The World's Greatest Adventure Machine

by Frank L. Cole

  Nika leaned over the map as she followed Cameron’s finger. “I thought you said you didn’t want to go out there.”

  Cameron licked his lips. “Heavens no. I want to go that way.” He gestured to the rear exit hidden behind the scaffolding. “I’d rather take my chances dodging a few falling ceiling tiles than risk getting eaten by those monsters.”

  “They’re not going to eat us,” Trevor groaned. “And your helmet is smoking, by the way.”

  Cameron nodded. “Precisely. My helmet is…My helmet is what?” He apprehensively cocked his head to one side.

  Devin could see thin tendrils of smoke drifting up from the back of Cameron’s, and Nika’s heads. Panicked, he quickly disconnected his own helmet from his suit and tossed it aside. Nika did the same, in a calmer, more delicate manner. Trevor also followed suit, just in case. But Cameron was flailing about, squealing for help, and coughing violently. Trevor grabbed hold of Cameron’s arms to stop him from thrashing, and undid his helmet. More vapor poured out, punctuated by several bright sparks from beneath the padding.

  “This is horrible!” Cameron breathed. “We’re trapped in this cramped room, without our helmets, and have no way to communicate with headquarters. And there are monsters all around us. We’re going to die!”

  Nika slapped Cameron across his cheek. It wasn’t hard enough to dislodge his glasses from his nose, but the blow caused Cameron to turn his head sharply to one side.

  “I shouldn’t have done that,” Nika said, staring worriedly down at her hand. She wiggled her fingers.

  “You hit me.” Cameron caressed his cheek where a light pink handprint had started to form.

  “I slapped you,” Nika corrected.

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Where I come from, when someone starts to act out-of-control and unreasonable, we slap them.”

  “Well, where I come from, when someone acts the way I did, we just give them their pills.”

  “Dedushka was right,” Nika muttered. “They can’t keep me safe on this ride. I’ve endangered myself, and I have no control over my actions.”

  “What are you talking about?” Devin asked. Nika’s eyes had zoned out. She stared past her flexing fingers, her lips quivering as if she was on the verge of tears. “Hello? Are you finished?” Devin tugged on the corner of the blueprints. “We’re not getting anywhere.”

  Nika stiffened, lowering her hand and setting her jaw in determination. “My vote is to wait here. My grandfather will be along soon to get me, and he wouldn’t approve of me taking any more risks.”

  Trevor shook his head. “Our parents think Terry is bringing us back. And he’s too busy being…”

  “Eaten,” Cameron chimed in.

  “Stop it,” Trevor said. “I wasn’t going to say that. It could take all day before they realize we’re still down here. And then they’ll have to suit up and walk all those miles of track.”

  “But what if more of those creatures are waiting for us outside?” Devin asked. “What if they…”

  Something heavy pounded against the door, echoing through the small room. One after another, the creatures struck, rattling the walls, and toppling empty paint cans onto the floor.

  “They must have brought some sort of battering ram,” Cameron said breathlessly. “Because of course they would.”

  “I think we should leave. Now,” Trevor suggested.

  There was no further argument. The four of them hurriedly exited through the rear of the room.

  THE AIR WAS thick with dust. Nika could smell the strong scent of mildewed drywall and old paint. She wondered how Trevor managed to find his way along the path without clear vision. One misstep, and he could fall through the floor. But Trevor never lacked confidence, moving through the narrow, crumbling hallway without any reluctance. What would that be like? Nika wondered. To not show any sign of fear? Because of her condition, Nika seemed to be afraid of everything. Simple movements could cause her injury.

  The group moved slowly and methodically, forced to clamber single file between huge stacks of sheetrock and two-by-fours, and sidestep around vast pools of spilled paint and garbage.

  After hiking for several minutes, they arrived at a point in the hallway where the ceiling had clearly caved in, leaving another mountain of rubble blocking their path. The pile towered almost all the way to the top of the hall, but it took Trevor only a minute to point out the best route to take. He climbed up and then over, and slid down a sheet of metal to the other side. The others followed after him, but Nika took her time. Regardless of how she envied Trevor’s self-assurance, she refused to rush any of her steps until she felt confident that the pile would hold.

  Though the noise was muffled by the pile of debris, Nika could hear the creatures still pounding against the door, grunting and howling in anger. They were getting louder, more persistent, and she knew the door wouldn’t hold much longer.

  “Dudes, you’ve got to keep walking,” Devin said. He plowed into Nika for the third time as he looked over his shoulder.

  “Please, stop running into me,” Nika begged, pausing to run her fingers along her shoulders. “We’re going as fast as we can.” She knew Devin was just as worried as she was, but he could be so reckless. Of course he couldn’t have known it, but just nudging Nika the wrong way could cause her injury.

  “And might I point out that you volunteered to bring up the rear, Devin?” Cameron said.

  “Sure. Point it out,” Devin fired back. “But if those things start chasing us, I think you should probably know that I’m a much faster runner than you are.”

  Cameron trailed behind Trevor, his faced buried in the blueprints. “We should be seeing it now.” He glanced up and tapped Trevor on the shoulder, pointing. “What did I tell you? There’s the door to the stairwell.” He tucked the blueprints into a folded square beneath his armpit. A grayish door stood less than twenty feet away. According to Cameron, they would find three flights of stairs and end up exiting through another door into the food court.

  There was just one problem.

  Trevor moved to one side to show the others a gigantic chasm spanning from wall to wall, lying between them and the door. The distance to the other side was at least twelve feet wide. Impossible to leap across without a running start. And even then, the ground looked too precarious to jump upon. More of the floor could give way.

  “Oh dear.” Cameron unfolded the blueprints once more and began searching for an alternate route. “There’s no other way around it.”

  “We should’ve stayed in the room,” Nika huffed. They didn’t think things through. Mr. Castleton had warned them of the dangers lurking in the hallway. Now where were they to go? “We had plenty of objects to barricade ourselves until help could come.”

  Nika caught her breath in her throat as she felt the weakened tile crumbling beneath her weight. At first glance, the hole appeared to be bottomless, but as she strained her eyes, she eventually saw the thin, weaving outline of the Adventure Machine track several hundred feet below. The pounding from the other end of the hallway came to an abrupt conclusion, followed by the sound of scrabbling claws against the tile floor.

  “They’re through!” Devin hissed. “Might as well just throw ourselves down that hole now.”

  Trevor rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and stared at the ceiling. “What about that?” he suggested, pointing to where a single wire dangled down from one of the missing panels. Black insulated coating covered the wire, but the end had been frayed to where it now looked like a shoelace without the plastic tip.

  “That could be live,” Cameron warned. “It might shock us.”

  Nika could hear the steady hum of electricity coursing through the wire and she moved back a step.

  Trevor never hesitated as he reached out and plucked the coppery end in his gloved hand. Nika gasped, cringing as she waited for the worst to happen. A sudden electrical jolt could send Trevor down the hole. He tugged sharply to test its strength, but it
didn’t give way. Dropping to his knees, Trevor applied his full weight. The wire continued to hold.

  “This suit keeps us from getting zapped.” Trevor rolled the frayed tip between his thumb and forefinger. “And the wire’s strong.”

  “I’ve never done any rope swinging before,” Nika said.

  “There’s no better time to try it out.” Trevor wrapped the end of the wire around his left forearm and reached farther up with his free hand. Then he took a step back and leapt. Above him, powdered pieces of drywall showered down, and something groaned in the ceiling, as though the strain of the weight might cause another roof collapse at any moment.

  But the wire held.

  As Trevor’s feet connected with the tile on the other side, he kept hold for a moment to gain his balance. When he let go, the wire snapped back to its original position.

  Cameron had to stand on his tippy-toes to reach and yelped when Devin shoved him across the gap. He held his breath as Trevor reached out and plucked him from the vine like a lightweight summer squash.

  Devin went next and made it over without incident.

  “It’s like Pitfall!” Devin said as Trevor grasped him around his waist and guided him to a safe spot on the floor.

  “Is that another movie?” Trevor asked.

  “It’s an old video game. Only in Pitfall! there are alligators snapping at you as you swing across.” Devin peered down into the hole. “My dad has an Atari 2600 he keeps in the basement and I sneak down and play it every now and then when he works late.”

  “I can’t do this. I’ll fall, or…” Nika hesitated, shrinking away from the wire. There were too many dangers involved. She had already risked too much. First it was the pressure on the ride, and then she endured the crash. Nika knew she shouldn’t tempt fate anymore. Her luck was destined to run out. “Can you see if there’s something you could lay across the hole? It has to be solid. Something I could crawl over.”

  Trevor and Devin scanned the area for what they could find, but aside from a few straggling pieces of lumber, nothing seemed sturdy or long enough to use as a bridge.

  “It’s easy,” Cameron said to Nika. “If I can do it, you should have no problem.”

  “You don’t understand. None of you do.” Nika closed her trembling fingers around the wire. “What if I slip?”

  “Not to rush you,” Trevor said evenly. “But you may want to hurry it up a little.”

  “Why?” She jerked her head around and noticed several large pieces of rock topple down from the collapsed mound of debris at the far end of the hallway.

  One of the creatures poked its head out from the opening at the top of the pile and then slid down the slide to the floor. Nika panted a few rapid breaths, twisted the wire tightly in her hands, and leapt off the edge.

  Had she decided to jump before the others, she might have made it across the hole to safety. But the strain of having to support the weight of the three boys proved to be too much, and the wire produced a sickening pop as it dropped several feet more from the ceiling, sending Nika down into the hole.

  NIKA EXPELLED A loud burst of air from the impact of hitting the side wall’s concrete, and her hands slipped from the wire. She desperately lunged for the edge of the hole and grasped the crumbling rock with her fingers.

  “Hang on!” Devin shouted. With Trevor holding on to the back of his neotanium suit, Devin bent down into the hole and pulled Nika up by her arms. She dug her fingers into his wrists, but she wasn’t breathing.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Cameron demanded, hopping from one foot to the other. “Why is her face that color?”

  “I think she just got the wind knocked out of her,” Trevor said.

  Nika finally released a breath and began sobbing immediately. Despite how amazing the neotanium suit had been in protecting her on the ride, nothing could have withstood that blow. Nika knew she was in trouble. The injuries would be severe, but she didn’t have time to dwell on them.

  “Cameron, look out!” she warned as the first creature leapt across the gap and landed effortlessly a few feet away.

  Cameron froze in place, a tiny statue, staring up at the imposing monster.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” Trevor said, stepping in front of Cameron and holding his hands out in a nonthreatening gesture. He tried shoving Cameron away, but the small boy seemed to have sprouted roots. “Get to the door,” Trevor urged.

  “I…can’t.” Cameron’s small voice seemed to come from somewhere other than his mouth, buried deep in his throat. “Move.”

  Nika watched in horror as the creature’s trapezoidal head twitched, its eyes homing in on its closest target. Trevor.

  “We’re just going to leave, okay? Slow and easy.” Trevor stepped backward, his heel nudging Cameron’s foot.

  “Hurry up!” Devin shouted from the doorway.

  The sound of Devin’s voice must have triggered something, because the creature suddenly lashed out, seizing hold of Trevor’s collar. Its eyes tapered into slits as it hoisted him high above its head.

  “It’s going to throw him in!” Devin shouted. “I can see it!”

  Nika couldn’t believe this was happening. What was Doug Castleton doing at that moment? Could he see what was going on, but was powerless to stop it?

  “Help us! Please!” Nika screamed. “You’ve got to do something!”

  “Come on.” Trevor locked his fingers around the creature’s wrist. “You don’t have to do this.” He struggled against its powerful grip and stared down into the hole.

  Nika wanted to jump to her feet and help Trevor, but all her strength had vanished the moment she collapsed into the wall. “What do we do, Devin?” She looked pleadingly up at him and noticed a strange smile on Devin’s lips. “Why are you smiling?” she demanded.

  “Look!” Devin pointed, and Nika watched as the creature’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls.

  “How does that taste?” Cameron screamed from below the monster, jabbing the live electrical wire into its side. “Hmmm? Want some more?” He poked the wire into its arm, and it dropped Trevor to the floor.

  “Yeah!” Devin cheered from the doorway, pumping his fist. “Go, Cameron!”

  Shrieking in agony, the creature tried to shield itself, but Cameron zapped it again, the frayed copper end of the wire connecting with its palm.

  Cameron grinned at Trevor. “This is fun.”

  “Hey, watch what you’re doing!” Trevor warned, leaping to his feet.

  “Take that!” Cameron wasn’t listening. “And that, and that, and that,” he chanted, each “that” underscored by another jolt of his wire.

  The second creature had made it down the metal slide, slipping and skidding across the tile. It covered the distance in a matter of seconds, then leapt to the other side and closed its claws around Cameron’s shoulders. Cameron turned and continued to zap, unleashing a barrage of strikes, impossible to block. Before anyone else could react, both creatures were toppling over the edge and falling into the hole.

  WITH THE CREATURES no longer a threat, a hollow pit formed in Nika’s stomach. Why had she listened to the others? Why had she tried to swing across the hole? She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, but by the way her body shook, she doubted she possessed the strength to even utter a whimper.

  “Are you going to stand up, or what?” Devin asked her. He had managed to slide Nika toward the stairwell door and had it propped open with his leg.

  Nika could feel Devin gawking at her, though she kept her eyes fixed on the ceiling. He didn’t understand. In Devin’s mind, in Trevor’s, everything was great. They had survived an attack by the creatures, and now they would be reunited with their parents. The horrible day was over for them, they would go back to their normal lives and have an exciting story to tell their friends about the adventure. But not Nika. Never in her life had she experienced a fall like that. An impact half as harsh could’ve crushed every bone in her body. It was a miracle she had managed to keep h
old on the wire and not plummet to her death.

  “I was in a zone, I believe. That’s the only explanation,” Cameron blabbered. “I must have crossed over to a higher plane of hyperactivity. It’s all a dizzying blur.” Nika lowered her eyes and watched as Trevor and Cameron approached. Nothing seemed capable of erasing the grin chiseled permanently on Cameron’s lips. “I didn’t even have to declothe. Progress.” Cameron tugged on Trevor’s sleeve. “And I saved your life. We’re bonded to each other forever.”

  “What’s wrong with her?” Trevor asked, looking at Nika.

  “You got me,” Devin said.

  Nika blinked, sending a stream of tears cascading down her cheeks. Her lips trembled, but she didn’t speak.

  Trevor squatted beside Nika and snapped his fingers next to her ears. “Can you hear me?”

  “I’m injured,” she answered, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

  “Where does it hurt?” Trevor asked.

  “She doesn’t feel pain, remember?” Cameron said. “It’s her congenital insensitivity.”

  Devin sucked back on his teeth and looked at Trevor. “That’s a bummer.”

  “You did hit pretty hard, but they can give you some medicine or something upstairs,” Trevor reasoned.

  Nika made a slight movement with her head, shaking it back and forth only an inch. “It’s worse than that.”

  “There’s something else you’re not telling us, isn’t there?” Cameron asked.

  How could she tell them? Now they would know all about her. How weak and broken and different she was from everyone else. They would never treat her the same. But she had to tell them. Her health was more important than her pride. “Congenital insensitivity isn’t the only condition I have,” she said, taking a deep breath and pausing before she continued. “I’ve also been diagnosed with a rare form of osteogenesis imperfecta.”

  Trevor and Devin looked at each other with befuddled expressions.