Mushrooms Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Epilogue

  Present: The River near the Radcliffe Asylum

  The River

  White Hearts Hospital, London

  Past: The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

  Present: The River, London

  Black Chess Headquarters

  The River, London

  Past: The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland,

  Present: A helicopter above the River

  The Vatican

  A helicopter away from the River

  Past : The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

  Present: Warehouse location, London

  King’s Cross train station, London

  Warehouse location, London

  In London

  Past: Wonderland

  Present: Warehouse in the London

  Past: Wonderland, Wedding Day

  King’s Cross Station, London

  Ice-Cream Truck, Out of the Warehouse

  Present: Ice-cream Truck, London

  Warehouse, an hour earlier

  Ice-cream Truck

  King’s Cross Station in London

  Present: Fly Emirates Airplane

  Present: King’s Cross Train Station

  Somewhere in Chaos of London’s Streets

  Present: Ice-Cream Truck

  Present: The Bird Bar in London

  The Bird Bar, London

  Heathrow Airport, London

  Mr. Jay’s Headquarters

  Mr. Jay’s Interrogation Room.

  Present: The Kew Garden

  Mr. Jay’s Interrogation Room

  The Kew Garden

  A Phone Booth in London.

  BBC REPORT

  Outside the Kew Garden

  The Mushrooms in the Kew Garden

  Everywhere in London

  Past: Alnwick’s Gardens

  An Elementary school in London

  Phone Booth, London

  Somewhere in London

  A century ago: Room 14, the Radcliffe Asylum,

  Yellow School Bus

  Yellow School Bus / Carolus

  Afterword

  Mushrooms

  Insanity 8

  Cameron Jace

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Present: The River near the Radcliffe Asylum

  2. The River

  3. White Hearts Hospital, London

  4. Past: The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

  5. Present: The River, London

  6. Black Chess Headquarters

  7. The River, London

  8. Past: The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland,

  9. The River, London

  10. Past: The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

  11. Present: A helicopter above the River

  12. The Vatican

  13. A helicopter away from the River

  14. Past : The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Northumberland, England

  15. Present: Warehouse location, London

  16. King’s Cross train station, London

  17. Warehouse location, London

  18. In London

  19. Warehouse location, London

  20. The Vatican

  21. Warehouse Location, London

  22. Past: Wonderland

  23. Present: Warehouse Location, London

  24. Past: Wonderland

  25. Present: Warehouse in the London

  26. Past: Wonderland, Wedding Day

  27. Present: Warehouse Location, London

  28. King’s Cross Station, London

  29. Ice-Cream Truck, Out of the Warehouse

  30. PAST: Wonderland

  31. Present: Ice-cream Truck, London

  32. Warehouse, an hour earlier

  33. Ice-cream Truck

  34. King’s Cross Station in London

  35. Ice-cream Truck

  36. Past: Wonderland

  37. Present: Fly Emirates Airplane

  38. Ice-Cream Truck

  39. Past: Wonderland

  40. Present: King’s Cross Train Station

  41. Somewhere in Chaos of London’s Streets

  42. Ice-Cream Truck

  43. Past: Wonderland

  44. Present: Ice-Cream Truck

  45. Past: Wonderland

  46. Present: The Bird Bar in London

  47. Ice-Cream Truck

  48. The Bird Bar, London

  49. Ice-Cream Truck

  50. Heathrow Airport, London

  51. Ice-Cream Truck

  52. Mr. Jay’s Headquarters

  53. Ice-Cream Truck

  54. Mr. Jay’s Interrogation Room.

  55. Past: Wonderland

  56. Present: The Kew Garden

  57. Mr. Jay’s Interrogation Room

  58. The Kew Garden

  59. Mr. Jay’s Interrogation Room

  60. The Kew Garden

  61. A Phone Booth in London.

  62. The Kew Garden

  63. Past: Wonderland

  64. BBC REPORT

  65. The Kew Garden

  66. Outside the Kew Garden

  67. The Mushrooms in the Kew Garden

  68. Everywhere in London

  69. The Kew Garden

  70. Past: Alnwick’s Gardens

  71. BBC REPORT

  72. The Mushrooms in the Kew Garden

  73. Mr. Jay’s Headquarters

  74. An Elementary school in London

  75. Phone Booth, London

  76. The Kew Garden

  77. Somewhere in London

  78. A century ago: Room 14, the Radcliffe Asylum,

  79. Yellow School Bus

  80. Yellow School Bus / Carolus

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Other Books by Cameron Jace

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Past: Wonderland

  “March, wake up,” the voice said.

  Pricking his ears, the March Hare stumbled out of his bed. His house was small. It smelled of carrots and six o’clock tea — for the six o’clock tea felt exquisitely different from a five o’clock tea.

  “Don’t panic, it’s me,” the voice said.

  The March’s house was dark. It was a rabbit hole he had dug for himself in the soils of Wonderland. The Hatter had offered him a teacup as a house once — a large teacup the size of a tree house — but the March preferred his own hole in the ground. He’d always wondered if he should have called it the Hare Hole instead of a rabbit hole, but he didn’t want anyone to know where he lived.

  “I’m Carroll,” the voice whispered. “Lewis Carroll.”

  “How can I know that for sure?” the March put his glasses on as if they would help him see in the dark.

  “You can put the light’s on, March.” The voice said.

  “I don’t have lights in here. It’s a hole,” the March said. “Besides, I have a light bulb in my head.”

  “Stop that,” the voice kept whispering. It sounded impatient. “I’m Lewis Carroll. Charles Dodgson. I gave you your name: March Hare.”

  “Okay?” the March leaned toward the opening of his house, a small window looking outside. In the dark, he could barely see Lewis’ face. “Holy carrots,” the March said. “It’s really you.”

  Lewis looked worried, borderline scared. He wore his priest outfit again. “I need your help.”

  “My help?” the March said. “No one ever needs me.”

  “Listen. You’re wasting my time! I need to be able to trust you, March.”

  “Trust?” the March’s ears pricked again. They hurt when he was excited. “You are going to tell me a secret?”

  “A big one, March.”

&n
bsp; “How big?”

  “Big enough that I’m afraid your head is too small for it. I’m afraid you will end up telling someone else.”

  “I can’t keep a secret, but I really want to know.”

  Lewis seemed disappointed. The March acted like a child most of the time, but he couldn’t help it. He liked being a child, full of hope and imaginary friends.

  “I’ll tell you part of it, then,” Lewis said.

  “Part of a secret is still a secret.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Why me, Lewis? I’m the stupidest person in Wonderland.”

  “You’re not stupid. You’re kind — and naive.”

  “Naive?” the March grabbed for a teacup. “Let’s have some tea then. You seem stressed.”

  “There is no time for tea,” Lewis snatched the cup away. Usually, Lewis was never this tense. “Listen to me!”

  “Of course, Lewis. Calm down. What do you want to talk to me about?”

  “The Six Keys.”

  “Six keys?” the March scratched his temples. “Ah, you mean the Six Impossible Things. I’ve never figured that out—“

  “The Six Impossible Things is a metaphor I made up for the Six Keys.”

  “Oh, impossible keys. I like that.”

  “It’s all a metaphor,” Lewis insisted. “They aren’t really six keys.”

  “They aren’t?”

  “They are, and they aren’t.”

  The March got dizzy.

  “I know it’s puzzling. The Six Keys are the most important things in the world, March.”

  “If you say so, Lewis. But why?”

  “They protect a most precious thing.”

  “Precious?”

  “Precious beyond imagination.”

  “Protects it from whom?”

  “Black Chess.”

  “And you have them?”

  “I have them, and I don’t have them.”

  “Hmm… this so hard to understand. But also why tell me about the most important thing in the world? I’m just a Hare. I’m useless.”

  “You’re not. You’re going to play a huge role in saving the world.”

  “The world? You mean Wonderland.”

  “No, the world. The whole world with all its hidden dimensions and realms.”

  “Oh,” the March scratch his temple. “So they are really keys? I mean like normal.”

  Lewis smiled. The March had had a genuine concern. “March,” Lewis said. “This is the trick.”

  “What trick?”

  “As I said, the Keys are keys, but they’re also not keys.”

  1

  Present: The River near the Radcliffe Asylum

  We’re in the river, stuck inside a boat, me, Constance, the March Hare, Tom Truckle and the Mushroomers. The sound of bullets is deafening. The shouting voices from the land are creeping me out. Waltraud and Ogier are lining people up, giving them guns or encouraging them to swim over and kill us.

  A man, who could easily be some girl or boy’s father, is holding a semi-automatic and is staring at us. His loving eyes are two knobs of dark obsidian anger right now. He prepares to shoot at us.

  “This isn’t Inklings against Dark Chess,” I mumble with fear. “This is World vs. Wonderland.”

  “Which sounds bonkers already,” Tom Truckle can’t help himself. He shudders behind me. A coward with no ability to defend anyone. “You mad Mushroomers. Get away from me!”

  I want to tell him to swallow some of his pills, so he shuts up, or I swear I will drown him in the river. But he has lost them in the escape. It’s Ironic how the Director of Radcliffe Asylum is the maddest among us now.

  “Get out of the way, loser,” Constance pushes Tom away and addresses the Mushroomers. “Man up and fight back!”

  All we have are a few boats. March and Tom are on mine. March is unconscious. Tom is talking gibberish and not helping.

  I am still eyeing the man with the semi-automatic, wondering if he is going to shoot. Waltraud and Ogier seem to be organizing something. A proper way to attack us?

  But no, I get it. They can’t swim over and have to wait for us coming to shore.

  “I am sure that soon they will be shooting us from above or something,” Constance says. “They want us out of the water.”

  “What do you think they have in mind?” I ask her.

  “I don’t think. I know,” she points away. “Can’t you see it?”

  “What?” I squint.

  “Look, Alice. Look.”

  Then I see it. “Oh,” I fight the urge to clamp a hand over my mouth. In the distance, troops of soldiers are arriving. “This is war.”

  “And I thought we were at a picnic,” Constance makes fun of me. “Lead us, girl. You’re the chosen one.”

  Her words cut through me. I am afraid I might not be the chosen one. But hell, I have to be.

  “This is like a zombie movie,” another Mushroomer squeaks. “The world wants to wipe us out.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Constance mumbles, still pointing at the soldiers. I look again and realize it’s not just troops that are coming for us. I see tanks approach the shore.

  “This is going to suck,” I mumble back.

  “Didn’t I tell you, you’re not the Real Alice,” Tom can’t stop, “You’re just a mad girl in the asylum. And the Pillar was madder. Now he is dead. We have no one to save us.”

  Constance has her hands on her waist. She blows out a long sigh and stretches her neck. Then she pulls a rope from the bottom of the boat and walks over to Tom. In a flash, she binds his hands behind his back.

  “If you don’t stop talking, I’ll duct-tape your filthy mouth,” she tells him. Then the tough girl comes back to me and says, “All good, boss.”

  2

  The River

  Lost in my thoughts, I feel sorry for the Mushroomers. I feel like I have let them down. They must think life was much saner inside the asylum, in the comfort of a cell and guaranteed meals every day. The Mush Room and the pain are paradises compared to being outside. Being mad isn’t that bad. Being hated and humiliated tops the pain a million times.

  I’d like to pretend I’m the strongest girl in the world, but I am not. I can save myself. I can save Constance — and the March. How am I supposed to get all those Mushroomers out alive?

  “Alice!” Constance shouts at me, waking me up from my haze.

  I hear her but am unable to speak. Tears are about to roll down my eyes. I hold them back. All the enthusiastic words I’ve just told Constance minutes ago mean nothing to me right now.

  I know we need to get the Mushroomers to a safe place. I know we need to wake up the March and save his life, then find out whatever secret he wanted to tell us before he passed out. But none of this matters, as I start to feel lost and unable to help anyone, even myself.

  “Alice!” Constance’s voice is getting fainter. The noise of the battle is just a hiss in the background. A monotonous silence clogs my ears. I am all in my head now.

  All I am thinking about is that maybe I am just mad. Perhaps none of this is really happening. Maybe I am in a Mush Room somewhere, shocked to death, in hopes for a cure. It could all be a nightmare in the head of a girl struggling with facing everyday’s life, like everyone else.

  What the hell is wrong with me? Even if I am mad, why do I feel this way?

  My gaze diverts toward the asylum. Suddenly, I know what’s troubling me. It’s not that I am a coward or lazy or unable to stand for myself and my friends. I’ve done it a hundred times before. This time it’s different.

  My eyes are still fixated on the place that has just burned down with Jack and the Pillar inside.

  A bitter laugh tickles my lips. It reminds me that maybe Jack is all in my imagination as well.

  Please let it all be a crazy girl’s dream.

  “Alice!” Constance’s voice slowly surfaces back. “Alice!”

  It’s not a dream. It just isn’t. And it sucks. I’ll have to wa
ke up and turn around and face the day. I’ll have to pretend that I know what I am doing and be there for everyone counting on me.

  Before I do, the image of the burning asylum behind us reminds me of the Pillar. Damn you, strange and wicked man. If my life isn’t a dream, then who are you?

  And Jack, whether you’re a figment of my imagination or not, I know I love you. I don’t have time to ask what you were doing inside, or why you pretended you were the Dude. I just don’t have time for the two most important men in my world, because now they are gone.

  I take a deep breath, my eyes open wide. The world is in chaos. My friends need my help, and I have to come up with a solution. In the back of my mind, I wonder if I am anything useful without the Pillar. He has always been there for me, with all his devious plans and motives. I, Alice Wonder, now wonder if I can do it alone.

  The man with the semi-automatic shoots. I pull Constance and duck with her, face planted to the bottom of the boat. She stares at me in shock.

  “You saved my life,” she says.