If you missed them, here's Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six. You are probably best starting at the beginning, or none of this is going to make sense.
Here's Part Seven
Chapter Twelve
It had been a pretty slow day for Ryan Jackson, manager of Fantasyland. While his job sounded whimsical and magical, it was actually pretty run of the mill; there really wasn’t a whole lot of granting wishes and making magic happen like people assumed. But he was happy in his role and occasionally those moments did pop up where he would have the opportunity to do something special or arrange something that could make a person or family’s dream come true. So far, today wasn’t one of those days.
He had started the day, as always, by walking his area of the park; making sure everything was clean, everything was running, everything was ready for the day ahead. After quick informal meetings with the head of staff at each of the attractions under his domain, to make sure there were no pressing issues, Ryan headed back to his office to take care of the paperwork. With so many staff members working within the fantasyland area, there were always holiday forms to authorise, sick forms to approve; and the countless other issues that arose with having staff.
They were also coming up on year end, and that meant Ryan would have to present his report on Fantasyland operations over the last twelve months. There was no way to get around the facts, Fantasyland was the home of some of the oldest rides in the park and many of them had never been upgraded; this meant both breakdowns and a lack of easy accessibility for guests in ECVs or wheelchairs. His desk was littered with reports, graphs, statistical sheets and random pieces of paper with jottings all over them. Ryan wasn’t worried though, his staff had good morale, there had been no major accidents or incidents in the year and capacity rates were good and steady; it would be a breeze. He was actually more interested about trying to convince the powers at be that the space behind Pooh’s Playful Spot could be so much better utilised and making the plea to receive the Little Mermaid attraction that he knew was in planning stages for California Adventure on the went coast.
He was just thinking of what to have for lunch when a siren throughout the building began to sound. He sat upright in his seat, the siren only went off when something major was happening in the park above. It was a mere fraction of a second before his phone rang, he picked it up immediately.
“Ryan Jackson;” he answered
“Mr Jackson, this is Richard in control, we have a situation.”
“I can hear the siren; what’s happening?”
“We don’t know sir, we are getting mixed reports and from our own monitors we are seeing things that we find hard to believe?”
“Like what Richard? Please be more specific.”
“Like Dumbo flying a hundred feet in the air with guests still aboard, the horses on the carousel all galloping away from what we are hearing, Peter Pan and Captain Hook are duelling for real.”
“That’s impossible!”
“I said it was hard to believe sir. We are also getting similar reports from around the park, there’s been a fire reported in Adventureland, and what is thought to have been one of the ride vehicles has launched into space from Space Mountain.”
Ryan was dumbfounded, he had no idea how to respond to the information he was being given.
“Sir,” Richard spoke again, “we’ve been given the order to evacuate the park, but due to the unusualness of the situation we’ve been asked to contain and safeguard guests in central locations until they can be evacuated in groups.”
The business side of Ryan took over, he still wasn’t sure what was going on, but if his managers had already decided to evacuate the park he knew what he had to do. “Get the cast members to start ushering guests into Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Get as many cast members that are on break into there as possible to start tending to them. I will get there as soon as possible to take control of the situation.”
“Yes sir.” came the reply.
Ryan hung up the phone and took a deep breath; he was still doubtful of what he had been told but there was only one way to find out. He grabbed a walkie talkie and attached it to his belt, then headed for the corridor that would bring him out at the Village Haus.
***************************
Jonathan looked at the utilidor map on the wall, stairway #16 from which he had come was the closest to where he needed to be, but obviously that wasn’t an option. He would have to use stairway #13 which would place him near Country Bear Jamboree and then go around the back of that building and cut through behind the magic carpets and enchanted tiki room in order to get back to the pirates courtyard. Not the best of routes but his only choice; he had to hope he could get to Ray, if he were still alive, and both get back to safety before the Pirates recognised him.
"Recognise me;" Jonathan said aloud, "that's it!"
As he made his way down the corridor he quickly removed everything he could that enhanced the Jack Sparrow look. He had grown the facial hair and dyed it black but removing his wig revealed a short blonde haircut. Next to go were his jacket and shirt, followed by all the clip on jewellery. Finally he brought his hands to his face and used his own sweat, of which there was plenty of, to smudge any remaining make up into a senseless covering; wiping as much as he could onto his removed shirt.
In the few minutes it took to reach the exit, Jonathan was sure he looked a complete mess; most importantly though he was sure he didn't look like Jack Sparrow. He slowly opened the door, creeping his head around the side. Nothing. Grabbing for a nearby chair he placed it so it would keep the door open in case time was of the urgency on his return; then he started to make his way around the back of the Country Bear Jamboree building, peaking around each corner before making the turn.
Along the way he passed the back entrance to the shows control room, the door to the outside was very unusually left wide open. Jonathan peeked inside, maybe he could get some help from anyone operating this attraction; it was completely unmanned. A glance at the screens, that monitored the inside of the theatre, sent a chill down his spine and gave him his answers. "The bears are alive?" he questioned with both intrigue and fear as he saw the animatronic bears from the show ripping the stage, set and seats apart as if they were wild animals.
Suddenly it all made sense; the likenesses of the pirates and the speech coming straight from the ride; there weren’t imitating the ride, they were from the ride itself. Control had said that things were happening that couldn't be real; "is this what they meant?" he thought, "Could it really have been the robots that attacked us?" A banging on the door reminded Jonathan that there wasn’t much that separated the room he was in from the theatre he was watching on the screens. He had to leave but he couldn’t allow the bears to get loose. He shoved a table in front of the door and on his way out closed the door behind him. Being an outside security door he hoped it was made of sturdy stuff.
He continued on his path and soon was able to see around the corner of a building that overlooked the main courtyard. Ray still lay there, not moving; “please Ray, please still be alive;” Jonathan prayed. He looked towards the direction of the utilidor he had used for his escape; he couldn’t see it from here, but he knew he would be able to from where Ray was; which meant they would be able to see him as well. However, he didn’t need to be able to see the utilidor entry point to see the flames and smoke coming from the area; just like in the ride, the pirates were setting fire to everything they could in their search for Captain Jack.
Jonathan decided he couldn’t wait any longer, he had to get to Ray and he had to do it now. The pirates seemed to be completely ignoring the area from whence they had come; he could only hope they continued to do so. He was now very glad he had propped the door open, he was going to have to carry Ray and swiping his identity card would have cost him time.
He ran over to Ray as fast and quietly as he could; as he approached he got his first look at the pirates by the far utilidor; none were paying any attention in his direction. He dropped to his knee as soon as he reached Ray; there was a lot more blood now than there had been when he left him only a few minutes ago. He reached for Ray’s neck to feel for a pulse, praying in his head as he did. He massaged his fingers around and felt it; feint but there. “Thank god;” he said not even trying to hide the smile across his face, “Ray, it’s Jonathan. Can you hear me?”
He got no reply.
“I’ve got to stop the bleeding,” Jonathan thought. He had been given only the most basic of first aid training; this was going to be mainly guesswork. He looked up to check on the pirates, still no sign of them showing any interest in him; the change of appearance appeared to be working. He ran the few meters between where Ray lay and the nearest merchandise stand; deserted but still wide open. He grabbed at whatever came first, long sleeve shirts, scarves, t-shirts; then he returned to Ray and padded the sword wound as best he could, securing the bandage by wrapping and tying the scarves around his body. He hoped it would be good enough.
Scooping Ray up, Jonathan started to make his way back to the utilidor; he could feel his legs getting weaker by the step; Ray was not a light fellow. As he left the possible eye sight of the pirates he took one last look, nothing.
***************************
Jennifer held Samantha as they disembarked the ride vehicles as soon as it pulled around to the load/unload area; both of them shaking but relieved. Graham was scrambling as much of the spilled contents of the bag back into it in a way it could be carried. Cast members rushed to them to make sure they were okay and ushered them to an area where they could sit down.
“What happened in there?” Graham asked a cast member approached him; “the ground seemed to be way below us, the characters seemed alive.”
“We don’t know Sir;” came the reply, “please come with us, we want to get you to safety and we would like to let a doctor check you all over to make sure you are ok; if that’s ok with you of course.”
“We’re physically fine, but I would like some space to be able to comfort my daughter, as well as what she saw she also lost her favourite toy in there; that’s what she will remember tomorrow.”
“I’ll make sure you have a room where you can be alone Sir, and I’ll arrange for someone to bring you some toys for your daughter.”
“Thank you.”
Jennifer, Samantha and Graham were led into the backstage area and what seemed like underground. If it had not been under such circumstances, this would have been a dream come true for Jennifer; she had always wanted to see behind the scenes. It didn’t seem to matter now.
***************************
Philippe watched as first rope pinged off the railings as soon as the train charged into it; its speed far too great for the rope to hooks to handle.
The second did much the same although not with so much speed and force. The hill was starting to take it’s toll on the train, he could tell it had started to decelerate.
Philippe forced himself to take his eyes off the train and get to the top of the lift hill; although very much with his head over his shoulder looking backwards.
The third rope held. It was being pushed up the railing at quite a speed but the hooks were able to hold. Only when one of the hooks hit a join in the railings with a vertical bar did the push slide halt and the hook break. The train was now moving much slower but was still moving forward, closer to the apex of the hill.
The fourth rope also held and Philippe allowed himself to breath for a moment but it too eventually gave way to the runaway train’s brawn just as the front of the engine peaked over the apex of the lift hill.
They were running the trains at full capacity today, the engine and five carriages, holding a maximum of forty five people. Pretty soon gravity would start to work against him as the train’s momentum would be helped by more weight over than apex than on the hill; at which point all would be lost. Philippe knew that he must stop that from happening and came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve this was to remove the possible weight tipping the balance in the wrong direction. It was against every rule in the handbook, but he yanked the bar release lever on the first carriage, letting the bars off the passengers laps. If the train did go now, the movement and G-forces of the ride would almost certainly cause the passengers to come out of the carriage unrestrained.
“I need you to get out the carriage, quickly and carefully, please help each other onto the steps where you will be safe;” Philippe shouted to make sure he could be heard over some of the frantic passengers who were in tears.
Almost the entire engine car had now made it over the apex, it was the heaviest part of the train and would be putting a lot of weight on the wrong side of the scale. As Philippe started releasing the second carriages safety bars he noticed some leaning over the edge of the back carriage and trying to do the same to their own.
“Sir!” Philippe shouted, “I need you not to try and leave your vehicle”
“Screw you!” came the reply
Philippe ignored the comment understanding everyone was under a lot of pressure. “Sir, if you leave the vehicle we will lose the weight advantage; we need as much weight in the back as possible.”
“Get us out of here;” came the reply, this time more afraid than offensive.
“I’m trying;” Philippe thought to himself as he continued to work.
By the time Philippe was releasing the third carriages safety bars most of the first car had also crossed the apex of the hill. Thankfully the passengers were at this point helping each other with the men helping the women down onto the stairs and in some cases coaxing some of the more afraid passengers out of the cars. However, as the third carriages passengers alighted the train started to move forward with a little more momentum.
“The front of the train is heavier than the back!” Philippe shouted, “I need as many people holding the train steady as possible.”
The men all grabbed whatever non moving part of the vehicles they could as Philippe released the fourth safety bar lever; the fifth having already been released be the passenger who thankfully had taken heed and stayed seated. The passengers holding the train back were beginning to struggle to do so and were shouting that they could only do so a little longer.
“I need all children to be passed out of the train now.” Philippe shouted and the adults inside the train quickly did as asked passing any children to those who had already escaped and to safety.
“Ok,” Philippe continued, “I need everyone else to get out at the same time, we can’t afford to have anyone left in the train when we lose a significant amount of weight in the back. Please all get to a position where you will be able to climb or jump out when I say so and once you are out please help hold onto the train.”
“HURRY!!” shouted one of the men trying to hold the train back
“Everyone ready?” Philippe asked more of a warning, it had to be now or never, “on three.”
“One.”
“Two.”
***************************
Cameron turned his vehicle to the right. As he entered the room he saw that there was only plain wall to the left so he felt safe to have his back to it and give his full attention to the other side. In front of him was Zurg in his now failing and half broken spaceship; sparks of electricity were fizzing and there was a smell of smoke in the air. Despite Zurg’s complaining about how he had been foiled, there were Little Green Men crawling over his ship and a level of joy coming from them. Cameron sighed with relief and sat back in his vehicle as did many of the other guests he could see; it was over.
Suddenly a roar came from Zurg and a laser beam emanated from his spaceship, ripping into a vehicle just four vehicles in front of his own. When the light from the beam dissipated there was nothing left, just a smouldering pile of burnt slag where the vehicle used to be; a family wiped out.
Cameron and the other riders in the room grabbed their laser guns and started shooting wildly at Zurg and the remains of his space craft; obviously not as disabled as first thought. The LGMs scattered as the fire fight began and Zurg screamed in anger. Being one of the larger rooms of the ride, many vehicles simultaneously started to fire in unison, small explosions going off as the individual parts of his ship broke away or were destroyed. Zurg fired again; Cameron winced not daring to look which poor people would be killed this time. Thankfully when he dared open his eyes he could see no obviously missing vehicles; “he must have missed;” he said to himself as he renewed his firing.
Zurg’s spaceship succumbed and with a final explosion it ceased to be. Zurg himself managed to escape the fireball but was captured by the LGMs and their claw device just prior to the unloading bay coming into sight. This time it really was over.
***************************
“We’ve got to get off the river” Alvin said to Bob as they heard the war drums getting closer, “we always joke about them being cannibals, what if they are cannibals now.”
“What do you mean Al?”
“Thank about it. You said the lions were eating the zebra and that the explorers were pretty much real humans. I just got attacked by a bloody hippo and my prop gun fired a real round of ammo. I don’t think it’s stretching too far to suggest that the native tribe will be a real native tribe; and I for one don’t want to drive through the boat ambush scene.”
“It sounds crazy, but I agree.” Bob responded.
“So how do we get out of this?” Alvin asked, “going back through the elephants doesn’t sound like a great option either.”
“How about we go by land? After all, this is where you can hear the parade’s if you listen real carefully; Main Street must be close.”
“It is,” Alvin confirmed, “I just don’t know what it on the other side of the banked hill between it and the back of the Crystal Palace; there could be a wall for all I know.”
“I’d take a wall over hungry cannibals or elephants.”
“Me too, power the boat over to that bank it looks like the bank is a little lower.”
Bob chuckled, “you do realise that if we are massively over reacting we’re going to be deep in it for trespassing all these guests over the back of this ride.”
Alvin took the microphone on the Senegal Sal while Bob started to steer the boat towards the shore they had picked out. “Ladies and Gentleman; obviously that level of attack isn’t what we are used to, and to be honest, neither Skipper Bob nor I know what is going on. We apologise for what just happened. We have decided that in the interest of your safety, it would be wise for us to vacate the ride vehicles and leave the jungle completely. To do this we are going to usher you through the back of the ride area which should bring us out behind Main Street. Does anyone have any questions?”
The boat was oddly silent, many of the passengers from the Amazon Annie obviously still in a level of shock from the attack.
“Ok, Bob is going to bring the boat as close to the bank as he can; should you fall in the water please do not panic, it is clean we merely add the murky colour; it is also only three feet deep so can be easily stood in.”
The guests merely nodded in understanding.
As the boat pulled up to the bank Alvin decided it would be best to get out of the boat himself and help drag it in as close as possible. He stood up on the edge and jumped into the water, two wet feet were the least of his worries. The guests all gasped as Alvin disappeared into the water; head and all. Within a second he resurfaced gasping for air; it was obvious that the river was not the mere three feet deep as thought. He made it to the bank where he pulled himself up and regained his breathing pattern.
“You ok?” Bob shouted
Alvin just nodded still regaining his breath.
“Ok folks,” Bob said turning to the guests; “it appears that all bets are off, please take nothing for granted as being part of a ride; and please do not go into the water.”
Alvin regained his footing and as Bob pulled the boat alongside the bank Alvin grabbed the side and pulled it in. Together they started helping the guests off the boat and onto the shore. There were around fifty of them all together; and the men in the group all started to help the women and children whether family members or not.
They were just evacuating the last members from the boat when the noise of the war drums definitely got louder. Alvin and Bob looked to the opposite shore of the river and sure enough they saw some of the village natives appearing from between the trees.
“Bob; get the people moving over that hill, I’ll catch up.”
“What are you going to do?” Bob asked.
“I’m going to see if the gun was a one time deal or not; but I can’t with the guests here.”
“Ok, don’t stay here too long though.”
With that Bob started leading the way for the guests and very soon disappeared over the horizon of the hill. Alvin hoped that it led straight into the car park behind Main Street and from there safety wouldn’t be an issue. The guests were shaken and wet from the hippo attack, but there had thankfully been no injuries.
By the time they were gone though, more natives had amassed on the opposite side of the river and were pointing at him. One of them had tried the river and found out how deep it was; Alvin was now very thankful it was impossibly deep. Alvin reached into the Senegal Sal and retrieved the shotgun, again it looked like a simple prop; detailed but obviously fake. He aimed at one of the native tribe but he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. They may have been statues somehow brought to life, he couldn’t believe he was even considering that as a plausible reasoning, but they looked as human as human could be; and Alvin wasn’t a killer.
A couple of the natives started to swim across the river; Alvin knew he had to do something. He aimed the shotgun at a tree to the side of the largest group, wanting to scare them off like he had the hippo; and fired. Again, and unbelievably, the shotgun let out a live round and while he missed his intended target he did get the tree next to it. The natives took notice, those swimming towards him retreated and those who had seen him fire looked at him in stunned amazement.
He allowed himself a quick smile, his tactic had worked and he was holding them off. He was about to turn and run up the hill himself, where he could take another shot to make sure they didn’t try and follow him again, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the side of his neck. He brought his hand up to find it, it felt like an insect bite, but instead what he felt was a blow dart. It was just a short second later when he dropped to his knees, his legs refusing to take his weight and soon after that he found himself laying on the floor, unable to move his arms or his legs.
Alvin remained perfectly conscious, he could see and hear everything, he just couldn’t move; not his arms or his legs, not his neck, not even his mouth. His range of view was mostly the sky above but it was soon interrupted by the first of the natives standing over him, dripping wet from crossing the river. As more and more of them came into his view he resigned himself to his fate; his face showing none of the terror he was feeling inside; his body numb.
He had started the day, as always, by walking his area of the park; making sure everything was clean, everything was running, everything was ready for the day ahead. After quick informal meetings with the head of staff at each of the attractions under his domain, to make sure there were no pressing issues, Ryan headed back to his office to take care of the paperwork. With so many staff members working within the fantasyland area, there were always holiday forms to authorise, sick forms to approve; and the countless other issues that arose with having staff.
They were also coming up on year end, and that meant Ryan would have to present his report on Fantasyland operations over the last twelve months. There was no way to get around the facts, Fantasyland was the home of some of the oldest rides in the park and many of them had never been upgraded; this meant both breakdowns and a lack of easy accessibility for guests in ECVs or wheelchairs. His desk was littered with reports, graphs, statistical sheets and random pieces of paper with jottings all over them. Ryan wasn’t worried though, his staff had good morale, there had been no major accidents or incidents in the year and capacity rates were good and steady; it would be a breeze. He was actually more interested about trying to convince the powers at be that the space behind Pooh’s Playful Spot could be so much better utilised and making the plea to receive the Little Mermaid attraction that he knew was in planning stages for California Adventure on the went coast.
He was just thinking of what to have for lunch when a siren throughout the building began to sound. He sat upright in his seat, the siren only went off when something major was happening in the park above. It was a mere fraction of a second before his phone rang, he picked it up immediately.
“Ryan Jackson;” he answered
“Mr Jackson, this is Richard in control, we have a situation.”
“I can hear the siren; what’s happening?”
“We don’t know sir, we are getting mixed reports and from our own monitors we are seeing things that we find hard to believe?”
“Like what Richard? Please be more specific.”
“Like Dumbo flying a hundred feet in the air with guests still aboard, the horses on the carousel all galloping away from what we are hearing, Peter Pan and Captain Hook are duelling for real.”
“That’s impossible!”
“I said it was hard to believe sir. We are also getting similar reports from around the park, there’s been a fire reported in Adventureland, and what is thought to have been one of the ride vehicles has launched into space from Space Mountain.”
Ryan was dumbfounded, he had no idea how to respond to the information he was being given.
“Sir,” Richard spoke again, “we’ve been given the order to evacuate the park, but due to the unusualness of the situation we’ve been asked to contain and safeguard guests in central locations until they can be evacuated in groups.”
The business side of Ryan took over, he still wasn’t sure what was going on, but if his managers had already decided to evacuate the park he knew what he had to do. “Get the cast members to start ushering guests into Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Get as many cast members that are on break into there as possible to start tending to them. I will get there as soon as possible to take control of the situation.”
“Yes sir.” came the reply.
Ryan hung up the phone and took a deep breath; he was still doubtful of what he had been told but there was only one way to find out. He grabbed a walkie talkie and attached it to his belt, then headed for the corridor that would bring him out at the Village Haus.
***************************
Jonathan looked at the utilidor map on the wall, stairway #16 from which he had come was the closest to where he needed to be, but obviously that wasn’t an option. He would have to use stairway #13 which would place him near Country Bear Jamboree and then go around the back of that building and cut through behind the magic carpets and enchanted tiki room in order to get back to the pirates courtyard. Not the best of routes but his only choice; he had to hope he could get to Ray, if he were still alive, and both get back to safety before the Pirates recognised him.
"Recognise me;" Jonathan said aloud, "that's it!"
As he made his way down the corridor he quickly removed everything he could that enhanced the Jack Sparrow look. He had grown the facial hair and dyed it black but removing his wig revealed a short blonde haircut. Next to go were his jacket and shirt, followed by all the clip on jewellery. Finally he brought his hands to his face and used his own sweat, of which there was plenty of, to smudge any remaining make up into a senseless covering; wiping as much as he could onto his removed shirt.
In the few minutes it took to reach the exit, Jonathan was sure he looked a complete mess; most importantly though he was sure he didn't look like Jack Sparrow. He slowly opened the door, creeping his head around the side. Nothing. Grabbing for a nearby chair he placed it so it would keep the door open in case time was of the urgency on his return; then he started to make his way around the back of the Country Bear Jamboree building, peaking around each corner before making the turn.
Along the way he passed the back entrance to the shows control room, the door to the outside was very unusually left wide open. Jonathan peeked inside, maybe he could get some help from anyone operating this attraction; it was completely unmanned. A glance at the screens, that monitored the inside of the theatre, sent a chill down his spine and gave him his answers. "The bears are alive?" he questioned with both intrigue and fear as he saw the animatronic bears from the show ripping the stage, set and seats apart as if they were wild animals.
Suddenly it all made sense; the likenesses of the pirates and the speech coming straight from the ride; there weren’t imitating the ride, they were from the ride itself. Control had said that things were happening that couldn't be real; "is this what they meant?" he thought, "Could it really have been the robots that attacked us?" A banging on the door reminded Jonathan that there wasn’t much that separated the room he was in from the theatre he was watching on the screens. He had to leave but he couldn’t allow the bears to get loose. He shoved a table in front of the door and on his way out closed the door behind him. Being an outside security door he hoped it was made of sturdy stuff.
He continued on his path and soon was able to see around the corner of a building that overlooked the main courtyard. Ray still lay there, not moving; “please Ray, please still be alive;” Jonathan prayed. He looked towards the direction of the utilidor he had used for his escape; he couldn’t see it from here, but he knew he would be able to from where Ray was; which meant they would be able to see him as well. However, he didn’t need to be able to see the utilidor entry point to see the flames and smoke coming from the area; just like in the ride, the pirates were setting fire to everything they could in their search for Captain Jack.
Jonathan decided he couldn’t wait any longer, he had to get to Ray and he had to do it now. The pirates seemed to be completely ignoring the area from whence they had come; he could only hope they continued to do so. He was now very glad he had propped the door open, he was going to have to carry Ray and swiping his identity card would have cost him time.
He ran over to Ray as fast and quietly as he could; as he approached he got his first look at the pirates by the far utilidor; none were paying any attention in his direction. He dropped to his knee as soon as he reached Ray; there was a lot more blood now than there had been when he left him only a few minutes ago. He reached for Ray’s neck to feel for a pulse, praying in his head as he did. He massaged his fingers around and felt it; feint but there. “Thank god;” he said not even trying to hide the smile across his face, “Ray, it’s Jonathan. Can you hear me?”
He got no reply.
“I’ve got to stop the bleeding,” Jonathan thought. He had been given only the most basic of first aid training; this was going to be mainly guesswork. He looked up to check on the pirates, still no sign of them showing any interest in him; the change of appearance appeared to be working. He ran the few meters between where Ray lay and the nearest merchandise stand; deserted but still wide open. He grabbed at whatever came first, long sleeve shirts, scarves, t-shirts; then he returned to Ray and padded the sword wound as best he could, securing the bandage by wrapping and tying the scarves around his body. He hoped it would be good enough.
Scooping Ray up, Jonathan started to make his way back to the utilidor; he could feel his legs getting weaker by the step; Ray was not a light fellow. As he left the possible eye sight of the pirates he took one last look, nothing.
***************************
Jennifer held Samantha as they disembarked the ride vehicles as soon as it pulled around to the load/unload area; both of them shaking but relieved. Graham was scrambling as much of the spilled contents of the bag back into it in a way it could be carried. Cast members rushed to them to make sure they were okay and ushered them to an area where they could sit down.
“What happened in there?” Graham asked a cast member approached him; “the ground seemed to be way below us, the characters seemed alive.”
“We don’t know Sir;” came the reply, “please come with us, we want to get you to safety and we would like to let a doctor check you all over to make sure you are ok; if that’s ok with you of course.”
“We’re physically fine, but I would like some space to be able to comfort my daughter, as well as what she saw she also lost her favourite toy in there; that’s what she will remember tomorrow.”
“I’ll make sure you have a room where you can be alone Sir, and I’ll arrange for someone to bring you some toys for your daughter.”
“Thank you.”
Jennifer, Samantha and Graham were led into the backstage area and what seemed like underground. If it had not been under such circumstances, this would have been a dream come true for Jennifer; she had always wanted to see behind the scenes. It didn’t seem to matter now.
***************************
Philippe watched as first rope pinged off the railings as soon as the train charged into it; its speed far too great for the rope to hooks to handle.
The second did much the same although not with so much speed and force. The hill was starting to take it’s toll on the train, he could tell it had started to decelerate.
Philippe forced himself to take his eyes off the train and get to the top of the lift hill; although very much with his head over his shoulder looking backwards.
The third rope held. It was being pushed up the railing at quite a speed but the hooks were able to hold. Only when one of the hooks hit a join in the railings with a vertical bar did the push slide halt and the hook break. The train was now moving much slower but was still moving forward, closer to the apex of the hill.
The fourth rope also held and Philippe allowed himself to breath for a moment but it too eventually gave way to the runaway train’s brawn just as the front of the engine peaked over the apex of the lift hill.
They were running the trains at full capacity today, the engine and five carriages, holding a maximum of forty five people. Pretty soon gravity would start to work against him as the train’s momentum would be helped by more weight over than apex than on the hill; at which point all would be lost. Philippe knew that he must stop that from happening and came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve this was to remove the possible weight tipping the balance in the wrong direction. It was against every rule in the handbook, but he yanked the bar release lever on the first carriage, letting the bars off the passengers laps. If the train did go now, the movement and G-forces of the ride would almost certainly cause the passengers to come out of the carriage unrestrained.
“I need you to get out the carriage, quickly and carefully, please help each other onto the steps where you will be safe;” Philippe shouted to make sure he could be heard over some of the frantic passengers who were in tears.
Almost the entire engine car had now made it over the apex, it was the heaviest part of the train and would be putting a lot of weight on the wrong side of the scale. As Philippe started releasing the second carriages safety bars he noticed some leaning over the edge of the back carriage and trying to do the same to their own.
“Sir!” Philippe shouted, “I need you not to try and leave your vehicle”
“Screw you!” came the reply
Philippe ignored the comment understanding everyone was under a lot of pressure. “Sir, if you leave the vehicle we will lose the weight advantage; we need as much weight in the back as possible.”
“Get us out of here;” came the reply, this time more afraid than offensive.
“I’m trying;” Philippe thought to himself as he continued to work.
By the time Philippe was releasing the third carriages safety bars most of the first car had also crossed the apex of the hill. Thankfully the passengers were at this point helping each other with the men helping the women down onto the stairs and in some cases coaxing some of the more afraid passengers out of the cars. However, as the third carriages passengers alighted the train started to move forward with a little more momentum.
“The front of the train is heavier than the back!” Philippe shouted, “I need as many people holding the train steady as possible.”
The men all grabbed whatever non moving part of the vehicles they could as Philippe released the fourth safety bar lever; the fifth having already been released be the passenger who thankfully had taken heed and stayed seated. The passengers holding the train back were beginning to struggle to do so and were shouting that they could only do so a little longer.
“I need all children to be passed out of the train now.” Philippe shouted and the adults inside the train quickly did as asked passing any children to those who had already escaped and to safety.
“Ok,” Philippe continued, “I need everyone else to get out at the same time, we can’t afford to have anyone left in the train when we lose a significant amount of weight in the back. Please all get to a position where you will be able to climb or jump out when I say so and once you are out please help hold onto the train.”
“HURRY!!” shouted one of the men trying to hold the train back
“Everyone ready?” Philippe asked more of a warning, it had to be now or never, “on three.”
“One.”
“Two.”
***************************
Cameron turned his vehicle to the right. As he entered the room he saw that there was only plain wall to the left so he felt safe to have his back to it and give his full attention to the other side. In front of him was Zurg in his now failing and half broken spaceship; sparks of electricity were fizzing and there was a smell of smoke in the air. Despite Zurg’s complaining about how he had been foiled, there were Little Green Men crawling over his ship and a level of joy coming from them. Cameron sighed with relief and sat back in his vehicle as did many of the other guests he could see; it was over.
Suddenly a roar came from Zurg and a laser beam emanated from his spaceship, ripping into a vehicle just four vehicles in front of his own. When the light from the beam dissipated there was nothing left, just a smouldering pile of burnt slag where the vehicle used to be; a family wiped out.
Cameron and the other riders in the room grabbed their laser guns and started shooting wildly at Zurg and the remains of his space craft; obviously not as disabled as first thought. The LGMs scattered as the fire fight began and Zurg screamed in anger. Being one of the larger rooms of the ride, many vehicles simultaneously started to fire in unison, small explosions going off as the individual parts of his ship broke away or were destroyed. Zurg fired again; Cameron winced not daring to look which poor people would be killed this time. Thankfully when he dared open his eyes he could see no obviously missing vehicles; “he must have missed;” he said to himself as he renewed his firing.
Zurg’s spaceship succumbed and with a final explosion it ceased to be. Zurg himself managed to escape the fireball but was captured by the LGMs and their claw device just prior to the unloading bay coming into sight. This time it really was over.
***************************
“We’ve got to get off the river” Alvin said to Bob as they heard the war drums getting closer, “we always joke about them being cannibals, what if they are cannibals now.”
“What do you mean Al?”
“Thank about it. You said the lions were eating the zebra and that the explorers were pretty much real humans. I just got attacked by a bloody hippo and my prop gun fired a real round of ammo. I don’t think it’s stretching too far to suggest that the native tribe will be a real native tribe; and I for one don’t want to drive through the boat ambush scene.”
“It sounds crazy, but I agree.” Bob responded.
“So how do we get out of this?” Alvin asked, “going back through the elephants doesn’t sound like a great option either.”
“How about we go by land? After all, this is where you can hear the parade’s if you listen real carefully; Main Street must be close.”
“It is,” Alvin confirmed, “I just don’t know what it on the other side of the banked hill between it and the back of the Crystal Palace; there could be a wall for all I know.”
“I’d take a wall over hungry cannibals or elephants.”
“Me too, power the boat over to that bank it looks like the bank is a little lower.”
Bob chuckled, “you do realise that if we are massively over reacting we’re going to be deep in it for trespassing all these guests over the back of this ride.”
Alvin took the microphone on the Senegal Sal while Bob started to steer the boat towards the shore they had picked out. “Ladies and Gentleman; obviously that level of attack isn’t what we are used to, and to be honest, neither Skipper Bob nor I know what is going on. We apologise for what just happened. We have decided that in the interest of your safety, it would be wise for us to vacate the ride vehicles and leave the jungle completely. To do this we are going to usher you through the back of the ride area which should bring us out behind Main Street. Does anyone have any questions?”
The boat was oddly silent, many of the passengers from the Amazon Annie obviously still in a level of shock from the attack.
“Ok, Bob is going to bring the boat as close to the bank as he can; should you fall in the water please do not panic, it is clean we merely add the murky colour; it is also only three feet deep so can be easily stood in.”
The guests merely nodded in understanding.
As the boat pulled up to the bank Alvin decided it would be best to get out of the boat himself and help drag it in as close as possible. He stood up on the edge and jumped into the water, two wet feet were the least of his worries. The guests all gasped as Alvin disappeared into the water; head and all. Within a second he resurfaced gasping for air; it was obvious that the river was not the mere three feet deep as thought. He made it to the bank where he pulled himself up and regained his breathing pattern.
“You ok?” Bob shouted
Alvin just nodded still regaining his breath.
“Ok folks,” Bob said turning to the guests; “it appears that all bets are off, please take nothing for granted as being part of a ride; and please do not go into the water.”
Alvin regained his footing and as Bob pulled the boat alongside the bank Alvin grabbed the side and pulled it in. Together they started helping the guests off the boat and onto the shore. There were around fifty of them all together; and the men in the group all started to help the women and children whether family members or not.
They were just evacuating the last members from the boat when the noise of the war drums definitely got louder. Alvin and Bob looked to the opposite shore of the river and sure enough they saw some of the village natives appearing from between the trees.
“Bob; get the people moving over that hill, I’ll catch up.”
“What are you going to do?” Bob asked.
“I’m going to see if the gun was a one time deal or not; but I can’t with the guests here.”
“Ok, don’t stay here too long though.”
With that Bob started leading the way for the guests and very soon disappeared over the horizon of the hill. Alvin hoped that it led straight into the car park behind Main Street and from there safety wouldn’t be an issue. The guests were shaken and wet from the hippo attack, but there had thankfully been no injuries.
By the time they were gone though, more natives had amassed on the opposite side of the river and were pointing at him. One of them had tried the river and found out how deep it was; Alvin was now very thankful it was impossibly deep. Alvin reached into the Senegal Sal and retrieved the shotgun, again it looked like a simple prop; detailed but obviously fake. He aimed at one of the native tribe but he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. They may have been statues somehow brought to life, he couldn’t believe he was even considering that as a plausible reasoning, but they looked as human as human could be; and Alvin wasn’t a killer.
A couple of the natives started to swim across the river; Alvin knew he had to do something. He aimed the shotgun at a tree to the side of the largest group, wanting to scare them off like he had the hippo; and fired. Again, and unbelievably, the shotgun let out a live round and while he missed his intended target he did get the tree next to it. The natives took notice, those swimming towards him retreated and those who had seen him fire looked at him in stunned amazement.
He allowed himself a quick smile, his tactic had worked and he was holding them off. He was about to turn and run up the hill himself, where he could take another shot to make sure they didn’t try and follow him again, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the side of his neck. He brought his hand up to find it, it felt like an insect bite, but instead what he felt was a blow dart. It was just a short second later when he dropped to his knees, his legs refusing to take his weight and soon after that he found himself laying on the floor, unable to move his arms or his legs.
Alvin remained perfectly conscious, he could see and hear everything, he just couldn’t move; not his arms or his legs, not his neck, not even his mouth. His range of view was mostly the sky above but it was soon interrupted by the first of the natives standing over him, dripping wet from crossing the river. As more and more of them came into his view he resigned himself to his fate; his face showing none of the terror he was feeling inside; his body numb.
...........To Be Continued
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