a wild beast inside. The hatch popped open.
Mr. and Mrs. Hudson both jumped in front of the kids and took a protective stance, spreading out their arms. Matt peered over his mother’s arm to see someone roll out of the bus and flop on the frozen ground with a loud grunt. “What the beetle juice?” came a grizzly voice. It was an old man, rough and bearded, wearing shorts and a tie-dyed T-shirt with a brimmed hat and a pair of dark, circular sunglasses.
“Chuck!” said Mr. Hudson, lowering his arms. “I’m so sorry. We had no idea you were in there.” He bent down to help Chuck off the ground.
“I guess I fell asleep,” said Chuck, leaning heavily on Mr. Hudson as he got to his feet. “I was up late last night. Got a little caught up in the starry night sky.” He looked up at the sky as though he were expecting to see stars. He frowned at the gloomy gray.
Matt wondered how they could have missed Chuck sleeping inside the bus the entire time they’d been in it. Even if he’d been covered by the back bench, Matt would have thought they’d at least hear him snoring or breathing. And how could Chuck have possibly slept through everything? It wasn’t as though their travels had been particularly smooth.
Chuck put his hands on his hips and bent backward, cracking his spine, then stretched his arms and yawned. He shivered and wrapped his arms around his body. “Good golly, it’s freezing. Did I hibernate through summer and fall?” He went back to the bus, opened a board in the floor, and pulled out a brown-and-yellow crocheted blanket. He wrapped it around his shoulders. Matt started shivering. It was freezing, and he was only in a T-shirt.
“I got more blankets if anyone wants one,” said Chuck, “plus some other winter stuff.”
Chuck pulled out blanket after blanket from the floor of the bus, like a magician pulling scarves out of his sleeve, and tossed them to everyone. Ruby got a colorful checkered one, Corey got rainbow waves, and Matt caught a blanket with purple flowers all over it. He wrapped it around himself, glad to have some protection from the cold. They certainly hadn’t thought about clothing and gear for this mission. They hadn’t thought about a lot of things, he was beginning to realize.
Mrs. Hudson pulled a blanket around her that reminded Matt of candy corns, and Mr. Hudson got a blue one with puffy pink pom-poms all over it.
“Where did you get all these?” Corey asked.
“I made them,” said Chuck. “I like to crochet in my spare time. It helps me relax.”
Chuck then pulled out some hats, gloves, and scarves, which he passed out among them. Corey put on a hat with flaps that made him look like Elmer Fudd. Matt peeked over Chuck’s shoulder to see what else he’d stored inside his bus. There was a thermos, a pocketknife, Band-Aids, matches, toilet paper, and some granola bars and cans of food that looked like they were probably as old as Blossom.
“You keep all this stuff in your car?” asked Ruby.
“Sure, why not?” said Chuck, filling a small backpack with some food and supplies. “Always be prepared, I tell myself. You never know where you might end up, and that appears to be very true today. Where in the name of The Godfather are we?” Chuck swung the pack over his shoulder and looked all around at the ice and snow and the ocean below the cliffs.
“Uh . . . we’re on a movie set,” said Mr. Hudson. “Some epic fantasy film.”
“Pretty realistic set,” said Chuck. “Especially for summer in New York.”
“It’s a little hard to explain,” said Mr. Hudson. “I’m afraid our kids made some bad choices and . . . accidentally stole your bus.”
Chuck’s bushy eyebrows rose above his circular sunglasses. “Accidentally? How do you accidentally steal a bus? Especially one that doesn’t even start. Blossom hasn’t worked in twenty years.”
Everyone looked at Matt. He fumbled with his compass in his pocket. “Uh . . . I sort of fixed her, I guess?”
Chuck lowered his sunglasses to take a look at Matt. “You fixed her? Well, golly gee, I think that makes up for the stealing part. I never thought I’d live to see the day Blossom rode again. Thanks a heap!”
“Sure, no problem,” said Matt.
“Yes, well, I do believe we’re trespassing on this movie set,” said Mrs. Hudson, “so let’s all just get back in the bus now and we’ll get you home right away!”
“What the . . . ,” said Chuck, squinting toward the mountains. “Is that . . . ?”
Matt turned around. The animals he’d seen earlier were much closer now, so that he could clearly see what they were. They were definitely not buffalo. They looked like elephants. Brown, furry elephants with huge curved tusks.
“Woolly mammoths!” shouted Corey. “It’s a whole herd of woolly mammoths!”
“It’s all part of the movie set,” said Mrs. Hudson, grasping to make this all somehow reasonable. “It’s set in the Ice Age. It’s a documentary.”
“Dad said it was an epic fantasy,” said Ruby.
Mr. Hudson put his hand over Ruby’s mouth and pushed her behind him.
“I can see a little baby mammoth!” said Corey. “Aw, he’s so cute!”
“Good golly,” said Chuck, scratching at his beard. “This is a pretty elaborate movie set, isn’t it? High budget.”
“Chuck,” said Mr. Hudson, “I know this is all a bit strange. . . .”
“A bit? I went to sleep in a New York summer and it looks like I woke up in the Ice Age.”
Snow began to fall. Fat flakes floated down from the sky, landing soundlessly on Matt’s nose and cheeks. The plausibility of the movie set explanation was growing thinner by the moment.
“All right, very strange,” said Mr. Hudson. “I can explain. Sort of. But we will get you home and pay for any damages to your bus.”
“Yes, we’ll get you home right away, in fact,” said Mrs. Hudson. “Kids, let’s go. Chuck needs to get back to the vineyard. Us too.” Mrs. Hudson reached for Matt, but he jerked away.
“I’m not leaving without Jia.”
“Matt, she’s not here,” said his mom. “Look at this place! No one is here!” She waved her arm around, and as she did, Matt saw something. He blinked. Farther up along the cliffside he saw a pillar of smoke. It was thin, but unmistakably smoke from a fire. Matt started to walk toward it.
“Matt, wrong direction, bud,” said his dad. “Chu
ck’s bus is this way.”
“It’s Jia!” he said, breaking into a run.
“Mateo, wait!” his mom called after him. “It might not be her. It could be an indigenous tribe, you know.”
“Jia could be with them!” Matt called. An icy wind rushed in his face as he ran, biting his nose and cheeks. The snow kept falling. Matt ran until he reached a grouping of jumbled crags and rocks. Smoke was rising from between the rocks. He walked around it, observing the ground. He looked up and down the cliffside, observing the rock formations.
“It’s a cave,” said Chuck. He and the rest had caught up to Matt. “We’re standing on top of a cave. These cliffs are probably full of them.”
Caves. Of course. The smoke had to be coming from inside a cave. Jia would have used that for shelter. Matt looked all around. He found a spot that descended more gradually down to the beach. He hitched up his blanket and started to climb down.
“Mateo, be careful!” said his mom, climbing down after him. “There’s lots of ice here.”
There was, and Matt slipped on it plenty, banged up his shins and arms a bit. He hopped the last five feet to the beach below. The rest of the group followed, including Chuck.
“Whoa,” said Corey as they all stared upward. “This is crazy cool.”
The cliffs were riddled with holes and caverns. Icicles hung down in front of them like a mouthful of sharp teeth. Matt couldn’t see the smoke now, but it had to be coming from inside one of these caves.
“Jia?” Matt called, and waited. No one answered. There were only the barks and grunts of the walruses. Still, the hair on the back of Matt’s neck prickled. Someone was here. He could feel it.
“Look at this!” said Ruby. She had stepped up to one of the cliff openings and was staring at the rock on the side. It was covered with tally marks. There were hundreds of them, row after row. If each mark represented a day, it was at least a year, perhaps more. Matt prayed that wasn’t how long Jia had been stranded here. There was something else carved into the stone, too, Matt thought. A drawing or some writing, but he couldn’t tell exactly what. His mom studied the writing up close, her brow knit.
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