Escaping Neverland (3 page)

“Do you know what the Captain wanted your friend
for?” William asked.

I shrugged, pulling my eyes away from the ship.
“He said he wanted Jake to build him technology. Like computers and stuff.”

“Figures,” William said. “All the Captain has ever
wanted is to make this island more like Earth. It’s a sickness that eats at
him, and every season he destroys more and more of the island. Do you think
your friend will be able to do what the Captain asked?”

“I don’t know. If the Captain can get him the
parts, yeah, probably. Why doesn’t he just take computers from Earth?”

William laughed. “He doesn’t want just computers.
He’ll want your friend to build him something monstrous.”

We sat there in silence for a few moments,
listening to the sound of the water crashing below us. Finally, I asked, “Why
hasn’t anyone stopped the Captain before?” I asked.

William looked at me, his face shadowed. “He
bespells people with his voice and surrounds himself with kids with special
abilities. He’s almost impossible to fight.”

I sighed. “Someone could just shoot him from a
distance.”

“With what?” William slammed his hand down on the
rock, the frustration in his voice obvious. “We don’t have guns.”

“Can’t you get guns? The Captain doesn’t seem to
have any problem.”

William shook his head. “The Captain guards the
gates. He’s the only one able to use them at all now. Even the fae can’t get
through with all their magic and spells.”

I didn’t ask about the fae, more curious about the
war between the Captain and William. “How long have you been fighting him?” I
asked.

“Forever,” he said. He didn’t say anything else,
and the tone told me he wasn’t going to say anything else about it.

I jumped when I felt his hand on my knee. “That’s
why I need your help, Paige. We’re losing. I can’t afford to send you back to
Earth. I need every able body I have to fight the Captain.”

I rolled my eyes, thankful for the darkness so he
couldn’t see me. “William, I can’t fight. I just want to get my friend and go
home.”

He stood up, feet scraping against the rock.
“You’ll learn, just like the other kids, and I can’t take you back anyway. The
gates are too closely guarded.”

“So what, you want me to just start chopping
people up with a sword? I’m from a suburb. I’ve never even been in a fist
fight. I’ll be useless to you,” I said.

He pulled me to my feet and closed the distance
between us, hands locked around my upper arms. This close, I could see his eyes
and the curve of his lips.

“I hope not,” he said. “I’d be sad if you died.
You’re very pretty.”

His face came closer, but I strained backwards,
too distracted by the thought of dying here on the island in a fight against
some imaginary story character to pay much attention to William.

“I could die?” I asked.

He nodded, distracted. “The island keeps you
young, not immortal. Be quiet. I’m trying to kiss you.”

As William leaned in, my mind went blank. His lips
were soft on the corner of my mouth. It surprised me. He took my stillness as
permission and pulled me closer, one arm locking behind my back, the other
tangling in my messy hair.

It wasn’t my first kiss. Not even close to the
first, but as I kissed him back for that one split second before my brain
caught up with my lips, I realized it was the best kiss I’d ever had.

I pushed him back. “What was that about?” I asked.

William looked confused. “Do you not like being
kissed?”

I squeezed my eyes shut, glad it was dark so
William couldn’t see the blush I felt spreading across my cheeks and forehead.
“Um. . .yeah. I like being kissed, but I really don’t know you.”

He laughed. “So if I take you flying next week,
after we know each other a little better, then you’ll let me kiss you?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. I reminded
myself that William was older than the seventeen years he looked. He was
probably way more experienced than me. The thought made me blush even harder.
Now even my ears were hot.

“I’ll let you know next week,” I finally said. In
my head, I thought
please God don’t let me be here next week.

“Good.” He stepped closer and we were up in the
air before I could even take a breath. The flight back was much faster. William
held me tightly, pressing my face into his neck. I tried to hold myself away
from him, but then realized that probably wasn’t a great idea.

When we dropped down in the clearing next to the
fire, I blinked in surprise and stumbled away from William when he let me go.
He gave me a little smile and launched himself back into the air again.

I looked around. Most everyone was already asleep
on blankets near the fire or in hammocks strung between the few trees that
stood in the clearing between the streams. They didn’t seem to mind the rain
which had slackened a little but was probably going to start up again at any second.
I yawned, wondering if I was going to have to curl up in the mud. As I turned,
I caught Jasmine staring at me. Her face looked guarded and suspicious, but
when I yawned again, she shot me a sympathetic look and pointed behind me at a
hammock strung between two trees.

“I’ll be on guard duty tonight, so you can use
mine. We’ll work on building you one tomorrow. Put a palm frond over your face
to keep off the rain. If you have to get up at night, don’t cross the stream,”
she said.

I sighed and headed toward the hammock. “Why not?”
I asked.

She pointed off into the jungle. “The spiders
won’t cross running water, but if you go out there, you’ll be dead and eaten
before you even realize it.”

“Spiders?” I asked. I shuddered and waved a hand
at her as she began a spiel about six foot wide arachnids with immobilizing
venom. I really just didn’t want to know. Really. As I drifted off to sleep in
my hanging bed, I smiled. It was a good thing Jake was with the Captain. He
couldn’t handle spiders at all. He had fits if he saw the tiniest spider within
ten feet of him.

I stared at the mechanical spider where it sat in
front of me on its dagger tipped legs and shuddered. I’d tried to petition for
a less arachnid looking machine, but the Captain had insisted that the first
invention must be a spider. Its heart, an empty cage at the center of the
highly polished metal, waited for power before it would move, and I was
secretly glad that the Captain hadn’t been able to find anything that would
work.

I sighed and went back to assembling the parts of
the newest mechanical creature. I’d finished the spider in only a few hours, a
feat that was almost as disturbing as the fact that I knew it would work, just
by looking at it.

This new design looked like a wolf and was taking
a little longer. It was a better build than the spider, faster and easier to
program. Although my hands were bandaged from handling its serrated teeth, I
couldn’t help but run a loving hand over the thing’s cold, metal skull. I’d
never been able to build anything so beautiful before. My drawings back home
were similar to what I drafted here, but there, those steel beasts had no
chance of gaining life. Here, I had simply to draw it and the Captain provided
what I needed to bring the idea to life. Like magic, I knew what needed to
attach to where and what programs to install to make them work.

I didn’t think about what the Captain planned to
use what I was building for. That wasn’t my issue. I was the engineer, the
designer, the creator. The nagging voice at the back of my head that whispered
I was creating monsters was overwhelmed by the sheer joy of imagining something
and then watching it come to life under my hands. There was no fumbling for
parts or ideas. I simply looked at something and knew what was needed.

With a careful finger, I caressed the jaw of the
metal wolf, marveling at how easy it’d been to create. Attached to the jaw was
a hydraulic system that favored speed over power, but would still snip off
fingers and hands. Similar constructions moved the elbow joints of the wolf’s
legs and small copies allowed the wolf to flex its feet and toes. The
technology I used here didn’t even exist yet on Earth, but that didn’t mean
that it wasn’t sound. The island didn’t recognize Earth’s limitations, and
neither did I. My notebook was full of ideas and new clever ways of using the
unlimited potential of this place. I never wanted to leave.

I felt sorry that the Captain had sent Paige back
to Earth before she could see what I could do here. She’d always teased me
about my fantastic drawings of mechanical creatures. She preferred organic
creatures: unicorns, dragons, griffins, things like that. She said they were
magical, not mechanical, and more fun. Yes, I wished she could be here to see
what I’d built.

But then, I was glad she wasn’t here. The same
voice in my head that tried to nag me about my creations being used to kill
whispered that if she had been here, she would have stolen the spotlight. She
was smarter than me, just not in a techy way. She’d always taken the lead on
all of our projects and I’d grown used to letting her. We always succeeded when
she was in charge, so it was easy not to argue with her about stuff.

If she were here, she would tell me to escape,
even though I couldn’t. I was on a boat in the middle of an ocean, and the gate
we’d used to arrive didn’t exist here. The Captain had explained that it was
kind of like a wormhole in space, but one that only existed at certain times in
different places around the island. The gate in the abandoned warehouse back on
Earth only opened onto the ship every few months or so. Taking another gate
back might land me in China. I didn’t really care if the Captain was telling
the truth or not. I was given everything I needed to build and create the
things I’d been dreaming of most of my life. Why would I want to leave?

If Paige were here, if she came to rescue me
somehow, I’d tell her to leave me alone. I would miss her; we’d been friends
since we were in pre-school, but this was a better life than I could ever have
imagined for myself. Where else could I build steel wolves that actually ran
and jumped? Where else could I build steel wings that when strapped to
someone’s back could allow them to fly? The rules were different here: there
were no rules, and I was just fine with that. Plus, she had Tyler Condie to
hang out with now. She didn’t need me. My parents would be sad when I didn’t
come home, but they were gone most of the time anyway. They’d get over it.

“Boy!” The Captain’s shout broke me out of my
reverie, and I snapped to attention. I’d made the mistake at first of ignoring
the Captain when I was called, too intent in my work to bother answering. I
still had a black eye from the last time I’d tried it. I rubbed it and stared
at the box the Captain was carrying. It was covered with a bit of burlap, but
every now and then, my eyes caught a small arm poking out, tiny fist waving.
The squealing coming from under the cloth was almost deafening.

“What is that?” I asked.

The Captain grinned, showing surprisingly white
teeth for a pirate, and whipped the cloth off the box. “I’ve found what you
needed to make your machine’s work. A self-propagating energy source ripe for
the taking. There’s plenty more where these come from.”

I stared at the little fairies in amazement. Their
bodies were human looking, even if they were all sorts of weird colors, but
they were the size of my hand. Their wings were crumpled from being shoved in
the cage, but I could see they looked like large dragonfly wings. At that
thought, I whipped my notebook out and made a quick sketch. A steel dragon,
lightweight and quick, would be perfect for reconnaissance. I looked back up
from my sketch and shook my head.

“Those won’t work. I need electricity. How are
those fairies going to power six hundred pounds of steel?”

The Captain set the cage down on my work table and
without any warning, belted me across the face. The blow sent me crashing back
into the spider, which held my weight. The legs, engineered to scythe through
the jungle undergrowth like a hot spoon through ice cream, sliced a chunk out
of my calf. I didn’t scream. The captain didn’t like how loud it was in the
steel belly of his ship.

The Captain pointed at the cage with his hook
while the fairies stared back at me with wide, wet eyes. “You will find a way
to make it work, or I’ll kill you. Your creatures are worthless sculptures if
they can’t move.”

I stared at the fairies, desperately trying to
think of way to make it work. The Captain had explained right off that it was
the fairy dust on the island that gave people the ability to do amazing things.
There had to be energy in that, if only I could figure out a way to make it
work.

“I’ll do it,” I said, not sure if I could but
trusting my newfound skills to carry me through. I’d use the fairy dust to help
figure out a way to get power from the fairies. It was ironic and cruel, but so
was life. I knew the Captain would kill me if I didn’t figure it out, so I’d
figure it out.

The fairies, as if sensing my resolve, let loose
pitiful wails and enraged shrieks. The Captain grimaced and left, and after a
moment’s thought, I shoved two small strips of cloth from my torn clothing into
my ears. I didn’t need to hear their screams. It wouldn’t do them any good
anyway.

As I moved to cover them with the cloth again, a
small purple fairy twisted her head through the bars and bit my finger. I gave
a little shriek, wrenching my hand free. Blood streamed from the wound. I
darted a look back at the fairy. She bared her teeth and hissed. She raised her
small fist and shook it at me. I shuddered and turned away.

It was just barely light when William flipped my
hammock over and threw me on the ground. I popped up covered in leaves and
sticks to find Jasmine waiting with a piece of fruit and a cup of water. I
looked around and gave a little sigh of relief that it wasn’t raining.

“We make sure we’re awake before William can come
and do it for us. Saves a few bruises,” Jasmine said. She held out the food.

I took the food from the girl and bit in. The
fruit tasted like a mango mixed with an orange. I watched William as he went
around the clearing waking the other kids up. Knocking me out of my hammock
before the sun was up wasn’t really a good way of getting to know me. Still, I
couldn’t help but admire how graceful he was as he half walked, half flew
around the camp.

Jasmine leaned over me and pulled out a sword from
a rack on the wall of the lean-to behind the hammock. She held the sword out,
turning it back and forth before looking up at me.

“You know, he does this with all the new girls,”
she said.

I eyed the sword and set the bowl down. I’d never
even seen a sword before, at least not in real life, and seeing this teenage
girl strapping it to her hips with practiced grace sent a chill down my spine.
Her words cut through my shock over seeing the sword.

“Does what?” I asked.

She shot me a look. “Please. No reason to act
stupid. You know what I mean.”

I licked my lips and dropped my head, trying to
hide my blush. “Uh, sure,” I said. The idea of William taking each new girl off
to the waterfall made me sort of sick. I squared my shoulders. It wasn’t a big
deal. I wasn’t here to chase after some boy like some silly girl with a crush.
I squashed the tiny part of my brain that reminded me of how nice the kiss was
and pointed at the sword.

“What’s that for?” I changed the subject and
emptied the bowl of fruit into my mouth, not sure when I’d get to eat again.

Jasmine gave me a look, knowing full well I was
trying to distract her. “We’re going on a mission,” she finally said.

The militant gleam in the girl’s eyes made me
swallow wrong, and I choked on the last piece of my fruit.

“A mission?” My voice wheezed out of my throat,
and I coughed. When Jasmine leaned back over me, retrieved a long staff of
polished wood, and thrust it into my hands, I nearly dropped it.

“Yes,” Jasmine said. “And you’re coming too.
William specifically requested your attendance.”

I stood up and planted the staff on the ground.
“No. I’m not going. I’m not playing any of William’s war games.”

Jasmine dropped her hand until it was resting on
the hilt of her sword. She looked to see who’d heard my outburst. “You don’t
really have a choice,” she said. “It’s better if you just get used to it and go
along with whatever William says.”

“Or what?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Or the next time the Captain does a
raid on the camp or you need help, William won’t save you. You won’t last long
without his protection.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why would he do that? Why
bother rescuing us just to let us die later?”

I jumped as William’s voice sounded right in my
ear. “Because if you don’t fight, you’re a liability, a mouth to feed. I need
soldiers, not useless little girls.”

His words stung, and I turned around to face him,
but he was already across the clearing. He smirked at me and winked before
turning back to dragging a little kid out of his blankets.

“I am not a useless girl,” I said.

Jasmine kicked the bottom of the staff I held. It
banged into my shins, bringing tears to my eyes.

“Then prove it. Stop complaining and let’s go.”
Her voice was harsh, but her eyes were sad, as if she secretly agreed with me
but couldn’t say anything.

“Besides,” she said. “If you stay here, you’ve got
to dig another privy.”

She walked away. She was right. I’d rather go and
hit things with a stick than dig another hole. I followed her to where she
stood next to William. The rest of the kids had already lined up at the edge of
the clearing. Most of them were yawning and rubbing sleep out of their eyes.
Their ages ranged from six to fifteen, and every single one of them looked too
young to be carrying the weapons they were. When I saw an eight year old
caressing a mace with what looked like dried blood on its spikes, my stomach
rolled and I tried to fade back away from the line.

A burning touch at my shoulder stopped me, and I
turned to find Pyro giving me a happy grin.

“Don’t like digging, huh?” he asked.

I nodded, pretending that I hadn’t been trying to
sneak away. “What are we doing?”

Pyro shrugged. “Who knows. William will tell us
when we get closer.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. Caught up in the
group, I couldn’t stop myself from being forced forward when William thrust out
his arm and marched off into the jungle. When my bare feet splashed through the
stream, I tried to stop and was shoved forward into the kid in front of me.

“Wait,” I cried. “What about the spiders?” The
kids snickered and ignored me and kept marching. Pyro, reappearing at my side,
gave me a friendly pat on the arm that left a little patch of burned skin. I
winced and pulled away from him.

“The spiders only come out at night. Unless you
fall in one of their traps, you’re fine.”

“Traps?” I asked.

He led me a few feet into the woods and pointed at
the patch of ground in front of us.

“They dig a hole and then cover it with web and
leaves. When you step into the hole, the web breaks and you fall in. If you’re
lucky, you land on the spider, crush it, and just climb back out.”

I swallowed hard and stared at the ground. It looked
just like the rest of the forest floor. “What happens if you don’t land on the
spider?”

Pyro shrugged. “The spiders’ venom is paralyzing.
It only takes a few seconds, and then they eat you. Alive. Let’s see if there’s
something in this one. Sometimes they dig the trap and then forget where it is
when they come back at night. If you’re really lucky, the trap will be empty.”

He grabbed my staff and stabbed it through the
webbing. From below my feet, I heard a nervous shuffling and then a soft
hissing noise that sounded like steel wool on glass. I shuddered and waited for
the monster to explode up out of the hole, but when nothing happened, Pyro
pulled the stick up and handed it back to me. The light colored staff was dark
and glistening at the bottom. Deep gouges had been scratched into the wood.

“Don’t touch that end,” he suggested and wandered
away.

I stood there for a few seconds more, afraid to
turn my back on the pit, before hurrying to catch up with the group.

When we emerged into a natural clearing ringed
with giant moss-covered trees, I sank onto a log with a groan after checking to
make sure there weren’t any centipedes. I’d never walked so far in my life.
Every part of me was soaking wet and caked with mud. All I wanted was a hot
bath and a plate of spaghetti. At the thought of spaghetti with steaming,
cheesy garlic bread, my mouth started watering. William was giving some stupid
speech about snakes and cutting off their heads when I came out of my Italian
food fantasy.

When I looked where he was pointing and saw the
sword raised above his head, I thought I was imagining things. When he began to
swing the sword down, I lunged off the log and pushed him to the side. We both
lay sprawled on the ground. William stared up at me, his face tight with anger.
Jasmine came up and pulled William back to his feet. She looked down at me.

“Explain yourself,” she said.

I looked at the thick black wires William had been
calling snakes and pushed myself away. Now that I knew what I was listening
for, I could hear the buzz in the air. It made my teeth buzz, just like it did
at home.

“If William cuts these with his sword, he’ll die.”
I threw a quick glance at William. He was still angry. I sort of wished I’d
just let him fry himself.

The child I’d seen with the mace earlier that
morning rushed forward, his face twisted in a wild grin. The other kids seemed
to melt away as he leaped over the line and straddled it.

“I’ll get it, William!” he cried.

I shook my head and moved to pull the kid back to
safety, but William grabbed my arm.

“Stop,” I pleaded, but William’s face was set in a
hard, blank mask.

The little boy grinned at me and raised the mace
over his head with a wild war cry before bringing it down on the power line.
The severed line jumped and snapped like an enraged animal, but the boy stood,
rigid and unmoving, the muscles writhing beneath his skin. The smell of cooked
meat began to fill the air.

I wrenched myself free of William’s bruising grip
and swung my staff at the boy’s hand. The mace fell to the ground and the boy
slumped to the side. His arm, shoulder, and one side of his face were the color
of charred wood. He was dead.

I rounded on William. “What is wrong with you?” I
yelled. “Why wouldn’t you listen to me?”

I stepped closer, but William didn’t react. He was
staring at the boy, his face pale and shocked. His hands were clenched at his
sides. “I forgot,” he said.

I leaned in to hear his whisper. “What?” I asked.

“Some of the others told me about electricity, but
I forgot.”

I stepped back, confused. When William pushed past
me to stand over the dead boy, I let him go.

“The enemy has been vanquished! Our brother was
brave in the face of danger and has won a great victory against the Captain and
his abominations. We will remember him!” William’s voice shattered the silence
that had fallen over the jungle and the rag-tag group of children screamed and
hooted in response.

I let myself sink to the ground. What had William
meant when he said he’d forgotten about electricity? How could someone just forget
something like that? I thought back to the movies I’d seen about Peter Pan and
Neverland. The characters in those shows forgot too. They forgot who they were
and where they came from. Would that happen to me too? Would I forget Jake?

The thought made me sick and I heaved up my
breakfast until all that remained was thick, bitter stomach bile and the
slightly sweet, heavy taste of cooked meat on my tongue. Pyro came over and
helped me to my feet. He was smiling, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

I looked at him. “Did you forget about electricity
too?”

Pyro shrugged. “I didn’t remember until it was too
late.”

My stomach rolled again. “Do we all forget?”

Pyro shrugged again, but this time it was
defensive. His shoulders curved in and he crossed his arms over his chest.

I stared at him, unable to hide the pity in my
eyes.
I need to get out of here. Just get Jake and leave. This place is
cursed.
Before I could stand to confront William, we were off again,
following the black snake of line further into the jungle. We left the charred
corpse of the child behind, and I was the only one who looked back.