The Imagination Machine

Chapter 20

Lucretia stepped forward and pushed, but again was met with resistance. "Why can't I do that?" he said, frustrated. 

Courtney stepped back and grabbed Rudy's backpack by one of its straps. "Hold on you guys, get out of the way for a second," she said.

"Why? What are you going to do?" Lucretia asked.

"Just move aside. You'll see."

As soon as Lucretia and Rudy stepped out of the way, Courtney flung the backpack by its straps at the 'wall'. 

Without as much as a sound, the backpack disappeared completely into thin air, letting out a stream of ripples around it.

For a minute, the four of them, including Sable, stared in shock.

"Where did it go?!" Lucretia finally exclaimed.

"Please tell me you all just saw what I saw," Rudy said.

Sable pointed at where the backpack had been. "What happen'?" she wanted to know.

Courtney walked slowly back up to the 'wall'. She had never seen anything like it before. "Rudy, do you think this is some kind of portal? Maybe it leads back to...well, you know..."

Rudy walked up to Courtney and stood beside her. "You think this leads back home?" he said in a whisper.

Courtney frowned and looked at her wrist, where her gray wristband was still tied. The wristband and red button had faded by now. Courtney smacked the button, but as usual, nothing happened. 

"I hope it does," Rudy said. "I miss mom and dad."

Courtney looked back at the wall. She missed her parents too. And her friends. This could be some kind of way back home. It might have just been the end of whatever world they'd been pulled into. But she didn't want to do anything until she was sure of what it actually was. Maybe it led into some kind of other dimension. Maybe that was why Lucretia's friends had never made it back over the mountain. Because they, just like Rudy's backpack, had gone into this wall and never come back. Courtney bit her lip and glanced back at her brother. 

"I think I have to go in there," she said. "Alone."

"Why alone?" Rudy demanded.

"Because I don't know what's really back there. I don't want all of us to go in until we know it's safe. But don't worry, I have an idea. Hey, Lucretia!"

As soon as Lucretia had walked over to her, Courtney grabbed his arm. "I don't know why, but whatever this thing is? It's solid for you," she said. "I need you to hold my hand while I go inside it. As soon as I see what it is, I'll give you two tugs. As soon as I do that, you pull hard and get me back here. Okay?"

Lucretia took hold of her shoulder. "I cannot let you go in there. What if something bad happens?"

Courtney gently pulled her shoulder out of his grip. "Nothing bad's gonna happen to me. You got my back, right?" she held out her hand to him and Lucretia took it. 

"Okay, but just please be careful," he said, taking her hand and standing back as Courtney inched toward the wall. Rudy held Sable tightly and watched from a distance. Taking a deep breath, as if she were about to jump into a pool, she took a big step forward. She hoped these weren't the last few moments of her life, or that she wasn't about to somehow step into outer space or a fourth dimension. 

Courtney didn't feel anything as she stepped into the force-field. At first, the mountains and the grass were there. And then, they weren't. Then there was a flash of blinding white light, making it hard for her to see, as Rudy had said. Courtney stumbled forward and ended up tripping on something. As she fell to the ground, something heavy slammed against her and ended up trapping her knee against the ground.

Eventually, Courtney's vision cleared and she was able to stand up, pushing off the object that was trapping her. She realized with horror that Lucretia was crumpled at her feet. Somehow, he had fallen through the wall with her. He had been the 'object' that was trapping her to the floor. "Uh-oh," she muttered.

Courtney tugged Lucretia to his feet and held his hand tight. "Lucretia, I'm so sorry-" she cut herself off as she realized that she was know able to see what was around her. They were in a large room packed to the brim with high-tech monitors and laptops. There was one monitor at the end of the room which filled up an entire wall. Big, comfy-looking chairs sat at every desk, and one of the desks contained what looked like a keyboard with a complicated array of buttons and switches. Courtney had no idea where they were, but she knew for sure that they weren't back at her house in New York.

All of a sudden, Courtney heard footsteps behind her. There was a familiar-sounding click and something cold pressed against her neck. "Put your hands in the air, turn around, and don't move," a voice commanded. Trembling, Courtney put her arms up and turned slowly on her heel. She had only seen people get shot before on television. It wasn't something she thought could happen to her. Lucretia obeyed the command too, looking confused. 

To her astonishment, the person threatening them was a skinny little girl, who looked as though she were only a little bit older than Rudy. She looked to be Asian and was wearing a shirt with a band name Courtney didn't recognize. In her hand was a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, which Courtney recognized from one of her dad's books on guns. The little girl looked surprisingly calm to be holding a deadly weapon in her hands. "Who are you two?" she asked in a cold voice.

"What is that thing?" Lucretia asked, pointing at the gun. 

"I said, who are you? How'd you get in here? Answer me!" the girl demanded. She was trying to sound tough, but the slight quiver in her voice betrayed her. 

"Um, listen, kid..." Courtney began. She wasn't sure if this girl would believe that they had stepped through a transparent portal from a fantasy world dreamed up by a machine and somehow ended up where they were. 

Then the girl's eyes widened as she took in Courtney and Lucretia's faces more carefully. The weapon dropped from her hands and fell to the ground. "Wait, you guys are...no way," she whispered. "But how-?"

 Courtney and Lucretia gave each other a look. The girl looked like she had just seen a ghost.

The little girl lifted her wrist to her mouth. On her wrist was what appeared to be a watch. The girl pressed a button on the watch and spoke. "Hey uh, Noah? We got a problem. I think Courtney and Lucretia just broke through the barrier."