“Negative,” Blake yelled back. “Not anymore.”
Ava was searching Danny for gunshots. “Including his arm from earlier, I’ve found four entry wounds.”
“Four?” Eddie glanced back at Ava.
“Yes, four.”
“Holes both sides?”
“Both sides?”
“Exit wounds,” I translated.
“One second,” Ava answered. She rolled Danny to his side and looked at his back. “Yes, on his stomach. No on the left thigh and no on the second in his left arm.”
“That’s good,” Eddie replied, making another sharp turn.
“That’s good?” Ava asked in bewilderment.
“Yes. Very good. Could be much worse.”
We had to take Eddie’s word for that.
SIXTY-FIVE – Quiet at the Mouse (Hayley)
We managed to make our way around the outskirts of Redlands and Riverside without drawing any unwanted attention, and we snuck up to Disneyland’s back door. It was weird being in Anaheim without traffic—without unlicensed tourists almost killing you as they cut across five lanes to get to the carpool lane. I remembered how much that used to drive my dad nuts. “Every single time,” he’d say. I smiled at the memory. I couldn’t wait to see him again.
We parked in what used to be Downtown Disney, and Eddie kicked in a door that read “Emergency Services.” He found a table in there to lay Danny on, as well as some rubbing alcohol, scalpels, and bandages. Blake and I held Danny down as Eddie extracted the bullets from his arm and leg. Danny was too weak to scream, but it was clear he was in pain. Still, Eddie insisted we couldn’t dull the pain without risking losing him altogether. Danny passed out during the second extraction, but that one went much easier. It was almost six o’clock now. Eddie wrapped Danny up and gave him a few shots for the pain. Then he picked him up, and we made our way toward the Disneyland fence.
Blake cut the fence with bolt cutters, and we slid through, careful not to hurt Danny any more in the process. We were behind the Swiss Family style tree house, adjacent the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We intended to check Pirates out first. To be safe, Blake decided he should climb the tree house and get a look around. I volunteered to go with him, and we hurried to the top.
It was quite a sight to behold. I’d never seen such a big city—or metro area—so absolutely dead silent. The buildings looked straight out of that Will Smith I Am Legend movie—old, crumbled from drone strikes, vines growing everywhere. Stray dogs roamed with coyotes. I glanced at Blake as chills coursed through my body.
“Freaky.” He said it for me.
Disneyland, for its part, was absolutely silent—exactly what we were hoping for. On the other hand, it barely looked like Disneyland at all. Sleeping Beauty’s Castle was a pile of rubble—someone must not have had a daughter. Matterhorn Mountain was also gone. I shook my head and was about to tell Blake I was heading back down when a movement below caught my eye.
There was a person—one single person—walking through Adventureland past the old Jungle Cruise ride. I couldn’t tell from here if it was a man or woman, but he or she hadn’t seen us yet. I grabbed Blake and pulled him down, pointing at the pedestrian through the slots in the railing.
The person was wearing a hoodie and jeans, clearly not standard Qi Jia attire. American? “What do we do?”
“Don’t frickin’ move,” Blake whispered back.
The person passed almost directly beneath us, almost certainly gaining the attention of Eddie, Flynn, and Ava in the process. Blake slowly tiptoed down the steps as the person moved away from us. As he or she turned left around the corner, Blake picked up his pace—a little too quickly. He stepped on a loose board that snapped, and there was a large crash as he fell through to the platform below it and then through that platform as well. I jumped up and watched the corner where the person had disappeared a minute earlier. Sure enough, he or she came back, looking for the source of the sound. Blake was lying in the open, and a dust cloud had risen where he’d fallen through the boards. I could see he was okay, but I also knew the person had seen him too. In a second, he or she was gone.
I took off in pursuit. By the time I reached the bottom and scampered around the corner, the person was long gone. But I’d also seen Flynn chasing the individual, and she was hurrying back toward me now. She ran up to me, breathing heavily.
“She went into Pirates.”
“Seriously? You know it was a she?” I thought so. “Did you get a look at her face?”
“Yes.” Flynn nodded.
“American?”
“Don’t know for certain, but I think so. White face, dark hair.”
“Did you see anyone else? Any signs of anyone else?”
“No.” Flynn shook her head. “But she can’t be alone.”
Blake had joined us now. “American?”
“Yep. We think.” It was my turn to nod. “She went into Pirates.”
“Small world.” Blake smiled and elbowed me.
I got it, idiot. I can play this game too. “No, Pirates.”
“I know. I was—”
“I know what you were doing. You’re hilarious.” I elbowed him back. It was weird to be here and not hear that song though. “Guess Ava was right.”
“I was right?” Ava walked up behind us with Eddie, who was still carrying Danny.
“Seems that way,” I replied. “Flynn followed her to Pirates of the Caribbean.”
“Yeah,” Ava nodded. “She ran right past us after she looped around the building. Think she was trying to throw you guys off.”
“Do you know if she was American?” Eddie asked us. “We couldn’t tell.”
“Yes,” Blake answered, and Flynn and I laughed.
“What?” Eddie turned to us.
“Nothing.” You had to be there.
We slowly made our way back through Adventureland towards the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. When we were close enough to see the entrance we stepped inside an old BBQ place to lay Danny down.
If there was more than one person inside the Pirates of the Caribbean building, they were probably watching for us. They could be armed and extremely jumpy, given they also probably hadn’t seen humans—especially Americans—around here in a while. We couldn’t take any chances.
We also knew—if they were Americans—and if they were from the bunker, we had to get in there too. We had to let Hawaii know missiles were coming before it was too late. We had to let them know Baker was forcing Keena to drop the Shield. As darkness fell on Southern California, we knew we didn’t have much time.
I watched Flynn slink up to the front door of the ride. She motioned at me to follow her, but as I started to move toward her she suddenly waved for me to stop. I froze and watched her as she looked above her head. Flynn pointed directly above her with one finger and then tapped her eye. A camera? I made a picture-taking motion back to her, and she nodded. They had to already know we were here. Confirming my suspicion, I suddenly saw three red dots appear on Flynn’s chest. “No!” I screamed and ran across the courtyard toward her. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We’re Americans…don’t shoot!”
I stepped in front of Flynn, and the three red dots were now front and center on my chest. I waved my arms as I continued to plead to whoever it was that had us in their sights. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re from Hawaii. We’re just trying to get a message to them. The enemy has the bunker in Colorado. We need to get that message to Hawaii. Please…”