Testing Zero: a dystopian post-apocalyptic young adult novella series (Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles Book 1) (2 page)

Chapter 2

Zero looked at the hole, then at Lefty, and then down at the small crocodile. “Why does it have to be a croc, anyway? Isn’t there something better you can do to get back at Flea?”

“No, it has to be a crocodile. Trust me. People are going to be talking about this a hundred years from now.”

“We could put a thousand zompopos in Flea’s desk. That would do it.”

“Really? You think a thousand giant ants in his desk would have the same effect as a crocodile?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you’re wrong. And there’s no time to catch that many zompopos anyway. It has to be a croc, and it has to be today,” he said again.

Zero began to reach his arm through the fence, but quickly pulled it back. “When Professor Bird writes you up, I had nothing to do with this.”

“Of course.”

Although Lefty’s reach came up two inches short, Zero’s hand was able to extend five inches farther. Zero slowly placed his hand on the slippery, rough skin of the crocodile’s tail. His movements were gentle enough not to alarm the tail’s owner, who didn’t seem to notice that someone was ever-so-slowly pulling him through the tall grass.

“Don’t yank him,” Lefty whispered in Zero’s ear.

“I know. I’m not stupid,” Zero hissed.

“I’m just saying. You don’t have as much experience with crocodiles as I do.”

“I know. Shut up.” Zero continued to pull slowly until the crocodile was up against the fence.

“Why’d you stop? Pull him all the way through.”

“No way. This is as far as I go.” Zero let go and retracted his arm. “You can take it from here.”

“You’re such a coward. You know that?” Lefty began to reach his left hand through the fence.

“Don’t use your good hand. Use your right.”

“I’m not an idiot, Zero. Quit worrying. I can’t grip tight enough with my right hand.”

Zero folded his arms and watched silently as Lefty began to lift the hind end of the crocodile. Once the reptile was halfway through the opening, the croc began to jerk and swing from side to side, snapping its jaws. Lefty quickly pulled it the rest of the way through the fence and held the flailing beast away from his body. He wrapped the two good fingers of his right hand around the end to hold it with both hands.

The crocodile twisted and rolled until Lefty could no longer hold on. The tail slipped free from his grip. It dropped head first onto the grass, and in no time it was back on its belly hissing and snapping its jaws.

Zero took a few steps back. “We don’t have to do this.”

“What do you mean? Of course we do.” Lefty kept eye contact with the crocodile, jumping back each time it lunged at him. “It’s a matter of principle.”

“Why? What did Flea do this time?”

“Do? What did he
do
? He doesn’t have to
do
anything. All he has to do is exist, and that’s all I need to know. He has bullied and tormented us since we were new arrivals—as long as we can remember.”

“But you never come out on top. He goes right through you—he does it every single time. You never win when you go up against him and his gang.”

“Oh, come on. What about that time I loosened two of his front teeth? He steered clear of me for a week after that one.”

“Yeah, but if I remember right, that was also one of the times he knocked you unconscious. I don’t think I’d count you as the winner on that one.”

“Well, Zero, my friend, buddy, pal, maybe that’s true. And maybe that wouldn’t have happened if you would stick around for a fight once in a while. Stop tucking your tail between your legs and running away.”

“I don’t see the point of fighting.”

“I know you don’t, but I can’t see the point of running away.”

They turned toward each other, scanning each other’s faces. They’d had the same argument about once a week since they first discovered what a bully was—ever since the first time Flea and Lefty went rounds out by the teeter totter.

Zero was quick to break eye contact. He never could win a stare-down. Lefty’s eyes shifted back to the miniature dragon hissing in front of him.

Lefty pulled off his T-shirt and wadded it up in his left hand. He took three steps back and walked a large circle around to the back of the crocodile. He opened up his shirt and tossed it over the croc’s head, covering its eyes. Annoyed, the croc jerked his head from side to side, but Lefty pounced on it and locked both of his hands onto its jaws, securing them shut.

“You see? Nothing to it.” Lefty panted and stood proudly, facing Zero and holding the crocodile up to eye level—his hands still securing the jaws shut. “Pick up my shirt, would you? Just stick it in my back pocket.”

As Zero bent down to pick up the shirt, the croc’s tail swung violently, smacking Zero across the side of his head, knocking him backward. He shook it off, got back to his feet, and then stuffed the t-shirt into Lefty’s back pocket.

“Their jaws are super strong when they want to bite down on something,” Lefty said, “but they’re not nearly as strong when they’re trying to open. That’s why I can hold his jaws shut.”

“Well, aren’t you just a fountain of knowledge?”

Lefty smiled as he admired his catch. He lowered it until the tail touched the ground, which made the crocodile jerk back and forth again. “Come on, Zero. The hard part’s done. All we need to do now is get this guy into Flea’s desk.”

Zero rolled his eyes. “Aren’t you at least going to close that hole you made in the fence?”

“What for? The hole is two feet off the ground. Crocs can’t jump through it.” He grinned. “I’m sure Professor Bird will know we were the ones to do this as soon as he sees, and he’ll make us clean up the mess. We’ll close it when we bring the croc back.”

“But aren’t you scared one of the infected people will climb through the hole?”

Lefty raised an eyebrow and dropped his shoulders. “The Remnants? Are you serious?”

“Of course I’m serious. Professors talk about the infected Remnants of the old world all the time. They’re all over the place beyond the outer city wall. I don’t want one of them making it onto the school grounds.”

“The professors talk about them all the time, yeah. But have you ever seen a Remnant?”

“No.”

“Me neither.” Lefty looked through the chain link fence at the immense wall standing a few hundred feet away. Made of all sizes of rock and mortar, it was about 100 feet tall, towering above even the tallest of the trees. “If they actually do exist, and if by some miracle one made it past the outer wall, what do you think would happen to them once they reached the river? The crocs would eat them alive before they came anywhere near the inner fence here. I’ve never even heard of one even making it into the swamp, let alone swimming across the river to the school grounds.”

“I’m just saying. Maybe we should close the hole. It’s better to be safe than—”

“Fine. You can close the hole if you want to. My hands are a little tied right now.” Lefty lifted the crocodile again to show him to Zero, which he regretted when its tail whacked him across the knee. “I need to hurry and get this thing into Flea’s desk before lunch hour is over.”

Zero watched Lefty drag the young crocodile as he sprinted a short distance toward a clump of bushes, holding his hands low enough that nobody could see the animal.

With so many people buzzing around in such a small space, it was difficult for the boys to sneak the crocodile from one set of bushes to the next. Zero and Lefty had less than ten minutes to make it to Flea’s desk before lunch break would be over.

They felt the bushes claw at their skin as they snuck along the fence, eventually coming up behind Building 18 where their homeroom was located. They froze when the sound of voices came from around the corner.

“Go see who it is,” Lefty said.

“Why do I have to go? This is your hair-brained idea.”

“Because I’m holding this.” Lefty lifted the croc, his hands still clamping down on its jaws. “I’d be happy to let you hold him while I go look.”

“Fine.” Zero grunted and peeked around the corner. “It’s just three kids. They’re about six or seven years old.”

“Are they hanging out by the back door?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh well. They’ll be no trouble.” Lefty walked around the corner into plain sight of the younger kids. They stared at him, mouths open. He held up the crocodile for them to see. “You’re probably thinking about running to tell on me right now, aren’t you? Do you think it’s smart to tell on a guy who’s holding a crocodile?”

The three kids shook their heads in unison.

Lefty brushed past them. “Good choice.”

He crouched down in the last set of bushes next to the back entrance and nudged Zero with his elbow, encouraging him to enter the building to ensure that the coast was clear. It wasn’t. Caiman, one of the enormous boys Zero knew to be part of Flea’s gang, was spending his lunch hour pushing a mop around on the hall floors, which Zero presumed was punishment for some sort of misdeed.

Zero looked at the clock mounted on the wall. Eight minutes remained before lunch break would be over. For a brief moment, he hoped Caiman would remain in the hall for the rest of lunch break to make it impossible for Lefty to go anywhere near Flea’s desk, but that hope dissipated when Caiman splashed the mop into the bucket and began walking in the opposite direction. He wheeled the mop bucket around the corner and out of sight.

Zero exhaled, shook his head, and walked outside to tell Lefty the coast was now clear.

Lefty stole a peek through the glass panes of the double doors before Zero opened it for him. The sound of the crocodile’s tail slapping the linoleum as they walked caused his heart to race. He was sure some professor would hear it and come bursting into the hall to see what was going on. He now believed Lefty was correct when he said people would be talking about this for years to come, but for all the wrong reasons. Countless things could go wrong with this plan. He shuddered, not being able to keep himself from envisioning what some of those things might be.

They tiptoed through the empty hallway, which smelled strongly of Caiman’s lemon-scented mopping suds. Each step, no matter how quiet they tried to be, echoed off the walls.

Zero stopped just outside the classroom door. “Seriously, Lefty, this is stupid!”

Lefty took two steps into the room and spun around. “Come on. This is going to be great.”

“How do you expect this to work? No crocodile is ever going to lie still inside of a desk. He’ll pop right out.”

“Not if I’m sitting on it.” With a menacing grin on his face, Lefty turned into the classroom, lugging the croc, which, apart from flopping its tail now and again, had apparently abandoned the urge to fight back.

Zero backed into the corner of the hall. His assigned desk wasn’t far from Flea’s, and he wasn’t about to take his seat yet. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the action when everything went down. He was convinced he’d somehow be the first one bit and be left with fewer fingers than Lefty had.

The bell sounded, and Zero jumped. Flea soon walked through the doors with six of his cronies close behind. In less than a minute, the hall was buzzing with hundreds of students, which meant Zero could more easily proceed without drawing attention to himself.

This was how Zero lived his life. For him, hiding from others was an art form. Like a chameleon, even though he was one of the largest people in school, he had the ability to blend into his surroundings simply by walking in others’ shadows, retreating to corners whenever possible, and avoiding the discomfort of conversation with everyone except Lefty—his only friend.

It was this type of behavior that inspired his nickname. He had been standing motionless against a wall for nearly half an hour when a Professor directed a comment his way, calling him R-11, the name that had been assigned to him at birth. When those in the classroom spun around, surprised to see him standing there, one of them commented on Zero’s invisibility. “R-11? More like R-0,” the boy had joked. “Sometimes it’s like you don’t even exist.” It didn’t take long for R-0 to be shortened to just Zero, a name that might have felt offensive to someone else, but he liked it. He knew it fit.

Zero used those chameleonic skills to blend into the crowd of students while still keeping a close eye on Flea as he entered the classroom. As much as he wanted to avoid being part of the inevitable conflict that would soon erupt, he wasn’t about to miss watching it.

“Are you lost?” Flea yelled at Lefty as he entered the room.

Zero stopped in the doorway to watch.

Lefty was now wearing his shirt again, but it had come out of his back pocket with a lot more wrinkles than it had before. “Who, me?” Lefty put on an innocent face.

“Yeah, you. You’re the only one in my space. Now get off my desk.”

“Oh, is this your desk? How was I supposed to know it was your desk? I thought you sat over there.” Lefty jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

“This is your last warning, and you’re lucky to get that.”

“Oh. I appreciate you giving me more chances than usual. I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side. If that ever happened, I just don’t know what I’d do.” Lefty was mocking now, filled with confidence. Zero cringed, knowing this would end badly. Why was Lefty so confrontational?

Flea was obviously perturbed by Lefty’s refusal to move, but he didn’t say anything more. He didn’t have to. Caiman now stood behind him, towering over both Flea and Lefty. He began to move in.

Lefty hopped down from the desk, keeping one hand still resting on it to keep it closed, and coming face-to-face with Flea’s enforcer. “Relax, Caiman,” Lefty said, patting him on the chest, which was just above Lefty’s eye level. “No need for this to get out of hand. I just got disoriented, that’s all. It happens sometimes when I’m in a classroom. You know how it is—something about a classroom scrambles my brain. I’ll just get out of your way and let Flea have his desk back.”

Zero felt a tap on his right shoulder and turned to see Professor Bird. He could feel the color draining from his face.

“Why are you standing in the hall, Zero? You’d better be in your desk by the time the bell rings.”