The Academy: Book 2 (80 page)

             
“Good work, Ned,” Allen said. “And you too, Palmer. It’ll be much easier if you don’t fight it.”

Allen walked over toward Asa, and began to press buttons
on a device situated higher than Asa. Asa looked up and saw an electronic monitor hanging above him. “Don’t worry,” Allen said, seeing the fear in Asa’s eyes. “This is just a standard medical monitor. We’ll keep an eye on your oxygen saturation, your heart rate, and your blood pressure. The change from human to Multiplier is pretty dramatic, and sometimes a person’s heart stop. But don’t worry, we have epinephrine, and are all very good at CPR. You probably won’t die.”

Asa’s chest was rising and falling with harsh breaths. He remained still while Allen tightened a blood pressure cuff over Asa’s left arm, and then taped an oxygen and heart rate monitor clip around Asa’s left index finger.

              Allen was smiling as he did this. Salvaserum was beginning to coat his lips and covering his big, blocky teeth. He was looking forward to biting Asa.

             
“Now, when you wake up, you’ll feel different. A lot different. This is normal. You won’t be able to produce any Salvaserum yet, but you’ll still be
thinking
like a Multiplier, which will be good. After you wake up, we’re going to take you on a little mission with us. We’re going to be visiting Town in the middle of the Academy.”

             
An image of Jen’s eyes widening as Asa held her by the throat rose to Asa’s mind, and he lost it. He began to scream and writhe on the bed. Allen stood back, watched Asa pull uselessly against the cuffs, and then moved back beside him when Asa relaxed.

             
“I told you, it’s useless to fight this,” Allen said.

             
Asa realized that he was crying. “Why don’t you just kill me?” Asa asked.

             
Allen shrugged. “I thought about it, but I think you could be of use. You could show us how to get where we need to go tonight, after you wake up.”

             
Asa looked at the ceiling. He imagined all of the students at the dance, having a great time—drinking, dancing, and laughing.

             
Asa felt something cold on his neck and jumped.

             
“Relax,” Allen said. “It’s just a disinfectant—betadine. It lowers the rate of infection in those bitten. Relax.”

             
Asa didn’t think that relaxing was possible. He watched as Allen dipped a sponge into a bowl of dark red disinfectant and then rubbed in on Asa’s neck. When he was done, Allen rubbed his hands together. “Ready?”

             
There was a beeping sound above Asa, and he looked up.

             
Allen stood up and pressed a button on the monitor. “That’s just letting me know that your heart rate is fast. But that doesn’t help us. I think that’s to be expected.”

             
He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, and when he pulled it away, it was marked with Salvaserum. The shirt was stark white; “This was my only shirt left,” he said, examining the stain. “Oh well. We’ll be back at the Hive before long.”

             
Asa tried to think of something that he could do to slow down this process; he needed more time. He didn’t want to be a Multiplier. Now, Joney, Michael, Ned, Rose, and even Edna were watching the proceedings.

             
“WAIT!” Asa said.

             
“What is it, Palmer?” Allen’s voice had changed from a normal tone to a demonic, low rumble.

             
“I-I-I…
Jut hold on!”
he shrieked.

             
“He don’t have nothin’ to say, Allen, he just is stalling. Go ahead an’ bite the poor sucker; take ‘im out of his misery.” Joney said.

             
Asa’s mouth felt dry. Allen was hovering over him.

             
“Gladly,” Allen growled.

             
He grabbed Asa’s left shoulder, and his hair. He bent Asa’s right ear towards his right shoulder, exposing the left side of his neck, and then bit with the speed of a viper. Asa screamed louder than he thought was possible, and the noise echoed off the rock walls. The other Multipliers were laughing. Allen continued to bite down; the pressure was incredible. His incisors were dull, but he had bit so hard that he had broken through Asa’s skin to his muscle.

             
The worst part of the experience of being bitten by a Multiplier was that Asa could actually
feel
Allen’s Salvaserum being pumped into his body. The process went on for over a minute, and Allen moaned during the process.

             
By the time it was over, Asa’s neck was bloated and swollen with how much Salvaserum filled his tissues. Allen withdrew, and Asa watched with horror as his blood squirted from his open wound and splash across Allen’s shirt.

             
“You hit an artery,” Ned said.

             
Asa was beginning to feel woozy and sick.

             
“It’s okay,” Allen said. “Salvaserum makes blood clot fast.”

             
The arterial blood squirted from Asa’s neck once more, then the bleeding subsided. The Multiplier bite felt warm and infected. Asa felt feverish.

             
I am a Multiplier now,
he thought with horror.

             
Then, his vision went gray.

             
Just before he completely passed out, he heard Joney say: “Swee’ dreams, Palmer! See you in a bit and you can help us on our mission in Town. Maybe you’ll even see your date from the dance!”

             
Then, he drifted out of consciousness.

39

After Being Bitten

             
Shortly after the blood squirted on Allen’s shirt, Asa began to feel detached from the reality that surrounded him. Time was starting to dilate and contract.

             
Then, he felt as though the stretcher he lay upon opened up and he fell through it.

             
He moved through the air for a moment, shifted, and landed on his feet.

             
He looked around. The familiar smell of a lemony wood cleaner came to his nostrils. The sights around him were familiar, too. He was standing in an expansive wooden room with enormous bunk beds lined up in rows. One end of the room ended in a series of doors and a staircase, and the other end of the room was walled with an enormous window that looked out onto the mountains of the Academy, the Moat, and Town. Taxidermied, mutated animals with unnaturally large skulls were mounted upon the high walls—giraffe heads, the upper half of a charging bull, a bear.

             
I’m back in the Fishie dormitory,
Asa thought.
But how could that be?

             
He looked down and saw someone sleeping with a blanket pulled up to her shoulders.
I’m in the female Fishie dormitory.
He looked over her smooth skin, her blond hair, and watched her chest rising and falling.

             
It was Jen.

             
Asa looked at her for a moment with affection, and bent forward, wanting to kiss her neck while she slept. Only, when he got closer, he found that he wanted to do more than kiss her.
I want to rip open her neck with my teeth and pour my venom into her.

             
He stepped back, startled by the thought. He was breathing hard. A clock ticked on the wall.

             
He tried to remember how he had gotten here. He recalled being bitten by Allen, and his arterial blood squirting onto Allen’s white shirt.
Then I fell asleep,
he tried to convince himself.
That’s all. This is just a hallucination.

             
He felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle up. He could see Jen’s pores in the moonlight that came in through the vast window in the back of the room. He could hear the breath coming in and out of her nose. He reached up and touched the bedframe above her. He could feel the swirling indentions and bulging knots of the wood.

             
This is much too real to be a dream,
he thought.

             
Is it possible that I unconsciously walked here? Or that there is an error in my memory?

             
And then a terrible but somewhat satisfying pressure built up in the roof of his mouth, and Salvaserum began to overflow out his lips and splatter onto the floor. He felt dizzy as he looked at Jen. He was in immense pain, and he knew that he wouldn’t feel better until he bit her. He bent down, jaws open, and leaned over her bed…

             
But instead of making contact with her neck, he fell straight through her. A moment later, he landed in a grocery store’s warehouse. There were great rows of forty feet tall shelves that held labeled cardboard boxes. The air smelled of blood, sweat, and gunpowder. And there, in front of Asa, was his father. Edmund Palmer was slightly shorter than Asa and not as well built. He had a thick, prickly beard of dark hair. Asa could see himself reflected in his father’s glasses. There was a gun in his dad’s hand.

             
“Dad?” Asa said.

             
But his father didn’t hear him. It was as though Asa was an apparition. Asa noticed a single tear trickling down his father’s cheek; his father wiped it away with the back of his hand. Edmund’s neck was bleeding and the wound was saturated with Salvaserum; he had just been bitten by Allen.

             
“Take it,” Edmund said. He held out the gun to someone who stepped out of the shadows.

             
At first, the figure was hard to recognize, and then light shone upon his face. He was tall and black with a harsh scar beneath his left eye.

             
Conway.

             
Conway was bawling. He gave Edmund a startled look. “I can’t take that. What do you want me to take that for?”

             
Edmund became sterner with him. “I need you to shoot me. And when you get back to the states, I want you to take care of my wife and kid. Can you do that for me?”

             
Conway was hysterical. He shook his head and his tears spilled off his face and onto the ground. His lips were trembling and coated with saliva. “Why would I have to do that? You can take care of them!” Conway was in denial.

             
Edmund sighed: “I’ve been
bitten,
Jul. This is the end for me.” His voice shook with sorrow. “If I live, I’ll be a great asset to the Multipliers. I will be one of them, Jul! It’s better if you just put me down.”

             
Conway was backing away, shaking his head, whispering, “No, no, no, no, no.”