Chapter 4

chapter four Suddenly, the front doors fly open and Quint bursts into Joe's Pizza. "Jack! June! Come, quick! It's finally finished!" "Your Downton Abbey ancestral family tree?" I ask. "Your toothpick replica of the Death Star?" June asks. "Even better!" Quint says. "Come on! I just need to stir the formula..." "OK—that sounds foreboding...." June says. "But also... rad?" I say. Moments later, we're following Quint through Joe's Pizza. I wave hi to a few buddies as we walk through the kitchen and into the huge cold storage room. Inside, I see three massive tanks. Quint hurries up a stepladder and starts stirring.

Welcome to the Goo-Slime Factory, AKA PROJECT Day-Glow Act impressed. He's really excited. "It smells like hot dogs and sweat," June says. "And I love it!" I say. "How long did it take you guys to build this??" "Wasn't that big a project," Dirk says with a shrug. "I used to help my dad at his work sites, and they were bigger than this. The biggest!" We all stare at Dirk for an awkward moment. "What?" Dirk says, "My dad was a master builder. Before I was born, he worked

on, like, the space station, the old Yankee Stadium, lots of celebrities' houses." We continue to stare at Dirk, and the awkward moment grows longer. Thankfully, Quint jumps in. "Now, the formula is nontoxic to humans—but extremely toxic to Thrull's vines." "After the battle with Thrull and the Tendrill, I knew we'd need more goo-slime," Quint says. "A lot." Dirk nods. "And this morning's skeleton battle proved the nerd was right. Luckily, while you've been off playing zombie hopscotch, we built this," he says, showcasing the factory like Vanna White. "Three full tanks of goo for the next time those skull-heads show up." "Good timing," June says. "Because I also have big news! SKAELKA'S BACK! And she found out—" "WHERE THE OUTPOST IS!" I exclaim triumphantly. "OK, duder, thanks for stealing my thunder," June says. "But yeah—Skaelka found it. And that means, it's time for us to leave."

Quint thinks for a short moment, then nods. "OK, then. We knew this day would come." Dirk taps the tank a few times. "Well, all right." "Yes!" June says, totally amped up. "We're gonna find the Outpost! Then discover where Thrull is building his Tower! And then we'll go destroy it! And then we'll save this dimension and any other survivors who might be out there!" We must begin preparations at once. Lists are in order. So many lists. Road trip time. Finally, wait till Thrall gets a load of this gooselime. He's gonna go scampering back to his Lemo dimension.

I swallow. I knew that someday we'd have to head out and hunt down Thrull's Tower. But until now, that always felt like some faraway distant errand. But now it's actually happening—and the reality of leaving Wakefield is sinking in. And I feel... well... I'm not sure.... I'm trying to get my head around it, when June jumps in, all excited. "Now that we finally know where we need to go," June says, "we can chart a course. And all good road trips have a pre-planned itinerary." "We'll need a map," Quint says. "Preferably, a very old one with a thousand creases that you can never get folded back up correctly." "I have a map," Dirk says, "and not just any map. It's the ULTIMATE road trip map." "Um, amazing," June says. "Where is it?" "At my house," Dirk says. "My, uh, old house." Everyone's quiet for a moment. None of us have ever been to Dirk's house. He never brought it up and we never asked.

Part of me thought maybe he never actually had a house; just couldn't picture it. I half imagined that before all this he just lived off the land and stolen lunch money...