Heart of Darkness
-o-o-o-o-o-
Chapter 9: Panic in the Night
-o-o-o-o-o-
Gloyd watched the girls swim in the pond before joining them. It was so much fun to be with them, enjoying the secret little haven they lived in—a gingerbread cabin, a spring-fed pond, meadows and flowers and forest. And when they'd had enough of swimming, they lay themselves on the bank and warmed up in the sun's yellow glow.
The Glitch visited frequently. Sometimes she even spent the night, crowding into the bed in the loft with them, eight feet tickling each other at the center of the bed under the covers. Occasionally other Evolved stopped by, though Gumbler never reappeared.
That night, when they'd all begun to yawn, Vanellope had still not come by. In fact she'd not been around for four days according to Impy and Minky. They went upstairs to the loft and cuddled up together in the bed, soon falling asleep.
But Gloyd's sleep was troubled, and he repeatedly woke with a feeling of unease. And on one such waking he heard noises...the creaking of the floorboards downstairs. At first he thought it was Vanellope. But she was light on her feet—she didn't creak the floor like that.
And then there was a flicker of light across the walls. Someone was down there with a flashlight looking for something. That wouldn't be Vanellope.
His heart pounded hard. There came the excruciating thought that perhaps they were the ones being sought. How would someone have found them? They'd been so careful. Had someone spotted the girls? Had someone noticed that he kept heading for this area of the western mountains?
Gloyd slipped from the bed and peeked over the edge of the loft.
Below was a CLAW officer snooping about with a flashlight.
And then he noticed the papers on the table—Minky's open journal—and began looking through the books and the loose sheets.
Terror struck Gloyd. He tried to clear his head and think. And his first realization was that he had to get the CLAW officer away from the cabin. But how?
He bit his lip as the agent found the picture Minky had drawn of the three of them—Gloyd standing flanked by the two candy-citizens. Right there...pictorial evidence of their crime. "Well well well. So it is Gloyd with the two missing lollipops," he said, gloating in his voice. "The Glitch wasn't lying."
The Glitch? Gloyd felt as if he were suddenly suffocating. The officer was looking for them. And had Vanellope actually betrayed them? Where had she been these past few days?
It wouldn't be but a few minutes until the man moved on to the loft and discovered him and the girls. But suddenly Gloyd came up with a plan. Without pausing to wake Impy and Minky, he pulled his shoes back on, grabbed his hat, leapt up to the hole in the roof, pushed aside the tarp, and climbed out. Sneaking down the outside, he got to the ground and moved around to the front of the cabin. Through the broken shutters he could see the CLAW officer still at the table.
Gloyd chuckled, just loud enough for the man to hear him. It was his practiced pranking chuckle. And when the officer turned to look, the flashlight beam swinging about, Gloyd ducked behind the porch edge.
Gloyd chuckled again, trying to sound a little eerier, and then he moved around to the side of the cabin. He so wished that he had some of his pranking gear with him. A couple of smoke bombs or a licorice slick would come in handy right about now.
The man came out and shone the beam around. "Who's there? Is someone there?"
Gloyd laughed threateningly and moved off into the forest. And when he saw that the man had emerged from inside, he laughed loudly and mockingly from the cover of the pine locum trees.
"Who's there?! Show yourself!" he demanded, but was answered with only more laughter.
And so Gloyd began to lead the man into the forest, drawing him away from the cabin, trying to get him lost in the thickest parts—which he did. The CLAW officer was soon so creeped out and hopelessly turned around that he was running into trees in his panic.
His heart pounding, Gloyd circled back to the cabin, ran upstairs, and woke Impy and Minky quickly. "Girls! We have to go! We have to get out of here!"
"Gloyd? Why?" asked Minky, her face looking pale in the ambient glow of the candy moon, shining in through the hole left where Gloyd had pushed the tarp aside.
"Someone found us! We have to get out of here now. We can't come back!"
The girls gasped, and taking them by the wrists Gloyd led them out of the cabin and off to where he kept the Kernel parked. He'd not even stopped to let them grab their things. He threw off the landscape-pink tarp and the three were soon buzzing down the road.
"Gloyd, where are we going? Where can we go?"
"Game Central Station. They were looking for you, and they know that I'm with you."
"They saw you?"
Gloyd paused. He hated to tell them that Minky's innocent portrait of the three of them had been discovered. "Yes," he lied. "They know we're at the cabin."
"Oh no!" the two whined.
"I lost him in the woods though when he chased me. But we have to get out of Sugar Rush. We might be able to get to another game that will offer us asylum."
"Asylum? What's that?"
"Shelter," he said, bending low as he came to a straightaway and picked up speed. "If we can find a game that will take us in, we'll be safe from them trying to regenerate you."
Gloyd was nervous, and unsure if anyone out there would actually take them in. It was a long shot, but it was their only chance at this point. The girls had been found out. He had been found out. They were doomed if they remained in Sugar Rush.
The feeling of dread began to knot his stomach again. He'd never heard of a racer being forced to regenerate. A bad crash that resulted in a regeneration never caused a reset in the way the Evolved reset after death. The racers' memories remained. But perhaps Candy had found a way... Perhaps there was some special trick to it. Could Candy regenerate him in the same way that he did the rogue citizenry?
They came through the area of the grandstands, and Gloyd could see the rainbow bridge ahead—the link between life and death for Minky and Impy, and possibly for himself. All he had to do was get up the rainbow, into the cave, and then into Game Central Station. Surely the Surge Protectors would help him. Surprisingly he was on good terms with the portal guardians.
He turned off of the Speedway, onto the side road, and then up the long causeway leading out of Sugar Rush. The end was in sight.
The ground fell away as the road approached the cavern within the mountain. Unlike most of the other games, there was no tram or train or conveyance into the game's power source. The racers simply drove to the end of the electrical cord and parked their karts in the outlet area before entering Game Central Station.
At the end of the long tunnel, Gloyd slammed on his brakes hard. The three of them tumbled out of the Kernel and ran for the doorway, hands clasped tightly as they bolted for freedom. Just beyond was the hope of a continued life together.
But on reaching the doorway, all three suddenly collided with an electrical force-field and were thrown back.
Gloyd picked himself up off of the floor, looking about in stunned wonder. He'd gone through here many times, but now he was being stopped.
Two Surge Protectors appeared. The taller of the two, a man with swept back hair and round eyes, stepped forward and helped the two lollipop girls to their feet. The other, a shorter balding man with glasses, pulled out some kind of radio. "We've got them," he said into it. "They're here at the entrance into Game Central Station."
-o-o-o-o-o-
"Heart of Darkness" continues in Chapter 10: "And So It Ends"
-o-o-o-o-o-
Wreck-It Ralph and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Walt Disney Pictures. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.
