Chapter 390
Margie Joplin is the sort of beast I aspire to be one day. Sure, my sister’s fierce, but seeing that tiny woman with the blue hair rip through Vampires like they were unsuspecting customers standing in line for a corny dog at the state fair gets me excited every time. Now that she has X-ray vision and can move faster than lightning, it was even more stellar. The second Paul led his team into Larundel with Margie right behind him, I had no doubt they were going to get the Guardians out okay.
It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, though. I figured out whose head I needed to be in too late to do anything with that information. Apparently, Holland’s next in command after Hines is a guy named Bossley. By the time Paul and Margie located the basement cells, he and some other Vampire nurse chick had already administered both shots to the five Guardians. Thanks to Jamie and Sicilia’s help over the IAC, it looked like they were all going to be okay, though there was one Guardian, a guy from Roatan named Stanley, who was having a lot of trouble recovering. He was still not out of the woods when we arrived at our destination in Wichita for the hunt. I had to turn my attention to matters closer to home, which was difficult because I was very caught up in the hunt at Larundel, but at least Bossley and that nurse had met their demise, and Paul seemed to have matters under control. I wasn’t sure if my shield had helped or if Holland was just distracted, but no one shifted inside the asylum while I was using it.
“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.” Elliott was laughing at his own joke, which I didn’t really understand. Of course the amusement park was closed. It had been abandoned for years. And it wasn’t called Walley World....
“Dad, you’re the lamest person I’ve ever met,” Brandon said beside me as he unbuckled his seatbelt. I looked at him questioningly, and he said, “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” through his IAC, only to me. I nodded, thinking I needed to watch that movie again because I didn’t get it.
“Why are we so far away?” I asked Elliott as we got out of the SUV. He sighed like he wished I’d gone with my sister. Behind us, another SUV full of Roatan Guardians came to a stop, and a group of six whose names I knew but that was about all, also piled out.
“We parked out here so they don’t see us coming,” he said. I knew that—but we were way, way out here, like at the edge of the parking lot. “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.” The final SUV pulled to a stop about a hundred yards away. More Roatan Guardians. With that many Guardians, Meagan and myself, the only two Hunters, should be safe, theoretically.
“Also,” Elliott continued, that look on his face that let me know he was joking again, “this way we’ll be the first to the exit when the park closes.” Brandon looked at me, and we both shook our heads. Elliott mumbled something about kids these days, and we all started walking toward the entrance.
Along with Brandon, Meagan and Elliott, Jamie, and another Guardian named Smith—who is useless—had been assigned to this location. Of course, I was supposed to be with Hannah somewhere on the other side of Kansas instead of here in Wichita, but Aaron had worked his magic, and I was glad to be along on this one. “Awesome,” I said, looking off in the distance at a rickety old rollercoaster that probably hadn’t been ridden in a decade. “Abandoned amusement parks are the best.”
No one said anything. Everyone was distracted. Jamie had been helping in Melbourne, but even though he’d also bowed out of that situation a few minutes before we arrived, he was still either looking in on what was going on, or he was talking with Ashley. She was with Hannah, and I’m sure he wished they were together, but that’s not how the cookie crumbled this time. I knew he was eager to see what he could do now, as was I. Maybe he was thinking about that, too.
We spread out, far away from each other. Except for Brandon and me. I was still observing after all, and he’d been assigned to keep me safe. Elliott stayed with us, too, because he’d have to find some place to put me. I thought the whole thing was a little silly and had a feeling in my bones that I was getting in on this hunt tonight, one way or another, but I planned on behaving myself for as long as necessary.
The gates appeared in front of us. It was easy to imagine lines of people waiting to get into this place at one time. Now, it was obvious it hadn’t been used for years. The sign above us was missing most of its letters so it no longer read Happyland, which was kind of sad. I had no idea why it had shut down, but it did make me want to go to a functioning amusement park again soon.
I tried to drop in on my sister before any action started. She was in Osceola with Aaron, Martin, and Alex, as well as some other people. But for some reason, I couldn’t get her IAC. It was strange—it wasn’t like she wasn’t letting me in. It was as if she didn’t even know I was asking. I decided to check in on Aaron and could see he was in the middle of a shootout in the warehouse they’d been infiltrating, but I didn’t see my sister anywhere. A tangle formed in the pit of my stomach, and I hoped she was okay. Surely, if she’d been wounded, I’d be able to tell by Aaron’s countenance. Right now, he just seemed to be in a hurry.
