The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (21 page)

“
What’s going on out
there,” Natalye asked standing up.

“
I don’t know,” Ms. Green
responded running to the office window. Ms. Donson walked over and
stood beside her. Then, the unmistakable sound of gunshots could be
heard over the yells and screams of the students. Zander stood up
and looked at Natalye who had a hand over her mouth.

“
Jesus
,” Ms. Green breathed sprinting to her desk.
“
Oh
,
my God
!
OH
,
MY GOD
! We have to call the police!
Isabel, we-”

“
That won’t be necessary,
Michelle,” Ms. Donson said looking calmly upon the chaos that was
taking place on the other side of the glass. She was smiling as she
took off her suit jacket and tossed it to the floor.

“
Isabel, what are
you-”

The blinds fell down to cover up the office
window without anyone touching them and Natalye let out a scream.
In the blink of an eye, Isabel had her hands around Ms. Green’s
head and twisted fiercely, the sound making the hairs on Zander’s
neck and arms rise. “WHAT THE HELL,” he yelled as he stumbled
backward.

“
You have no idea how bad
I’ve wanted to do that since I’ve been working with this pompous,
meddlesome, overly-theatrical bitch,” Isabel spilled as she sighed
in relief and let go of Michelle’s head. Her body hit her desk
before it fell to the carpeted floor with a thud. “That felt
way
better than I
thought it would. Anyway, it’s about damn time you kids showed up.
I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t and I’ve been bored out
of my fucking mind in this shithole.”

“
Wh-who are you,” Zander
stammered as he moved to stand in front of Natalye, but Isabel
ignored him.

“
I thought that he was
crazy for stationing me here. I thought that he was just trying to
keep me out of the way. I should’ve known to not doubt him, but
hey. We all make mistakes, right? Some more costly than others.
Take the five of you, for example,” Isabel said sitting down on Ms.
Green’s desk, but not before using her head as a step to do so.
“Your parents are far from stupid. There is no way in hell they let
you come here. You snuck out,” she declared. “You snuck out like
the brainless, naïve children that you are and he knew that you
would. He knew that all you needed was motivation, and so I found
some. Who would’ve known that the Lyerly girl would come through,
though? And so
lucratively
on top of that.”

“
W-what do you mean,”
asked Natalye. She was digging her nails into Zander’s arm, but he
was so nervous and on edge that he didn’t care.
We
’
ve got
to do something
, he thought searching
around the office.

“
We knew that Awbrey and
Hudson went to school here, and thanks to their files, we have
intelligence on them and their parents. Awbrey, O’Ryann, Hallie,
Andrew, Hudson, and Tyler were my intended targets. They were my
only targets, actually. We had absolutely no idea where the rest of
you were, but of course, fate was so kind as to have all of your
parents transfer you here, so we didn’t even have to hunt.”
Oh
,
shit
, Zander thought. Isabel had all
of their information. Birth dates, addresses, records; she had all
of it, and his mind started racing as he thought about all of what
that meant. “But you know, it wasn’t until you kids walked in here
and I saw the boy with the long blonde and black hair that I
realized that you all must be the new Alignment. There were five of
you, plus he looks
so
very much like his father,” she said leaning back and
crossing her long legs. “To this day, I still feel it a shame that
I didn’t get to see Nicolas die. I heard that it was quite messy
and loud. Just like I like it.” Zander and Natalye were now both
pressed against the wall wanting to be as far away from her as
possible.

“
What did you do to
Amanda,” asked Natalye. Her question helped Zander connect the
dots; Amanda must have been the one who was shooting up the
school.

“
That’s not important,”
Isabel dismissed her. “That girl was absolutely hopeless. She
would’ve led a wretched life anyway. As far as I’m concerned, I did
that ugly beast a favor and saved her from a life of disappointment
and misery which kind of pisses me off. I don’t save people. All
that matters is the fact that my plan worked and that the five of
you are here now.”

“
Well, you’re obviously
not all that smart,” said Zander, trying to buy them some
time.

“
Excuse me,” Isabel
asked.

“
All you had to do was
have Amanda bring those guns with her to meet us by the sign, and
she could’ve shot us over there and it would have been over and
done with,” he reasoned. “Why did you lure us in here with all of
these people?”

“
What can I say,” Isabel
laughed. “I thrive in mayhem. But more than that, this way was
painstakingly more appealing to me. ‘Fuck shit up.’ That’s my
motto.” Finding his mark, Zander breathed deeply, concentrating;
Isabel was obviously dangerous and he didn’t know what else to do.
One thing that he did know was that he sure as hell wasn’t going to
stand there and wait to see how dangerous she really was.
“Hopefully Amanda was able to deal with the other three. Which
means,” she said standing up and licking her lips, “that I get the
two of you all to myse-AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

Zander had levitated a file cabinet and sent
it flying for a direct hit to the side Isabel’s head knocking her
over to the other side of Ms. Green’s desk. “COME ON,” he shouted,
and he and Natalye dashed to the office door, yanked it open, and
ran. They got out into the entrance hall fully expecting
pandemonium, but the school was completely silent and from what
Zander could tell, it was also empty. Posters and banners that were
once hanging now lay in the floor, trodden and ripped. Book bags,
articles of clothing, and notebooks were also scattered about.
Terrified, Zander went for the front doors.

“
Where are you going?! We
can’t leave,” Natalye yelled, but Zander was stopped by the sight
that met his eyes. There were dozens of cop cars, dozens of police
officers, and five ambulances in the front of the school. A large
crowd of people stood a long ways away, and a helicopter was
hovering above all of it. “We have to go and find the others,” said
Natalye. “We’ve got to find them and get out of here!”

“
Nat, we’ve never been
here before,” said Zander, feeling his hands shake. “We don’t know
the layout of the place!”

“
Well…I saw them go down
that hallway earlier, so let’s-”

“
NAT, LOOK OUT,” Zander
roared.

She ducked just in time.

The blinds in the main office had shot up
and Isabel then threw the file cabinet through the window causing a
deafening crash and barely missing the back of Natalye’s head.

“
You’ve got some fight in
you,” Isabel called, smiling flirtatiously at Zander while stepping
through the now empty window frame. Natalye scrambled over and
stood beside him. “I like that. I like that a lot.”

“
Are you okay,” he asked
Natalye.

“
I…I think so,” she
panted. Zander breathed deeply and concentrated again, and judging
by the sound, Natalye was doing the same. He didn’t want to fight,
but they had no choice. He had never been trained to use his powers
offensively, so the best that he could do was send things soaring
through the air. He had no idea who or what Isabel was, and not
knowing what she could or couldn’t do petrified him.

Isabel considered them and
laughed. “You two really aren’t expecting to be able to take me on,
are you? What just happened in that office was a lucky shot. I know
you’re still fifteen, sweet
pea,” she said
winking at Natalye. “You don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell
against m-”

Natalye sent the cabinet at Isabel again,
but she was ready and dodged it. Zander raised the broken glass and
made it whirl around them and catching on, Natalye copied him
causing the shards to revolve even faster. Isabel was about a foot
away from them before she paused, laughing and taking a step
backward.

“
Hmmm. Clever. I’ll give
you that much,” she surveyed. She appeared to be looking for an
opening, but gunshots sounded off again making both Natalye and
Zander jump. “
Oh
,” Isabel purred sweetly. “You’re worried, aren’t you? Well,
with any luck your friends are dead already. So, in all actuality
there really isn’t anything for you to worry about
except-”

A large shard of glass flew at Isabel taking
her by surprise and it caught her in her right hip socket. She
shrieked out in pain and Natalye sent another one at her, but
Isabel disappeared and the piece of glass shattered against the
office door. Zander gawked at Natalye, speechless at what she had
just done.

“
What?! Why are you
looking at me like that? It’s not like she was trying to tickle us,
and you hit her in the side of the head with a four hundred pound
file cabinet! Now, come on! We have to go and find Hudson, Androse,
and Awbrey,” Natalye said allowing the glass that she was
levitating to fall.

“
N-no,” said Zander,
shaking his head clear. “Keep it up. We don’t know where Isabel
went. If she comes back, then we’ll have protection.”

~*~*~

They had been walking for about ten minutes,
deciding that they would check every room that they passed as they
went along to see if there was anyone still in the school hiding.
They made it a point to be as quiet as possible, but the sound of
the thick pieces of glass slicing through the air made whistling
noises; a sacrifice they felt they could deal with if it meant that
they could defend themselves against Isabel who made it very clear
that she intended to kill them. However, when they checked rooms
they lowered the glass to the ground in the hall not wanting to
expose themselves.

“
What if you called
Androse or Hudson,” Zander whispered as he closed the door to a
science classroom. “I don’t have their numbers.”

“
I can’t do that! What if
they’re hiding,” asked Natalye. “What if they’re hiding and I call
them, and then their phones give them away?”

“
Nat, I’m sure that they
are fine,” he said as they both suspended the glass again. “They’re
all smart, plus Hudson and Awbrey know the school so they’ll know
where to go. Besides, if anything happened to them, wouldn’t we
have...I don’t know…felt it, or something? We’re all connected,
right?”

“
I‘m not sure,” she said
peeking over her shoulder. “Maybe we should-”

More gunshots sounded off and it felt so
close that they both lost control of the glass causing it to soar
everywhere and smash. The noise was thunderous.

“
OUCH!!
Shit
,” Zander shouted
after grabbing his leg and grinding his teeth; a shard had whizzed
and cut deeply into his right shin. “
Fuck
,” he groaned, quickly hopping
into a classroom to avoid further injury. Natalye ran in after him
covering herself; she had a thin cut on her forehead and one on her
left arm.

“
Are you okay,” she
asked.

“
Does it look like I’m
okay?!” Blood was pouring from his slash that extended from below
his knee to the lower part of his shin. Natalye went searching
around the classroom for something to use on his leg, but Zander
stopped her. “No! Nat, close the door! Close it and lock it! I
think Amanda is nearby!” She ran over and did what he said and then
resumed her search. “Nat, did you hear me?!”

“
What?!”

Zander stood up off of the desk, his blood
having already formed a puddle. “Amanda is nearby and we just made
all that damn noise! She’s coming this way and she’s going to know
that we’re in here because I left her a bright red trail!”

“
Well…what are we supposed
to do,” Natalye asked looking around. “We can’t Mind-Mold faster
than a bullet, Zander!”

“
We have to seal the door.
We have to form a barrier of some sort.”

“
We can use that,” Natalye
said running over to a tall metal cupboard that had double doors.
She opened it, emptied out everything that was inside of it, and
then started pushing it over to the classroom entrance. While she
worked, Zander stared at the small window in the door fully
prepared to show Amanda how it felt to be inside of a human-sized
blender courtesy of the broken glass if she showed up before they
could block her. Once Natalye got the cupboard in place, Zander
took another deep breath.

“
No,” she said walking
over to him. “I’ll do it. You’re losing a lot of blood, so you
should sit down.” Zander nodded and hopped back up on the desk.
“Okay,” she exhaled. A few seconds went by and nothing happened,
but then the cupboard creaked and whined as it all of sudden became
crushed against the door. The wooden handles fell and bounced
across the floor and after a few moments and more grinding noises,
there was a flat, smooth metal shell that encased the entrance.
“How’s that,” Natalye asked.

“……
How in the hell did you
do that?” Zander stared at her handiwork as if she had just turned
the cupboard into solid gold.