Amanda

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was Finn. Like, right in front of my face. I sort of just sat there, our faces two inches apart, and I could feel mine heating up by the second. It was like I was Aurora or something, what with me laying there and him hovering over me. If I hadn't know anything better, I would've thought he had brought me out of SBS with true love's kiss or something. But enough of that. I hadn't seen this guy in over a year, the most we could do was hug. I did a sit up and leaned into a hug with Finn, who gladly returned it. 

Someone behind Finn coughed. I parted from him and looked over his shoulder to see Maybeck, Willa, and Charlene staring at me. Everybody sort of just stood there awkwardly before our attention was switched to Jess, who had just appeared on the bench next to me.

"Jess!" We all exclaimed, grateful for the distraction.

"Uh, hi..." She muttered, dazed. Sometimes when you haven't crossed over for a while it takes you a minute to get your thoughts together. 

"Where's Philby?" I asked. 

"He's late." Willa replied. 

"He's late," Charlene followed up.

"For a very important date!" Maybeck finished, which sent us all into fits of laughter. 

"No but seriously, where is he?" Jess reiterated. 

"Diggin' a rabbit hole or somethin'," Maybeck joked, to which Charlene promptly elbowed him. "Ow," He grumbled.

"He's probably trying to fall asleep. If I had a guess, he just thought of the cure to cancer or something and is planning out the chemical formula or something." Finn told me, and Willa started giggling. "But, that's not the point... We have something to talk about." He rubbed the back of his neck.

I was surprised by his extroversion. "What, here? Are you sure?" I asked. 

He caught on to what I was talking about. "No!!" The suggestion had apparently took Finn by surprise. He shook it off and coughed. "Uh, no, I meant we as Keepers all have something to talk about." I could feel everyone snickering at us as Finn and I both turned a rosy shade of pink.

"Like what?" I tried to break the silence.

"Like, uh, this...?" Maybeck motioned to himself, and I realized something was different. It was a familiar look, but something was different.

"Why do you look so weird?" Jess asked, puzzled.

"Well, because we have to go back..." Finn trailed off.

"Back to what?" Jess and I said in unison.

"To... 1.0." Charlene told us. I felt Jess tense. Well, not physically, but we were so close we could tell when the other was freaking out a little bit. After we had gotten the big thing out of the way, everyone filled Jess and me on what was going on. 

"So, let me get this straight. We have to go and clean up some other kids' mess because they couldn't handle the Keeper life?" Jess concluded.

"Well," Everyone looked at each other. "Yeah." We all let out a sigh. 

I heard another cough, which caught our attention. A shoulder revealed itself from behind Maybeck, and I instantly recognized it. "Wayne?" I whispered.

"Hello Amanda. Jezebel, pleased to see you too." Wayne stepped out from behind Maybeck and bowed as if he had just performed a great act. 

"What are you doing here?" Jess asked, which was a mistake. What followed was a ten minute explanation about something the Imagineers had done come Wayne's death, which was thankfully cut short by Philby crossing over. We all greeted him and filled him in on what was happening, and then Wayne disappeared. Sigh. I really had missed him and had just seen him, but he was back to his little tricks. 

Suddenly, Philby spoke up. "OT." He said, his voice shaking.

"What did you say?" Maybeck inquired, his breath getting shaky, which never happened to Maybeck.

"OT." Philby repeated himself, pointing a shaky finger to the bushes. 

"Who?" Jess whispered. I reached down and squeezed her hand, my other one tensing to push at a moment's notice.

"Fox. Br'er Fox." Philby said. I couldn't tell if he was mocking Mission Impossible or not, but either way Maybeck hummed the theme song. 

"Run?" Willa asked Philby.

"Run." He quickly replied before bolting. I wanted to scream out TFIOS, but I thought the time was inappropriate, so I took off too. We were all sprinting towards Tomorrowland. I didn't know how we all knew where the other was going, it was as if we had this constant telepathic conversation going, like the ones in HIMYM. I heard the claws of Br'er Fox clicking on the concrete behind me. 

"Just keep moving forward!" I yelled from the back of the group as I sped up. Danger was sure a good motivator. Charlene and Maybeck were in the front, and started leading us in the direction of Carousel of Progress. Everyone followed, and we dashed into the building, pushing the door closed behind us. I cringed at the sound of Br'er Fox's claws scratching at the door. 

"Well, what now? You cornered us." Charlene sneered at Maybeck, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"I cornered us?! You were to the right! You led us here!" Maybeck retorted.

"No, you started going right and if I kept going straight to the People Mover, where I wanted to go, we would be better, but noooo you had to turn and if I went straight I would've crashed into you!" Charlene and Maybeck went on for a while like this while Philby wandered down to the control panel, where the Cast Member took out the microphone every session and started you on your "Journey through progress" into the "Great big beautiful of tomorrow". In the blink of an eye, he had turned on the lights that weren't just the blue emergency ones along the isle. We all blinked rapidly, attempting to adjust. 

"Guys, guys!" Jess tried to break Charlene and Maybeck up. "It doesn't matter how we are here, but we are, and there is a little more-than-mischievous fox outside dying to get his paws on us. Unless you wanna wind up in a beehive, we have to get out of here!" 

"She's right." Finn backed Jess up. "Phil, do you know a way out of this place?" We all looked over to Philby, who was engrossed in the map of the attraction that was pasted to the inside of the door of the microphone cabinet. 

"I mean, we are sorta trapped here. The only way we can even get to the next stage is climbing onstage and going that way." He rubbed his chin, mulling everything over.

"Well, what if we did just that!" Willa's face lit up with a realization none of us had had. "We could go through the stage to the one that is currently facing the back of the attraction, and can get out that way!" We all gave an 'ah' of the ever-famous light bulb moment. 

"Well, we haven't got time to waste." I pointed out and hopped onstage. We were currently in the futuristic scene of the carousel, the fifth act of the attraction. The one closest to the back would probably be the third scene that takes place on the 4th of July. 

"To the July scene!" Finn called out. He had probably thought the same thing as me. We helped each other onto the stage and looked around, trying to figure out how to travel to the next scene. 

"Wait! Philby, can you figure out how to get the anamatronics going to Br'er Fox thinks we're still in here?" Charlene asked.

"Yeah," Philby leaped offstage and punched a few buttons in control panel. The anamatronics whirred to life, and Br'er Fox started scratching again. "There." Philby dusted his hands off, satisfied, and hopped back onstage with us. 

"Guys, this way." Willa whispered, pointing to the door to the right of the stage.

"Kingdom Keepers to stage right." Charlene joked as we scurried to the gray door in the back of the set. We found ourselves in the October scene. 

"Right there." Philby pointed to the off-white door across the room. We scurried across the stage and into the next room. 

"Hurry!" Willa cried as the theme song started up. We probably had about fifteen seconds to get through and jump off the stage before the chairs rotated and we were set back a scene. All of us jumped off in sync, and it kind of reminded me of the famous High School Musical pose where all the characters are in a freeze frame. But never mind that, we had a mission! 

Willa, Philby, Jess, Finn and I raced across towards the door while Maybeck and Charlene hurdled a few chairs. Despite logic, they arrived there before us. Finn went to yank open the door, but Philby stopped him. "Dude!" Finn whispered angrily.

"Don't open it so loud!" Philby scolded and pushed Finn out of the way, opening the door himself. I saw an expression of annoyance cross Finn's face, but he shook it off when we realized what was in front of us.

"Br'er in trouble..." Maybeck muttered, while we all stared at the whole Br'er bad gang in front of us. Gulp.

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I kind of like sticking modern puns into the Keeper's lives. What do you think about it? 

I've dedicated this chapter to @Madxgoon because she's sorta been a boss for me what with voting for Labyrinth and adding this story to one of her lists and commenting and whatnot. Thanks for supporting me girly! 

At this point, I'm patiently waiting until Saturday to go to regionals and finally be done with my swim season. It was fun, but I'm so done. Once that ends, I might be able to double chapter you guys and stuff. But for now, be sure to vote, comment and fan!

xoxo

~bcruzy_02