Elliott pulled the SUV to a halt at the far end of a lengthy parking lot. “Okay, kids. Welcome to Walley World. Looks closed. If only there was a forest creature out front who could’ve given us a heads up.”
“Dad, you’re the lamest person I’ve ever met,” Brandon groaned as he unbuckled his seat belt.
“Why are we so far away?” Cassidy asked, and Elliott immediately regretted bringing the two kids.
Two other SUVs, each carrying six Guardians from Roatan, pulled into spots nearby. Meagan and Smith, an essentially useless Guardian, sat in the back and Elliott looked at them for confirmation about how ridiculous “kids these days” were but only found a concerned look on Meagan’s pretty face and an absent one on Smith’s. He should’ve looked to Jamie for support, but then he was probably watching Ashley’s hunt and wouldn’t have noticed Elliott’s plea for support either.
“We parked out here so they don’t see us coming. There are only about five or six Vampires here, our sources say, but this is a huge area to cover, and there are only eighteen of us, so taking them by surprise would be great.” He pulled his door open and got out, the others following suit. “Also... this way we’ll be the first to the exit when the park closes.” He looked at their faces, but the two teenagers didn’t seem to get the National Lampoon reference. Elliott gave up.
“Awesome. Abandoned amusement parks are the best,” Cassidy muttered as she walked behind him. She sounded distracted, and he imagined that was because her sister was likely already attacking in Osceola. While they’d staggered their departure from headquarters to all essentially arrive at the same time, it hadn’t worked out quite right, and he’d gotten to Wichita a little off schedule. He knew the group going to Columbia hadn’t arrived yet either, but they should be at their destination soon. That was Aurora’s group, and he was glad she wasn’t engaged yet because he would have also found himself distracted.
As they walked across the parking lot, the team spread out, only Elliott, Cass and Brandon staying together. Elliott’s goal was to find a nice place to park Cass and leave her where she could do her thing and still be safe, but he knew the IACs were already acting up because he couldn’t see what was going on with Cadence. Once the team had knocked the door down, he’d seen her run the length of the warehouse, and then everything went black.
Over his shoulder, he asked, “Cass, what’s up with your sister’s IAC? I can see Aaron, but not her.”
“I’m not sure,” Cassidy admitted. “I’m trying to block Holland and get her back on, but I feel like the bitch is focusing everything she’s got into disrupting Cadence right now.”
Elliott didn’t like the sound of that, but he kept walking. “Aaron, I see you’re pretty busy playing wack-a-Vampire with the pop up crates, but I don’t think Cadence knows what’s happening with you. I’ve lost her. Can you see her?”
“Negative,” Aaron answered as he shot down another Vampire in yet another crate, slowly creeping his way toward his fiancée’s location. “I’m working as fast as I can.”
Seeing no reason to further distract him, Elliott kept his response to himself. They were almost to the gate anyway. He looked up and saw a giant sign that read “Happyland.” He had read online that this amusement park had opened in the 1940s but closed about fifteen years ago. Apparently, the rides were so old, it was costing more to maintain them than the park was bringing in. It was a shame. Riding an actual rollercoaster right now, instead of just an emotional one, would’ve been a lot more fun.
The place looked to have fallen into even further disrepair since it closed down, and Elliott imagined it was difficult to keep teens out of here. He used his X-ray vision to scan the place but didn’t see anyone hanging around causing trouble, and they all entered through various points in the shabby fence or even through the front entrance.
A ticket booth looked like as good a place to station Cass and Brandon as any other, so he broke the lock off and said, “This is where I leave you. Be careful.”
“Damn, I wish I was in on this,” Brandon muttered.
“I’d happily swap you out for Smith, but I don’t think that would be in Cass’s best interest.”
“Or you could just let me go.” Cassidy smiled up at him like she was asking for a pony for Christmas.
“If she moves, shoot her,” he said to Brandon, joking but hoping she caught his drift. He was growing tired of her shenanigans.
Once the pair of them were settled, he hurried off to meet up with Meagan. She was the only Hunter in the group, and he wanted to keep an eye on her.
He found her not far away, standing near the opening of the old fun house. Her Glock was drawn, and she was approaching cautiously like she’d seen something. Smith was gone, and Elliott used his IAC to see him running across the pavement in pursuit of something that looked like a clown. Elsewhere, he saw Guardians running after shadows and wondered how he had missed all of that, or was something wonky going on with his IAC again?
“What is it, Meag?” he called to her, with his voice.
Startled, she jumped slightly but didn’t turn around. “I thought I saw… something.”
He came up on her lightning quick, his Beretta out. “What did you see?”
“Uh, not sure.”
That didn’t sound good to him, but he didn’t press her. “Well, let’s investigate.”
They walked inside, careful not to trip over the uneven floorboards. It was almost pitch black inside, but they could gather just enough light with their enhanced eyesight and IACs to see how the floors slanted and the hallways broke off into different rooms full of fun. Elliott stepped cautiously, keeping Meagan in his sights at all times. Up ahead of them, he thought he heard the floorboards creak, but the hall turned, and he couldn’t see what was around the corner without accessing his X-ray vision, and by the time he had it on, whatever it was seemed to have slipped away.
Meagan fell behind him, and he went around first, his gun ready to fire. Then, he saw what she had seen, and his mouth dropped open. Up ahead of them, a figure turned a corner, disappearing from sight, but not until he got a good enough look at familiar gray hair and a wrinkly face unchanged by the fresh puncture wound in his neck.
“Sam,” Elliott muttered, hell bent on getting him and paying him back for what the Hunter had done to him at Sierraville. It was no wonder Meagan had frozen. Sam had been trying to kill her, too, with his titanium bullets, the ones they had loaded in their Glocks now. The Beretta’s shot silver streams, but those were also enhanced with titanium. Still, when he caught up to Sam, it wouldn’t be a bullet that would end him. Elliott would take his time destroying the cowboy.
Right before he took off behind the old bastard, he felt a prick in his neck and saw a flicker of white, a hand. He opened fire, sending a stream of deadly silver into the Vampire lurking in the shadows, and it burst into ash almost instantaneously. But the damage was already done. When Elliott reached for his neck, he realized he’d been given some sort of injection. The last thing he heard was Meagan screaming his name before he hit the ground.
