“Wait a minute,” Spencer said, glancing at the hall pass in Daisy’s hands. “Why is Baybee’s diaper smoking?”
Daisy looked down, her eyes widening. A wisp of white dust was floating up from the doll’s cloth covering. But that wasn’t all. Baybee’s head was starting to expand, the plastic stretching tightly, like a balloon threatening to pop at any second.
“I think I forgot to take the chalkboard eraser out of her,” Daisy said.
“She’s gonna blow!” Spencer snatched the doll from Daisy’s hand. Without a moment’s hesitation, he hurled Baybee through the broken windshield of the garbage truck.
The doll sailed through the air on a final kamikaze mission. Baybee struck the armored face of Leslie’s Filth and exploded with a loud
pop.
The chalk dust, which had been billowing and brewing inside the hall pass, formed an immediate cloud that engulfed the oncoming Pluggers.
“Drive faster!” Walter shouted at his niece. The chalk cloud was sweeping toward them. Penny picked up the pace, and Bernard moaned in defeat.
Scraping and bumping, the garbage truck rolled into the parking lot. The white cloud spread into the open air, consuming the side of the school but giving Penny a moment to turn the garbage truck around. In no time, the vehicle was limping away from Alsbury High School forever.
Daisy turned to Spencer, her eyes unblinking since the doll’s demise. “You killed Baybee!”
Spencer shrugged unconvincingly. “She might have survived.”
Alan reached forward and plucked something off the truck’s dashboard. It was a severed doll’s leg, charred and smoldering. It must have shot back into the truck when Baybee exploded.
Daisy snatched the doll leg and held it close. “Rest in peace, Baybee. Rest in peace.”
P
enny paused in the parking lot, the damaged truck idling noisily.
“Which way do I go?” she asked.
Spencer glanced back at the high school. None of the Pluggers had emerged from the chalk explosion, but waiting for directions made him uncomfortable.
Walter had the paper-towel map resting on his knees. The warlock had unrolled a foot or two and was trying to make sense of the directions.
“If this is Alsbury High School,” he pointed at the map, “then we need to go left.” He dragged his finger along the highlighted route. Penny turned the wheel and pulled out.
“You’re supposed to stop for the crosswalk,” Daisy said. Penny shrugged as she drove over it. “Forget the crosswalks. Not many pedestrians out before dawn.”
Walter quickly counted the streets on the map. “In four blocks, you need to turn right.”
“Well,” Bernard said, emerging from under his cap. “You sound like a genuine GPS.”
Penny halted at the stop sign and followed her uncle’s directions. “What next?”
Walter traced the highlighted route, his eyebrows bushing together. “Hmm. The trail runs off the edge of the map.”
“So, that’s it?” Daisy asked.
“Six hundred feet of map and we’re there in four blocks?” Bernard pulled a face.
Walter unrolled another length of paper towel. “The route continues farther on,” he said. “But it seems like we’re missing a portion.”
Penny stopped at a red light. “Can’t we just skip ahead?”
“I don’t think so,” Alan said. “The Auran clues are hard to decipher, but once you figure them out, they’re usually quite specific. We might miss something important if we don’t follow the route.”
“There is no route,” Bernard said.
“What about the other side?” Spencer suggested. “It’s got to be double sided for a reason.”
Walter flipped over the paper towel and found another fragment of the highlighted route. “This side’s no better.”
“Wait a minute,” Alan said, his voice a dawning of realization. “You’ve got to fold it. Fold the paper towel so that the route on the front connects with the route on the back.”
The stoplight turned green, and Penny inched the truck through the intersection. Walter folded the paper on an
angle and, sure enough, the routes from the front and back connected.
“TURN LEFT!” Walter and Alan shouted in unison. Penny slammed on the brakes and cranked the wheel, catching the curb as she redirected the garbage truck.
Alan and Walter worked together now, one unrolling the paper towels while the other folded to connect the highlighted route.
“Might as well get comfy, kids,” Bernard said, reclining in his seat. “Only about five hundred and ninety feet of map to go.”
S
pencer didn’t remember falling asleep, but he awoke with the morning sunlight on his face. Wind came through the truck’s shattered windshield, but it hadn’t been enough to keep him awake.
Spencer wiggled his toes, warm in a new pair of shoes from the duffel bag. Bernard and Daisy were still snoring softly, but Penny was hunched over the steering wheel, her eyes looking hollow and sleep deprived. Walter and Alan looked no better.
The cab of the truck was full of paper towels. The map filled the space around their legs and covered everyone’s laps. Hundreds of folds and creases whipped in the wind as the two men continued to unroll and match the route.
“Merge into the left lane,” Walter muttered. The enthusiasm was gone from his voice. Spencer glanced at the Mickey Mouse clock on the dash. It was a little after six. They’d been following the map for over two hours.
Spencer looked at the roll in his dad’s hands. There wasn’t much paper left on the tube. They had to be getting close. Glancing through the broken windows, Spencer noticed that there was no sign of civilization anywhere.
“Where are we?” he finally asked. The last thing he remembered was a series of pointless turns through the suburbs of Austin. Now they were on a highway, moving at a decent speed.
“Somewhere in the Texas wilderness,” his dad answered. “After taking a tedious tour of schools in the Lone Star State.”
“What do you mean?” Spencer said.
“Dumb map led us in circles for a long time,” Penny answered. “I bet we drove past twenty schools.”
“Were we supposed to stop?” Spencer asked. “What if there was something at the schools that we were supposed to pick up?”
“We’re
supposed
to follow this map,” Walter said. “And in about ten more feet, we’ll know why.”
Penny suddenly let off the gas pedal, and the big truck gradually began to slow. “What are these yahoos up to?” she muttered, squinting at the road ahead. Walter, Spencer, and his dad looked up from the map.
There were two white vans parked broadside across the road ahead. They blocked both lanes of traffic and appeared to be in no hurry to move. Penny continued to slow down, and the change of pace awoke Bernard and Daisy.
“There hasn’t been a single car on this road,” Walter said, “and then two white vans decide to park in the middle?” He shook his bald head. “Everything about this is suspicious.”
Bernard dug through the unraveled paper towels and reached under the seat. He withdrew a pair of dusty binoculars and squinted his beady eyes through the lenses.
“Definitely BEM vans.” The garbologist passed the binoculars to Walter. “Dummies didn’t even bother to cover the Bureau seal.”
“Hold on,” Penny said, accelerating once more. “We’re bigger than they are. We’ll just bash through ’em.”
“I think not!” Bernard said. “You already bashed through a school. I’m not sure how much more bashing this baby can take!” He reached up and patted the dashboard.
“Can you swerve around them?” Daisy asked.
“The ditch is too deep,” Penny said. “We’ll roll.”
“Take a left!” Alan shouted, making a crease in the paper towel.
“There isn’t a road!” Penny yelled back.
“The map says to turn left!” Alan pointed ahead. “There! By that tree!”
Not far ahead, just yards from the BEM vans, Spencer saw a gnarled mesquite tree. Jutting off the side of the highway, narrow and inconspicuous in the tree’s shadow, was a dirt road. It didn’t seem to lead anywhere, and Spencer couldn’t help but question the map.
Penny had to slow down to make the tight corner. Even still, she grated against the mesquite tree, snapping off a few of the thinner branches.
Spencer glanced back at the white vans. The drivers were fumbling with the keys, desperate to overtake the garbage truck.
“Bet they’re feeling sheepish!” Bernard said. “Set up the roadblock on the wrong road.”
“They’re as clueless to where we’re going as we are,” Walter replied.
The garbage truck jarred and bounced along the washboards of the dry dirt road. Dust billowed out behind them like a dingy cloud. Without the truck’s windshield gone, a strong breeze whipped the dirt into their faces, and they choked for a breath of fresh air.
The white vans handled far better on the bumpy road. In no time, they were nudging in behind the Rebel garbage truck.
“Low fuel light just clicked on!” Penny announced. “Don’t know how much farther we can run.”
“We’re almost there!” Alan shouted, unrolling the last length of map. The paper towel slipped off the bare cardboard tube, and Alan stretched the directions tight. “Straight on till morning!”
The garbage truck clipped past another scraggly mesquite tree and the dirt road rose up a steady hill. Penny pressed the gas pedal to the floor, the vehicle feeling like it might shake apart at any minute.
“I think I can, I think I can,” Bernard chanted as they lost speed up the incline. Spencer was clutching his seat belt with both hands, and Daisy’s grip was sweaty on his arm.
The white BEM vans were gaining.
Then the garbage truck crested the ridge, and the road sloped downward. At the top of the ridge, the Rebels could see what had been hidden before.
Straight ahead was a wide and deep gorge. The impossible chasm stretched out of sight on both sides, encircling the largest pile of trash Spencer had ever seen.
This was the secret landfill! The paper-towel map had actually led them right! But the veritable mountain of garbage was unreachable, surrounded completely by the intimidating gorge. They would be forced to stop at the edge. If they did that, the BEM vans would catch up for sure.
The speed that was lost driving uphill quickly returned on the downward slope. The garbage truck thundered ahead, bucking so violently that Spencer wouldn’t have been surprised to see the wheels fly off. Penny was hunched over the steering wheel with no apparent inclination to slow down.
“I don’t mean to be a backseat driver,” Bernard said, “but in case you didn’t notice, we’re doing sixty toward the edge of the Grand Canyon!”
“I thought the Grand Canyon was in Arizona!” Daisy said.
“Then this must be its little brother!” Bernard called back.
Walter, somehow remaining calm, squinted through the binoculars. “I think there’s a bridge!”
Spencer peered ahead, but the truck was bouncing so much he couldn’t see anything.
Walter lowered the binoculars. “The bridge should take us over the gorge and into the landfill!”
Like a madwoman behind the wheel, Penny continued to accelerate toward the drop-off. All hope for survival was riding on what Walter thought he saw through the dust and binoculars.
“Get your brooms ready!” Alan shouted at the kids. “In case we don’t make it, maybe you can still fly out of this mess.”
Daisy reached down to her belt, eyes widening. “My broom got crushed at the high school! Anybody got an extra? I’ll give it right back when I’m done.”
A strong gust of wind crossed the road. For a moment the dust cleared. Not ten yards ahead, just as Walter had described, a strong paved bridge stretched across the deep gorge. It was flat, with an arch of supportive steel beams underneath.
What Walter hadn’t seen was the metal gate, chained and locked to prevent anyone from entering the bridge. A huge white sign hung on the metal gate, its bold red lettering easy to read:
WARNING: NO TRESPASSING AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT
And in tiny letters across the bottom, Spencer caught a glimpse of the last sentence:
VIOLATORS WILL FALL TO THEIR DOOM
He didn’t have time to shout a warning. No sooner had he read the sign than Penny smashed through the metal gate. Bernard winced and put both hands on his head. Daisy screamed. Spencer suddenly felt his dad’s hand slide onto his shoulder. Alan gave it a firm squeeze, like he wouldn’t let go of his son no matter what happened.
The garbage truck rolled out onto the bridge. After the rough dirt road, the pavement felt so smooth that Spencer thought for sure they were free-falling. His dad’s grip lightened a bit, and Daisy stopped screaming. Penny took advantage of the level bridge by accelerating to even more dangerous speeds.
The garbage truck was more than halfway across when the white BEM vans swerved through the wrecked gate and pulled onto the bridge.
There was a sudden groan from the steel supports under the bridge. The terrible grating sound resonated in the dry gorge. There was a sharp metallic
clang,
and Spencer saw one of the steel beams break away. Bent like a boomerang, it whirled through the dusty air, plummeting the unfathomable depth of the gorge.
Immediately, the bridge tilted. The garbage truck lurched, and Penny corrected with the steering wheel, nearly sending them over the edge. There was another sound, this one louder than before, as the steel supports buckled together.
The asphalt cracked, and the edge of the road crumbled like a stale cookie. The bridge was sagging in the middle, and the garbage truck puttered as it climbed upward.
They were so close to the other side! Spencer realized that he was holding his breath, both hands gripping the dashboard. Daisy had her eyes closed, mumbling something incoherent.
The bridge gave a final shriek as steel folded on steel. The rear wheels of the garbage truck had just touched solid ground when the bridge collapsed completely. Both BEM vans were caught in the free fall, spiraling downward until they looked no bigger than Matchbox cars.