Kingdom Keepers V(133)

Willa looked gray—ready to pass out. “Who are you?”

“Quickly!” he said.

They dragged the cabinet to the doors and blocked it just as the hyenas collided. The cabinet bounced away an inch.

“It won’t hold,” Finn said.

“I’ve got it.” It was Maybeck, wearing a towel around his waist. “Don’t ask,” he said, leaning into the door. “If they bust through, I’ll hide behind the door. I’ll be fine. Just go.”

Finn nodded. “Thanks.” He led the way up the stairs.

Leading, he thought.

By the time they reached the landing to Deck 3, the hyenas could be heard panting close behind, their paws digging at the carpeting as they climbed.

Out onto the jogging track of Deck 4, the memory of his “dream” becoming all the more real.

The Dream, he realized.

“This is not good,” he called to her. “I know how this ends.”

“How can you possibly—”

They ran hard toward the stern, but here came the hyenas like four bolts of lightning. The gap was closing. Unlike Finn’s dream, it seemed obvious the hyenas were going to win this one. They would be eaten.

An ear-piercing whistle.

The sound of the hyenas’ claws skidding.

Finn glanced over his shoulder.

There, not twenty yards back, stood three girls, shoulder to shoulder. Amanda…Jess…and the girl with the red-dyed hair. He wanted to call out a warning—the girl was an OTK! But his eyes stuck on Amanda. His throat was tight. This girl…what she meant to him…just like at Typhoon Lagoon, she always seemed to appear at the just the right moment.

Then the hyenas were at it again. The whistle had bought Willa and Finn just enough of a lead. He looked down into his own hand—the thumb drive he held looked just like the Return, but it wasn’t the Return as he’d once imagined.

Whatever the drive contained, he couldn’t allow it to be lost at sea with him and Willa.

“Get…us…out…of…here!” she cried.

The railing arced to the right up ahead. Behind it, Finn saw only black and the twinkling of stars. We’re on the roof of some building, he thought.

“We’re going to jump!” he announced.

He reached out and took her hand with his free hand, the thumb drive gripped firmly in his left.

“Please…no!” she shouted.

“Hang on to me. One…two…” They ran full speed toward the rail. On “three!” they left their feet in a dive, flying through the air into nothingness.

He threw the thumb drive back and saw it land on the deck.

He and Willa screamed as they sank into the darkness, the churning sea awaiting below.