“I don’t know anything about that.”

Spencer awoke to morning sunlight and acrid smoke. His eyes fluttered a few times and then he sat bolt upright.

They were still in the Valley of Tires, but the place looked quite different than when they’d arrived. There were scattered body parts from ruined Thingamajunks littered around. The Aurans must have set fire to the remains, and the smoldering scraps of trash tainted the air with dark pollutants.

“You woke up with a jump,” Rho said, crossing over to him. “Thought you were still up there?” She pointed up the side of the wall of tires. Spencer felt dizzy just looking at it in the daylight. It was much higher than he’d thought.

Spencer had come up with a good story. The girls already suspected that a Dark Auran was behind the Thingamajunk stampede. Lying to the Aurans would only arouse their suspicions. So he went with the truth. A version of the truth, anyway.

“So you didn’t catch his name?” Rho asked as she passed Spencer a steaming bowl of oatmeal.

“Whose name?”

“That Dark Auran you met last night,” Rho said casually.

Spencer shook his head and ladled a spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth. “I told you, he pulled me out of that Thingamajunk’s mouth, dunked me in a tub of rainwater, and then made me climb. By the time we reached the top, you were all looking for me. I shouted down, and I guess he didn’t want to get caught, so he took off.”

He was pretending. And he hoped it was good enough to fool Rho. In a way, it felt satisfying to deceive her. She’d lied to him about being Jenna. And according to Aryl, she might be lying now. He stared into her eyes, trying to see if she knew about his Auran sense.

Spencer took a few more bites of oatmeal. It burned his tongue, and he could just picture his mom saying, “That’s what you get for lying.” But he couldn’t tell the Aurans the truth. He had to be cautious and see what he could learn from them.

Spencer scanned the valley. The Aurans were looking worse for wear, silvery hair disheveled and dirty. The fight against the wild Thingamajunks had been grueling, but all the Aurans had survived. His Rebel friends were helping to untangle mop strings from the barbed-wire trap.

“Why did V tell me that the Dark Aurans were dead?” Spencer asked.

“They are dead to us,” Rho answered, unwilling to make eye contact. “They’re evil, Spencer. I’m surprised he didn’t hurt you.”

It was risky, but he probed further. “He was wearing something strange. It looked like a piece of metal around his neck.”

Rho shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that. I haven’t seen the Dark Aurans in years.” She swallowed a mouthful of oatmeal and quickly changed subjects.

“So, V’s getting ready to use the Spade,” Rho said. “She’s literally going to rock the earth. The ground is going to peel up out of the gorge in front of us, and the ground behind us is going to get sucked down into the gorge that you crossed yesterday.”

“What about your building? The one with the round table?”

“It has a Glopified foundation,” Rho said. “It always stays topside, regardless of the rotation.”

Spencer paused, thinking about what might happen to Aryl when V used the Spade. It would be suspicious if he asked outright, so Spencer thought of a cover question. “But the Thingamajunks?”

“We’re at the north side of the landfill right now, but the Spade will roll us back to the south.”

“So all the Thingamajunks behind us will get pulled underground,” he said.

Rho nodded. “It takes them a while to crawl out, but they usually find their way topside again.”

Thingamajunks were creatures of Glop and garbage, so they could survive underground. Aryl was a human being who needed oxygen. Spencer was surprised to find that he was nervous for the Dark Auran. His anxiety was probably misplaced anyway. If Aryl had been clever enough to set that elaborate stampede to separate Spencer, then he was probably clever enough to stay ahead of the Aurans when V used the Spade.

V strode past, gripping the rawhide handle of the Spade in both hands. “All right!” she called. “Let’s get packed up and get a move on!”

Spencer tossed his Styrofoam bowl of oatmeal and stood up. He secured his janitorial belt and pulled on his backpack. Leaving Rho to follow, he set off after V.

The Aurans and Rebels gathered around V at the edge of the north gorge. “It’s been a while since we’ve trekked this deep into the landfill,” V said. “Things kind of get out of proportion from here on. After the ground shifts, we’ll break into two groups again. We travel fast and rendezvous at our destination just after dusk.”

V lifted the Spade. It looked like an ordinary shovel in her hands. “Brace yourselves,” she said. Then, with a mighty thrust, she drove the metal end deep into the hard soil.

A huge crater formed in the ground where the Spade touched down, as if the force of V’s thrust had blasted the soil away. At the same time, a shock wave rippled out from the Spade, knocking Spencer onto his back.

There was a tremendous grating sound, and Spencer felt the ground shift beneath him. His fingers dug into the dirt, and he felt like he might fly off the earth at any second. He heard Daisy crying out in surprise at his side.

Something bizarre was happening in the north gorge. The landscape was bending and warping, new formations appearing like cardboard cutouts in a child’s pop-up book. The earth seemed to be rolling away from the gorge. Spencer watched the abyss grow smaller and then disappear completely, his view claimed by new, odd trash-scapes.

Then it ended as suddenly as it had begun. The ground came to a ripstop halt, and Spencer’s momentum sent him rolling in the dirt.

He sat up, taking stock of his surroundings. The Rebels were still in the Valley of Tires, surrounded by Aurans. But the Valley of Tires, instead of being near the north gorge, was now comfortably situated at the opposite edge of the landfill, near the spot where the bridge had collapsed under Bernard’s garbage truck. With the new terrain exposed, another day’s worth of hiking lay before them.

“Is everybody all right?” V said, picking herself up off the ground and plucking the Spade out of its newly formed crater.

“I’m a little motion sick,” said Daisy, grasping at her head. “That was like a bad roller coaster.”

The Aurans seemed less affected. They were on their feet in moments, while the Rebels rose unsteadily, as though the ground might get pulled out from under them again.

“Okay,” Bernard said, dusting off his tweed coat. “This place is officially crazy. Enchanted landfill, trash with a mind of its own. What’s next, dumpsters that dance the hula?”