Doorways to Everywhere (Tourist Trap Book 2)

Chapter 22

"I don't know," Sadie said as she clutched at her forehead. "I suddenly feel really weird."

Nulfar looked up with interest. "Perhaps you are exhibiting a delayed reaction to the Arcturan snake milk I gave you. I shall have to make a note of this."

"This thing isn't as easy to steer as you made it look," Zeke mumbled as he began turning the steering mechanism rapidly one direction than the other. Without warning he felt as if his stomach had climbed up into his throat. "I think we might be falling out of the sky."

The thunderous crash that followed a moment later proved that Zeke's theory was indeed correct.

*

Dr. Wentworth paced back and forth and repeatedly looked at his wristwatch. "Where is that boy? I have finally completed my greatest invention, the device that will allow me to utterly destroy that despicable Octavius once and for all, and I am unable to test it out to see if it even works. If only I weren't surrounded by incompetence! I'm afraid young Eustace will never make a proper mad scientist at this rate. I'll have to phone up the community college and see if they can send me someone else."

The door flung open and Eustace walked in with a big shit-eating grin on his face. "You'll be happy to learn that I've located a test subject, sir."

"Excellent!" Dr. Wentworth thrust both his fists in the air in triumph and laughed maniacally. "Where is this person?"

"He's following me in his car," Eustace said. "He should be here shortly. He was very eager to come meet you after I explained everything to him."

Dr. Wentworth's smile fell sharply. "What do you mean you explained everything to him?"

"He asked me what I was doing so I went into thorough detail about you and your mind control device and how you wanted me to kidnap somebody so you could test it out on them."

"What? You idiot! This is top secret work we're doing here. You're not supposed to explain what we're doing to people. You're supposed to bop them over the head and drag their unconscious body here. Either that or lure them to come under false pretenses. You may have attracted the wrong sort of attention."

"Oh good, he's here," Eustace said.

A uniformed police officer entered the room with his gun drawn. "Dr. Jonas Wentworth? You're under arrest for kidnapping and attempting to conquer the world."

*

Zeke slowly regained consciousness and couldn't help but notice a large lizard-like creature with big round bulbous eyes sniffing at his feet. "Hey what do you think you're doing?"

The creature's eyes extended upwards on two antenna-like stalks and peered at Zeke. It opened its mouth and an array of blue, orange, and red lights shot out. The colors lingered in the air for a few seconds and then slowly dissipated. The creature retracted its eyes and resumed sniffing Zeke's feet.

Zeke attempted to sit up and then laid back down with a groan. He ached all over his body. Looking around, he realized he was resting in the wrecked remains of the flying saucer. He was on top of a chunk of control panel with twisted bits of metal and broken gears scattered all around him. The crash seemed to have blown the saucer wide open as he could see the reddish tinted sky overhead and could also see a large grove of trees out of his peripheral vision. He had no idea where Sadie or Nulfar were.