Alpha Read online

  From the shadows, Athena sees Agent Rose watching them. Joel points and she just catches a glimpse of Flashman—she can’t remember which one it is, the boys know that stuff—jumping from an overhang and disappearing into the pyramid. Agent Rose sees him, too, pulls a pistol from beneath her coat, firing at him, shouting something after him. Athena can’t hear her words, of course, because of the comedy-tragedy mask that Agent Rose wears, but she totally understands what she’s saying, just from the way she shakes her fist.

  I’ll get you, Flashman!

  Agent Rose disappears deeper into the pyramid, and they follow. Around them, fake torches flicker, and the air is turning cooler on her bare arms. Beneath her feet, Athena feels a thrum, a rumble, a vibration moving into her body, and it makes her eyes widen. The whole pyramid shakes, and then there are spiders, great big hairy evil-looking spiders, dropping down from the ceiling all around them.

  Athena feels herself shriek, and now they are being led down a passageway by a man who looks like the same Flashman she saw before but she thinks probably isn’t. Air blows past Athena’s face, kicks her hair up, and a ghastly ghost appears above them, swoops down low. Everyone ducks. She doesn’t scream so loud this time, because she kind of was expecting something, and she’s also laughing, and then Flashman is turning to Dana.

  Get in cat!

  Dana leans forward to whisper to Flashman, and he nods, takes a half second, then indicates a different direction.

  Get in those cats!

  She lip-read that wrong, she must’ve, but Dana is nodding, and she signs as quickly as she can—still slow, but she’s trying—and indicates the side, and Athena gets it then. The ride itself, the cars, are shaped kind of like miniature sphinxes, but with a canopy top, and they all tumble into them. Dana makes sure everyone is in their cars, moves along the line, checking seat belts.

  Everyone is buckled up? Good. Keep your hands inside and do not get out until the ride ends!

  She climbs into the back of Athena’s car, so she’s sitting behind her, and Athena has Joel to one side and Gail on the other. There is a sense of urgency that leaves Athena breathless and excited, and she knows that’s silly, that there is nothing real about this, that it’s all an illusion. Joel is laughing, looking all around, trying to see everything at once, and Gail is squeezing her arm, pointing and signing, smiling big and delighted. Then their sphinx-car shudders, lurches, and suddenly they’re diving into darkness.

  A bright light bursts before them, and Agent Rose appears, floating in the air ahead and above. It’s the same Agent Rose from the movies, and even though the one they saw before looks the same, Athena knows it wasn’t this one, the real one, because this one has removed her mask. She’s a projection, but all the same, she’s very pretty, but a little scary, too, her hair flowing out behind her in a blood-red nimbus, her black trench coat flapping. She holds a big red gem in both hands, the Eye of Ke-Sa, that’s the source of the light, and she’s raising it high above her head as she speaks. On the windshield of their sphinx-car, closed captioning appears. It’s well placed, high enough for Athena to read it without having to ever look away.

  Agent Rose: YOU FOOLS! I HOLD THE EYE! YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE! I HAVE THE POWER! I AM INVINCIBLE!

  Then Agent Rose lowers the Eye and looks right at them and smiles this very sinister, kind of sexy smile. Gail’s grip on her forearm tightens.

  Agent Rose: YOU WILL SERVE ME…FOR ALL ETERNITY!

  Then, out of nowhere, Flashman is there, swinging down from high above on a rope. Like Agent Rose, it’s not the same Flashman, another projection, and like Agent Rose, it’s the movie Flashman, too, played by that actor that Lynne has all those pictures of, the one who keeps going to rehab. He has a revolver in his hand, and he’s pointing it at Agent Rose.

  Flashman: ROSE! DON’T MAKE ME DO IT!

  Agent Rose: YOU CAN’T STOP ME!

  A beam of light shoots from the Eye of Ke-Sa, just as Flashman fires his gun.

  (SOUND OF A GUNSHOT. AGENT ROSE SCREAMS.)

  The light goes out, total darkness, and the car dips, turns, it feels like they’re spinning out of control. For a second, Athena actually thinks they’re going to flip over. More ghosts race past them, dressed in tatters and dripping decaying flesh; one of them actually seems to be inside their sphinx-car, and then the ride begins in earnest. They race along the track as pieces of pyramid fall all around them, as snakes hiss and spit, as animal-headed gods and goddesses pursue them through twists and turns. Athena can’t tell if she’s laughing or screaming now, out of breath, buffeted by the ride. At one point, the canvas canopy of their car is torn away by an unseen claw, and she sees above them a sky of blood-red, clouds boiling away into an infinite darkness.

  The sphinx-car judders to a sudden, sharp stop.

  Joel, Gail, Athena, they’re all thrown forward, so hard that those seat belts Dana made sure they fastened dig into hips and waists, keep them from smashing into the windshield. Around them, the darkness flickers. All of them are turning in their seats, catching their breath as they crane their necks, trying to see a hint of what will happen next. There’s dim light in the car, and Dana looks puzzled. From that, from the expression and the posture and the way her mouth has just tightened like that, just a little, Athena knows this isn’t right.

  Something is wrong.

  She looks the question at Dana.

  Stay seated.

  Athena shrugs, shrugs to Gail, to Joel. The closed captioning on the windshield returns, this time with an image of Gordo, Betsy, and Pooch.

  PLEASE REMAIN SEATED. WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.

  Nothing else. Just that message.

  Athena’s starting to get a little nervous when the lights come on, dispelling the illusion of the Pyramids of Ke-Sa. Now Athena can see other sphinx-cars all along the track, cars that had been hidden in the darkness. Mom is in the one right behind them, riding with Mr. Howe, Leon, Lynne, and Miguel. Everyone is looking around, curious and confused. Joel taps her shoulder and then points at a mass of snakes on the ground ahead of them. They’re inert, rubber-looking, surprisingly fake in the light.

  Movement on her periphery, and Athena looks about quickly, this time at all the other cars. People are straightening up, their chins raised, and she knows there’s a voice talking to them that she can’t hear. Then the car shifts slightly, and Athena twists around, watches Dana climbing out. There’s a man dressed like a jungle explorer, with a radio in one hand and a flashlight in the other, coming their way. She can’t read what he’s saying, but then Dana is facing them, signing.

  Everyone get out follow me.

  What? Athena asks, the question in her expression more than in her sign. Something wrong?

  Dana shakes her head.

  The park is closed.

  So the man in the jungle explorer outfit, he walks them through a doorway marked Exit that’s almost hidden off to one side, and then into a tunnel that doesn’t look like the interior of the Pyramids of Ke-Sa at all. Lots of people are here, filing out, and now they’re mostly walking with their heads down again. Athena sees Agent Rose and Flashman, standing together, and they’re pointing the way to go, no longer playing at being enemies.

  It takes less than a minute before they’re out of the ride, eyes readjusting to the sunlight. Athena can feel it as much as see it; something’s changed in the park. There are more people about, but unlike before, they’re all moving in the same direction. Men and women in park uniforms, directing people, and there is a tension, too, totally different. Before, the park felt like fun. Now that’s gone, and people are looking confused, and they’re looking scared, and some of them are upset, not only the little kids. She sees someone dressed in a Gordo costume, standing on the bridge they crossed, and he’s directing traffic back toward them. The man in the jungle explorer costume is talking to Dana, and he points, the same direction that Gordo is pointing. Not toward the entrance but in what Athena thinks must
be the opposite direction.

  Mom is beside her, holding her phone to her ear. She puts her other hand on Athena’s back, resting her palm between her shoulder blades. Mr. Howe flaps his hand for their attention, then begins to sign, but she’s only watching him peripherally, instead trying to read what Mom is saying. She’s talking to Dad, and it’s over, and Mom is looking at her phone, and she says a word.

  Bastard.

  Mom sees Athena looking at her. Forces up a smile, indicates Mr. Howe, and both of them turn their attention back to him. He talks as he signs, so she can read his lips at the same time. His hands are saying, Do not worry. All good. The park is closing.

  His lips are saying almost the same thing, but there’s a word there Athena can’t make out, and she signs to Mom, tries to spell what she saw, curious. What word this “v” word?

  Mom gives her the sign for “evacuate.” Everyone must leave.

  Dana has joined Mr. Howe up at the front, and now they’re leading the way. Both keep looking back, Mr. Howe to make sure they’re all still together. Dana seems to be searching for something or somebody, frowning, though when she sees Athena watching her, she tries a smile. It’s not a real smile. It’s the kind of smile you use when you’re worried, and Athena knows that she’s looking for her boyfriend.

  Why evacuate? Mom why evacuate? Dad coming?

  Mom shakes her head slightly, hand still on Athena’s back, the pressure a little more than just guiding her. They’ve fallen behind, are being passed on both sides. There’s another group ahead of them, a big one, and there’s a woman wearing a navy blue blazer. She looks in their direction, calls out something that Athena cannot read at this distance. Dana raises her arm, and the woman nods, then turns and hurries to catch up with the larger group.

  Athena looks back, over her shoulder, and she sees nothing but an empty park. It’s unnerving, to see nothing where before there had been so many. To see the Timeless River with an unmanned boat floating on it, to see the big wooden roller coaster with no cars running, abandoned.

  She catches her mother’s eye, asks the question again. Where Dad?

  Mom’s mouth tightens, a look in her eyes that Athena can’t understand, because it’s not anger, and it’s not love, and it’s not concern, but it’s perhaps all of them. Or perhaps it’s something else. Mom doesn’t sign in response, just shakes her head once.

  She doesn’t know. She has no idea.

  They follow Dana. Walk along a pathway that would’ve been crowded before and is now empty and spacious. There are signs on wooden posts, directing them to Lion’s Safari to their right and the Pyramids of Ke-Sa to their left, and the Euro Strasse to their south, but they keep going. Everybody else is gone, Athena can’t see anyone, thinks they must be some of the last people still here, heading this way, at least.

  Dana stops at these giant wooden gates, like the kind of gates you’d imagine finding in a jungle for a fort. The gates are open, the space through them narrower than the path, and Mr. Howe stops with her, and Athena can tell they’re both counting everyone, making sure they’re still all together. Then they’re moving through the gates, no longer in the park proper, but instead in some sort of service area. There’s three little golf carts parked here, all with the WilsonVille logo painted on them, and some bundles of plastic painted to look like wood, and lots of big oil drums, and a sign on a little building that says AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. Behind that, there’s a concrete wall, easily three times as tall as Athena herself, and it stretches to the right and the left as far as she can see, curving gently out of sight in both directions. She can see cameras on narrow posts on the wall, the kind you see in banks.

  Dana walks them along this narrower path, a black asphalt road that radiates heat, running between the concrete and the fake wood. It narrows further, and now only four, maybe five can walk abreast. The road curves, and Athena thinks they must be following the top edge of the park here. There’s nobody ahead of them now that she can see, and she realizes they’re all walking a little faster. Mom’s palm is pressing even more firmly on her upper back. Mr. Howe turns to speak to Mom, and Athena reads something about hearing sirens, perhaps there was an accident or something?

  Athena sees the man in white coming around the bend, points, but Mom has seen him, too, and so has Dana, and they all stop. Athena thinks it’s a man, at least, wonders if it’s a costume. He’s wearing white coveralls, and it really does cover almost everything, except maybe some of his face and his hands, and even those are hidden. He’s wearing a mask for breathing, black and lumpy, and his hands are covered with shiny black gloves, and he’s holding a black duffel bag in one of them.

  He raises his free hand, and Athena thinks he’s speaking, but she can’t see his mouth, doesn’t know what he’s saying.

  Mom’s hand moves up to her shoulder, pulls her back into her, a little closer. Mr. Howe starts to step forward, and so does Dana, and Dana is gesturing back in Athena’s direction, clearly talking about the class. The man in the mask shakes his head, still holding out the one hand, the sign he’s giving perfectly clear. Stop. Do not move.

  Behind the man in the mask appears another one, dressed the same way, even carrying the same bag. Then come two more, until there are four men, all in white, faces behind masks for breathing, blocking their way.

  Athena is pretty sure they aren’t wearing costumes.

  Dana’s gestures are coming faster, broader, and even if Athena can only see her from behind, even if she can’t read the words, she can read the body language. We have to go. Why are you stopping us? You have to let us go. Mr. Howe joins her, his gestures even grander. He’s getting indignant, she’s seen this before, when he feels he has to defend them.

  The first man in the mask hoists his duffel bag up in front of him, holding it between himself and Mr. Howe and Dana. Unzips the top with a shiny black hand, reaches inside. Athena feels Mom’s fingers dig into her shoulder, feels herself pulled and turned against her mother’s breast. She twists her head as Mom tries to put a hand to her cheek, to keep her from doing just that thing, but she isn’t in time, and Athena sees what Mom didn’t want her to see.

  Sees Dana’s hands flying up to her face, turning to Mr. Howe, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Sees Mr. Howe take a step backward, then try to take another one.

  Sees him falter, then collapse.

  There is an ugly hole above his right eye.

  There is blood.

  The other men in masks are reaching into their duffel bags. The other men in masks bring their shiny black-gloved hands out again, and each of them is now holding a pistol.

  They point their guns at Athena and Mom and Dana and Joel and all of them. She knows they’re talking, saying something, but she doesn’t need to read their words now. The one in the front, the one who just shot Mr. Howe in the head, who just killed the man who has been teaching her and her friends not just ASL but science and history and literature and art for the last three and a half years at the Hollyoakes school, that man, he points his gun at Mom.

  He gestures.

  Turn around. All of you, turn around and start walking.

  Back into the park.

  Chapter Twelve

  ELEVEN MINUTES and twenty seconds Gabriel Fuller has been hiding in the circle of cash registers at the center of the official WilsonVille Store, back against the cabinets, radio in one hand, gas mask in the other. He’s listened to the sound of the park emptying, the muted voices passing by outside, the sounds of the evacuation. The announcement on the PA has changed, changed about a minute and a half ago, now it’s something recorded. There’s a string of music, the signature Gordo, Betsy, and Pooch theme, and then a sweet-sounding woman’s voice.

  We regret to inform you that WilsonVille is closing. Please make your way to the nearest exit. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you have a pleasant day.

  His radio burps out static, twice, quickly, then twice again. He presses his own transmit button two times in an
swer, then hooks it onto his Tyvek suit at the waist, pulls on his gas mask. Carefully, he leans out from the side of the counter, looking past the racks of clothing and toys, into Town Square. He’s only got a low view, but from what he sees, it’s cleared significantly. He uses a rack of WilsonVille fortieth-​​anniversary sweatshirts as cover to get to his feet, takes another peek.

  It’s an odd sight, to be sure. A cluster of perhaps seven or eight visitors is heading his way, toward the main gates, approaching from the east side of the square, being hurried along by two of the navy blazers. Further back, just passing the Soda Shoppe, he can see another group, smaller, similarly led, this time by a Skip Flashman wearing twin six-guns and chaps, his cowboy hat, as ever, atop his head. Coming from Wild Horse Valley, Gabriel expects, where Skip most often resides. He watches as each group moves closer, then out of view, passing the store.

  Now Town Square is empty. Emptier than he’s ever seen it, even after hours, even after closing, and it’s a strange sight, to see it barren in daylight. At closing, after hours, there’s always someone, a maintenance crew doing touch-up paint or repairs to the streetlights or hanging new banners or something; a custodian, sweeping the sidewalks or watering the grass around the statue of Gordo, Betsy, and Pooch. A navy blazer, making rounds.

  This time, there’s no one and there’s nothing.

  Gabriel reaches down for his duffel, taking it in his nondominant hand, then moves to the door. He stops again, checks to his right and his left, and then again, and when he looks left a second time, he sees four men in Tyvek suits identical to his own carrying duffels twice as large as his, wearing gas masks and gloves. They stop about a dozen yards into the square, looking around. These are his four, his element for this stage, and he doesn’t know their names, but in his mind he’s already named them Gordo and Betsy and Hendar and Stripe, though he’ll be damned if he lets them know that.