by Chanda Hahn
“You will be able to see,” Tink reassured him. She pulled out a small button camera and attached it to John’s glasses. “What John sees.”
The computer screen displayed Tink’s zoomed-in face as she adjusted the camera.
“Yes! I can do that!” Tootles exclaimed.
Jax came running down the stairs. “I can see the island and they’re trying to radio us. Michael, were there any instructions about docking the boat?”
He slapped his forehead. “Yeah, I forgot.”
“Isabelle, in the closet in the stateroom, there’s a trap door. Get everyone down below. John, you come with me. We will radio the island with Michael’s help. Dr. Mee, start cooking.”
Dr. Mee wrung her hands nervously and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Did you see what’s in the fridge? It’s empty. All we have are rations. There isn’t any fresh food to cook. What do you want me to do? Boil water?”
“Yeah, and put on an apron,” he chuckled. “Well, guys. We’re here. Not under the best circumstances, but let’s get our boys back.” He gave them a salute, and with a nod, Tink pulled Tootles toward the stateroom, her face scrunched up with emotion as she tried to keep the tears from flowing.
Jax was about to follow them when Dr. Barrie grabbed his arm and spoke softly. “Jax, I did my best to protect them. It’s up to you. It’s always been you. You and Peter have done more for them than I ever could. I’m proud of you.”
His speech nearly undid Jax, his stony exterior crumbling, and he reached for the older man, giving him a long, hard hug.
“I will protect them,” Jax promised.
“I know you will. Do a better job than me, okay?”
Tears filled Jax’s eyes. He didn’t know it before this moment, but he had longed for a father figure so much and didn’t realize how much he’d missed Dr. Barrie until now.
Chapter 35
The screen had flickered on again and Hook was staring at them with an unpleasant grin. “It’s time.”
“We’re not doing it.” Peter approached the screen and the room full of lost boys and girls gathered behind him. He looked over his shoulder and was pleased to see their faces grim, full of distrust. Tense and ready for battle. “You can’t make us play your sick and twisted game, Hook.”
“I thought you would say that, which is why I have made it more interesting. Do you see this?” The screen flickered and the broadcast changed to a live feed from inside the hollow dome. A lone Red Skull was tying up someone to a light pole outside of the city’s main square. When the Red Skull moved away, he could see her clearly.
“Wendy!” Peter rushed forward, but Onyx held him back.
“Yes, I happened to have found her outside of the dome. Now, how did she get on the island, Peter? Was it you? Did you bring the cavalry? Don’t worry, I have all incoming ships being searched as we speak. We will find the others, and we will kill them on the spot. Or I may save them to be next week’s motivation to fight.”
“Let her go!” Peter demanded.
“Play, Peter. Play the game and I might just do that. Go out into the world we created for you. Fight the monsters you’ve been fighting your whole life. Give us a good show. They paid good money to watch,” Hook sneered. “You like games, remember?”
“I like games, but I hardly follow rules.” Peter’s arms crossed over his chest and he gave a wry, mocking smile in return.
Hook’s brows furrowed. “Don’t worry, in three minutes I’m going to release a toxic gas into this chamber. The only way to escape is to go up to the Hollow Dome. Let’s see how you’ll do then.”
The screen went black except for a red digital countdown clock ticking down from three minutes.
“Where are the lifts?” Nibs asked as he tentatively made his way to what he assumed to be the lifts.
“That’s them.” Candace pointed to the three daises on the floor with handrails.
“And where do they go?” Craft asked. He woke up a few minutes after his shock, with a nice burn on his hand, but still raring to go.
“The Hollow Dome.” Candace wheeled her chair over to the group, her eyes scanning the clock worriedly.
“Well, let’s do it,” Jade said. “Let’s stop wasting time waiting for that maniac to come back. Let’s go.”
“The helmets,” Candace said, pointing to the helmets above the lockers. “They will help you. Trust me.”
“Nibs,” Peter ordered, pointing. “Helmets . . . Go!”
In the blink of an eye, Nibs had made it across the room, grabbed the black and gray helmets, and deposited them in four of the girls’ hands.
“Whoa,” Jade said in surprise.
Nibs winked at her, and in seconds had distributed another round of helmets.
“It’s not that simple,” Candace warned. “There’s morphlings up there.”
Onyx snorted and flexed his muscles. “We can handle morphlings.”
“We don’t have our light bracers.” Craft held up his bare arm. “And what about the morphling venom?”
“We’ll just have to fight our way out.” Onyx held up his fist. “We can do that.”
The others nodded and headed over to the lifts. Peter and Curly were the last to step on the dais.
“Are you sure about this?” Curly asked.
Peter shook his head. “No, I have a bad feeling about this, but I don’t see another way out. If President Helix and Hook want us to play the game, we’ll play. But as soon as we see a way out, we bail. With everyone. No one left behind.”
“Got it,” Curly agreed.
The timer had wound down to two minutes fifteen seconds.
“Remember. Whatever is up there? We will handle it together!” Peter called out as the group tried to cram on the three different lifts.
There were a lot of scared faces mixed in with the determined ones. There wasn’t another way out, and with the room charged to electrocute everyone if they touched the door and a poisonous gas about to be released in the room they were in, he didn’t see a way to extradite them except through the lifts, but he couldn’t find a way to operate them.
“Where are the controls?” Peter asked and glanced up to find Candace had wheeled herself over to the lift controls by the far wall.
“Candace,” Peter called. “Get over here. Quickly.”
“Can’t.” She shook her head sadly. “Someone has to stay and manually operate the lifts. They won’t work unless someone is holding the buttons down.”
“No, you can’t stay. If you do, you’ll be poisoned,” Peter tried to reason with her.
A look of resignation crossed her face. “I have to stay. It’s all part of Hook’s sick game. He made it to operate this way. I admit, I was supposed to wake you all, then get out of the room before it locked everyone in. I’m not even supposed to be here,” she cried from her chair. “That was my mistake, and my salvation in one. But I doubt Hook will even know I’m gone.” She wiped at the tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Peter, for everything I did to you. Even when I was helping you, I hindered your progress—withheld certain memories, tried to manipulate you into a tool for Neverland. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, I’m not a good person. I’m still a Red Skull.” She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
“Candace, you are a good person. Come with us. We will find a way.” He flew from the dais and looked at the control pad. There were three different touchpad controls, labeled Lift One through Lift Three. She was right—there wasn’t a way to weigh them down.
“What if Hook was lying about the gas?” Curly called out and motioned for Candace to come to them. “What if he was lying? He does that a lot.”
The clock hit zero, and from the pipes above, gas began to pour into the room. Peter covered his mouth as the gas burned his eyes, and the lost boys began to cough. Screams of terror came from the lifts.
“Go,” Candace whispered, her eyes clear and glistening with tears. “Let me do this. Let me try to save you. I couldn’t save all of them”�
�she nodded to the still forms of the ones who didn’t wake from the pods laid out next to each other—“But let me try and save you.” She held the three buttons down and they began to lift into the air.
“I can’t let you do this.” Peter grabbed her arm, then tried to lift her from the wheelchair. When her hands left the buttons, the lifts ground to a halt and he could hear the cries of fear from the others.
“Don’t you dare!” she hissed. “Leave me.” Candace began to cough and tried to wave him away. “I’m not worth risking the lives of the others for. I told you, I’m not your friend. Go!” She pushed him roughly, then hit the three buttons again, and the lifts moved upward.
Peter was torn, his heart hurting. He looked at the still forms of his two lost boys and the girls, and into the determined eyes of Candace, then back up to a frantically waving Onyx and Curly.
He leaned down and gave her a hug. “Thank you, and yes, you are my friend.”
He felt her shoulders shake from emotion as she leaned her head into him in affirmation. She didn’t dare release the buttons.
Peter let go and flew up to the lifts, but when they were nearly to the top, they ground to a halt again. Their lungs burned and most of them were using their uniforms to protect their noses and mouths, while some had already collapsed to their knees.
Why had the lift stopped?
Candace had collapsed on the console, her head wobbling from side to side.
“Candace!” Peter cried. “Candace, wake up!”
She stirred, her coughing becoming worse, and she weakly reached up to continue holding the buttons. The lifts shuddered upward again, and just when they thought they would crash into the ceiling, it slid open and they were through.
Peter couldn’t pull his eyes away from Candace as the moving floor began to close around the lift. Once they were through, she released the buttons. Peter watched in horror as she fell out of her wheelchair to the floor. Seconds later, the floor had closed beneath them, hiding Candace from view and sealing them inside the Hollow Dome.
“Everyone all right?” Peter called out, running to the different lifts, checking to see that no one had any permanent damage from the poisonous gas.
“Yeah,” Nibs coughed. “My chest hurts, but we’ll survive.”
“Onyx, Curly, Craft.” He sounded off their names, waiting for their responses.
“We’re good,” Onyx answered, his arms wrapped around a younger teen girl named Piper who had collapsed on the ground. “I’m not sure about her though. I wish Slightly was here.”
Peter mumbled his agreement, but was trying to focus on the immediate danger. He turned to scan the area, searching the shadows where the morphlings could hide, and struggled to get his bearings in the Hollow Dome. Wendy was in here. He had to get to Wendy.
Peter rushed across the street and looked into a dummy coffee shop. “Onyx, take the injured to the coffee shop. Secure the entrance. I’m going to find Wendy.”
He didn’t wait but immediately flew into the air, searching for the main square and the light pole. But in a city that looked to stretch a few miles, it could take a bit.
It amazed him, how believable and detailed the city was, and through the visor on the helmet it took on an amber hue.
“Identify,” an automated voice spoke in his ear. Peter lost altitude as the voice startled him.
“Identify,” the voice came again.
“Peter,” he said aloud, unsure of what was going on or how to identify himself.
“Identity confirmed. Welcome, Peter, to Warfare Infinity.”
His visor lit up, displaying a band of text along the top, but this time he didn’t stray off course He quickly read the instructions and discerned it was much like a video game screen, displaying health stats and—what he found most impressive—a map icon. And when he focused on it with his eyes, a gold map of the city appeared across the whole visor.
“Sweet,” he murmured as he searched for the main square. Also appearing on the map as little gold triangles was what he assumed to be the lost boys and girls, and they were gathered in one large group by the café.
After studying the map, Peter corrected his course and flew to the main square, where he believed she was held.
“Wendy!” he yelled as he came around the corner and slowed. Landing on the ground, he ran to a light post, but there was no Wendy. Where was she? Did Hook lie? He was sure it was this light post. “Wendy!” he called out again, but there was no reply. He surveyed the ground around the post, searching for clues, and picked up a frayed rope covered in fresh blood.
She had been here, and was in trouble.
“Wendy!” he screamed, his heart breaking as he realized he was too late.
A morphling answered his call and rushed at him from out of the post office.
Was this the morphling that hurt Wendy?
Fueled by rage at the loss of Wendy, his lost boys, and Candace, Peter roared in challenge and met the morphling head-on.
Chapter 36
Wendy grimaced at her predicament. Tied up and left as morphling bait. This was not how she thought her trip back to Neverland to save the boys would go.
Her old friend Lily was taking great pleasure in lashing her hands behind her back around a light post until they hurt and were going numb. She made a valiant attempt to find compassion for the girl who had been left on the island when the others had escaped. Wendy knew that if she hadn’t snuck out of her room that night to chase a shadow, she could very well be on the other side of this coin. It could be Wendy that had ended up brainwashed and in servitude to Neverland.
“You know, I don’t hold it against you,” Wendy said, then winced as Lily pulled to tighten the rope.
“Save the pretty words for your gravestone,” Lily sneered. “Oh wait, you won’t get one.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Wendy tried again. “You can be your own person. Your future doesn’t have to end with Neverland.”
Lily’s tiger-shaped irises stared at Wendy unblinkingly. Her hands shifted into long claws, and she rubbed one under Wendy’s chin, digging in just until it hurt. “You’re right. My future doesn’t end here, but yours does.”
An electronic tone sounded within the city, and Lily’s face lit up with glee. “It’s about to start. You’re not going to want to miss this . . . Well, that is if you live that long.” She scoured the ground for a rock, and after testing its weight, she tossed it at the bulb above Wendy’s head, breaking it. Glass rained down on Wendy and so did darkness.
“Just making you more appetizing for the morphlings.” Lily laughed and tossed the rock away. “Now I’m off to hunt down your boyfriend and the others.” At Wendy’s look of confusion, Lily laughed with glee. “What, you hadn’t heard? Oh, we got what we needed from him—his DNA. And he keeps turning into more of a liability than an asset to our program.” She sighed dramatically. “We thought you could see the future. If you could, then you would have seen this outcome. But, Wendy, you didn’t see this, did you?” Lily grabbed her chin and gestured to the Hollow Dome. “Could you ever have seen this place?”
Wendy stayed strong, using all of her control to not wince at the pain, and gathered her courage and will, keeping her face immobile as she tried to think of a plan. But all of her plans involved controlling the shadows, and that would bring the morphlings down on her like syrup on hotcakes.
“Hook agrees with me—you just aren’t worth the time and effort anymore. Wendy, you aren’t worth it.”
“You underestimate me, Lily,” Wendy breathed out.
“Prove it,” Lily challenged, holding her hands wide and backing away. “Show me what you got. Oh, that’s right. You can’t.” She winked at her. “I’d love to stay and watch you get eaten, but I need to lead my team to victory.” Lily blew Wendy a kiss and waved goodbye before putting on a black helmet and running off down the road.
Wendy thumped her head against the post, and then looked up at the broken bulb in defeat. There was sti
ll glass in her hair, so she shook her head and heard a chunk fall to the pavement. That was it. Wriggling her body down to the ground, Wendy was able to sit on the ground and pick up a piece of the glass.
“Ouch.” It nicked her, but she didn’t have time to worry. Pinching the piece of glass between her fingers, she began to hack and saw the rope, unfortunately also hacking at her hands. Warm blood trickled down her palms, coating her fingers, making the glass difficult to grip.
“Come on,” she gritted between clenched teeth, her focus straight ahead at the dark alley across from her and the movement in the shadows.
She sucked in her breath as she painfully sliced her hand again. This wasn’t working. She was cutting herself more than the rope. Another warning tone blared over the speakers, drawing her attention up to the top of the dome, where a countdown timer was displayed across the ceiling scrim. Countdown to what? Whatever it was, she’d only have to wait one more minute for it.
A loud thud in the alley startled Wendy into momentary stillness. Something was definitely lurking in the dark, and she was positive it was a morphling. With renewed vigor, Wendy hacked at the rope—and sadly her wrists too—until her hands came free. Rising to her feet, she saw stars and had to grab the post for balance. She had lost a lot of blood and needed to stop the bleeding.
Cupping her hands to her chest, she took off running in the opposite direction of the alley, her senses on high alert.
The tone sounded again, this time a higher ear-piercing pitch, nearly knocking Wendy off her feet with no time to recover before a chorus of shrieks echoed through the dome as every morphling simultaneously screamed in pain. There had to be hundreds of them crying out, filling the dome with deafening screeches. Wendy had to cover her ears, trembling, her senses overwhelmed.
The tone, whatever it was, had riled up the morphlings. The shadows themselves look like they were moving, vibrating, coming alive.
Shaking from fear, she pressed her back against the wall of a bodega and tried to gauge the location of the closest morphling. With a bloodied hand, she reached for the doorknob, trying to grip it, and slipping.
