suffer a couple of bruises.
Then they were side by side, their feet planted wide on the floor of the
car, leaning back against the restraint from under which they had
escaped, arms behind them, hands locked on the lap bar, grinning at each
other, as the train reached the top of the incline. It slammed through
swinging doors into the next stretch of lightless tunnel. The track
remained flat just long enough to crank up the riders’ tension a couple
of notches. An-tic-ipaaa-aa-tion. When Jeremy could not hold his
breath any longer, the front car tipped over the brink, and the people
up there Bed in the darkness. Then in rapid succession the second and
third and fourth and fifth cars “Rocket jockeys!” Jeremy and Tod shouted
in unison.
and the final car of the train followed the others into a steep plunge,
building speed by the second. Wind whooshed past them and whipped their
hair out behind their heads.
Then came a swooping turn to the right when it was least expected, a
little upgrade to toss the stomach, another turn to the right, the track
tilting so the cars were tipped onto their sides, faster, faster, then a
straightaway and another incline, using their speed to go higher than
ever, slowing toward the top, slowing, slowing. An-tic-ipaaation They
went over the edge and down, down, down, waaaaaay down so hard and fast
that Jeremy felt as if his stomach had fallen out of him, leaving a hole
in the middle of his body. He knew what was coming, but he was left
breathless by it nonetheless. The train did a loop-de-loop, turning
upside down. He pressed his feet tight to the floor and gripped the lap
bar behind him as if he were trying to fuse his flesh with the steel,
because it felt as if he would fall out, straight down onto the section
of the track that had led them into the loop, to crack his skull open on
the rails below. He knew centripetal force would hold him in place even
though he was standing up where he didn’t belong, but what he knew was
of no consequence: what you felt always carried a lot more weight than
what you knew, emotion mattered more than intelect. Then they were out
of the loop, banging through another pair of swinging doors onto a
second lighted inclihe, using their tremendous speed to build height for
the next series of plunges and sharp turns.
Jeremy looked at Tod.
The old rocket jockey was a little green.
“No more loops,” Tod shouted above the clatter of the train wheels.
“The worst is behind us.”
Jeremy exploded with laughter. He thought: The worst is still ahead for
you, dickhead. And for me the best is yet to come.
An-tic-ipaaa-aa-tion.
Tod laughed, too, but certainly for different reasons.
At the top of the second incline, the rattling cars pushed through a
third set of swinging doors, returning to a grave-ark world that
thrilled Jeremy because he knew Tod Ledderbeek had just seen the last
light of his life. The train snapped left and right, swooped up and
plummeted down, rolled onto its side in a series of corkscrew turns.
Through it all Jeremy could feel Tod beside him. Their bare arms
brushed together, and their shoulders bumped as they swayed with the
movement of the train. Every contact sent a current of intense pleasure
through Jeremy, made the hairs stand up on his arms and on the back of
his neck, pebbled his skin with gooseflesh. He knew that he possessed
the ultimate power over the other boy, the power of life and death, and
he was different from the other gutless wonders of the world because he
wasn’t afraid to use the power.
He waited for a section of track near the end of the ride, where he knew
the undulant motion would provide the greatest degree of instability for
daredevil riders. By then Tod would be feeling confident-the worst is
behind us-and easier to catch by surprise. The approach to the kicking
ground was announced by one of the most unusual tricks in the ride, a
three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn at high speed, with the cars on