Sophomore Freak (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 2) (15 page)

Rhapsody took a bite of pizza. “Look,” she said, wiping her hands on a napkin. “Everything we’ve been through since we got these crystals – we’ve done things, taken chances no ordinary person would.”

“Right,” I said, absentmindedly biting into one of my slices.

“There’s no game plan here. Nobody’s been down this road. Yeah, we make mistakes, but the people saying ‘wrong, wrong’ are doing nothing but watching us.”

She had a point. I ate some more and took a sip of Sprite. “Why do you think they told us to go to Montana first? Isn’t Mexico closer?”

“I’m Panamanian, dude. Beats me. Geography isn’t my bag.”

With my appetite back, I ate fast and finished my soda. “Ready?” I asked her minutes later.

“Almost,” she said, shoving a crust into her mouth. “Gotta pee.”

Rhapsody made a bee line for the blue and white portable toilet stations. I did the same. Unfortunately there was nowhere to wash my hands. When I finished, I got close enough to the tide to dip my hands into the cold salt water. Satisfied, I shook my hands dry and got back into my suit. To my right, I saw Rhapsody doing the same thing. We shared a laugh. I appreciated a momentary break in the tension.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

we meet a King

When hiding a nuclear bomb made of crystal, you want to make it tough to find. It can’t be underground, which is where the prisms grow. That doesn’t leave a lot of options. With the white one I found the perfect spot in Mexico – a volcano
. It sounds crazy when I say it out loud.
A volcanic explosion wouldn’t kill me, and the threat of boiling lava narrowed the field of who could get to the provenance crystal.

Rhapsody left us invisible until the second our feet touched near the volcano’s base close to seven p.m. Turned out, she didn’t need to. A hazy wet mist was blowing in hard from the west. The storm cloaked our appearance but also made it nearly impossible for us to see. Using our hands, we cleared the moisture from the dark eye plates in our masks. Of all the things these bodysuits had, wipers weren’t one of them.

“How are we going to find them in this?” Rhapsody screamed in my ear.

I had no idea. Instead, I pointed up and then to my wrist. Though we couldn’t hear it, the Geiger counter was clicking at a rapid clip. The crystal was
close
.

Punching and kicking through the surface rock, I created spots for Rhapsody to hold onto. As long as she stayed close behind me, she’d see them. The slippery climb was treacherous because of the crappy weather. I compensated for the slick surface by adjusting my grip, but Rhapsody had no choice but to do it the regular way.

After she lost her hold once and nearly fell, I stopped and dangled my foot. She grabbed it and pulled herself up onto me. With Rhapsody clinging tightly to my back, I continued climbing.

Together, we made it to the shelf of black rock I’d created. Like I had done to the mountain in Montana, I burrowed my hand deep into the rock and pulled out debris until the hole became visible. A burst of white light flashed through the space.

Rhapsody released me and stepped onto the stony platform. “Nice hiding spot.”

“This one I didn’t plan to move for a while,” I said.

We hunched over in the narrow corridor and moved closer. My insides lurched. Were we alone? I reached for Rhapsody’s hand and squeezed it. We vanished.

Then I noticed my fingers fading back into view. Panicked, I looked around but didn’t see anyone. There had to be someone using them against her. The white source was a remote control to turn powers off. Someone had to be pushing the button.

Pain blasted through my body. I cursed in agony. My right knee buckled and I crumpled into a pile onto the makeshift cave’s floor. I could barely breathe, much less string together a thought. “Rhap. . .” I said, reaching my hand out to my friend. My eyesight blurred, but one thing I was sure of.

Someone was behind her.

I opened my right eye. The left side of my face was smashed against a tile floor. I tugged at my hands – they were bound together by something hard. A small circle of pink moisture pooled on the floor in front of my mouth.
Where am I? Mexico?

Groaning, I curled into a ball and tucked my legs through my arms. Rolling to a sitting position let me get a good view of the place I was being held. The walls were beige with a stucco texture. I sniffed the scent of burning oil from a lamp lighting the darkened room. My bad lung ached. The knee pain was halfway tolerable if I didn’t move it.

Squinting in its faint yellow light, I waited until my eyes adjusted. There were four people in here with me. Sasha slumped against one corner. Selby had been propped up against one, too. Rhapsody slept in the closest corner to me. Someone else lay face down next to me in a pair of shorts and a dark-colored t-shirt.

I scooted over to see the back of his head. Ryan Cain. I thought he worked for King, not against him?

Everyone but me was unconscious.

I positioned myself against the wall with the lamp. Calling out each of their names in a whisper, I expected someone to respond. None of them moved except to breathe. At least I knew they were alive.

Sometime later I drifted off, occasionally waking up when the tightness in my chest got to be too much. Before now I hadn’t been tired, even after traveling thousands of miles. I slept because my injuries or something else was forcing me to do so. We had been drugged or mind-controlled – maybe both?

The world spun around me. I passed out again.

Cold water splashed across my face.

“¡Buenas tardes,” said a rough-looking American man holding a silver metal pitcher in front of me. Dressed in green fatigues, he had a military buzz cut. His beard was grizzled black and gray over his square cheeks and jaw. He smelled of tobacco and strong coffee. 

Good afternoon – it was Sunday? I fought the urge to stick out my dry tongue to cool it off. He poured some into a small white cup and held it at my lips, nodding to indicate I should drink it. “¿No tienes sed,” he asked.

“He’s asking if you’re thirsty,” Rhapsody said, exhausted. “Don’t drink it.”

The man shouted at Rhapsody in Spanish before pressing his fist against my chest. When I moaned in torment, he poured the water into my mouth and held it and my nose shut until I was forced to swallow it. Drugged or not, it was cold, wet, and wonderful.

Satisfied, he backed away and spoke to someone on the other side of the door. I expected a bunch of Mexican officers to rush in. Instead, kids our age rushed into the cell. Two Hispanic boys put their hands under my arms to drag me out. A red-haired Caucasian girl with toned arms and a dark-skinned Indian boy lifted Ryan and carried him behind me. The others weren’t far behind.

“Help us,” I mumbled to my captors. “Crystals. . .they’re going to explode.”

“They already know
that,”
the man who gave me water said in plain English as they pulled me forward. “Unlike the Collective,
we’re
not trying to stop it.”

The boys took me to the back of a large truck with a cloth cover. Pulling it aside, they set me on a bench and strapped me in. I waited for the others. Selby was placed to my right and Ryan at my left. Across from us were Sasha and Rhapsody. Sasha had a bruised bottom lip and a nasty scrape on her right cheek. Rhapsody was fine.

“Was that. . .
King?”
I managed. Breathing without pain was a challenge.

“It wasn’t Kanye West,
”
Ryan said. “Yes, it was King.”

Selby winced. I tried not to smile – he had broken ribs, courtesy of my hitting him with a lead pipe months ago. He hadn’t healed, either.

“King caught us at the Orizaba city limits,” Sasha said, favoring the right side of her mouth. “Shut off Selby’s speed all at once. Stopping was. . .painful.”

“We were climbing when he grabbed us,” Rhapsody said.

Ryan looked at Rhapsody and then at me. “Yeah, you were.”

“Why are you even here?” I blurted out all in one labored breath. When my strength returned, I owed him one for stabbing my stepmother. 

The exhaust pipe of the truck coughed out a cloud of black smoke. The undercarriage produced a tinny rattle and the vehicle moved forward at a slow speed. I propped my leg out for leverage, forgetting I had torn knee ligaments. Only the seat belt kept me in place. I cursed and dragged it back next to my other one.

“Yeah, why
are
you here, Cain? Weren’t you working
for
King?” Selby asked.

Ryan rolled his neck and stared at Selby. “Don’t know if you overheard, but his big plan is to let those things blow. He’s going to absorb the radiation himself and. . .”

Rhapsody’s eyes bulged. “If that isn’t the craziest, most batsh--”