Here Comes Mr. Trouble

“We’re in the car,” Maggie told him.

A car, of course. He, Maggie, Fiona, and Uncle Carl were in the back seat of the sedan. From his position Eric could see Mr. Trouble was driving. And though he could tell there was someone in the front passenger seat, he wasn’t sure who it was.

He started to sit up but immediately fell back onto the others’ laps, dizzy.

Mr. Trouble gave him a quick glance. “Hold on there, buddy. Pace yourself.”

From somewhere beyond the car, Eric could still hear the loud rumble he’d noticed before. Whatever it was, it was really whining away now.

“What…happened?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Uncle Carl asked.

Eric tried to think back. “The helmet vibrating on my head.”

“It’s not a—” Uncle Carl started to say.

“Shhh,” Fiona cut him off. To Eric, she said, “Go on.”

“Someone asked me if I was doing okay,” Eric continued. “And…and…and I was asleep. Then there was some shaking, and you guys woke me up.”

“Technically, you weren’t sleeping,” Mr. Trouble said.

“Then what was I doing?”

The look on Uncle Carl’s face was about as serious as Eric had seen it. “Enforced stupor.”

“Enforced what?”

“Stupor. A suspension of your conscious mind. Not asleep, but not awake either.”

“Enforced by who?”

“The Makers, of course,” Uncle Carl said. “Who else?”

“There they go!” It was Keira’s voice. Apparently, she was the one sitting in the front passenger seat.

Everyone turned to the windows. Eric pushed himself up so he could see, too. He was still a bit dizzy, but not nearly as much as he’d been a minute earlier.

They were driving up the side of the valley toward the ridge from where he’d first seen the Trouble family’s mobile headquarters. Only now the Lady Candice was racing down the makeshift runway.

“Who’s flying it?”

“Mom, of course,” Fiona said.

“But why? What’s going on?”

“Bug out,” Uncle Carl told him.

Eric looked at him, not understanding.

“It means retreat in a hurry,” Fiona explained.

“Retreat? Why?”

“Because the Makers found out where we were camped.”

“How did they do that?” he asked.

“You told them.”

13

“Watch out!” Keira yelled.

Mr. Trouble whipped the steering wheel to the left, sending the sedan off the dirt road and into the grassy field beside it. They’d been approaching a blind turn that dipped down into a shallow ravine, but just before they got there a bright red SUV came speeding out of it, directly into their path.

The sedan bounced wildly as Mr. Trouble drove in a wide arc around the SUV and back onto the road. Keira and Fiona looked out the rear window.

“They’re turning around,” Keira said.

“Would have been surprised if they didn’t,” Mr. Trouble replied.

He increased their speed as they shot through the ravine then up the other side. Unfortunately, the SUV was faster.

“Here they come!” Fiona warned.

“Who are they?” Maggie asked.

“Maker surrogates, probably,” Uncle Carl said.

Mr. Trouble glanced into the rearview mirror. “Everyone, hold on!”

The sedan suddenly rocked forward as the SUV hit its rear bumper.

“They’re going to kill us,” Maggie said.

“No,” Uncle Carl told her. “They don’t want to kill us. Well, they don’t want to kill him.” He nodded toward Eric. “That would defeat their purpose.”

Eric was wide awake now. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Fiona said.

That was the last thing he wanted to hear. “I’m tired of no one telling me anything! Tell me what’s going on or I’ll…or I’ll…”

“Or you’ll what?” Keira asked. “Jump out?”

“Keira! That’s not helping,” Mr. Trouble said. “Eric, right now isn’t the time to explain everything so you’re going to have to continue trusting us for a little longer.”

Outside, the land was whipping past the window.

Eric was angry, and he was annoyed, and he was frustrated. But what choice did he have?

“How did they know we were going to be here?” Maggie asked.

“The talisman,” Uncle Carl said, as if that was answer enough.

“You mean that tiny gold ball?” Maggie said. “How could that have anything to do with the car chasing us?”

Uncle Carl muttered something to himself then looked at her. “Eric had direct skin-to-talisman contact for more than sixty seconds. That was plenty of time for it to mark him. Unfortunately, the scanner must have triggered the mark and that gave them our location.”

“The voice,” Eric said.

“What voice?” Fiona asked.

“When I was asleep, or in the…stupor, or whatever you want to call it, I heard a voice. It asked me where I was.”

“And you answered it?”

“I think all I said was something like ‘I’m here’ or ‘I’m right here.’ That’s it.”

“That would have been enough,” Uncle Carl said. “You gave them a temporary link into your mind. From that they could see where you’d gone.”

“A temporary link into his mind?” Maggie said, smirking. “Like that’s even possible.”

“Here they come again,” Mr. Trouble said. “Brace yourselves.”

While everyone else grabbed parts of the car, the only thing Eric could grab on to was Fiona.

Whack!

The back end of the sedan skidded a couple of feet sideways. For a split second it seemed like the car was going to spin all the way around. But Mr. Trouble fought the wheel, straightened out the sedan, and got it back on the road.

“We’ve got to get away from them,” Fiona said.

Keira looked back. “Nothing like stating the obvious.” She smiled at Eric. “You can let go of my sister now, if you’d like.”

Eric had forgotten he was holding onto anyone, and immediately released his grip. As he did, he caught sight of Maggie glancing at him. She had a strange look on her face, almost…sad?

“What?” he asked.

But she just shook her head and turned away.

“There’s the highway,” Keira said.