Wonderscape

by Jennifer Bell

  A line appeared on Cecily’s brow. “But if Milo Hertz is the time-key inventor, then…”

  “We’re looking for someone who’s been missing for four years,” Ren finished gloomily. The three of them heaved a collective sigh. “How are we supposed to locate Milo Hertz in a couple of days when the authorities can’t find him?”

  “We have Cloud and the time-key,” Arthur said hopefully. “That might give us an edge.”

  Cecily looked at Cloud thoughtfully. “I wonder how Cloud ended up on his own. If he and Milo fled together, then something must have happened to separate them.”

  “We might need to figure that out,” Arthur said. He imagined how a detective would go about finding a fugitive. “First we need to establish what Milo Hertz was running from and where he was running to. Maybe we should retrace his final steps? The venue for EXPO 2469 was a building called the Wonderdome in Realm Eighty-Nine. We could go there and search for clues?”

  Cecily nervously jiggled her foot. “But if we venture further into the Wonderscape, we’ll have to face more realm-challenges, and we only just survived those avalanches.”

  “Well, we’re not getting home from aboard the Principia,” Ren said tersely. “I vote we try the Wonderdome. It’s our only lead.”

  Newton, who had been pretending to clean a rack of test tubes while he listened in, lowered his voice. “If you’re going to journey through the Wonderscape, you must be careful. Your very existence here is proof that time travel is possible. If anyone discovers where you’re from, they could see you as a threat … or an opportunity.”

  “But isn’t time travel how you and the other heroes are here?” Arthur asked, confused. “Surely everyone already knows about it?”

  Newton lowered his voice. “I can’t tell you that. The secrets of the Wonderscape are exactly that – secret. Hxperion has never explained anything. Part of the game’s appeal is its mystery.” He fetched the pile of black material that he’d hung on the back of an armchair when he’d first entered, and offered each of them a piece. “Your best chance to remain undetected is to disguise yourselves as wanderers. These Wondercloaks from lost property will enable you to play along.”

  Wondercloaks. Arthur’s guess had been right. He shook the fabric and a short, hooded robe with bat-wing sleeves fell into his lap. It seemed ordinary enough, but as he pushed his arms inside, he heard Ren and Cecily gasp. Gazing down, he saw that the outside of the material had changed. It now resembled the surface of sea water – deep blue and rippling with waves.

  Cecily hurriedly tugged on her Wondercloak. The fabric shimmered and transformed into a field of golden sunflowers, swaying in a breeze.

  “How—?” Ren spluttered, inspecting the surface of her Wondercloak. It had taken on the appearance of ever-changing architectural blueprints. The white lines slid around, plotting new structures as she moved.

  “Wondercloaks adapt to represent whoever is wearing them,” Newton explained. “The lining also features a diagrammatic map of the Wonderscape. You’ll learn more about the garments as you continue your journey.”

  Filled with curiosity, Arthur folded back one half of his cloak. The material on the inside showed hundreds of different planets scattered across a starry sky. When he focused his gaze on one, the map zoomed in and he could see the planet’s surface, with its own unique geography. Some were covered entirely in ice and snow; others had areas of rainforest or desert. A ring of white text circled each planet; and around one in particular the words were flashing red – REALM 33: PLANET EARTH, MILKY WAY. Arthur had to admit the map was seriously cool. If he wasn’t in a life or death situation, he could probably have spent hours playing with it.

  The ceiling gave a loud creak as the ship rocked. The cabin door flew open and the first officer drifted in. “Four new wanderers have arrived on board,” he announced curtly. “You must get into position, captain.”

  Newton’s neck tensed. “I have to go, and so do you. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Always seek the truth.” Then he nodded firmly, mustered a brave smile, and turned for the door. Arthur heard the gruff voice of another T-class mimic crying, “Welcome aboard, stowaways,” as it opened and Newton walked out.

  The first officer regarded them tetchily. His oily black mullet was still dripping wet from the avalanche and, not for the first time, Arthur questioned why anyone would choose to populate a game with an entire fleet of robots that ugly. “Travel with wonder,” he uttered, before exiting and slamming the study door behind him.

  Alone, Arthur, Ren and Cecily turned to the Wonderway.

  “Realm Eighty-Nine, then?” Arthur croaked. His knees wobbled as he crouched in front of the Wonderway and tapped the number into the keypad. As he fetched the white realm-key from his pocket, he felt the Wonderway pulling on it like a magnet. He only had to move it a handspan away before it jumped out of his fingers, snapped into place and disappeared.

  Much quicker than before, the black Wonderway frame transformed into a swirling vortex of blue mist. A wooden door filled with translucent paper appeared in the centre. It was painted with a large black comma.

  “That door looks like a shoji,” Ren noted, walking closer. “They’re Japanese. My grandparents have them at their house in Kyoto.”

  Arthur was too embarrassed to admit that his Japan-related knowledge was limited to his favourite Japanese export, Pokémon, so he stayed quiet.

  “Time to cross our fingers,” Cecily said, yanking up the zip of her leather jacket as the sleeves of her flowery Wondercloak billowed. She grabbed Cloud’s lead, marched over to the shoji and slid it open to reveal a grassy patch of land under a dusky evening sky. All around, a forest of maple trees trembled in the wind.

  Arthur felt a dull ache in the base of his skull – another brain freeze – as he followed Ren and Cecily over the threshold. The shoji closed with a click behind him and as the Wonderway silently dissolved, Arthur squinted into the darkness ahead. There were buildings through the trees.

  8

  Behind the rustle of wind through the leaves, the clang of metal drifted over from a clearing in the forest. Arthur’s view was obstructed by trunks and branches but he could see two massive wooden structures: one illuminated in red, the other in white. Giant beams of light rose from their rooftops, soaring into the night sky like beacons calling wanderers towards them.

  “Stay close, boy,” Cecily whispered, tugging gently on Cloud’s lead. “We don’t know where we are.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Ren muttered bitterly.

  Arthur glanced across at them both and guessed they were quietly seething at him. He had already been angry with himself for not keeping the Wonderway open, but after everything they’d just learned, he was starting to feel a sense of bone-crushing guilt. He tried telling himself there was no way he could have known that the doorway was a portal to another time, but it didn’t make him feel any better. The fact was, there was a high chance none of them would ever see their families again, and it was all because he’d chosen a book to hold a door open instead of something more solid…

  A track led through the undergrowth. “We’re probably meant to follow this,” he said, kicking the toe of his trainers into the dirt. He tried to gather his thoughts as they set off. Fifty-three hours sounded like a long time to find Milo Hertz, but it wasn’t. They still needed to sleep and eat, to survive. Pressing a few buttons on his watch, he set a timer so he could monitor how long they had left. He wondered if time even behaved the same in the future. They’d soon find out.

  “At least we’re not alone,” Cecily decided, her gaze fixed on her new second-hand ankle boots. “We’ve got each other. That’s something.”

  Ren grunted. “Yeah, it’s us versus everyone else. If anyone discovers we’ve travelled through time, they might see us as an opportunity, remember?” The way she said it made Arthur shiver. He noticed that the blueprints on her Wondercloak showed designs for an enormous wall, like the material was feeling as guarded as s
he was. On Cecily’s cloak, the sunflowers had closed their petals and the light across the field was dim. Newton had said there was more to learn about their Wondercloaks; maybe this was what he’d meant – that the cloaks reacted to the wearer’s emotions.

  Cecily moved a branch aside as they turned off the path into a leafy glade. Opposite, the land fell away into a deep ravine crossed by a wooden rope bridge. The two monumental red and white buildings stood in a clearing on the other side, each the size of aircraft hangars. They had ornate tiled roofs, and holographic projections covered the outer walls, although Arthur was too far away to see them clearly.

  “If it wasn’t for the holograms and lights, those structures would look like ancient Japanese temples,” Ren observed. “I can’t see anything that looks like the Wonderdome yet, can you?”

  “No,” Arthur agreed, craning his neck. “The Wonderdome is surrounded by trees in the picture on the ticket, so it could be anywhere in this wood. Let’s cross over and investigate those other buildings; we might find a signpost.” He took a step closer to the bridge—

  “Watch out!” Cecily cried.

  A rough stone boulder the size of a small car unexpectedly swung across Arthur’s path, missing the tip of his nose by a few centimetres. He wobbled and fell backwards, landing with a thud on his bottom. “What the—?!” he spluttered. “What was that thing?”

  “Those things,” Cecily corrected him dismally. “There are four of them.”

  As Arthur scrambled to his feet, he saw that Cecily was right. Four swinging boulders blocked the bridge at different points, whooshing through the air like a set of giant wrecking balls. Miraculously, though, there were no ropes holding them up; they seemed to be floating.

  A pounding drumbeat filled the air, making the three of them flinch. Arthur wasn’t sure where the sound was coming from, but he got a sense it was another part of the game. It all felt eerily familiar. “I’ve tackled obstacles like this before,” he said. “Or rather, my characters have in video games.” It was a frightening thought: the trials his characters faced on-screen, he was now facing in reality. “We just have to time our runs to avoid getting hit.”

  “Are you sure that’s all we have to do?” Ren said, peering into the ravine. “Because that’s a long way to fall.”

  Arthur gazed over the edge and swallowed. The chasm was so deep he couldn’t see the bottom. “Well, that’s how I get my characters across,” he answered honestly. “Then again, they have more than one life.” He decided not to add that his characters also never got across on the first try. It wasn’t as if the three of them could practise.

  Cecily had started inching away. “I should probably tell you both now: I’m not good with heights.”

  “Not good like … you’ve got a phobia?” Arthur said.

  She shook her head. “I mean, yes, but it’s not just that. When I’m up high I get vertigo, which makes me dizzy and my vision blurry. If I lose balance when I’m running – ” she clapped her hands together – “smoosh.”

  Arthur glanced worriedly at Ren and was surprised to see a degree of understanding in her dark eyes. He had the impression she was someone who didn’t experience fear, but perhaps he was wrong.

  “Is there something you can do to prevent it?” Ren asked. “Or anything we can do to help?”

  Cecily took a deep breath. “Not really. I’ll just have to stop myself looking down.”

  Arthur felt his confidence ebb. How were the three of them ever going to survive this place if they couldn’t even cross a bridge without risk of death? Still, he made an effort to remain positive. Everyone double-knotted their shoelaces and after studying the boulders’ movements for a few minutes, they drew in front of the bridge. He and Ren positioned themselves shoulder to shoulder on either side of Cecily, so they looked like a trio of sprinters waiting to have their ankles tied on the start line of a four-legged race. Ren offered to carry Cloud, but Cecily insisted she keep him – for moral support, no doubt.

  “Ignore the drumbeat; we have to move in time with the boulders,” Arthur instructed. He tried to muster up some courage. After the whole book-in-the-door incident, he didn’t want to let Ren and Cecily down again. “Ready?”

  Cecily set her jaw, although she was shaking so much Cloud looked like he was sitting on a washing machine. “R-r-ready.”

  Arthur waited for the first boulder to swoop past. “Now!”

  As one, they charged. But as their feet hammered the rickety bridge, it started to sway.

  “Whoa!” Arthur spread his arms to help him balance, but it felt like he was running on jelly. Without warning, his toe caught the edge of a wooden plank and he went flying through the air, landing with a painful thud on his hands and knees. In his peripheral vision, he saw the boulder looming towards him…

  “Arthur!” Ren grabbed him by the shoulders and heaved him up. They both dived forwards.

  For a split second, Arthur thought they were going to become boulder jam. Then he felt a gust of wind on his back as the boulder sailed past behind them. Pulling himself up on the rope handrail at the side of the bridge, Arthur was aware of his heart beating almost out of his chest. “You just … saved my … life,” he told Ren between breaths. “Thank you.”

  Her lips twitched. “You owe me.”

  After shifting places with Ren, Cecily was now on the outside, clinging to the opposite handrail with her head tipped back. “This is horrible,” she said in a thick voice. Tucked under her arm, Cloud headbutted her fondly.

  “There are only three left,” Arthur called. “You can do it!” Watching her wrestle with her fear, he felt a surge of admiration. He thought of something his dad had told him once and felt a pang of missing him. Bravery isn’t about being fearless. It’s about being scared and doing it anyway.

  They waited for the bridge to fall still before tackling the second boulder. This time, Arthur was careful where he put his feet. As soon as he reached the safe zone, he glanced across to check on the others.

  “Made it,” Ren said, panting. Cloud yapped in encouragement as Cecily focused on the sky. With a little more patience, they all dodged the third boulder and made it safely past the fourth. Collapsing onto the grass on the other side, Cecily buried her face in Cloud’s fur. Ren kneeled to lay a hand on her shoulder.

  As Arthur went to congratulate her for getting through it, a puff of red mist appeared at the end of his nose. He stumbled back as the vapour swirled first into the Hxperion logo, and then into words:

  WONDERSCPE

  REALM 89: RACE OF THE WARRIOR

  Loot: 600 DIRT, Wonderskill and realm-key

  Travel with wonder,

  Knowing the message was important, he reread it quickly before it vanished. The words DIRT and Wonderskill stood out – Newton hadn’t mentioned those. Next, a paper scroll appeared out of thin air and fell into his hands. The handwriting was elegant and flowing, with long swirly tails:

  Yours is a challenge laced with fear;

  Be sure to keep your teammates near.

  The answer to this puzzling race

  Lies in an unexpected place.

  I am dauntless. I am fast.

  Conquer me to win this task.

  Cecily lifted her head and wiped her cheeks dry. “Another riddle?” she asked.

  “It sounds like the challenge in this realm is some sort of race,” Arthur told her. He stood on tiptoe to get a better look at the buildings ahead.

  Although the white structure appeared deserted, a noisy crowd congregated outside the entrance to the red building. Arthur could just about perceive the people gathered there; several had hover-wheels for legs, and others had Wondercloaks draped over their shoulders. “It’s not just mimics. There are wanderers from the twenty-fifth century.”

  “Then we’d better get our story straight in case any of them try to talk to us,” Cecily said, getting to her feet. “Do you think we should change our names so they sound more futuristic?”

  “We don’t kno
w what ‘futuristic’ sounds like yet,” Ren noted, pulling up the hood of her Wondercloak. “Let’s stay quiet and keep our heads down. If anyone tries to speak to us, we can just pretend we didn’t hear.”

  Arthur wasn’t sure of the best way to handle a possible encounter. He agreed with Ren that they needed to keep a low profile, but that might make it more difficult to find the Wonderdome. What if they needed to ask directions? Eventually, they all agreed to investigate the white structure first. There was no one around there.

  As they drew closer, the glare from the lights lessened and Arthur could see the holographic wall projections in more detail. They showed images of a high-speed car race in which several different types of vehicle were competing. There were dune buggies, monster trucks with wheels of green vapour, scooter-shaped hovercrafts, vans with massive jet engines and open-topped four-by-fours; all painted different shades of red. Only one white vehicle was featured in every shot – a long sleek-bodied sports car with dramatic curved fenders and angled slits for headlights. It looked so aerodynamic that Arthur suspected you could roll a marble from one end to the other with a single push. One of the darkened windows at the front had a column of Japanese writing down one side.

  “I learned to speak Japanese when I was little so I could talk to my grandparents,” Ren offered, “but I’m not great at reading it.” She studied the image carefully. “I think the kanji written there is Byakko; it means ‘white tiger’ in English.”

  Arthur wondered if the name was significant; he had no recollection of hearing it before. Circling the perimeter of the building, they found no signposts or clues as to where the Wonderdome might be, but on the final wall, the holographic banners had been replaced with a trio of animated posters advertising the Wonderscape.