The Hunt for Dark Infinity

  Tick stepped onto the padded bench, surprised at how firmly it held him. He rested his back against the soft wall; Paul and Sofia had done the same, the three of them spaced evenly apart, exchanging worried glances.

  “This is weird,” Paul said.

  “That about sums it up,” Tick agreed.

  “It’s obviously okay. All those other people are doing it,” Sofia said. “We can’t expect every Reality to be just like ours.”

  “One minute to departure.”

  “What do we do—just stand here?” Paul asked.

  Sofia rolled her eyes. “You can do jumping jacks if you want.”

  “You’re telling me you’re not a little scared?”

  “I am,” Tick said.

  “Maybe a little,” Sofia said.

  “Thirty seconds to departure.”

  No one said a word after that; Tick counted down inside his head.

  “Ten seconds.” A pause. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Departure initiated.”

  The room began to rotate clockwise, slowly at first, but then it picked up speed.

  “Oh, no,” Tick said. “I can’t do this—I’ll throw up all over you guys.”

  They spun faster and faster. Tick felt a pressure on his skin, squeezing his limbs and his torso, like an invisible force pushing him against the curved wall at his back. In a matter of seconds, he’d lost track of their rotation speed, his mind and stomach disoriented, his body sinking into the padding. His thoughts whirled as fast as his body, spinning clockwise in a tight circle.

  Something clicked in Tick’s mind.

  He envisioned the city they’d just left, the layout, the circular road—and the solution to Chu’s riddle crystallized in his head, as clear as anything he’d ever known. In that moment, he knew they shouldn’t be on the train.

  They had to stop. They had to go back!

  He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. He felt like the world was crushing him. Grunting, he tried to push his arms up into the air. It felt like he had fifty-pound dumbbells in his hands. The second he relaxed, his arms slammed back onto the wall.

  Then it got worse.

  A horn sounded, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, and then the room shifted. With the spinning and the pressure, it was hard to tell which direction the room was moving, but it seemed to have dropped into a black hole, catapulting forward at a speed that was too much for Tick’s mind and body to handle.

  He passed out.

  Chapter

  30

  ~

  Forest Exit

  Tick.”

  He heard someone say his name, but it sounded hollow, like an echo coming down a long tunnel.

  “Tick!”

  There it was again. Louder this time. A sharp pain splintered across his mind, and that seemed to do the trick. Groaning, blinking through squinting eyes, he woke up.

  “Dude, are you all right?”

  Paul. It was Paul.

  “Come on. Help him up.”

  Sofia.

  Tick felt hands grip him by the arms and haul him off the floor, setting him down on a soft bench. Every time he opened his eyes, all he could see were things spinning and rocking back and forth. His mind felt like a pack of termites had been set loose inside for lunch. And the nausea . . .

  “I gotta throw up,” he whispered.

  “Not on me, you don’t,” Paul said. “Hurry, let’s get him out of here.”

  They grabbed him by the arms again. He heard a door open, felt refreshing cool air wash over him as they helped him stumble outside the portal.

  “There’s a garbage can,” he heard Sofia say; they changed directions.

  “Hurry,” Tick groaned, trying his best to get his feet under him. A cold line of metal pressed against his neck.

  “Go for it,” Paul muttered.

  Tick let it all out, then slid to the ground and leaned back against the garbage can. “Ah, that feels much better.” He opened his eyes fully and got his first good look at where they’d arrived.

  The station looked much like the one they’d left earlier—maybe a little dirtier, less well-kept. Just as many people milled about, though, some leaving portals, some entering them.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “You passed out,” Sofia said. “I think I might have, too, just for a few seconds. When we finally stopped, Paul and I slid down onto the bench, but you crashed straight to the floor.”

  “Yeah, man,” Paul said. “You were out like a light.”

  “How long were we in that thing?” Tick asked.

  Sofia looked at her watch. “Only a half-hour or so.”

  “Worst half-hour of my life,” Paul said.

  Tick rubbed his face with both hands, then stood up, wobbling for a second before he felt his legs strengthen and solidify beneath him. “We have to go back. Now.”

  “Go back?” Paul asked. “Are you crazy?”

  “We need to look around,” Sofia said. “Figure out what Chu wants us to do.”

  Tick shook his head, which sent another wave of nausea through his gut. “No, we got it wrong. We weren’t supposed to come here. The trains have nothing to do with the riddle.”

  “How do you know?” Paul asked. “Fourth City—it’s the closest we’ve gotten to anything that makes sense.”

  Tick started walking toward the ticket counter. Paul and Sofia followed, but they didn’t look happy. “Our tickets are round trip—does that mean we just get back on Portal Number Seven?”

  “Whoa, man,” Paul said, grabbing Tick by the arm. “Tell us what you’re thinking. If we’re getting back in that death machine, we need to at least let our brains unscramble for a minute.”

  Tick nodded, anxious to leave but knowing Paul was right. He found a bench and they sat down, Tick in the middle.

  “All right,” he said. “Think about everything. The town Chu sent us to is a perfect circle. We counted twelve main roads that are basically spokes in the huge wheel of how the place is organized. Even the hotel he set us up in—it’s called The Stroke of Midnight Inn. You gettin’ it yet?”

  “Holy toothpick on a hand grenade,” Paul whispered.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever felt as stupid as I feel right now,” Sofia said.

  “It never had anything to do with an actual time,” Tick continued. “It was such an easy riddle because he wanted to throw us off track. We were so sure something had to happen at five o’clock today, we never considered that he might be describing a place.”

  Paul finished for him. “If we look at the town from a bird’s-eye view, it’s a big clock. Our hotel is midnight—twelve o’clock. We need to go to the road that represents five o’clock.”

  “But we already looked there,” Sofia said. “We scoured that whole town.”

  Tick stretched his arms, feeling better already. “Yeah, but we had so much area to cover, we didn’t really have time to study anything in detail. I bet we find something where the five o’clock road hits the outer circle.”

  “Ah, man, what if we’re too late?” Paul asked. “If you’re right, maybe we didn’t have to wait a week. Maybe we should’ve gone to the place a lot sooner.”

  Sofia stood up. “Maybe it’s a double riddle.”

  “You’re right,” Tick said. “I bet we have to be at the five o’clock road by five o’clock today.”

  “Well, then,” Paul said, “we have plenty of time. Let’s go get something to eat.”

  “No way,” Tick said. “You really think it’s going to be that easy? Something will try to stop us, I guarantee it.”

  “Well, we have to eat,” Paul insisted.

  “Yeah, but we should get back to Circle City first,” Sofia said. “The sooner the better.”

  All of them slowly turned their heads to look at the spinning nightmare train from which they’d just exited. Tick couldn’t think of anything he’d rather not do than get back on that thing.

  “We have to do it,” Sofia said, as if r
eading Tick’s thoughts.

  “I know,” Tick replied.

  “Yeah, eating right now would be really stupid,” Paul said. “I don’t want Tick’s bacon and eggs on my lap when we get there.”

  “Come on,” Sofia said. “Let’s figure out how to get back.”

  ~

  They had to wait only twenty minutes for Portal Number Seven to open up for the return trip to Circle City. Tick had never felt so nervous about a trip before; butterflies swarmed in his chest like it was mating season. He remembered his mom lecturing him at the amusement park: “Now, Atticus, you know what the Spinning Dragon does to your poor tummy.”

  “One minute to departure,” the nice electronic lady said.

  Tick squeezed his eyes shut, pressed his back against the soft padding. Thirty-minute trip, he told himself. It’s only thirty minutes.

  The warning for thirty seconds sounded, then ten, then the five-second countdown. When the room started spinning, Tick opened his eyes to look at Paul and Sofia, both of whom were trying to look very calm but failing miserably. This made Tick feel better, and he closed his eyes again.

  The portal spun faster and faster, twisting like a tornado, throwing all of his senses into chaos as the invisible force once again pushed him into the padding, pressing against his body. He held his breath, anticipating the explosion of speed—reminding him of how he felt that split-second before the free-fall ride at the Seattle amusement park dropped fifteen stories to the ground far below. But this was far worse.

  The horn sounded.

  Tick tried to scream as the train exploded into instant acceleration, shocking his mind as it bulleted away from Fourth City. He didn’t know if any noise escaped his throat. Nothing seemed to be working inside his brain, all of his nerves dead to the world, confused and compressed.

  He felt himself sliding away again, moving toward the bliss of unconsciousness. Do it, he thought. Pass out. Anything is better than this. He faded in and out, feeling like every second lasted an hour. He had no idea how much time had passed when everything suddenly went wrong.

  The train jerked, a quick and loud jolt as if they’d hit a cow on the tracks like the steamers in the old days. Then the room shook, rattling up and down, creaks and groans ripping through the air, as if the whole vehicle were about to fall apart. Tick would’ve thought it impossible, but everything had just gotten much, much worse. His stomach twisted into a knot of panicked nausea.

  His eyes snapped open, but they didn’t seem to work. Everything was a blur of color, images and streaks, flashing and tilting—vibrating. He couldn’t even make out Paul or Sofia; everything was messed up.

  What’s happening? he thought. Maybe it’s okay. I passed out last time—maybe this is totally normal.

  But the train shook again, twisted, bounced and rattled. Pain seared through Tick’s head like someone had driven a crowbar into the top of his skull and worked it open, wedging the long piece of steel against his brain.

  A booming crash sounded through the room, a horrible crunch of metal. The train jolted, and the pressure forcing Tick against the wall abruptly vanished. He fell forward and crashed into Paul. They both fell to the floor, landing on top of a crumpled Sofia.

  The next few seconds were complete insanity. The vehicle bounced and twisted and shook, throwing Tick and the others in every direction, slamming them against the curved walls, the floor, into each other. Tick tried to ball up, squeezing his knees against his chest and covering his head with his arms, but it proved impossible. Like a giant gorilla shaking a can of peanuts, the three of them were tossed and jostled about until Tick thought for sure their lives were over.

  And then, with one final crash that slammed them all into one padded side of the curved structure, it ended.

  Everything stopped, grew still, silent.

  The only sounds were the moans coming from the battered humans inside.

  “My arm!” Paul screamed out. “I think I broke my stinking arm!”

  “What happened?” Sofia asked, her voice strained and tight.

  Portal Number Seven lay on its side. Tick and the others were in a crumpled heap on top of each other, resting on one of the curved, padded sections that used to be vertical. With more groans and moans, they crawled away from each other. A hissing sound came from outside, followed by something that sounded like electric sparks.

  Tick sat up, every inch of his body in pain. He looked over at Paul, who cradled his left arm with his right.

  “You okay?” Tick said.

  Paul looked up, a tear streaking out of his right eye. “Dude, it hurts, it really, really hurts.”

  “You think you broke it?” Sofia asked, rubbing one of her ankles.

  “Yeah,” Paul said, his face squeezed into a grimace of pain. “Ah, man, it kills!” Another tear slid down his cheek. Tick looked away, worried Paul would be embarrassed at being seen crying.

  Sofia stood up, wobbling a second before she caught her balance. “We must have crashed or something. We’ve gotta get out of here, get Paul to a hospital.”

  Tick joined her and together they walked across the curved wall to the door, which was about four feet in the air, sideways. It was twisted slightly, and it took both of them ramming it with their shoulders before it finally popped open and slammed against the crumpled white wall of the portal.

  Tick and Sofia made surprised grunts at the same time when they saw where they were.

  “What’s . . . out there?” Paul asked through clenched teeth.

  Tick couldn’t answer, his eyes glued to the wall of thick, enormous trees beyond the doorway.

  “We’re in a forest,” Sofia said.

  As if the pain had finally sent him over the edge, Paul started laughing.

  Chapter

  31

  ~

  The Sickness of Sato

  Master George felt his heart breaking in two as he stared at Sato.

  The poor lad thrashed in his bindings, twisting his arms and legs, arching his back as he strained against the ropes tied to his ankles and wrists. He lay on a bed in the holding cell, the sheets a jumbled mess from his spasms and fits of lunacy. Deep bruises marked where the ropes touched his skin, yet he didn’t stop his fruitless efforts to escape.

  He had the illness, the disease.

  Sato had gone quite insane.

  Master George gripped his hands together, wishing so badly he could have just a few seconds of conversation with the real Sato, who was locked somewhere inside the mind infected by Chu’s mysterious plague. The bravery shown by the boy in entering that mountain insane asylum made Master George so proud it hurt. He also felt again the pains of losing Sato’s parents all those years ago, a dreadful death that still made him feel hot, as if the heat from the flying fires of that fateful day had never quite left his skin.

  “We’re going to make everything right,” Master George said aloud, even though he doubted Sato could hear, let alone understand, his words. “Rutger and I are working on the antidote every second of the day. And we’re getting close, very close. Hang in there, lad, hang in there. Your suffering may be the very key that saves us all.”

  Sato stilled, then, letting out an enormous sigh as his body came to rest on the sweaty, crumpled sheets of the bed. Master George leaned forward, terrified he’d made a huge mistake in saying anything.

  “He’s back in my head,” Sato whispered in a chant-like voice that sent chills up Master George’s arms. “He wants to speak to you.”

  “Sato, are you there?” Master George asked. “Even with him in your head, are you there, listening to me?”

  “He wants to speak to you,” Sato repeated.

  “I don’t care about him, Sato. I want you to know that we’re doing everything we can to save you, and that your mission was an enormous success. We are going to take care of you.”

  Sato slowly turned his head until his eyes—glazed over as if drugged—met with Master George’s. “That’s very sweet of you, George. Your s
oftness has always been your greatest weakness.”

  Master George sat back in his chair as if slapped, but he quickly regained his composure. “Am I speaking with you, Reginald? Come to show me how low you’ve finally sunk, have you?”

  “I know what you’re doing,” Chu said through Sato’s mouth. Perhaps it was the eyes, or perhaps it was the unusual tone of his voice, but somehow it seemed like it really was Chu lying there, speaking.

  “Quite smart, aren’t you?” Master George replied.

  A grin appeared on Sato’s face, a grin so evil it made him look like a demon. “Yes, actually. I’m very, very smart, George. Which is why you’ll never succeed in creating a cure for Dark Infinity.”

  “Who said anything about a cure?”

  “Very well, George. Play your games, insult my intelligence. The day is coming, and very soon, when I will have an apprentice strong enough to make Dark Infinity fully functional. Everything will change, then. You’d be wise to consider your allegiances—I could use your help as well.”

  “What’s your plan, Reginald?” Master George asked, knowing he should just walk away but unable to. “Haven’t you enough power? Why must you ruin so many lives? Why can’t you use your skills to better the Realities? Still not powerful enough to wash away your pathetic loathing of yourself? Quite sad, really.”

  Sato’s face tightened, reddened, any semblance of a smile gone. “What I do, I do for the good of all mankind, George. The Realities need me, and this is the only way to gain the power necessary to change things. In the end, you and everyone else will thank me.”

  Master George leaned forward, elbows on knees, his eyes narrowing. “That sounds quite familiar, Reginald. I’ve heard almost the exact same words come out of the mouth of Mistress Jane. The both of you have merely cloaked your evil with good intentions. We will win in the end, I assure you.”

  “You have—”

  “Silence!” Master George yelled, standing up. “I will hear no more of your lies!”

  He walked out of the holding cell immediately, slamming the door shut with every ounce of strength left in his old body.