Dark Carnival: Book Summary
It takes Dean several seconds to react to meeting his father for the first time. But, just as Ryan's patience is wearing thin, he takes his hand and they retreat out of the Scalie lair. Krysty and the others have already gone ahead to the LAV 26 to wait for them, and to clear a path.
Once they escape the lair, Ryan is attacked by a huge mutie Alligator and is dragged into the Hudson river. If it wasn't for Dean jumping in after him and burying the stolen knife deep into the Gator's eye, Ryan would have been killed for sure. Father rescues son, son rescues father. Together they make it to the shore and join the others at the LAV.
As they head down the river to where they figure the gateway to be located, three canoe's filled with Scalies attempt to board. One is destroyed when it is rammed by the LAV 26, another is swamped and the scalies are dumped overboard, while the last is able to get along side and the muties climb aboard, only to be knocked off when they move the turret back and forth.
Safe, Dean and Ryan talk to each other, begin to get to know each other. He also takes the time to describe his friends to the boy. Dean also tells Ryan how Sharona Carson died. She was a gaudy slut who was forced to sell herself for fuel and food. She contracted radiation sickness and simply one night walked out of their shack, leaving Dean in the care of a woman named Janya.
Eventually they are able to recognise the ruins where the gateway is located. They abandon the wag, hoping that Stanton will be able to find it again. Their is still gas in it when they leave it. A short time later they discover the ruins and are pleased to see that it has remained untouched. They set up the ropes and begin their long descent into the elevator shaft.
Just before they all go down, Ryan and Dean spot a gang approaching carefully and cautiously. Dean spots eight or nine street punks. Ryan sends him ahead with the others and then hides, waiting to ambush the gang members. When they enter the building he kills four from his hiding location and then two more. The survivors run away screaming in terror. He figures that the fear of death will keep them from returning anytime soon.
They all make it to the bottom of the shaft safely, and not a moment too soon as the gang members finally build up the courage to return to the ruins. They begin to drop pieces of rubble down the shaft, but to no effect. The group enters the gateway and jumps. Something goes really wrong and they all suffer from terrible nightmares.
Ryan is the first to awaken in the new redoubt and immediately notices that the air is very cold and the gravity seems to be lighter than normal. He spots a purplish light coming from the control room and when he opens the doorway he is confronted by a sec squad armed with strange looking weapons. They order him to surrender, but instead he slams the door shut, triggering a second jump.
This time when they come to the air is hot and humid. The walls of this second redoubt are a delicate shade of blue green. The others gradually wake up. Doc, as usual, has suffered the worst effects and has slipped into his insanity. The others are quite worried that this might be the time that he finally loses his mind for good and that they will be forced to abandon him. But Krysty is finally able to help pull him back from the brink and he quickly begins to recover.
They leave the gateway and Ryan happens to find a piece of paper with writing on it. It seems to be connected to the gateways somehow, but he doesn't have the time to study it so places it in his pocket.
They take separate quarters and sleep for the night. The next day Ryan and J.B. discuss the possibility of leaving Dean with Jak and Christina, to keep him safe until they finally find a place to settle down and live in peace.
They explore the redoubt. It is much smaller than some of the redoubts, but contains weapons, ammo, food and clothing. Ryan gets rid of his old G-12 and replaces it with the Steyr rifle, dean picks up his .22, and J.B. gets his M-3000 Scattergun. They also change their clothing finally.
Once equipped with their new weapons Ryan, J.B. and Dean head to the firing range and test out their new weapons. When a huge mutie rat appears, J.B. is able to test out his flechette firing M-3000 on it. Works like a dream.
They spend nearly two days resting and recuperating from the double jump. During this time they spend a lot of time in the firing range. Ryan show's the piece of paper he discovered to Krysty but it is forgotten once again.
After a big breakfast on the morning of the second day, they leave the redoubt and head into the surrounding jungle. Ryan accidentally triggers a mechanism which bring a pair of Animatronic puppets to life. The others open fire on them before they realise just what the figures are.
They continue to explore, spotting more of the robots. Dean spots a huge snake in a tree and figures that it too, is just a prop. Turns out that he was wrong. Deadly wrong. The huge snake wraps a couple of coils around the boy and begins to crush the life out of him. Ryan attacks the snake using his Panga, eventually beheads it, saving his son.
Ryan and Dean head towards a slow moving river and bathe washing off the blood from the kill. They rejoin the rest. Krysty finally asks Dean to stop using foul language all the time, and he complies. They soon find themselves at the employee's section of the park and hear a gun shot off in the distance. Krysty knows that there are a hell of a lot of people around them.
In another section of the park they hear a voice over a loud speaker ordering them to drop their weapons or be chilled. Dean is the only one who doesn't and Ryan is forced to tell him to do it. A patrol of men in uniforms show up. This is where they meet Sec Boss Kelly for the first time. They learn the name of the park. It is the Greenglades Theme park, which is now known as the Greenglades ville. He takes them to centerpoint, a huge revolving tower to meet Boss Larry. Despite the danger, Dean is fast becoming interested in the sites and rides.
Inside the tower they meet Boss Larry. It turns out that Ryan, J.B. and the man know each other. Larry is ready to kill them for what they did to him twelve years ago, but changes his mind and lets them stay as guests. It is here for they hear the rumour that Trader may not be dead. He wants the party to stay and discover what his theme park has to offer.
As they are about to leave a man shows up. It is Adam Traven a evil and charismatic leader of a small band of followers known as the 'posse' He treats Larry Zapp like total garbage. Ryan instantly dislikes the young man. He also discovers that Traven is the real power behind the throne. Sec Boss Kelly confirms this fact.
They are taken to the Gator Hotel and are given rooms. They spend time cleaning up and Ryan learns from Kelly where Traven came from and that he slowly used sex, Dreem and manipulation to wrest control of the park from Larry Zapp. It is also during this time that Dean discovers that Doc is from the past. Doc Tanner takes the boy aside to explain what happened. When they return Dean asks Ryan if Doc is lying. They both say no, Doc isn't
When they leave to try out some of the rides they discover that about one hundred old people live in a series of condominiums on the outskirts of the ville. They pay Larry Zapp for protection and are quite upset that there have been five murders in the complex over the past three weeks. They want to do something about it. Here Doc meets a fat old woman named Owen who is wearing a pretty necklace. Kelly leads them past to the rides.
As they are about to go on the rides Traven and his posse show up. A young girl named Sky asks to go with them and latches onto Doc Tanner. The posse and Traven leave to talk to Larry, but not before Ryan spots the way he looks at Dean, and catches reference to a 'visit'.
During the day they go on a total of five rides. Dean enjoys them the most, Mildred the second as it brings back fond memories of her time before the world was destroyed. They then begin to explore some of the attractions that Larry restored, including the Camelot Castle where they see the holograms of various figures from the legend. Larry replaced the image of King Arthur with his own. They are about to go on one last ride but discover that it was trapped and would be fatal if they do. They return to the hotel to eat.
Doc it turns out had sex with young Sky and asks Ryan if she could join their band. Ryan simply lets him know that he'll think about it. Just before bed Dean wants to talk and learn about the people that Ryan has met and killed. He learns about Cort Strasser and Zimyanin, but nearly falls asleep and they send him to his room.
The next morning Kelly stops by to warn Ryan that Traven has informed Larry Zapp that he want the one eyed man killed. He also warns him to keep Dean close as for some reason Adam Traven wants to boy for himself. Ryan goes to see Larry to confirm what was said. Here Larry gives Ryan a functioning radio to use as a gift after confirming that yes, that's exactly what Traven wants. He slips into the warm embrace of the drug Dreem.
As he leaves Ryan is confronted by Traven. He tells Ryan he wants him gone, and will allow the entire party to leave unmolested if he agrees to leave Dean behind. Ryan, despite the anger he feels, tells Traven he'll think about it. When he returns to the room he tells the others what transpired. Dean offers to stay behind so the others can leave. Plans to cut Traven's throat. Ryan refuses.
Ryan shows the group the radio Larry gave him. When they turn it on, they are sure that they can hear a voice speaking Spanish, but that's all. This is when he reveals the piece of paper he found to the rest of the group. Doc takes it and examines it. Turns out it has the Last Destination function on it, as well as the codes for several redoubts. Ryan plans to test it, to see if one of the redoubts mentioned truly is the one they encountered in New Mexico. He plans to take Dean with him so he can stay with Jak and Christina, while they take care of Traven and his posse.
Just before midnight they head out into the swamps to the gateway. Ryan uses the code and makes the jump. Sure enough, the gateway is the one which was inside the redoubt which self destructed quite some time back, just before they met Christina. They spend the night sleeping. Next morning they discover that the Redoubt has been used by someone else as they see foot prints all over the sand.
They leave and head towards Jak's homestead shortly after. On the way they encounter a pack of mutie coyotes and are pursued by them for over two hours. During this time Ryan is able to kill over half the pack. When the survivors finally confront them, Jak shows up and rescues Both Dean and Ryan. Christina has changed greatly since the last time he'd seen her. She used to be, at best, homely, but she has become quite beautiful since then, during her time with Jak. She is also pregnant with Jak's child.
The same night that Dean and Ryan leave for New Mexico, Sky stops in Doc's room for a visit. She strips off her cloths and climbs into bed with him, and brings him to arousal using her mouth. She mounts him and begins to ride him when Doc notices that she is wearing Mrs. Owens necklace. Sky attacks him and he manages to fight her off, and kills her using his sword cane. Krysty comes in and they do what they can to hide the girls body.
That night Ryan returns to the gateway and uses the LD button. Sure enough, it works and he finds himself back in the gateway in Florida. He leaves the redoubt and heads towards the park, planning to use the story that he and Dean had been out walking when they were attacked by Cajuns, and Dean was taken. He is attacked by mutie frogs and falls into the mud, covering himself from head to to, making his story more plausible.
When he returns to the ville, Traven and the others want to know exactly where Dean is. Ryan relates the story about the Cajuns and they reluctantly accept it. Traven sends part of his posse to get Doc Tanner so they can 'interrogate' him about the whereabouts of the girl known as sky. He discovers Sky's body in the bathroom and after the posse leave, he and J.B. hide the corpse in one of the other rooms.
Kelly stops in again and warns them that Adam is making his move to take over the park from Larry Zapp. He leaves quickly.
Another one of Traven's Posse, a girl named Rainbow stops in and tells Ryan to come with her to Centerpoint as Adam wants to talk to him. For Doc's sake, he goes.
At center point Adam tells Ryan that his and his groups only hope for survival is to come with them, unarmed, on a Dark Snaking that night. If he refuses, they all die. If he comes, they all live. Larry tries to tell Ryan about Kelly but is unable to finish when Traven returns. Traven tells Ryan that he has to show up at the Paraglide Paradise ride at noon. Ryan leaves and goes back to the hotel.
At noon the group heads to the ride, as ordered by Traven. At the base of the ride they see the corpses of several people who were loyal to Zapp, and now have paid the price. As they watch, a battered and beaten kelly is brought to the ride and taken to the top. He asks Ryan to send some of the others to hell to be with him and is then thrown off the top, but is able to hook his legs around one of the executioners and drags him to his death. They are allowed to return to their rooms.
At midnight Ryan awakens and gets dressed. He steps outside and meets with Rainbow who was sent to fetch him. When he gets to Traven and his followers, they are all dressed in black and sneak into the condo compound. They choose the home of a man named Johnson who lives with his wife, and his two son's are visiting. They sneak around the house, exploring and eventually wake the people up, and bring them into the living room. This is where the butchery begins.
Ryan finally gets a chance to attack Adam and does so when the man slips in the spilled blood. He kills the lights and dives into the gang, killing all but Traven and one of his male followers in seconds. Traven, panic stricken escapes and heads to Centerpoint. Ryan takes the time to go and get Krysty, J.B. and Mildred.
The group attack the guards at the base of Centerpoint and enter. At the top they find Larry, Traven and a handful of guards. Traven has his weapon pointed at Doc's throat and is ready to pull the trigger when Larry falls on him, trapping the man under his considerable weight. Traven pumps all eight rounds into Larry's stomach, killing him. They pull the corpse off Traven, shoot him through both knees, elbows and three times in the belly, and leave him to die.
They go into the swamps towards the gateway. Ryan tries to contact Jak again, but is unable to. In his frustration and anger he hurls the radio deep into the swamp. The enter the gateway and head to New Mexico to get Dean.
The next day when they meet with Jak and Christina, they find out that Dean was kidnapped by slavers who were using the gateway. The slavers, it turns out, are controlled by a Russian named Zimyanin.
End of Dark Carnival.