Ridley Pearson - Power Play

“How could they know where we are?” Amanda cried out. “How is that possible?”

Finn didn’t answer. He knew that when it came to the Overtakers, anything was possible.

“We have to stop it,” he said, looking for options. He shoved his back against the seat and tried to slip out of the chest restraint. It was the same kind of restraint used on real roller coasters-a padded pipe that pulled down over your head. There was some slack in the way it fit. He got about halfway out before getting stuck.

“You’re going to crush yourself!” she said.

The simulator spun sideways and rotated forward in full circles seven times. Finn felt his dinner coming up again. Each time he took his eyes off the screen he felt sick. He tried to focus on the screen the way his father had told him to focus on the horizon when seasick. The nausea passed. He was okay.

They fell hundreds of feet, facedown.

Finn squeezed back into his seat, unable to free himself.

“We…have…to…do…something!” he said.

“I’m up for suggestions,” she answered. Oddly, Amanda sounded suddenly collected and unaffected by the flips and twirls and drops. She could actually string a sentence together.

Then it struck him: Amanda had a unique power.

“Push…it…open,” Finn shouted over the roar of the simulator’s disintegrating parts. Amanda flashed him a look, her dark hair hanging fully upside down, her cheeks vibrating like Jell-O. Her eyes strained to find the hatch door that Megan had closed electronically. Neither of them knew exactly what was up or down any longer.

“It’s too strong! I heard it lock,” she said.

So had he, but what choice did they have? “You…have…to…try!”

If the seal broke, maybe it would initiate an automatic shutdown.

“Could be dangerous!” she said. For me, Amanda was thinking. How would they explain the damage to the simulator? Damage that would come from the inside? So far in her life her “gift”-as some called it-had only gotten her in trouble or made her the object of teasing. Subjugated at the age of eight to a foster home for freaks in Baltimore-the Fairlies-she’d been studied by scientists, doctors, and soldiers until she’d had no choice but to run away with Jess. She had no urgent desire to make a scene with her gift and bring all that down on herself again.

They jerked violently left, right, front, back, and left again. Finn’s head felt as if it was going to come off his neck. Dangerous? he wanted to say. Really?

Amanda couldn’t risk Finn’s getting hurt. She released her bloodless grip on the chest restraint, reaching toward the screen with outstretched arms. Finn watched her close her eyes, bend her elbows, and flatten her hands, palms facing out like a traffic cop’s. She pushed up over her head-all at once, and with every ounce of strength she possessed.

The metal bulged like it had been hit with a battering ram. Red paint flakes rained down. Sparks flew.

“Again!” he hollered.

“Too strong!” she complained.

“You’re all we’ve got.” The vibrations climbed toward a climax. The push had made the simulator lean even farther to the left; the grinding of metal was now louder than the sound effects.

He smelled electrical smoke. They were going to suffocate.

“EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!” he shouted.

The act of pushing drained Amanda. At low levels she could briefly levitate a person or object-cause them to float for a few seconds. Using up more of herself, she could shove a car a few feet in a parking space, or knock a group of people-or Overtakers-off their feet. Or bend a simulator hatch door. Finn needed her to give it her all.

“O…M…G!” she screamed.

On the screen, the track ahead of them rose, fell, and tilted to the right before…disappearing. It looked as if someone had simply erased the track-it broke off in space. Below the break was a rock canyon so deep that Finn couldn’t see the bottom.

The simulator shuddered. The smell of an electrical short-like the air before a storm-continued to flood the cabin. Their screams were lost amid the groan and complaint of the failing mechanics.

The car reached the end of the track and flew off into space.

Amanda thrust her arms toward the overhead door, but this time like she was lifting an incredibly heavy set of gym weights. Going for an Olympic record.

“STEADY!” Finn shouted, as the car tilted down, now plummeting into the depths of the rock canyon.

The hatch door rumbled and bent, bulged and shuddered, the seal cracking open, first a fraction of an inch, then wider.

“MORE!!!!” Finn said, as the ground-a rock bottom, like a dry riverbed-rushed toward them at over three hundred miles per hour.

The cry of the metal hatch now overpowered any other sound. Amanda’s face was scarlet and sweaty, her arm muscles bulging as her bones seemed to bend to breaking.

The sheet metal tore at the location of both pneumatic hook locks that secured the hatch.

Two inches…three…

The lid blew open.

The ride shut down. Smoke coiled from motors and servos.

A group of Cast Members rushed inside, aiming fire extinguishers that belched a yellow foam.

Finn and Amanda hung against the chest restraints as the simulator rotated forward ninety degrees, facing the ground. It made it hard to see what was going on. Some guy was shouting a bunch of orders.

Finn heard Megan say, “Are you okay? We’re getting you out! Hang on, you’re almost out.”

The chest restraints released without notice. Finn and Amanda fell, crashing into the flat-panel display and cracking its safety glass. Finn helped Amanda up, and Megan offered them her hand. They climbed out.

“Wow,” Finn said, “that’s incredibly lifelike.”

Amanda played along. “Must be expensive if they do that every time.”

They exited from the smoke and chaos. Charlene stood there, her full attention on their joined hands. Finn hadn’t even realized that he and Amanda were holding hands. He let go a little abruptly.

Charlene leaned in to examine the twisted wreckage. Smoke and steam and the gas from the fire extinguishers commingled. She fanned it away from her face.

“What happened in there?” she asked.

Amanda said, “I think next time I’ll design my own ride.”

“You don’t think I had something to do with that…that…” Charlene stammered, “…with whatever happened in there, do you?”

“You mean just because you talked us into coming here in the first place and you designed our roller coaster? Now, why would I think that?” Amanda said.

“Finn?” Charlene pleaded.

“You gave us the card, Charlie,” he said, using a nickname for her only he used. “You designed the ride.” And Maleficent’s locked in a jail cell, he felt like adding. Use of her nickname was an attempt at intimacy, to remind her that he still considered her a close friend, despite what had happened. But it backfired. Amanda heard him and clearly resented it.

“Really?” Amanda said to him. “You’re going to sweet-talk her after she almost killed us ?” She stormed off down the exit stairs.

“Amanda! Wait!” Finn called after her.

“I promise you,” Charlene said, “I didn’t do anything! I had nothing to do with this. It wasn’t me!”

They’d been close friends for more than two years. Finn said, “Listen, do I want to think you sabotaged the simulator? Come on!” But she’d designed the ride, he reminded himself.

Finn couldn’t let Amanda get away. He hurried out after her. Charlene followed at a run.

The building seemed more crowded. He recognized nearly everyone-even though there were four hundred kids in his grade.