Renegade (37 page)

Kimber smiled as Alexis moved off down the hallway. “You know it was a good party when even a half-zombie says so.”

Kimber and I gasped at the same time. “The party!”

Sam’s face drew grim. “The fog.”

We all nodded.

“It somehow made everyone sick.”

“Almost the entire school was at your house,” I told Kimber.

“That would explain why half the school isn’t here.” The girl down the hall began coughing once more. “And the rest are here to spread their disease.”

“Do you think it’s contagious?” I worried.

“Ew.” Kimber whined.

“I don’t think sticking around here and finding out is a very good idea,” Sam said.

We ran toward the door, but I stopped when I heard the drone of a TV just a few doors down, inside the office. Instead of going out the door, I went to listen.

“Heven!” Kimber hissed as she and Sam ran to catch me.

There was a medium-sized flat screen hanging on the wall inside the school office, and I stopped just inside the door to hear the local news report.

“Doctors are baffled this morning by the epidemic that seems to be sweeping the students at Windham High, here in Maine. It began yesterday when students began coming into the ER with flu-like symptoms and a green cast to their skin. The students also exhibit lack of response to everything and everyone around them. Doctor’s are scrambling to put a name to an illness they have never seen before. The staff here at the local hospital is working around the clock to find some kind of treatment for the outbreak.

“At this time, it is unknown how the virus began, but doctor’s are led to believe it originated at the high school, as ninety-eight percent of the affected are students. The remaining two percent is staff.

“Police, who are now involved, are currently en route to the school to close off the building and do a sweep of the interior, where they are hoping to find some answers. Eyewitness News would also like to report that, at this time, all schools in this county are closed and will not reopen until further word from officials.”

“We need to get out of here before the police get here and start wondering why we’re the only ones not sick,” Sam said from behind me.

“Yeah, magic will only go so far in convincing them we aren’t involved in any of this.” Kimber agreed.

There was some movement off to the right in the corner of the office, and then Mrs. Schuster began to cough. It was the same deep, hacking cough afflicting the girl in the hallway.

“Mrs. Schuster? Are you okay?” I asked.

She turned from the file cabinet, a stack of papers in her hand. She looked down at them like she couldn’t figure out where they came from and then she looked back up at me. There was no recognition in her eyes, and her skin, while not as green as the kids in the hallway, was definitely not its normal color. “She’s got it, too,” I murmured to Sam and Kimber. “We need to help her.”

“We can’t help her if we’re in jail,” Kimber hissed.

“So we’re just supposed to leave her here?” It just felt wrong to do that to a woman who always bought our lame stories and wrote us late notes.

“The police are on their way, Hev. They’ll help her,” Sam told me, reaching for my hand so he could lure me away.

I glanced back at Mrs. Schuster. She wasn’t looking at us any longer but staring off into space like it was the best movie she’d ever seen. “You’re going to be okay,” I told her, not knowing if she could hear me. “Help is on the way.”

“Heven,” Sam implored. “We really should go. We have no idea if this is contagious.”

I guess it didn’t really matter. We’d been in here too long. If it was airborne we were all going down.

I didn’t say that to Sam as we made our way back down the hall toward the doors, giving a wide berth to the students who still roamed the halls.

“Why are they even here?” Kimber wondered.

“Maybe they didn’t know school was closed. We didn’t. Besides, they don’t really seem all that coherent. Maybe their brains are just on autopilot and going to school is what they always do,” I replied, watching a senior football player lumber down the hall.

“Do you think the doctors are going to be able to cure an illness caused by Beelzebub?” Kimber asked.

“I hope so,” Sam said, his words not sounding very confident.

The sound of muffled sirens outside signaled that the police had arrived and would be entering the building very soon. Kimber jogged to the door and glanced out the long vertical window beside it. “Great!” she said. “They parked out there on the street between the school and the lot where we parked.”

“Let’s go out the door on the other side of the building, the one in the gym. We can walk around to the parking lot after the cops are all inside,” Sam suggested.

The halls at a school, when empty, were long, echoing corridors that seemed far too still than any hallway should ever be. They weren’t very bright because all the light was in the classrooms off the hall and the bare floors and walls gave everything a kind of abandoned feeling.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the double doors of the gym came into view, knowing just beyond them was a short walk to the outside, to a place that didn’t feel so creepy. In the hallways behind us I could hear the police walking through, questioning the wandering students and searching for answers. In just a matter of time, the entire building would be swarming with cops. I thought of Mrs. Schuster and hoped they were with her, getting her some help.

Kimber pushed through the gymnasium doors first, peering in to make sure there wasn’t anyone there.

“All clear?” Sam asked, stepping forward to look over her shoulder.

I didn’t hear her response because my attention was caught at the very end of the hall by a figure in the shadowy stairwell. She was standing there, staring at us, not saying a word, just watching.

As I stared back she drew something from behind her… a glass beaker, and it was bubbling with the same green mist from the chemistry lab and from Kimber’s party.

It was my chemistry teacher.

Or should I say, it was Beelzebub in my chemistry teacher’s body.

She grinned at me, raised the beaker, and waved it around as the green stuff wafted out around her. Then she turned and disappeared up the stairs, leaving a trail of poison behind her.

Without another thought, I took off down the hall after him. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing in the world, to chase after a man who made it his mission to torment me and in a building filling with cops, but if I didn’t chase after him—if I didn’t try to stop him—he’d just keep hurting people.

“Heven!” Sam called after me, doing his best to keep his voice hushed.

I looked over my shoulder as I ran. “He’s here!” I replied, then started for the steps, doing my best to avoid the remains of the neon fog.

Riley

She opened the door before I even knocked. It was like she could sense I was there.

Or she’d been waiting.

I would’ve been blind not to notice the pleasure that came into her eyes when she saw me standing outside, hoping to come in.

“Riley,” she said, smiling. “How was Heven’s birthday party?” She stepped back, letting me in, and as I brushed by her she noted the overly full backpack on my back.

“What in the world is that?” She laughed.

I grinned. “I brought supplies.”

“Chocolate?” she asked, hopeful.

“I owed you some Ho Hos anyway. The last ones I got you were ruined.”

I dropped the bag on the side of the couch and reached in, pulling three big boxes of snack cakes out and then going back in for popcorn and candy.

“What’s all this?”

“Movie food.”

“What’s—”

I groaned, cutting her off. “Please don’t tell me you’ve never heard of a movie.”

“I won’t tell you.”

“Deprived,” I muttered and pulled out a portable DVD player. “Prepare to have your mind blown.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t sound like a good thing.”

“Eat your chocolate,” I commanded and went about turning on the player and sticking an Adam Sandler movie in the side.

I sat down on the couch and propped up my feet, settling the player in my lap as the previews and advertisements began to play.

Ana sat down beside me, her eyes fastened to the screen in fascination. “You like it?” I asked her, watching her watch the screen.

She smiled and nodded.

“Good. Now hand me that bag of popcorn.”

She handed me the bag and it made a lot of noise while I opened it, and then the movie started.

“Riley?” Ana asked as the credits rolled across the screen.

“Hmm?”

“You just came here to show me this… movie?”

“Yeah. To hang out.” Being here with her was a lot better than cleaning. I paused in chomping on the popcorn. “Should I go?”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. I want to see this movie you told me about.”

I settled a little farther into the cushions. “Get comfortable. You’re about to laugh your ass off.”

She did what I said, leaning back so her shoulder was right against mine and her head tilted close so she could stare at the tiny screen.

Yeah. This was definitely better than cleaning.

After the movie ended and I ate almost all the snacks (except for all the Ho Hos), she looked at me. “Are you sure you didn’t come here for anything else?”

“You didn’t like my movie?” I scowled.

She laughed. “No, I did. It was very funny. I didn’t know people acted like that,” she said, smiling again. “I just… You never said how Heven’s birthday party went.”

“Eh. It was your typical party. Too much food, too much drink, and too much drama.”

“So you didn’t have a good time?”