Digital Mutation (Book Five)

Chapter 25: Enigma

Annalise loses track of how long she and Casey spend in the tunnel, guided only by the fairy lights stretching before them, spurred by remnants of the battle at their backs. The sound of the fight faded long ago, but Annalise can't shake the shivers it gave her.

As they walk, they test their communicators. Nothing but static. Annalise zones out at one point, just trying to calm herself down, and she's faintly aware of Casey whispering into his headset. He's begging to be let through. He's asking April if she can hear him now. He's promising that he'll come home.

Annalise wishes there was someone on the outside other than her mom who would be heartbroken if she didn't come back. Maybe James would miss her, although she hasn't been able to hang out with him in a while, and maybe some of the kids from the photography club would notice her absence. The more she thinks about it, the more she wishes for the chance to truly learn to appreciate the friends she has outside of the turtles.

"Hey...look," Casey says, reaching out to nudge her and startling her from her thoughts. He points into the distance when she listens, where the faintest pinprick of light can be seen. "Is that...?"

"The exit!" she gasps. "We're almost out!"

Casey is already running and Annalise races after him, forcing her feet to move even when her lungs start burning and she gets a stitch in her side. The urge to get into somewhere flooded with light is enough to keep her going.

Casey, far ahead of her, disappears into the pool of white ahead of them and Annalise is quick on his heels, her vision going completely blank for a second. She blinks rapidly as she jolts to a stop, breathing hard, and everything clears after another second.

Before her is a clump of four floating islands surrounded by clouds; giant chunks of dirt that bob through the sky like buoys in the ocean. Far below them, Annalise can see a real ocean, also dotted with islands.

The floating islands that she finds herself on are paved in cobblestone and connected to each other via metal bridges and ropes tied to pegs. The one she stands on has a movie theatre with a "Wheel of Loot" advertisement and a building labelled "Haute Couture Clothier Shop". The island in front of her has a "New You" store and the final two islands have nothing but an arcade and a billboard advertisement for a graphic novel.

"What...is this?" Casey asks, turning around to face the blonde. He blinks at something behind her head. "Is that a blimp?"

It is indeed a blimp, one that reads POPTROPICA in big blue letters. Annalise's eyes widen.

"I know this website!" she gasps. "I used to play it all the time. It's a mystery, puzzle-solving game with different islands to visit. Oh man..." She looks around, smiling wider. "It's been so long..."

Casey puckers his lips, then nods. "Oh yeah...I think I played it when I had free time in elementary school. Like when we got set free on the computers and it was the only site that wasn't blocked by admin," he says, wiggling his fingers as if typing. He sighs. "Man...nostalgia. I think my character was named Comical Puck or something."

"Cool! I think mine was Silly Penguin...mostly because that was the only name I liked and I was tired of changing it," she says.

"Welcome to Poptropica!"

Casey and Annalise snap out of their reminiscing to find a redheaded woman in an old-timey pilot outfit smiling at them. She waves at them and they hesitate before returning it, to which her smile gets bigger.

"I'm Amelia," she greets. "It's so good to see new adventurers. Anything I can help you with?"

Casey looks at Annalise and she shrugs before shuffling closer to the woman. "Uh, hi, did you happen to see any of our friends? They're, uh, turtles...?"