The Academy: Book 2 (35 page)

His too-dilated pupils seemed to twinkle at the mention of his power.

“These new suits you are wearing are not merely for camouflage, although that is one of their uses. These suits are lined with thousands of tiny batteries; these batteries are so small, in fact, that they are impossible to perceive with normal human senses.”

As Asa watched the hologram of Robert King moving around the room in his gray suit, he began to feel claustrophobic. He felt that his suit was too tight; he wanted out of it. He began to sweat.

“These batteries have no other purpose but to administer shock to students at certain times. For instance, it you attempt to remove your suit, you will be shocked. Not to death, probably, but the shock will be very substantial. If, after the initial shock, you continue to attempt to remove your suit, you will, indeed, be shocked to a sure and painful death.

“Also, look at the center of this room. Hovering four feet above the ground you’ll see a blue, transparent sphere. It’s a force field of sorts. Drifting inside of this force field is your team’s Killing Electronic Emitter, or KEE, as an acronym. Like a door key.”

Asa looked at the floating blue force field and saw the object, the KEE, slowly rotating inside. It was a silver statue of a shark, about the size of one of Asa’s feet.

“This KEE is very important to you. If any part of your body penetrates this force field, you will be shocked with enough voltage to kill an elephant seven times over.”

Now Asa was really sweating. He felt trapped.
What if the suit malfunctions?

“However, every student who is not a Shark will be allowed to reach within this force field and remove the Shark KEE, no problem. Likewise, you will be able to remove any other team’s KEE without being electrocuted. In short, you can only reach within a blue force field if it belongs to another team.

“Adjacent to the blue force field, you will see a red one: At this time, all teams have an empty red sphere in their Home Base.”

Asa could see Stan’s face on the other side of the red, transparent ball that floated in the room. Outside, the beautiful feathered creatures continued to graze in the tall grass.

“Like I said, this Task is similar to a gladiator style fight-to-the-death. But, it is also a lot like a murderous version of capture-the-flag. The rules are as such: If you are able to get another team’s KEE into your red sphere, you will instantly be removed safely from the Task, and your whole team will be allowed to continue on with their education in the Academy. As a prize for placing one of these Killing Electronic Emitters in your red sphere, you will be given 100 points that you can spend in the Shop in Town. And, at the same time that you place your opponents KEE, your own KEE will disintegrate, and no one will be allowed to place your KEE in their red sphere. You’ll see why this is important.

“If another team puts your KEE in their red sphere, you will be shocked to death, wherever you are. It won’t matter if you’re in your Home Base, or marching beneath the jungle, you’ll fall to the ground and seize until you’re dead and then keep seizing until you’re charred. It will not be an easy death.

“So, the question that every team will be sitting in their Home Bases and thinking right now is ‘how do I survive?’

“Some might come to the conclusion that it will be best to stay and defend their own base. Others might decide that they want to take their destiny into their own hands, and march out into the jungle towards another base, trying to steal an opponent’s KEE. More likely, most teams will divide up into a few groups that will head out in different directions, trying to get other KEEs, while some stay and guard the fortress. Before you decide, take a few more things into account.”

Robert King’s hologram cleared its throat noisily. The vibrations this made on his vocal cords came out in the tones of a Southern accent. Robert King was, Asa knew, from Texas. And he had grown up in the Texas of fifty years ago, when the accents were much more pronounced. Asa reflected that The Boss spoke with a Texas drawl just seven months ago. Why now, when his pupils were dilated just as Teddy’s was, was his drawl going away? His posture had changed too; he held his back much straighter than he used to.

Robert King’s hologram went on. “The first thing you must know is that this Task will last no longer than seventy-two hours. At the end of the seventy-two hours, each student will be removed from the Tropics.
Secondly—I think that this will have a large impact on a lot of teams’ decisions—there is no food here in your Home Base. There is water, but no food.

“This is very significant. This means that you must go hunting if you want to eat. Now, you might think to yourself, ‘but humans can survive seventy-two hours without food. Can’t we just camp here?’ You can try, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

“Remember, you’re not normal humans. Most of you have been mutated so that you’re stronger than usual, and every one of you has grown wings. These mutations are not outside the bounds of nature, and so they must come at a cost. This cost is increased caloric needs.”

Asa recalled his first encounter with this ‘increased caloric needs.’ He had been in the Alfatrex train station with McCoy, Conway, and Charlotte. He remembered watching McCoy and Conway eat an unbelievable amount of food. They had each eaten enough food for fifteen heavy-eating individuals. Though Asa’s appetite wasn’t this extreme yet, he had noticed a significant change. He had to eat three or four times as much as he had before being mutated. He did not know whether or not he would live through three days without food. He would definitely lose a large amount of weight, most of which would be muscle; a loss in a large amount of muscle would make him much more vulnerable to attacks.

“You may have noticed this in your own diet,” Robert King’s hologram went on, walking around pointlessly throughout the room. “Listen carefully, I’m only going to say this once: Most things in the Tropics are poisonous to consume. The birds, most of the mammals that you will find, the large lizards, the fish, and the vegetation are poisonous. There are things that are not poisonous, and that are rather good to eat. I won’t tell you what they are, but you will know when you find them. Written in large letters upon these things will be the words ‘Not Poisonous.’ If you don’t keep this in mind, you will surely die.

“Now, as far as the water goes, none of the water in the Tropics is poisonous in any way. There are no unnatural chemicals in any of the water, and there are not harmful bacteria or parasites dwelling in any of the ponds, lakes, or rivers. However, some of the water is rich in salt. This is the only thing that you must keep in mind when looking to drink water.”

For a time, the hologram of Robert King stood directly in front of Asa, not saying anything. The projection of the man was so seamless that Asa would not have believed it was a hologram if he hadn’t seen the figure walk through solid objects. Asa could see short white hairs curling at the man’s knuckles; the gold buttons on The Boss’s suit jacket were inscribed in cursive with a brand name; the man’s dilated pupils were actually throbbing, trying to pulse out wider and wider.

“Ah, yes, I promised I’d tell
you of the pterosaurs,” he said suddenly. “Pterosaurs, as you may know, were giant birds that became extinct in the Cretaceous period. Much larger than any bird, their wings spanned between sixteen and thirty-six feet. In adulthood, some of them were the size of an airplane.

“These animals are often referred to as ‘pterodactyls’ in popular culture. This is not the correct word for the large, bird-like fossils that have been found. In fact, pterodactyls weren’t birds at all, but a type of flying reptile. Pterodactyls’ wingspans did not grow past four feet. The pterosaurs were much larger.

“I’m not saying that there aren’t pterodactyls here, don’t get confused: I’m just saying that there are more dangerous aerials than pterodactyls.

“We have used the Academy’s DNA technology to revive pterosaurs and pterodactyls from their death to live again, as Jesus did to Lazarus.” Robert King tried to remain serious looking, but couldn’t help smiling at the comparison between himself and Jesus. Shuddering, Asa remembered how The Boss had hinted that he might have some supernatural calling in his meeting with Volkner.

“Not only have we resurrected these animals, but we have trained them. They are very smart; their brains are roughly the size of a human brain. There are two things that should be noted about their training. The first is this: Each of these
pterosaurs has nests at the top of the various Home Bases that are dispersed throughout the Tropics. They wear shock collars, and are trained not to fly below fifteen feet. If they do, they will be given a nasty shock. Only occasionally do they choose to attack a creature below the shock-line and intentionally take the punishment.

“Something that we have learned by spending time with these animals is that they have a liking for human flesh. They are equipped with barbed teeth: Once the
y latch on, they won’t let go. In our trials, we have seen that these creatures often bite down on their human prey only twice before swallowing them into their acid-laden digestive tract. Their eyesight is remarkable, they can see in great detail for a two-mile span. While gliding, these animals can reach speeds of over one hundred miles per hour: Their weight carries them well against wind resistance. Even the fastest Academy students cannot outrun a pterosaur.

“Keep these things in mind. It is perfectly within the bounds of the rules to fly, but once you decide to do so, you are at risk of being picked off by one of our aerial predators.”

Asa wondered if there was a pterosaur on the roof of his home base where he sat.

“One final thing before I let you go on your way: In the center of this room, you should be able to see a circular set of stairs. This will lead you far below to the ground floor. On the ground floor, you will find that there are no walls, just intermittent pillars that support the Home Bases. Also on this first floor, you will see many ropes hanging from the ceiling. If you or one of your opponents pulls on these ropes it will do two things. Simultaneously, the glass in the room you now sit will break, and a tone will play loudly throughout the air. This is the same tone that we have been playing
for the pterosaurs for the last few months before their feedings.

“As you could have guessed, anyone in the top floor when one of these ropes is pulled will be in great danger.” Robert King paused, and rocked back and forth, contemplating. Abruptly, he said, “That is all. May the best survive,” and disappeared. Asa recalled how Teddy had suddenly ended their conversation while walking through Town Hall.

Asa looked at his armband. He saw that instead of a normal clock, there was just a timer counting down from seventy-two hours. The seconds ticked by and with each second the white fabric automatically repositioned itself into the appropriate shape. The Sharks looked around the room at each other. The Task had begun. 

16

The Resurrected Pterosaurs and Pterodactyls

             
With the hologram gone, the sounds from outside seemed to grow louder. The chirrup of crickets, a chorus of birds, the chanting of new world monkeys. It was as though the Tropics were knocking on the glass windows of the enclosure, beckoning the students to come out and see what surprises the unnatural landscape contained.

             
The Sharks unbuckled the restraints from their flying chairs. They never shared eye contact between one another, but instead stole furtive glances at their fellow teammates.
Who’s going to speak first and break this silence?
Asa’s heart was racing and he could sense that everyone else was nervous too. To speak about the improbable three day stay in the Tropics ahead seemed like a blasphemous thing. It was as if they believed that if they were quiet enough, the evil of the Task to come wouldn’t find them here; that, if they didn’t talk about the blood ahead, it wouldn’t exist.

             
In Asa’s mind, he saw it as fitting when the sixteen year old who had killed his dog with fireworks committed the irreverent act. “I think that we should get moving,” Boom Boom said. His skin was so pale, and green veins made a prominent Y on the side of his forehead. His fiery red hair stood upon his head like flames.

             
No one answered Mike Plode’s words for a moment. The Sharks were scared, and there was a tension about the room as taut as a piano string.

             
Asa was looking at Viola Burns, a fellow second semester, and saw that she actually flinched when Bruce Thurman spoke in his low, rumbling voice: “What are you thinking, Mike?”