Page 96 of Tricks for Free

“Well, of course, I am. Couldn’t leave a teammate, could I? Slasher Chicks forever.” I felt along the edge of her body, finding the ropes that bound her to the track. I had knives. What I didn’t have was a good way of catching her. “Fern, I need you to reduce your density as much as you can, all right? When I cut you loose, you’re going to fall. You need to be ready to fall.”

“I’m ready,” she said bravely, and I had never loved her more, or felt worse about sucking her into my fight.

It only took a few seconds for me to slice away the ropes that bound her. Fern dropped immediately, knocking against me as lightly as a balloon before slinging herself over the track’s edge and hanging on by her fingertips.

“Now what?”

I took a breath. “Now I find the others.”

I couldn’t see Fern, but I could hear her concern as she said, “I don’t know where they are. I woke up here.”

“I know they’re on this track.” I knew that Colin wanted their deaths to be painful, swift, and grouped together—but when I was talking about something that moved as fast as a roller coaster, as long as hitting Fern didn’t derail it, it would be able to finish climbing the hill in a matter of seconds. “Sam’s outside. Go help him.”

“But I—”

“Please.” The coaster would finish powering up soon. I needed Fern clear.

She lightly touched the top of my hand. “Be safe,” she said, and was gone, drifting down to the dark waters below.

I resumed my climb.

I hadn’t gone far when a new sound entered the equation: a faint but steady hissing. Megan was tied to the tracks in front of me. I stopped where I was, unwilling to reach out when I didn’t know where those snakes were. “Megan.”

No response.

“Megan.”

A faint moan, this time, like a larger snake stirring in its nest. (Not that snakes actually moan, outside of SyFy Original Movies.)

“Wake up and tell your hair not to bite me, before the roller coaster crushes us both.”

There was a sharp gasp then, before Megan asked warily, “Annie?”

“It’s me. Where’s your head? Keep talking so I can cut you free.”

“What the hell is going on? Where are we?” The snakes continued to hiss angrily as she spoke. At least now I could tell where they were. That was a nice, potentially nonvenomous change.

“You know the Midsummer Night’s Scream?” I asked, as I started to cut.

“Of course, I know the—no. No.” Megan sounded rightly horrified. “You are not telling me that.”

“I am.” I cut another rope. “You’re going to need to climb down once you’re loose. I still have to find Cylia, and their trainspotter is working on getting the coaster moving.”

There was a pause. “I hate that that was a sentence.”

“I’m getting that a lot today. I think this is the last rope. Hold onto something.”

“It is.” There was a rustle as Megan grabbed the track. I sliced through the rope. “You humans need better night vision.”

“I’ll put it on the mad science wish list. Can you get down?”

“Do I have a choice?” Megan began climbing past me. I felt a snake’s tongue caress my cheek, light as a whisper, and then she was gone, descending toward the water. That would have been the smart thing to do.

I started climbing up instead.

Light was beginning to seep into the tunnel, flowing through the hole where the train would emerge, triumphant, from the animatronic underworld, when I found Cylia. Her eyes were open, scanning the darkness below her. She relaxed slightly when she saw me.

“I was wondering whether the cavalry was coming,” she said.