‘And was it?’
‘Not really. I was always getting into trouble.’ She sighed. ‘A few months ago, my father was kidnapped. I was told I had to cooperate, or he’d be killed.’
‘Where is Cameron Howard?’
Quinn pursed her lips. ‘I can’t tell you,’ she said. ‘They’ll kill my father.’
‘Your father’s in danger whatever you do. With my help, we can rescue your father and the others.’
Quinn thought for a long moment. ‘All right,’ she said, finally. ‘I’ll do as you say. But we’ve got to rescue my dad first. Then we can save your friends.’
I nodded. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was the best I could negotiate. I just hoped we weren’t too late.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chad stared at the painting in horror. Brodie and the others were seconds away from death—and there was nothing he could do about it.
Or was there?
Staring at the picture, it looked more like a photo taken from high above the ground. Chad could even hear the roar of the beast. He shook his head. I’m going mad, he thought. This can’t be real.
Real or not, he had to do something. With shaking hands, he reached up to the painting. His fingernails found the edge of the canvas. He dug them in and pulled. The canvas ripped...
...and air flowed through the gap.
This is crazy...
Pulling harder, he tore the canvas all the way back, revealing a gap overlooking the field where Dan and the others were being pursued. Chad gripped the edge of the frame and pulled himself through.
For one paralyzing moment, he balanced on the edge of the frame—and then he fell. He plunged down through a clear blue sky. The landscape lay below. Creating a fireboard, he landed on it and peered down. The creature looked like a giant grizzly bear on two legs, but its mouth was a hole in its stomach, ringed with rows of sharp teeth. Grabbing Dan, the creature lifted him towards the hole.
Chad shot a blast of fire at the creature’s head. Screaming in pain and fury, it dropped Dan and swatted at Chad. Flying in low, Chad veered clear of its clawed hand and caught Dan in midair.
‘Where’d you come from?’ Dan asked, amazed.
‘Never mind that,’ Chad said. ‘Let’s get the others.’
Settling Dan down, Chad fired a block of ice at the creature. It roared, knocking the projectile away. Charging towards them, its mouth opened wide, and a spike flew out.
‘Watch out!’ Dan yelled.
Chad deflected the spike with a block of ice.
That would have impaled us, he thought. We’ve got to get out of here.
He encased the creature in ice, but the block immediately began to crack. Brodie and Ebony raced to him, and Chad gave them a brief hug.
‘Thank goodness you’re okay,’ he said. ‘How did you end up here?’
‘We’ll explain later,’ Brodie said. ‘Now we need to get away.’
Chad formed a fireboard large enough for them all. The block of ice encasing the monster shattered. Shaking its body, it lurched towards them as Chad took off. Peering upwards, he saw the tiny square in the sky, a dark rectangle against the blue.
This is bizarre, he thought. How can such a thing exist? We must be in some kind of parallel dimension.
They soared to the opening. First Ebony, then Brodie climbed into the gap.
Dan glared at him. ‘This doesn’t mean I forgive you for being a pain,’ he said.
‘No one else has,’ Chad grinned. ‘Why should you?’
Dan disappeared through the hole, and Chad followed, allowing the board to evaporate. Disengaging themselves from a tangle of arms and legs on the dining room floor, they watched as the frame of the painting cracked. It snapped at the edges, splintered, and was then dragged into the middle, as if by a whirlpool.
Ping!
It disappeared completely. Chad and the others clambered to their feet.
‘This just gets weirder and weirder,’ Ebony said.
‘You’ve got to tell me exactly what happened,’ Chad said. ‘All of it.’
He listened for the next few minutes as they told their stories. Finally, Brodie explained they had each escaped the forest, catching sight of each other at the same time. At that moment, their powers had failed.
‘What?’ Chad said. ‘Usually, only a zeno emitter can do that.’
‘It’s true,’ Brodie said. ‘I even felt my strength evaporate, but I’m largely impervious to zeno rays.’
‘What’s going on?’ Dan said. ‘It’s like we’ve fallen into some parallel dimension.’
‘Well, it gets even stranger,’ Chad said, telling them about the vast walls surrounding Targo. ‘I tried flying out, but they just grew higher and higher. And Ferdy doesn’t answer when I try contacting him.’
The others tried their communicator bracelets, but also got static.
‘I wish we’d never come here,’ Dan said. ‘It’s a madhouse.’
‘Maybe we can break through the wall if we all work together,’ Brodie said.
They followed the trail through the forest to the wall, where great mounds of earth had been thrown up, and trees uprooted. Climbing over a shattered tree trunk, they reached the black divider. Dan gingerly tapped it.
‘I wasn’t able to touch it before,’ Chad said.
‘Well, it’s safe now. I don’t think it’s made of metal, but it’s not stone either.’
Dan tried manipulating it, Brodie tried hitting it, Chad tried melting it, and Ebony tried to turn it into another substance. None of them had any success.
‘It’s as if our powers aren’t working,’ Brodie said.
Ebony turned a nearby rock into carbon. ‘My powers are working,’ she said. ‘But just not on the wall.’
‘Everything’s been weird since we arrived here,’ Dan said.
‘I wonder how the townsfolk are dealing with this,’ Brodie said, turning to Chad. ‘Have you seen any sign of the National Guard? Or the government?’
‘No.’
‘Let’s go and find Mavis. I’d like to know what she thinks.’
Chad and the others made their way back to Mavis’s house. It was growing prematurely dark; the walls had cut off direct sunlight. Until they found a way out of here, the daylight hours would be four or five hours at most.
There was no answer at the old lady’s door.
‘I hope she’s all right,’ Ebony said.
‘She may have gone into town,’ Chad said. ‘I’d do that if a huge unexplained wall went up around the township.’
They walked into Targo. It had been quiet the previous day, but now it was a complete ghost town. Cars were parked on the main street, but none were on the road. One vehicle still had its engine running.
‘Hello!’ Dan yelled.
His voice echoed up and down the street.
‘This is creepy,’ Ebony said. ‘Where is everyone?’
They headed over to Bobby’s Diner. No one was behind the counter. Half-eaten meals were at three of the tables. The jukebox played Hound Dog by Elvis. The sound of sizzling came from the kitchen. Chad climbed over the counter and took a look. The grill was on—two beef patties were still cooking—with the makings of a burger to one side.
‘Great,’ Dan said. ‘Everyone’s missing except us.’
Chad glanced over at Dan. The younger boy was pale. Gripping his shoulder, Chad gave him a friendly shake. ‘It’ll be okay, buddy,’ he said. ‘No matter what’s going on, we’ll get through it.’
Brodie nodded. ‘Chad’s right,’ she said. ‘We’ve been through much worse than this. We’ve got each other, and we’re not hurt.’
‘That’s right,’ Ebony said, giving them a rueful grin. ‘Except for where I got shot back at New Haven. But even that’s okay.’
She pulled back her sleeve and gingerly touched the bandage. ‘There’s no pain at all,’ she said, easing the bandage back and frowning. ‘That’s strange.’
Ebony pulled off the bandage. A few d
ays before, the wound had been a bloody mess. Now it was impossible to tell she’d even been shot. ‘There’s not even a mark,’ she said.
‘No mark?’ Chad said, frowning. Their accelerated healing processes were a by-product of being modified. However, it still should have taken weeks for the wound to completely heal. ‘There’s got to be something. A scar, at least.’
‘There’s nothing.’
‘That’s weird,’ Dan said.
Brodie shook her head. ‘None of this makes any sense,’ she said. ‘The house. The ghostly happenings in the town. Getting transported to a different dimension.’
‘And now the wall,’ Chad pointed out. ‘It’s as if someone’s playing with us.’
They left the diner.
‘When were things last normal?’ Brodie asked.
‘New Haven,’ Dan said, shrugging.
‘After that, Ferdy started losing power.’
‘Was your arm still hurting when we arrived here?’ Chad asked Ebony.
‘Big time,’ she said.
‘When was the last time you remember it being painful?’
Ebony stroked her chin. ‘It was painful when we left Liber8tor,’ she said. ‘We walked through the forest, saw Mavis out the front of her house. Then we went inside—’
‘It was still painful then?’
‘I think so,’ she said. ‘Visiting Mavis that first time is all a bit of a haze. I think I fell asleep.’
Chad frowned. ‘You fell asleep?’ he said. ‘I did too.’
Brodie paled. ‘I thought it was just me,’ she said. ‘After pouring us that lemonade, she gave us her life story, and I nodded off.’
They all looked at Dan.
‘Yep,’ he said. ‘Me too.’
‘And later,’ Brodie said to Ebony, ‘was your arm still hurting?’
‘No,’ Ebony said, shaking her head. ‘It wasn’t. When Chad saw the face at the window, I remember thinking that my arm was feeling fine. In fact,’ she added, ‘it was more than fine. It didn’t hurt at all.’
‘So what happened when we all nodded off?’ Chad asked. ‘What happened to the world?’
Brodie drew a sharp breath. ‘No,’ she said, staring into the distance. ‘Oh no, it can’t be.’
‘What?’
She looked around at the sky, the street, and finally at each of the others. ‘But it makes sense,’ Brodie said. ‘The haunted town. The laws of physics being ripped apart at the seams. And the missing population. From the time we dozed off, the world went mad.’
‘So, what happened?’ Chad asked. ‘What happened while we slept?’
‘Nothing,’ Brodie said. ‘The world is the same as it’s always been. It’s us that’s changed.’ She stared at them in horror. ‘We’re still asleep.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘What?’ Chad said. ‘We’re still...asleep?’
Brodie nodded. It all made sense. It explained why everything had turned topsy-turvy. ‘There was something in that lemonade,’ she said. ‘A drug that knocked us out.’
‘So,’ Dan said, looking around. ‘I’m asleep? And you’re all just part of my imagination?’
‘Not quite,’ Brodie said. ‘At least, I don’t think so.’ She let out a long breath. ‘I think we’re all sharing the same dream.’
‘That’s crazy,’ Chad said.
‘It’s not. And it explains everything that’s happened since we dozed off at Mavis’s house.’ She tapped her chin. ‘I read an article recently about plans to send astronauts on long voyages to other star systems. Sleeping people use fewer resources: water, air, and food. Upon reaching their destination, they’d be brought out of deep sleep and ready to resume their mission.’
‘That doesn’t explain how we’re sharing the same dream,’ Ebony pointed out.
Brodie nodded. ‘Scientists have talked about creating a simulated environment where astronauts can exist while asleep,’ she said. ‘Their brains are hooked up to a program where they engage with each other as if it’s the real world.’
Chad frowned. ‘This is hardly like the real world,’ he said.
‘You can have any program you want,’ Brodie said. ‘This could be one of a million.’
‘It makes sense,’ Dan said, thoughtfully. ‘Look at all the strange things that have happened. The haunted house. The weird town. And this wall that seemed to come from nowhere. This can’t be real.’
Ebony pinched herself. ‘It feels like reality.’
‘How can we know for sure?’ Chad asked.
Brodie thought for a moment. ‘I’ve got an idea,’ she said. ‘Dan, you went to the library yesterday?’
‘I’ll show you where it is.’
They walked the length of the street to the building. Climbing the front steps, they tried the doors.
‘Locked,’ Chad said.
‘Isn’t that convenient,’ Brodie responded. ‘Almost as if they don’t want us going in.’
She smashed the glass, and they stepped into the cool interior.
‘We’re going to play a game,’ Brodie said. ‘Everyone grab a book.’
They each selected books from the shelves.
‘Open your books,’ Brodie said.
They did. Three jaws dropped open at the same time.
‘This is blank,’ Dan said.
‘Mine too,’ Chad said.
‘And mine,’ Ebony added.
‘They’re blank because the program didn’t know what books you were going to select,’ Brodie explained. ‘Now we’re going to pick something else. Hmm, maybe one of the classics.’
She strode over to a shelf and removed George Orwell’s 1984.
‘What do you know about that?’ she mused, reading. ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ She snapped it shut. ‘When the system knows what to expect, it knows what to load. It doesn’t know how to load unknowns, such as the books you picked at random.’
‘This is crazy,’ Chad muttered. ‘But it fits together.’
‘The question is, how do we get out of here?’ Ebony said. ‘How do we wake up?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that,’ Brodie said. ‘Clearly, the program controls everything external to ourselves; the temperature, the taste of food, anything that isn’t us. But it doesn’t control us. The choices we make. Our free will. I think there might be a way to shock us—or at least me—free from the program.’
‘How’s that?’
‘Hit me.’
‘Huh?’
‘As hard as you can,’ Brodie said. ‘Hit me as if you really mean it.’
‘Brodie, I can’t—’
‘It’s for our own benefit!’ she snapped. ‘Now, hit me!’
Chad drew back a fist and punched her in the face. Brodie fell backward to the ground, but she saw something as she fell. A ceiling. A computer on a table. Rubbing her jaw, she weaved to her feet. ‘Again! And this time like you mean it!’
This time Chad walloped her so hard, she was airborne. Hitting the ground, she saw the ceiling again, a plain white plasterboard ceiling, and a computer on a desk. Brodie bit hard on the inside of her cheek, so hard she tasted blood. With all her might, she struggled to push aside the world of Targo.
Focusing on the pain, she felt something in the back of her neck. Pulling hard at it, she felt an agony so excruciating she almost blacked out. But she fought against it, rejoiced in the pain, allowed it to flow through her body until—
—a doctor struggled to push her back onto the table. Drawing back a fist, she slammed him in the face. His head jerked back, and he fell out of sight. Groaning, Brodie rolled and crashed off a gurney onto a floor. Pain radiated through her face as her nose met the ground.
She staggered to her feet as another lab technician came crashing through the door.
‘No,’ she grunted. ‘You’re not going to stop me.’
Smashing him into a wall, Brodie turned her attention to the other gurneys in the room. Chad, Ebony, and Dan had a bu
nch of wires leading into plugs at the backs of their necks.
Sorry, she thought. But there’s no time to be gentle here.
Snatching out the plugs, each of them convulsed in pain. As they slowly began to stir, Brodie gingerly touched the top of her spine. There was only a dab of blood, but she’d have a hell of a headache in the morning.
Chad climbed from the table. ‘Brodie,’ he groaned. ‘Are we...are we...’
‘Out? Yes, I think so.’
They helped Dan and Ebony off the tables. Ebony looked as if she were about to throw up. ‘I feel awful,’ she groaned. ‘Leave me here to die.’
‘That’s not allowed,’ Chad said.
Brodie glanced at Ebony’s wound where she had been shot. It was healing as expected.
They raced from the room, entering a basement where computers lined the walls. Two security guards crashed through the doorway. Raising guns, they fired, but Chad had an ice barricade up in time to deflect the bullets. Ebony created two iron disks from the air, and Dan flung them at the men, knocking them out.
Racing up the stairs, Brodie took out another guard at the top. She pushed open another door, and they found themselves on the first floor of the Cooper house. A moment later, they were outside.
‘Look!’ Dan yelled.
Hurrying down the road towards them was Mavis. Smiling reassuringly at them, she gave a small wave as her sides exploded into two pairs of insect-like robotic legs. The ends of her arms and legs grew into four robot legs. Her torso expanded into a huge metallic abdomen as her head split open in the middle, revealing a shining jawed mouth and two antennae. Now ten times larger, her human skin hung off her like ripped clothing.
‘Well,’ Chad said, swallowing hard, ‘that’s something you don’t see every day.’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mavis—or the thing that had been the old lady—aimed her antennae at them.
‘Duck!’ Brodie yelled.
They jumped aside as darts flew past them, one missing Brodie by inches. She snatched up a rock and threw it at the creature. It hit Mavis in her left eye but didn’t slow her down. She leaped towards them, knocking them aside. Chad shot a blast of fire at Mavis but missed. Ebony formed a metal plate from the air. Dan propelled it at the creature, destroying the two antennae.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 75