Wacko Academy (17 page)

Tilting my head in confusion, I said, “Yeah…So…?”

Dustin looked up, angry.  “So that means I brought them here—and that means whatever happened to them is my fault.  Just like that boy.” He frowned.  “I’m such a creep.  No, I’m worse than a creep.  I’m dirt.  Filth.  Garbage.  Scum .  .  .” He continued to insult himself.

I winced at some of the words he used.  Jeez.  He was being really hard on himself.

He was still muttering insults as the elevator door slid open to yet another long hallway.

“I know where we are,” one of the kids said quietly.  We all turned to see that it was Lucas who had spoken.  “This is where they bring us for experiments.  I’m almost sure of it.” A shiver went through the whole group.

Shoulders tensed, I stepped out into the hall.  The others followed a little reluctantly, but they followed.  As before, Dustin and I and a handful of kids would investigate the rooms on one side while our two friends and their charges took the other.

With sweaty palms, I slowly turned the knob of the first door, which strangely didn’t have any lock.  Sure enough, it was a cold, dark room with an operating table standing under a single fluorescent light.  Next to the table was a platter of needles that had been placed on a tall metal stand.  The needles were of every shape and size, each filled with an oddly colored liquid.  The whole scene looked like it had come straight from a scary science fiction movie.  

The boy with the deformed arms, Theo, turned pale.  Lucas stared at the needles, growing sicker by the minute.  Brianna grabbed hold of Dustin’s arm, burying her face in his sleeve like she couldn’t bear to see any more.  The rubber ball he had given her remained clutched in her right hand.  I noticed that she was holding a lot tighter than necessary.  She seemed to have a little crush on him.  I didn’t really think anything of it since she was so young.  With no reason to linger, we left quickly.

The next door stood ajar.  We were all hesitant to go in.  Dustin slowly pushed the door open with his foot.  The rest of us filed in after him.  The room was very similar to the other.  It would have looked exactly the same if there weren’t people inside.  A man stood hunched over the operating table.  He hadn’t noticed us come in, for his back was to us.  He remained focused on the frail girl that lay before him.  The careless scientist grabbed a random needle without so much as a glance the tray .  He moved to stick it into her arm, where a vein would be.  The unconscious girl was oblivious to what he was about to do to her.  We all stood there watching in astonishment.

Before I could think twice about it, I shot him right in the back.  He whirled around to face us, eyes wide.  He quickly pulled the tranq needle out of his back, saw what it was, and gasped.  The man stared at us in bewilderment.  Suddenly his eyes became unfocused and he toppled to the ground, out cold.  

I briskly stepped over him to examine the girl, while the others remained paralyzed.  To my great surprise, I didn’t see just any girl.  I saw Cameron.

Escape

I stood over the operating table, paralyzed with shock.  Dustin appeared next to me.  He let out a cry of horror when he saw her.  Hands slightly shaking, he touched the side of her neck to make sure she was alive.  

“Lily, I can barely feel a pulse,” he said quietly.  “We need to get her out of here.  Now.” The look on his face told me that he was dead serious.

Without another word, he gingerly picked her up.  He carefully wrapped her limp arms around his neck and laid her head against his chest.  Dustin shivered a little.

“She’s so cold.” His voice was thick with distress.

It took all of my strength to keep myself from bursting into tears.  This could not be happening.  Cameron was one of the kindest people I knew.  She had done nothing wrong.  Still, there she lay in Dustin’s arms, barely breathing.  I was afraid to know what had been done to her already.  Was it because she was supposed to be The Girl, but it didn’t work out?  I kicked myself for not paying more attention when I could no longer find her.  Something should have gone off in my head. How could I have been so clueless?

The group of kids stared at Cameron as Dustin carried her out of the room.  Nobody said anything.  We just silently followed him.  He didn’t even glance at the other rooms as he trotted down the hallway.  His eyes were too busy studying Cameron.

Marcus and True emerged from a room on the other side of the hallway.  They both looked at Dustin, then at me, with alarmed expressions.  All I could do was shrug and trot after Dustin.

I grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to stop.  Our group of kids came to a stop behind us.

He turned to glare at me.  “What?”

I didn’t shy away from his intense stare.  “I know we need to get her out of here, but we need to figure out the fastest way to do that.”

He nodded.  “You’ve got a point.  Take out the map.”

Dustin and the kids crowded around me as I spread it out onto the floor.  I found where we were and searched for the marked exits.  Just as I found a nearby window, there were voices coming from down the hall.  Whoever it was would be turning around the bend any minute now.  If they saw us, we were dead meat.

We ran to the window, careful to stay quiet.  

True caught up with us.  “What’s going on?” She kept her voice low, because she had heard the voices too.

I flashed her an apologetic smile.  “I’m so sorry, but there’s no time to explain.  Keep looking for kids and we’ll be back as soon as we can.  But for right now, hide.”

She was still confused and clearly wanted to ask me more questions, but she simply nodded sharply, gave me a quick “Good luck,” and hurried to tell Marcus what was going on.  I ran to follow Dustin and the rest of the crew.

I found them standing in front of a blank patch of wall.  Brianna was in the process of feeling the wall for the hidden window.  Once she found it, she quickly opened it and stuck her head out.  When her head came back in, her little eyebrows were scrunched in worry.

“It’s kind of high up.”

Dustin took a peak out the window.  He fumbled in his pocket for a second.  Then pulled out the small metal box.  He pressed the button on the side and threw it to the ground outside.  As I knew it would, a ladder unfolded itself right before our eyes.

“I’ll go first,” he said.  Then he awkwardly climbed out with Cameron still in his arms.

One by one, everyone climbed down until I was the only one left.  Just as I put my leg out to climb down, there was a beeping sound and the ladder disappeared, folding itself back up into a box.  I fell back, staring at the ground in terror.  Without the ladder, it was a really long way down.  Dustin had carefully handed Cameron over to Lucas (who was startlingly strong for a boy his age) and began to fumble with the box.

He looked up, confused.  “It won’t go. I'm sorry. It does that sometimes.”

Of course that would happen when it was my turn to go.  Just my luck.  So there I stood, frozen.  The voices growing louder every second.  

“Jump!  Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.” Dustin called up, holding his arms out for me.

The sound of his voice jolted me out of my stupor.  I quickly took a stink bomb out of my pocket and threw it behind me.  Swallowing hard, I eased myself out of the window.  Closing my eyes, I said a silent prayer begging God not to let me go splat all over the ground.  I heard someone cry out.  They were here.  It was now or never.  Without opening my eyes, I let go.

To my relief, Dustin caught me.  He wobbled a little, but held on to me.  I slowly opened my eyes to find him staring down at me.  He fought a grin.

“What’s so funny?” I snapped.

He shrugged.  “Nothin’.”

Narrowing my eyes, I ordered him to put me down.  He hesitated for a second as if he was contemplating whether to obey or not.  Then two men stuck their heads out the window, coughing uncontrollably and holding their noses.  Shouting, they began to climb out.  Dustin quickly set me down, took Cam back into his arms, and had begun to run before any of us could even blink.  We ran helter-skelter after him with the two men still shouting after us.

Dustin reached the getaway car in no time.  He put Cam in the back, then hopped in the driver’s seat and started the engine.  Our pursuers had given up a while ago, calling backup instead.  But we needed to get out of there fast, before backup came looking for us.  Everyone piled in, with me in the passenger’s seat and the rest in the back.  Dustin zoomed off the second we were all in.  

“Wait.  How are we going to get through the force field?” I asked as we went speeding toward the exit.  

“If we go fast enough, the car should go through,” he explained, staring straight ahead.  “I suggest you hold on tight.”

It was obvious when we had hit the force field.  There was a loud bang.  We were all jolted back in our seats.  The car shuddered violently.  For a second I thought we were going to go flying back and that would be the end of us.  However, we made it through.  

Dustin didn’t slow down until we were officially off the campus and onto the highway.  The GPS said that we were about twenty to thirty minutes away from the nearest hospital.  That was a relief.

“What will happen to us when we get to the hospital?” asked Theo after a while.

“I’m hoping the doctors will figure out what’s wrong with you guys and fix it.  And you can see your families,” I said, turning my head to look at him.

He smiled slightly, uncertain hope spreading across his face.  I smiled back at him, getting a little hopeful myself.  We spent the rest of the ride talking about each other’s families.  Dustin remained quiet, focusing on the road.  But now and then a smile flickered across his face.

Finally Dustin pulled into the hospital parking lot.  We ran into the ER.  People stared at us wide-eyed and shocked.  The nurse gasped when she saw Cam and the other children.

“I–I’ll go get the doctor,” she stammered, beginning to run down the hallway.  

In a minute a doctor arrived, his white coat flapping as he briskly made his way to us.  He did a double take, but didn’t freak out like the nurse.  The doctor calmly called down more nurses.  Then he turned to face us.

“What happened exactly?” he asked.

Nobody really knew how to answer, so he decided to ask a slightly easier question.

“Do you know what happened to her?” He gestured toward the unconscious Cameron in Dustin’s arms.

I stepped forward.  “I think she’s been injected with something.  And—” I faltered.  “And I think she’s dying.” The word hung in the air.  There was an awkward silence among the group.  Without warning, I started to cry.  

Just then two people came running out with a gurney.  They took Cam and rolled her away.  Meanwhile, one of the other nurses rushed over.  She sat me down, asking if I needed anything.

I looked up at her through blurry eyes.  “Can you call my parents and tell them I’m OK?”

She smiled.  “Absolutely.  What’s your phone number?”

Once I had told her, she hurried to use the hospital phone.  I leaned my head back on the wall and closed my eyes for a minute.

Someone sat in the chair next to me and coughed.

“I wonder if she’s going to be all right,” Dustin said.

“She will,” I said firmly, eyes still closed.

He sighed.  “I’m not going back until I’m sure everyone’s OK.”

My eyes flew open and I jumped up.  “Oh my gosh!  I totally forgot about the others.  They never even got back in touch with us.  We have to find out if they made it!”

Dustin nodded grimly.  “Let’s talk to them on our walkie-talkies.”

I walked out without another word.  Dustin followed me out.

I leaned against the side of the building while he fidgeted with the walkie-talkies.  

“Marcus, are you there?” he called earnestly.

Marcus answered in a muffled reply, “Yeah, I’m here.  Where are you?”

“The hospital.  Did you guys get out safely?”

True answered this one.  “Yes, but barely.  The rest were caught.”

My jaw dropped.  “What?!”

Her voice was sad.  “We met up just before we got out, but those guards…me and Marcus were lucky to get out of there ourselves.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Listen, they know we’re here.  I can hear the sirens right now.  I don’t think we can evacuate the rest of the school.”

Dustin glanced over at me.  I pursed my lips.  She was right.  The whole school would be impossible to penetrate now.  Everyone knew what was happening by this time.  It was over.  My shoulders sagged in defeat.

“Just get out of there.”

Dustin took the walkie-talkie.  “Mark, remember when I taught you how to drive?  Go to the garage and take a car.  It’s not hard.  Trust me.  There’s a GPS in almost every one, so don’t worry about that.  Get there as fast as you can and DON’T GET CAUGHT.”

“All right.  See you, bro.”

“See you soon.”

Dustin and I stood there for a minute, staring out into the indigo sky.  A couple of stars had appeared.  We had failed, but neither of us wanted to say it.

“You taught Marcus how to drive,” I commented, not knowing what else to say.

He shrugged halfheartedly.  “Yeah.  I just decided to one day.  Guess it came in handy.”

I laughed without smiling.  “Yes, it did.”

Police sirens drowned out whatever his answer was.  About four or five police cars entered the parking lot at top speed.  We watched in silence.  Of course they had called the police.  A group of mutated kids had just burst into the emergency room without any sign of an adult.  

“We better get back inside,” I muttered.

“Right,” he agreed, heading for the door.

The kind nurse was just coming back from the phone call.  She told me she’d just been speaking to my mom, who would be here soon.  

She turned to Dustin.  “Do you need me to call your family?”

He shook his head.  “My family already knows where I am.  They’ll be here soon too.” He sounded so confident, the nurse believed him instantly.

“I have to get out of here,” he whispered as a police officer walked in.

“What!  Why?” I whispered back, eyeing the officer, who was now talking to the nurse at the front desk.