فصل 38 - بخش 01

CHAPTER 38

NOT SO SAFE

FROM THE MOUNTAINSIDE LEDGE overlooking the water, Sarah and J.D. watched the rout with the Lost Boys and Tink. When the pirates dropped the little ship from Peter Pan’s Flight, smashing the last Mollusk canoe still afloat, the group stood in stunned silence for several seconds.

“I can’t believe it,” said Nibs. “Hook won.”

“Hook never wins,” said the Twins.

“He did this time,” said Nibs. “And he’s got Peter.” This drew a burst of bells from Tink.

“He’s also got the starstuff,” said Sarah, dejectedly. “And he’s figured out how to use it, obviously.”

“Where’s he going now?” said J.D., pointing at the pirate ship. It had executed a graceful turn in the sky, its course now taking it past Skull Rock and around the island coast curving away to the left.

“Looks like he’s going back to his side,” said Slightly.

Tink was in Nibs’s face now, chiming urgently.

“Slower,” said Nibs.

More chimes.

“What’s she saying?” said Curly.

“I think she’s saying we need to go rescue Peter.”

“From the pirates?” said Tootles. “Shouldn’t we ask the Mollusks to do that?”

“I don’t think the Mollusks are in any position to go after Hook,” said J.D., looking at the battle scene below. “Their canoes are wrecked and half their guys are still swimming.”

“Maybe we should wait until they can help,” said Tootles. “Or at least until morning. It’ll be dark soon.”

This produced a furious, head-shaking eruption from Tink.

“Tink’s right,” said Nibs. “We don’t have time to wait. Hook hates Peter, you all know that. No telling what he’ll do.”

“Besides…” added Slightly, “…if Hook captured us, Peter wouldn’t wait. He’d come rescue us.”

The others nodded. Peter had his flaws, but he always stood by his friends.

“All right, then,” said Nibs. “It’s settled. We head for the pirate side.” He turned to Sarah and J.D. “You can go back to the Mollusk village by the path we took to get up here.”

Sarah shook her head. “We’re going with you.” J.D. gave her a look, but said nothing.

“Are you sure?” said Nibs. “It’s a rough hike over the mountain. And not so safe on the pirate side.”

“Especially at night,” said Curly.

“There’s snakes,” said the Twins.

“I’m sure,” said Sarah. “If we don’t get the starstuff, J.D. and I can’t get back across the bridge. Besides, this whole mess is my fault. Peter would never have been captured if I hadn’t shown up here.”

Tink glared at Sarah and chimed something that needed no translation.

“All right, then,” said Nibs. “Let’s get going.”

They started up the mountainside, following a steep, little-used, zigzagging path that at times disappeared altogether. The sun soon dropped low in the sky, producing a spectacular sunset followed by darkness, but a bright half moon gave them enough light to make their way. Sarah, who was not a big fan of snakes, walked close behind J.D.

After they’d been trudging upward for almost three hours, they came to the ridge that divided the island roughly in half. There was a clearing there from which they could see the water far below on both sides, the surf forming pale, shifting lines in the moonlight. Nibs announced that they would rest for a few minutes. Tink objected, but everyone ignored her, the Lost Boys plopping to the ground.

Sarah and J.D. sat down next to each other a few yards away.

“What if we don’t get the box back?” she whispered.

“We have to get the box back,” he said. “I really, really don’t want to spend eternity here.”

“Me neither,” she said. “I just want to go home.” She put her face in her hands for a moment, on the verge of tears, then took a deep breath and exhaled. “We’ll get the box,” she said. “We have to, so we will.”

“That’s not all we have to get,” said J.D.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been thinking about it; how we’re going to use the bridge at this end. First of all, we need to locate it. Fighting Prawn said Einstein and Pete Carmoody used it, so I’m hoping he’ll know where it is. Second, of course, we need to get enough starstuff to activate it. But then there’s the question of when we activate it. That gets a little tricky.”

“Why?” asked Sarah.

“Okay, if I have this figured right, we need to cross the bridge back to our universe when it’s operable at the Magic Kingdom end. That means at exactly the same time that we came here.”

“At 9:07 p.m.,” said Sarah.

“Yup. And how do we know when it’s 9:07 p.m. in Disney World? We look at my watch. I set the time exactly before we crossed in this direction. So it ought to work going the other way.”

“So why is that tricky?”

J.D. held up his left wrist. “I don’t have my watch.” “Oh my god,” said Sarah. “I forgot. Hook took it!” “Right. So we have to get the starstuff and my watch.” Sarah’s shoulders slumped. “How are we going to do that?” she said.

“I don’t know,” said J.D. They sat in subdued silence for another minute.

Then Nibs, prodded by Tinker Bell, started the group moving again, heading down the mountainside into pirate territory. Every now and then, Tink would dart ahead, flying above the treetops, then return to chime something in Nibs’s ear. Sarah noticed that the Lost Boys were acting more nervous than they had earlier, saying little, walking closer together, jumping at jungle sounds. She turned to Tootles, who was walking behind her.

“Is there something we should be worried about?” she whispered. “Aside from Hook, I mean. And the snakes.”

“Yes,” said Tootles.

“What?”

“You see those droppings on the trail?”

“No. I can barely see the trail.”

“Oh. That explains why you keep stepping in them.”

“What?”

“The droppings. You keep stepping in them.”

“What kind of droppings?” said Sarah, scraping her shoes against a bush.

“Boars. Wild boars. There’s a lot of them on this side of the island.”

“And they’re dangerous?”

“They can be. But that’s not what we’re worried about.”

Sarah was getting exasperated. “So what are we worried about?”

“Mister Grin,” said Tootles.

“Oh,” said Sarah, looking around nervously. “You mean he’s real, too?”

“Real?” said Tootles.

“Forget it,” said Sarah.

“We never forget about Mister Grin,” said Tootles.

They walked on in silence for another hour, making their way slowly down the steep mountainside. Tink returned from another one of her scouting missions and chimed something to Nibs. He halted the line.

“Quiet, everyone,” he whispered. “Listen.”

They listened. From somewhere in the dark distance below, drifting over the treetops, came the sound of men shouting and singing. There was an explosion of some kind.

“The pirate fort,” said Nibs. “They’re celebrating.”

“I guess they don’t think the Mollusks will attack tonight,” said Slightly.

“I suspect they’re right about that,” said Nibs. “I suspect the Mollusks won’t be attacking for a while.”

“So what’s our plan?” said J.D.

“We get closer to the fort,” said Nibs. “Then we wait for dawn. The pirates will fall asleep. Then we attack.”

“We what?” said J.D.

“Attack.”

“Wait a minute,” said J.D. “There’s eight of us, and we have no weapons. How do we attack a fort full of pirates?”

Tink chimed something.

“We have a weapon,” said Nibs.

“We do?” said Slightly.

“What is it?” said the Twins.

“Well, we don’t have it at the moment,” said Nibs. “But we will. Tink will see to that. Right now our job is to get down to the fort and be in position by dawn.” He started down the trail, Tink zooming ahead. The others followed Nibs with varying levels of enthusiasm. It was another hour before they reached the clearing that surrounded the pirate fort. Its outer wall was ten feet high and made of thick logs, from behind which came shouts and whoops, though the celebration seemed to be winding down. Every now and then a pirate would float above the fort, spinning in midair, giggling wildly—evidence that Hook was still dispensing starstuff.

“I hope they don’t use it all up,” Sarah whispered to J.D.

“I know,” he answered. “He must have used a lot of it before to get the ship to fly.”

They squatted in the undergrowth watching the fort, swatting at insects, waiting for daylight. They were hot, tired, and thirsty. And afraid.

To the east, the sky began to turn from black to gray.

“Where’s the weapon?” the Twins asked Nibs, for the dozenth time.

“It will be here,” he answered, also for the dozenth time, although he sounded less confident than he had.

The sky grew lighter. The fort was quiet.

Then Tink arrived, chiming at Nibs with quiet urgency.

Then they saw what was behind her.

Sarah, stifling a scream, turned to run.

“It’s all right,” whispered Nibs, grabbing her arm.

“How do you know it’s all right?” she asked.

“Because Tink says so,” said Nibs.

“And you believe her?”

“I have to,” said Nibs. “Come on.”