Tʜᴇ Fʟᴀʀᴇ ꕥ Lɪᴢᴢɪᴇ Jᴏʜɴsᴏɴ

sᴇʀɪᴇs ᴏɴᴇ ꕥ 9

After a quick recce round Mike's house, they got six or seven compasses together and dumped them on the table.

"What is the point of this?" Lizzie asked. She wasn't meaning to be rude, she just genuinely wanted to know.

"Well, they're all facing north, right?" Dustin asked.

"Yeah, so?" Lucas asked.

"Well, that's not true north," Dustin said by way of explanation.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"Well I mean exactly what I said, that's not true north," Dustin said. "Are you all seriously this dense? The sun rises in the east and it sets in the west, right?"

They all nodded.

"Which means, that's true north," he pointed in a complete different direction to the compasses.

"So what you're saying is the compasses are broken?" Lizzie questioned.

Dustin picked up a compass and waved it in Lizzie's face. "Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?"

"No, get it out of my face!" Lizzie complained, but she was smiling.

"No, because it doesn't need one, the needle's naturally pulled to the Earth's magnetic North Pole," Dustin was getting into it; in amazement at his cleverness.

"So, what's wrong with it?" Lucas asked.

"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered; you can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field-"

Lizzie jumped up. "And Mr Clarke said-"

Dustin interrupted her interruption. "-That the gate would have so much power-"

-"And it could disrupt the electromagnetic field-"

"Exactly!" Dustin grinned. He and Lizzie had just literally read each others minds.

"Meaning, if we follow the compasses north..." Lucas said, hardly believing it.

"They should lead us to the gate," Dustin grinned.

All four were so wrapped up in their glee at getting this far that they didn't notice El. She was looking very scared, and unsure. And like she was suddenly regretting that these boys and girl were so clever.

ꕥꕥꕥ

"You ready to go?" Dustin asked Lizzie half an hour later, when she arrived at Mike's house again after she, Dustin and Lucas quickly went home to get a bag and some supplies.

"Yeah, I think I'm good," Lizzie grinned. "D'you have all the compasses."

"Yep," Dustin held the little round tool up. "Got about five - just in case one breaks."

"Didn't you say one couldn't break?" Lizzie teased, a grin sneaking on to her face.

"You know what I meant!" Dustin protested.

"But you said-"

"Oi! Lovebirds!" Lucas yelled to the two of them. "Hurry up! We're going!"

They rode their bikes for as long as the compasses took them, then dropped them at the point where they got taken onto an abandoned railway line.

Lucas, Mike and El were walking together a little further back than Dustin and Lizzie, who were talking about Flora's recent hairdo.