Kingdom Keepers: Next Generation (Unfinished/Unedited) *Republished

Chapter 17- Trapped

Finn's POV

I awoke in a dark room. My memory was fuzzy. I was sitting in a chair with my hands tied down. My feet were the same. I expected my mouth to be gagged, but it wasn't. I tried to look around, but my eyes weren't yet adjusted to the darkness. I tried to move the chair but I knocked into what seemed like another chair on my left.

"Ow!" I heard a girl's voice say.

"Charlene?" I asked, stopping my movement of the chair.

"Finn? Oh, thank goodness!" she said.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"I could be better." She said.

"Whitman? Charlie?" I heard Maybeck say from directly behind me.

"Terry?" Charlene asked.

"Present." He said. "Philbo is next to me. He doesn't look so hot."

My eyes were adjusting to the darkness, but I could see Maybeck was right. Philby seemed to be bleeding from a cut on his forehead and there was a nasty gash on his shoulder. Now that I saw Philby's injuries, I noticed that I had a burning sensation, like an open wound on my left leg.

"What about Willa, Jess, and Amanda?" Charlene asked. I saw she had an assortment of cuts and scrapes on both of her arms. Her jeans were cut in certain places with even more cuts beneath them. She had taken a beating, but her face said she was just as determined as ever.

"Haven't seen them. My memory is kind of out of it." Maybeck said.

"I know what you mean." I said.

At that moment, I heard a groan from my right side.

"Philby? You okay?" I asked him.

"I wouldn't say okay. I would call it: being alive." He said, his British accent coming out. "I think we were drugged."

"Drugged?" Maybeck asked.

"They have never used drugs before..." Charlene said.

"Do you feel a pain in your shoulder?" Philby asked her.

Now that I thought about it, I did. I wasn't an unbearable pain, kind of like on and off sharp skirts of it.

"What about the kids?" she asked.

Oh, no. I hadn't thought of that.

"Hopefully they got into the park." I said.

Sofia was smart enough to get the others to safety. They had advantages and disadvantages. Sofia and Lucas had powers, but they had no clue what they were up against.

"Willa, Jess, and Amanda will help them." Philby said.

"If they are out." Maybeck said.

"No need to be pessimistic." Charlene said.

"No arguing." I said before Maybeck could respond.

From then, we waited. I tried to not worry about my family, but it was impossible. And I couldn't do anything but wait and worry. Then, it came to me. A few years ago, some military organization had found out about 2.0 and wanted it. The Imagineers had decided to kill the program and bury the information. So the DHIs had reverted back to 1.6. That opened up a new possibility. I closed my eyes and focused on the image I had used so many years ago: a pinprick of light at the end of a tunnel. It grew bigger until it swallowed me whole. I felt my body tingle. I opened my eyes. The room around me lit up with a faint blue glow. I stood up, the ropes falling to the chair or on the floor.

"Finn!" Charlene exclaimed, slightly startled by the sudden light.

"You're a genius, man!" Maybeck said.

"We're 1.6 as DHIs." Philby realized. "We can't do that."

"Sure you can!" I said, my soccer coach side coming out. "Just focus on the pinprick of light."

It took about 15 minutes, I think. It was hard to keep track of time. But finally, everyone was up. We snuck out after I unlocked the door. We were actually in the back of a van. We seemed to be just outside of the Art of Animation. The drivers seemed to be inside. We headed to the Disney bus stop and hopped on a bus to Hollywood Studios, where we had left our cars.

Willa's POV

I got out just barely. Amanda and Jess went with me. Jess saw Finn, Maybeck, Charlene, and Finn get a needle inserted in their shoulder and get taken away by some stormtroopers who had shown up out of nowhere. The brooms seemed to be the distraction for the stormtroopers.

Jess, Amanda, and I were currently walking through Hollywood Studios looking for signs of our kids. We were avoiding any stray stormtroopers, patrolling. We were currently inside of a gift shop, avoiding some of these pairs, as I spotted something in the corner. A cast member was cleaning a knocked-over pile of "Duffy" bears. Amanda followed my line of sight. She headed over to the cast member. But she went past him to a point a few feet away. She picked up a Disney's Polynesian Resort hat. I realized it was Sofia's hat. I asked the cast member what happened, helping him pick up the bears. He said some boys starting attacking a girl and knocked over the pile.

"Do you know what happened to her?" I asked.

"No, ma'am." he said, "They went off of the security cameras."

"Can I see that footage?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't show you that ma'am." He started to say before I pulled out my Imagineer ID.

After many apologies, the cast member led us back to the computer. The security camera footage started. We saw a young girl with dark brown hair up in a ponytail which was obviously put up quickly because the hair wasn't even pulled through the tan Disney's Polynesian Resort hat on her head. Without even seeing her face, my heart dropped. We watched as two boys, one quite a bit larger than the other, and both with green eyes, followed in. The girls' focus was out and watching outside of the shop before she reached into her pocket and grabbed a phone. She didn't notice the smaller boy follow behind her and as she looked down, the smaller boy wrapped his hand over her mouth. A fight ensued, and they went off screen.  Amanda put her head down on the desk. Jess tried to comfort her. I took charge. I told the cast member that that girl was Sofia Whitman, and his eyes went wide with recognition of the last name. He called us a van and we were on our way home.