Decoding

Azalea's P.O.V.

That night I woke up in Hollywood Studios, right next to Philby. After waiting another ten minutes, Finn appeared. "We have to get out of sight before someone sees us, there's bound to be Overtakers lurking around here," Philby pressed. The sound of fireworks in the distance startled me.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Almost ten o'clock, why?" Finn replied, standing up.

"You mean to tell me you crossed us over no less than a mile from where just about every OT there ever was, is lurking? Geniuses, Fantasmic doesn't start until it gets dark! Chernabog and Maleficent are over there!" I growled, remembering how I almost died at the hands of Maleficent and Chernabog.

"Let's get out of here, the Engineer Base is this way," Philby interrupted. We ran through the mostly deserted areas of the Hollywood Studios until we got to the Engineer Base. Finn went all clear and opened the door for us.

"We have exactly five minutes until security comes down here if an alarm was tripped," Finn sighed. We ran to the computer room and Philby quickly uploaded the heating and cooling levels in Epcot. Finn quickly started jotting down locations and times of significant temperature drops. I looked at the clock on the wall and gasped, we had gone a whole two minutes over what was possible.

"We have to get out of here! Security is coming!" I whispered, hearing voices and footsteps.

"Follow my lead," Finn stated, dragging Philby and I behind a cubicle and dropping his head and arms. I followed suit just as security walked in.

"Just the holograms, it couldn't have been them that tripped the alarm. It was probably Tigger, he was following Ursula earlier."

"Yeah, remember to not tell the boss about that incident, will you. Activate the motion sensors on the way out." After they closed the door, I stood still, eying the motion sensors in the room.

"How are we going to get out?" I asked.

"We're going to have to go all clear," Finn replied.

"Are you crazy, I've never been successful at that?" Philby retorted. Finn walked him through it before standing up, all clear. I followed suit, imagining the light of the tunnel. Philby fell through his chair that he was sitting on, but we all made it out without tripping the motion sensors.

Two days later, Philby, Willa, Finn, and I agreed to meet at Finn's house to decode the code we got from Jess' dream passing it off as an interschool competition. "Mrs. Whitman would you like to help, I'm sure other kids are getting help from their parents?" Philby asked. As Finn's mom walked over Finn started making weird motions with his hands. I raised an eyebrow at him. His mother took notice and turned around.

Finn stopped making hand motions and sat next to Philby, across from me. Within five minutes, Mrs. Whitman had already figured out most of the code before she left to get cookies for us. "Is your mom like a super genius or something?" I whispered.

"She's a rocket scientist, which is why I enlisted her help," Philby replied. Mrs. Whitman returned and finished solving the puzzle. "There are places where stars don't grow up . . ." While Finn started googling the Disney calendar, Willa and I took our leave seeing as Finn's mom was getting severely suspicious.

"Well got to go. Thanks for the cookies and help Mrs. Whitman. Bye Finn, by Philby," I replied dragging Willa out the door behind me. The next day, we met in Finn's basement discussing what the riddle pointed to.

"It has to be talking about the cartoons," I stated.

"So what cartoons are on tonight?"

"Just Dumbo," Willa reported. We watched the movie, none of us closer to solving the riddle until Jess spoke.

"The whole thing is revolved around the circus, circus equals carousels: Cinderella's Golden Carousel in Magic Kingdom."

"Except those horses have bent legs, the ones in the picture have straight legs," I replied.

"So?" Maybeck retorted.

"So, it's not a match," Charlene spoke. Finn googled carousels and Wonders of Life came up. Apparently it was closed but had a picture of Mary Poppins' carousel on the wall.

"That's it! Mary Poppins horses had straight legs, it's a match!"

"When are we going in?" Finn asked.

"Tonight," Maybeck stated.

"Tonight," we all agreed. We all returned home and crossed over. I awoke in my black sweater and black track pants with my sneakers. I quickly ran to the rendezvous point, Charlene already there. When Philby showed up, he was only in his underwear. I cracked up, Charlene along with me. Philby just grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. After clothing Philby, we went to Wonders.

Charlene climbed to the sunroom terrace, the rest of us staying in the undergrowth. Maybeck went ahead to check if it was clear when Jess spotted Gigabyte, the large python from Honey I shrunk the Kids. Finn signaled to Maybeck who signaled back to give us time to get inside Wonders. We sprinted to the front door that Finn opened after passing through it.

After Philby closed the door and Gigabyte started heading away from the pavilion, Jess gasped. I looked over to see that she had had another dream. It was a picture of her. "They are coming for me," she gasped.

"We have to cross her back over," I replied urgently.

"There were two of them, they looked like each other though one was younger."

"Father and son," Willa interjected. Maybeck soon appeared, motioning for us to come upstairs.

"We have to split up, we're safer that way," Finn interjected. We broke into pairs: Charlene and Jess, Philby and Willa, Finn and Amanda, and Maybeck and I. Maybeck and I walked along the wall when he suddenly pulled my behind a pillar and motioned to be quiet. I looked out behind the pillar and saw the snake with two sets of fathers and sons following it.

"We've got company," I whispered. Maybeck nodded and dragged me to follow Philby and Willa to where Wayne was supposed to be held. "He's not here and we have to go!" I whispered. Charlene led us to the rope as Gigabyte got closer.

"GO!" I heard Finn yell as I followed Willa out of Wonders.

As we ran, I noticed Finn wasn't with us. I looked around frantic until I located him, with Gigabyte's attention straight on him. "FINN!" I shouted, about to run after him but Maybeck grabbed my arm and pulled me along. "Maybeck, let go, I have to help him!"

"He knows what he's doing, c'mon!" Maybeck yelled. I let Maybeck drag me into the brush when I noticed the snake coming straight for us, Finn riding piggy back on it.

"Run!" I screamed, pushing Jess to run faster. We ran to the rendezvous point, Philby returned the clothes much to my amusement, and Finn showed up with just bumps. I pushed the button and we crossed back over.