The Academy: Book 2 (15 page)

             
“And where did you get the cigarettes?”

             
“They’re from home. Don’t worry, I didn’t steal them like I did those goggles from that old guy.” She stepped over a fallen, mossy log, and then made her way around the massive spider web. “Watch out, don’t touch this web,” she said. “The spider up there looks like he could take you—tough guy persona and all.”

             
Asa followed after her, grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, a little rougher than he intended. “Listen to me. I’m not trying to put on a tough guy persona. I’m just trying to help you out. I don’t think that you realize how dangerous this place was. If I hadn’t been there to save you yesterday when you were caught up in the rope…”

             
“Forget you, Palmer. I didn’t need you there, and I don’t need you now. What makes you think you’re so important?”

             
Asa’s anger was boiling inside of him. He wanted to yell at her, and tell her how careless she was being. She didn’t understand, and he did.
AND I PUT MYSELF ON THE LINE FOR YOU! I should have never come out here, trying to help you. Never again.
Asa held his tongue though, and watched her go.

             
She walked in between the trees like she owned them, as though she knew every secret of the strange and altered arctic jungle that she had never even been in before. Her head was back, and she sucked on the end of her cigarette when she should have been running. She was utterly self-confidant, and moved as though nothing could hurt her.

             
Asa was thinking about how to get back to the main road when her expression completely changed. Jen rounded a massive, moss-slick tree and her smile dropped. Color drained from her face, her eyes widened and she even dropped her precious cigarette onto the cold earth. She opened her mouth, took a sharp, terrified breath in, and then moaned in fear. She looked over at Asa, and her eyes said, “HELP!”

             
I told you,
Asa thought. But, more strongly than that thought, he was scared. He and Jen were completely alone and without a single weapon. From his vantage point, Asa couldn’t see what was on the other side of the tree. For whatever reason, maybe just because scared people sometimes don’t make the best decisions, he didn’t use his echolocation. Instead, he walked, slowly, toward Jen’s side, and followed her stare to see what had frightened her so much.

             
Standing before them, was a mutated gorilla. At first, Asa was relieved to see that it was a female. Female gorillas aren’t nearly as strong or ferocious as their male counterparts. Normally, at least. Then, the gorilla’s child climbed up higher on it’s mother’s head, and peered between the female’s thick spikes of hair at the two humans who had intruded into the jungle.

             
Like the dead monkeys that the Multipliers had killed and tied up yesterday, this one was wearing clothes. This was one of the ways that Asa could tell it was a female. She wore a pink skirt with a green floral print stitched into the dirty fabric. Also, her ears were pierced with dangling, red earrings. The second way that Asa could tell that she was a female were her swollen breasts, which hung black and uncovered by hair or fabric. The nipples were long, and gnarled. Asa guessed that junior became aggressive when he was hungry.

             
Instead of the typical black and grey hair that most gorillas have, this one’s hair color resembled a cheetah’s: spotted all over, yellow and an orange-ish brown. The hair was the typical gorilla-texture, which is three and four inches long, thick, clean, and straight.

             
She was leaned over, supporting much of her weight on her front knuckles, which were covered in thick, black skin. The skin looked to Asa like the leather on a baseball glove. Her bare chest rose and fell, and her teeth were barred at Jen, telling her to stay away.

             
But when Asa stepped into the frame, the look on her face changed: It softened. She was still breathing hard, but she leaned back a bit, and cocked her head to one side.

             
At this point, Asa had forgotten about how angry he was with Jen, or his worries concerning the Winggame team; he just wanted to get out of this situation alive. He wrapped his hand in a tight grip along Jen’s wrist, and slowly extended his wings out beside him. He was ready to make a quick escape if the animal charged.

             
The female ape grunted, her voice was very deep, and she studied Asa’s face for a moment. Her eyes looked into Asa’s, and she examined his nose and his mouth, like another human might. It was then that Asa saw how big this gorilla’s skull was. Instead of the mashed forehead that most gorilla’s had, this one’s was very prominent. The skull was rounded atop, and didn’t have the sagittal crest that many primates had.

             
Asa could feel Jen’s heart thudding through the veins in her wrist. Odd as it was, in that moment, Asa wondered what Jen’s kiss had meant;
did she do it just because she’s so impulsive?

             
The ape was an impressive figure before them. Asa was just about to start backing up with Jen when the monkey held up her hands to show empty palms. “I don’t mean any harm,” the gesture seemed to say.

             
Despite his fear, Asa watched.

             
The monkey reached into a pocket on the hip of her dirty skirt and pulled out a few objects, which she sifted between her hands. There was a red, plastic yo-yo, a deck of roughly 20 wrinkled playing cards, a small makeup mirror, and a polaroid picture. The female monkey grunted once more, and slowly placed the picture at her feet.

             
Asa and Jen watched, still unsure if this animal meant harm.

             
But she didn’t. The large ape turned on its knuckles and moved back through the foliage. The young one on her back held onto bunches of hair with both its front hands and its feet. Junior wore a small backpack, but was otherwise naked. They watched until the gorillas were gone.

             
They stood there for a moment, listening to the birds, snakes, and other animals making their jungle sounds. It was such an odd thing to hear in a place so cold.

             
Finally, Jen moved forward, picked up the photo that the gorilla had left, and examined it. Her hands were shaking.

             
“My God, Asa. It’s you!”

             
Asa moved forward and she handed him the photo.
Jen’s right. This is me. Except, not.
Like the slide of the dance that never happened that they showed at the assembly, this picture appeared to have been doctored by a computer. Asa stood in the center of the wrinkled photograph, wearing a lab coat. He had thick rimmed black glasses on, and thick beard stubble ran up onto his cheeks and down over his chin.

             
“Why did that monkey have a picture of you?” Jen asked.

             
“I don’t know,” Asa said, but he now wondered if this had anything to do with the Multipliers in the woods killing the monkeys.
Do these animals, like the crows, support me in some way?

             
Asa gazed down at his own eyes in the polaroid.
What could it mean?
Was it possible that he had worn the lab coat and glasses some time in the past, but just didn’t remember?
No,
Asa thought—
it’s probably just edited, like the photos of the dance that never happened.

             
“We’d better get back. If you walk this way, you’ll hit the track where you should be in the run now.”

Asa tucked the
polaroid in his suit, by his chest.
Was that gorilla trying to tell me something by leaving this photo? And why is it edited to show me in a lab coat with a beard and glasses?

             
“Yeah, I’m going back,” Jen said. She was still a bit pale and looked shaken up.
Maybe this will make her more cautious,
Asa thought.

             
Even though he wanted to keep thinking about the odd picture he had just been given, Asa had to start moving if he had any hope of getting back onto the track undetected.
Maybe if I can get back on track, and finish the run, Roxanne won’t kick me off the team. I’ll even beg if I have to.

             
Asa watched Jen make her way through the jungle. When she was close enough to the path that she could walk there without much chance of any harm coming to her, Asa began to fly low through the jungle, dodging through the trees.

             
It was dark, and the maze of trees obscured his vision, so he closed his eyes and used echolocation to see where things were around him. He found that every once in a while he would skirt a tree that he didn’t see, or that the echo seemed to come back incorrectly to him after he sent out a cry. But, for the most part, it was pretty reliable. He was moving forward, nervous and excited at the same time.
I can’t wait to talk to Conway and see what he has to say about it.

             
Asa flapped harder, and moved onward, closer to where he thought the track might be. He was starting to feel better about having to meet with Roxanne after practice. Thinking that perhaps the monkeys were his guardians, just like the crows were, gave him confidence. It made the task of staying alive seem a bit more manageable.

             
And,
Asa thought.
I’m making good time. I’ll probably be able to make it back to the road without anyone noticing that I was…

             
Then he was tackled. Later, he would reflect on the initial force and wonder how he didn’t break a rib. The impact took him immediately out of the air and he slammed down onto the snowy ground below.

             
Asa couldn’t breathe.

             
“I knew you were no good, Piggy.” Stan was atop Asa, with a knee on either side of his torso. His small hands were able to get an unbelievable amount of leverage behind them. His thumbs pressed unmercifully onto Asa’s windpipe so that they made a one-inch deep trench in his skin.

             
Asa moved his hands up and grabbed at Stan’s forearms. He tried to rip them loose, but they were too strong; it was impossible.

             
“You’re weak, Piggy,” Stan said. His face was red and strings of thick saliva spread between his lips when he spoke. His breath stunk.

             
A dry wheeze came from Asa’s throat as Stan readjusted his hands. A little air came out, but he hadn’t had time to inhale. Upon readjustment, the grip was intensified, and Asa felt like his eyeballs were going to pop out with the pressure. His legs kicked in the snow and his back was now covered in wet mud. He tried to buck Stan off, but it was useless.

             
“I caught you sneakin’ through the woods, murderer. I’m going to leave you here. They’ll prolly never find your body. If they do, so what? You didn’t get in trouble for the stuff you pulled last year. Why should I? That sound fair, Piggy?”

             
Asa couldn’t respond. It was getting hard to think. He lifted his fist and pounded it against Stan’s rib cage. Stan grunted a bit, but his hold on Asa didn’t slacken at all.

             
A darkly jubilant expression came over Stan’s face. “I’ve never killed a Piggy before. I’ve killed people, but never a Piggy.” A drop of sweat fell from his nose into Asa’s mouth. Asa was under too much strain to care much about the salty taste.