Free Hollow World by Nick Pobursky Page B

feeling that he was somehow connected to this man, but he could recall no person he’d ever encountered who fit the bill—who exuded this amount of insanity and ingenuity.
    Charlie stood, intending to check on the bus driver and see what progress she’d made when he noticed his surroundings. They had not made it far from the Magic Kingdom before they had lost the tire, and Charlie recognized where they were. To one side stood a small copse of trees with water on the other side, and to the other lay a field through which the monorail track ran. They were on a stretch of World Drive, approximately a hundred yards from the corner of West Wilderness Road, the road that led directly to the Wilderness Lodge. Charlie decided that his best bet would be to make his way to the Lodge, in the hope that he could avoid speaking to anyone who came along to repair the bus or to transport the stranded guests. He stepped inside the bus.
    Spying the bus driver’s name tag, he spoke to her: “Um, Cathy?”
    “Yes?” she asked. Charlie noticed people staring at them, straining to listen in, and it made him uncomfortable.
    “The bus should be fine. Whatever we hit must still be back there somewhere. There’s no other damage to the bus; luckily it was just the tire. Any news on the jack?” he asked, returning Cathy’s flashlight.
    “They’re sending someone out to repair the tire, along with another bus to get everyone back to the resort. They should be here in about a half-hour.”
    “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to head over to the Wilderness Lodge to call my wife,” he lied. “I don’t have my phone on me and I’ve been gone longer than I told her I would be. I’ll bet she’s worried sick.”
    “Are you sure?” she asked. “It will be much safer to wait for the replacement bus and I’m certain someone here would let you borrow their phone.”
    “You don’t know my wife,” he joked, playing a different character. “It would be safer to swim across Bay Lake than it would be to show up late.”
    She laughed and nodded.
    “Can I at least give you directions?” she asked.
    “No need,” he shot back, smiling. “I know this place like the back of my hand.”
    With a few words of gratitude from Cathy, Charlie made his way off the bus, relieved to have been able to get away from the bus without being questioned. Although night had fully fallen, the sky was clear, with a nearly full moon, so Charlie had plenty of light to see where he was headed. Within ten minutes, he had come within eyesight of the great Wilderness Lodge. Powerful fluorescent floodlights illuminated everything within a couple hundred yards of the great log-cabin style structure. Charlie made his way past the parking lot and eventually ended up at the main entrance to the building.
    Stepping inside, he smelled the delicious aroma of the fantastic food at the Whispering Canyon Cafe—the restaurant only recently having stopped serving for the night. His mind tried to relax—and it almost succeeded before he remembered that his family was missing, and that at least one brilliant psychopath was playing cruel games at his expense. His mind returned to the present and his shoulders slumped. For the first time since this ordeal began, Charlie realized how exhausted he really was. His eyes hurt, his head was pounding and his muscles ached, even though he hadn’t done anything physically exerting in days. On top of everything else, he still had to catch a bus to one of the parks to get another back to the Caribbean Beach Resort.
    Charlie Walker was a mess.
    The promising young detective stumbled over to one of the chairs in the middle of the massive, high-ceilinged lobby and collapsed within it. Leaning his head back against the soft cushion, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. His visions were haunted by the image of Meghan’s tortured face from just moments before they’d entered the tunnel. The machine that was Charlie Walker was beginning to