“What’s going on? I can’t see a thing!” came Amanda’s terrified voice. “There were noises.…”
“Get to the bridge!” he said. “I’ll explain later!”
“GET HIM!” he heard the Queen’s voice echoing from behind him.
You can’t catch what you can’t see, Finn thought.
Reaching the mouth of the escape tunnel, Finn and Amanda rushed out into total darkness.
“It’s a blackout!” he said, realizing there wasn’t a single light on in the entire Park. Only the moon offered any chance to see or be seen. As many times as he’d been in the Parks at night, he’d never seen it like this.
“If there’s no power, how can we exist?” she called out.
They rounded the final corner of the fort. From inside came shouts and cries. The Queen must have raised the alarm. Overtakers began pouring out of the fort behind them.
“Who knows?” he answered. “But here we are. We can talk. We can hear each other. Who cares? We’ve got to get out of here.”
They ran past the wobbly pirate they’d knocked down a few minutes earlier. Finn crashed into him and the guy went down again. A stream of Overtakers crowded the bridge.
“MIIINNNNNNIEEE!!” Finn shouted.
They both heard a motor start in the distance.
Finn glanced back at the Overtakers.
“Faster!” he called out.
* * *
“What’s happening?”
“Mom,” Philby said. “I don’t have time to explain it all. Not exactly sure, anyway.”
She’d gone from tyrannical Keepers hater to poster mom, sitting by her son’s side and watching him manipulate a dozen windows on his computer screen simultaneously.
The server had never faltered, but without warning the Projection icon had turned red, indicating a full Park-wide failure of all projectors.
“It’s some kind of power failure, I think,” he said. “The projectors are out, but the server is still up. It’s probably on a battery backup of some kind. But if that’s right, it won’t last long. Five minutes. Ten, at the outside. I’ve got to get them back.”
“I thought you said they were back,” she said.
“That was Maybeck and Charlene. Yeah, they Returned okay. It’s Finn and Amanda.”
“The sick girl…”
“Yeah…We hope not.”
“So, can you help them?”
“I’m late. And I’m kind of busy here.”
“I’ll shut up,” she said, straining to sit back, but then sticking her face alongside his shoulder.
Philby executed a few lines of code and pushed Enter.
The screen filled with data that then began to scroll automatically.
“What’s that?” his mother asked.
“It’s okay,” he said, fed up with her questions, but trying to sound patient. “It’s begun. A few minutes is all, and we’ll know.”
* * *
Finn and Amanda—invisible—jumped onto the raft, joining Pluto and Minnie.
“Go!” Finn said to Minnie, who startled, and looked around trying to see him in the moonlight. “Please! Take us back!”
Minnie threw a lever and the raft pulled away from the dock ahead of the Overtakers’ arrival. Once to the other side, an invisible Finn kissed Minnie on the cheek before he and Amanda jumped off.
They ran hard, Pluto at their side, keeping up with them effortlessly.
When Pluto barked sharply three times, Finn looked behind them.
The wolf, head to the ground. Moving like a tornado toward them.
“We’ve got company,” he told Amanda.
“How can he possibly—?”
“Who knows? Smell? Maybe he’s after Pluto.”
The hub and Cinderella Castle came into view and, as they did, all the lights in the Park pulsed once and went dark again. With them, Amanda’s DHI sparkled, eerily translucent, and then vanished again with the loss of power.
“Almost there,” Finn said. He caught up and reached for her. Trying to feel her. He bumped her back with his fist, reached down her arm, and took her hand. He tingled all over. He knew that feeling. Knew it only too well.
FINN AWAKENED IN HIS BED, his clothes damp with sweat and the fetid smell of the tunnels. His mother sat in a chair two feet away.
“Mom?”
“Oh, thank God! Are you okay?”
Finn took inventory of his condition. “I’m fine.”
“You crossed over.”
Duh! “Yes.” He sat up sharply. “Can I use your phone? I’ve got to text Philby.”
She had her phone in her hand. She passed it to him.
i’m bak. others?
yes. all 4. amanda 2. she’s good.
Finn released a huge sigh of pent-up anxiety. He explained things to his Mom. She raised her hand for a high-five and Finn looked at her strangely.