Heroes of the Dustbin

by Tyler Whitesides

  “Whoa!” Dez remarked. “You actually look cool for once!”

  Spencer dared to open his eyes as Dez was spraying down the rest of his body. He glanced at Daisy. She didn’t have a head! Her right arm had also disappeared, and Rho was thoroughly misting away.

  Spencer watched his own arms and chest disappear. Looking down, all he saw were a pair of disembodied legs. Then those, too, vanished as Dez finished the job.

  Spencer was completely invisible! He took a step forward, finding his movement to be no different from normal. He stomped one foot in the dirt, observing the impression that remained under him as he stood there.

  “Sweet,” he muttered, his voice coming out like normal.

  “Remember, just because you’re invisible doesn’t mean we can’t hear you,” Rho pointed out. “It’ll be a silent operation for the two of you.”

  Spencer nodded, then realized that no one could see it. “Right,” he answered. Then, remembering part of the plan, he reached out and stole the bleach from Dez’s grasp.

  “Hey!” the Sweeper protested. “Give it back!” He flailed his arms aimlessly in Spencer’s general direction, swiping for what must have looked like a floating bottle of bleach.

  “I have to carry the bleach,” Spencer reminded him. “I’ll pass it to you after the nails have been delivered.”

  “I knew that,” Dez said, folding his arms casually.

  The bleach bottle was still visible in Spencer’s hand, a rather significant detail. He held it out, and Rho used hers to spray it down. The bottle disappeared in Spencer’s already invisible grip. Feeling with his other hand, Spencer found an empty loop on his belt and attached the bleach bottle.

  “I’m going back to the landfill,” Rho said. “I’ll keep a squeegee portal open for you. Once you get the Witch’s hair, use your connecting squeegee and it’ll take you right back to me.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Dez said. “I’ll give the fake nails to the Witches, turn myself invisible, and then run the view with you guys at the squeegee.”

  “Run the view?” Daisy asked.

  “It’s something people say when they’re meeting in a secret place,” Dez said, wearing an expression that was clearly aimed to make Daisy feel foolish.

  Spencer rolled his invisible eyes, though no one could see them. “It’s rendezvous, Dez. Not run the view.”

  “Whatever,” the Sweeper kid said.

  “If for any reason you can’t make it through the squeegee opening,” Rho said, “the portal in the back of this garbage truck will be your backup plan.” She checked her wristwatch. “You should hurry.”

  “Time to fly,” Dez said, holding out both arms to his invisible passengers.

  “It’s like a group hug.” Daisy’s voice drifted out of nowhere as Spencer stepped into Dez’s reach.

  “No,” said the Sweeper. “Don’t say that.”

  They leapt into the air, and Spencer watched Rho climb up the side of the garbage truck and jump through the portal to the landfill.

  They were alone—with only fifteen minutes of safety.

  Dez cut through a stand of roadside trees and bore them over New Forest Academy’s outer parking lot. He swung around, depositing Spencer and Daisy next to the entrance sign.

  WELCOME TO NEW FOREST ACADEMY

  Home of the Overachievers

  No sooner had Dez set them down than a cry went up from the Academy’s defensive wall. In the bright daylight, Spencer could clearly see half a dozen security-guard Sweepers staked out on top of the brick wall.

  “Showtime,” Dez muttered. “Try to keep up.” He took off, running a few steps and then using his wings to glide. Spencer sprinted after him, hoping Daisy was doing the same, since he couldn’t see her.

  By the time Dez was halfway to the Academy’s entrance, he was surrounded. Spencer pulled up short behind the enemy Sweepers, bumping into another invisible person at his side.

  Good. Daisy had made it.

  Eight Sweepers formed a ring around Dez. Spencer was grateful for the dust mask. Without it, he would surely be drowsy with two Filth guys at such close range. Glancing around, Spencer was grateful that General Clean was not among the greeting party.

  Spencer took a deep breath. It was time for Dez to play his part.

  Dez folded his big arms across his chest, not looking a bit intimidated by the fact that he was outnumbered. “Take me to your leader!” He laughed at himself. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “What are you doing here?” asked one of the Filth Sweepers.

  “I’ve got something for the Witches,” Dez answered.

  “Let’s see it.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Dez. “This is important stuff. I’m not giving it to you. I don’t even know your name.”

  “I’m Hal. Who are you?”

  “Some call me Dez. Others call me the Midnight Terror.”

  Spencer rolled his eyes. He thought he heard Daisy snort beside him. Dez’s acting was way over the top.

  “I’ve never seen you before,” said a Rubbish Sweeper. “I thought I’d met all of my kind.”

  “I used to be a student here, but I’ve been gone for a while,” Dez said. “Ask any of the Academy teachers. They’ll vouch for me.”

  “Where’ve you been?” asked Hal.

  “I was undercover,” answered Dez. “With the Rebels.” It was silent for a moment, obvious that none of the Sweepers knew exactly what to do.

  “I think he’s lying,” said a Grime woman.

  “Only one way to find out,” Dez said, innocently holding out his hands. “Take me to your leader.”

  Hal reached down to his belt and unclipped a Glopified walkie-talkie. The two-way radio had unlimited range, and Spencer wondered who might be on the other end.

  The Sweeper took a deep breath and lifted the device to his chapped lips. But before he could press the button to speak, a woman’s voice crackled through the radio.

  “Bring the boy to us.” The voice caused a shiver down Spencer’s spine. It was the voice of a Witch. He knew it. “His offer intrigues us.”

  Hal swallowed hard and lowered the radio, staring at his comrades.

  “How do they do that?” whispered the Grime woman.

  Hal began to shrug as his radio sounded once more, the woman’s voice saying, “We have eyes everywhere.” The Witch’s answer was accompanied by a short cackle as Hal clipped the radio back onto his belt.

  “Good,” Dez said, stepping forward. “Let’s go.”

  The Grime woman moved swiftly to block his path as Hal produced a roll of duct tape from his baggy pockets. He tore off a long strip, but instead of binding Dez’s wrists, he stepped around and grabbed hold of a wing. Instinctively, the boy jerked free. “Nobody touches my wings.”

  “You want to see the Witches or not?” Hal said.

  Dez gritted his teeth and allowed his wings to be folded back. In a moment, Hal had taped the tips of his wings together, making it impossible for Dez to take flight.

  An invisible Spencer and Daisy followed the group of Sweepers as they escorted Dez through the great gate of New Forest Academy and onto the school’s campus.

  “We should call the General,” the Grime woman said quietly.

  Hal shook his spiky head, bits of dust shaking out of his mousy hair. “General Clean’s at the prison site. He doesn’t like to be bothered when he’s interrogating the Rebels.”

  They walked past the library and the fields in front of the rec center. Uniformed students bustled from building to building, arms laden with advanced textbooks. Was it really just earlier that school year that Spencer and Daisy had fled to the Academy seeking refuge?

  Spencer brushed against an invisible person at his side. Among the hum of student activity, Daisy’s voice was barely a whisper in his ear.

  “They look pretty studious for the last week of school,” she said. “Kids at Welcher sure don’t act like this.”

  “They go year-round at the Acad
emy,” Spencer whispered back. “No summer break for them.”

  Only the brightest students were accepted into New Forest Academy. The school had been created by the BEM to raise a select generation of geniuses while everyone else was polluted by Toxite breath. There was an intense week of screening, and Spencer remembered the type of kids that were accepted. They were selfish and manipulative, each one willing to step on everyone else to get to the top. Spencer felt suddenly grateful for good old Welcher Elementary School.

  They were headed to the main building. The Sweepers guided Dez up the stairs and through the front doors. Spencer barely slipped through before the door closed, and he could only hope that Daisy had done the same.

  They wound through the hallway, the Sweepers politely saying “excuse us” to the Academy students. Spencer wondered how they looked to the common eye. The students couldn’t see the Toxite parts of the Sweepers. They probably looked like an ordinary group of adults leading a troublemaking Dez down the hallway.

  They paused at the top of some stairs leading down into the janitorial closet. The place had once belonged to Slick, but he had been eaten by his own overgrown Grime. Perhaps the Witches had moved into Slick’s old office.

  Hal looked at his Sweeper companions. “Lund, Wilson, Johnson. You’re with me.” Three of the Sweepers stepped forward, including the Grime woman. “The rest of you get back to your posts.”

  Half the Sweepers moved off while Hal led Dez and the others down the dim stairwell. Spencer and Daisy followed as closely as they dared. Spencer tried to line up his footsteps with the Sweeper in front of him, minimizing the chance that he’d be overheard.

  When the group reached the bottom of the stairs, Spencer was surprised to find Slick’s old office still unoccupied. There were boxes and racks of cleaning supplies, but no sign of the Witches.

  Then Hal stepped over to a wooden pallet with a chain rising from the center. Spencer had a sinking feeling as he realized where they were going.

  The hidden parking garage.

  Chapter 10

  “It’s all for the Witches.”

  The Sweepers stepped onto the pallet with Dez at the center. All bristling with quills, wings, and tails, there definitely wasn’t going to be room for Spencer and Daisy. But if they didn’t make it onto the platform, there would be no chance of reaching the Witches’ lair.

  Dez must have realized this at the same moment. As Hal reached up to pull the chain and activate the platform, Dez thrust his arms out, knocking the Grime woman off the pallet.

  She hissed in anger, and Hal seized Dez by the back of the neck with one clawed hand.

  “Back off!” Dez said. “I need my personal space!” He held his arms out, drawing an imaginary circle around himself. “This is my bubble,” he said. “Nobody gets in my bubble.”

  But in that moment, two invisible people had done exactly that. Spencer and Daisy slipped past the Grime woman and tucked themselves deep into Dez’s personal space. Spencer didn’t know how Daisy was faring, but he found himself in the unfortunate position of having his face pressed close to Dez’s armpit. He held his breath. It did not smell pretty.

  The Grime woman stepped back onto the platform, and Hal let go of Dez’s neck. The boy kept his arms outstretched, maintaining his personal bubble while shielding his invisible classmates from detection.

  Hal pulled the chain, and the platform began to lower. It took longer than Spencer remembered to reach the bottom. Maybe that was because his neck was cramping and Dez’s armpit was sweaty.

  At last, the platform settled and the Sweepers cleared off the pallet. Spencer and Daisy waited behind for a moment, catching their breath before stepping onto the first level of the underground parking garage.

  The place couldn’t have looked more different from when they were there last. On the mission to rescue Spencer’s dad from the dumpster prison, this level had been swarming with giant Extension Rubbishes. Now it was full of racks and shelves, spanning from one side to the other. In the fluorescent garage light, Spencer saw the eclectic collection of items on display.

  There seemed to be a little of everything. There were scraps of plastic, rubber, and metal. Seashells, dirt, sand, rocks. Another shelf held dried herbs and spices. Candlesticks, cotton balls, rotten fruit, nail clippers. The list went on—the strangest assortment of random objects.

  Spencer couldn’t help but wonder what it was all for. The disarray was maddening to his organized mind. The whole situation gave him the creeps.

  They reached the elevator on the far wall. Spencer remembered the last time they had ridden down in it. These were freight elevators, with little more than a metal grate for a door and exposed concrete flicking by as they descended.

  When they reached the bottom, Spencer knew that the Grime woman who opened the door would have to remain behind to keep it open for the others. Spencer and Daisy were the first to silently slip out as the grate door opened. The last thing he wanted was to get stuck in the elevator.

  The second level was even creepier than the first. Instead of the huge Extension Filths that had battled them last time, more shelves and cabinets greeted them. This time the shelves were lined with bottles and jars.

  Mysterious objects floated in various colors of solutions. Spencer recognized some common ingredients like pickles and peaches. But for every bottle he recognized, there were a dozen with unknown contents.

  As they walked forward, Spencer saw a row of glass bottles that seemed to hold eyeballs and organs of some unknown creature. He heard a disembodied voice beside him whisper, “eww.” It seemed Daisy was just as repulsed by the bottles as he was.

  Along one side of the level, special grow lights were shining on large potted plants. That section was enclosed with some sweaty plastic, like a makeshift greenhouse.

  They reached the second freight elevator and stepped inside. The grate slammed shut and the elevator plummeted. When it stopped, a Rubbish Sweeper stayed behind to keep the door open until everyone had filed onto the third level.

  Spencer didn’t have to worry about Hal overhearing his footsteps here. The third level was a noisy mess! Cages lined the parking garage, some small and some large. Inside the cages were almost every type of animal Spencer could think of.

  “Umm,” Daisy whispered at Spencer’s side. “Why is there a zoo under New Forest Academy?”

  “Not to mention the creepy jars and random collections,” added Spencer. He didn’t worry about being overheard. There were at least a hundred caged birds making a racket above them.

  They passed a huge alligator, lying still under a hot light. A group of small monkeys jumped from bar to bar in their cage, howling at the passersby. There were lions and tigers and bears.

  “Oh, my,” Daisy said, pointing to a cage with a long-haired yak. “I don’t even know what that thing is.”

  It looked kind of like a cow, with dingy black hair that grew so long it almost brushed the ground. The yak stared at them, chewing its cud and rubbing a horn against the bars of its cage.

  “Okay,” Dez said to Hal. “I was cool with the weird piles of stuff and the bottled eyeballs. But I’ve got to know. What’s up with the animals?”

  Spencer was grateful Dez was finally asking. He didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to contain himself without bursting out with the same question.

  “It’s all for the Witches,” Hal answered. “They’re Glopifying new cleaning supplies every day. But doing so requires experimenting to get the right formula. Witches’ brew,” he said. “And these are their ingredients.”

  Dez reached out and tapped the bars of a nearby cage. “They’re putting kitty cats in their Glop formulas?” The kitten in the cage shrank back in fear.

  “They’ll use anything to get the results they want,” answered Hal. “If they had their wands, they wouldn’t need all this. Until we find those bronze nails, we just have to keep carting stuff down here for their experiments.”

  They reached the final
elevator and everyone stepped inside. As they left the zoo sounds behind, Spencer wondered how much more time he and Daisy had before becoming visible again. He hoped they were close to the Witches. Based on the last time he’d been down here, the fourth level was the bottom of the secret parking garage.

  “Wait here,” Hal instructed the final Sweeper. The Grime guy opened the elevator door, and Hal ushered Dez out. Spencer and Daisy fell into step behind them as they made their way across the final level.

  “The Witches don’t get many visitors,” Hal said, his voice soft in the echoing garage. “Don’t say or do anything to upset them. Got it?”

  “Believe me,” Dez said, “the gift I’m bringing them is going to make their day.”

  “It better,” Hal answered.

  “Have you met the Witches before?” Dez asked.

  “Only once,” he said. “When they first arrived.”

  “What were they like?” asked Dez.

  “They . . .” Hal began. But his mouth seemed to grow dry, and he swallowed the rest of his sentence, an involuntary shudder passing from his spiky head to his clawlike toes.

  At last they arrived. Against the far wall, in the spot where Alan Zumbro’s dumpster prison had once been, was a new structure.

  It was a large cinder-block room, built into the existing wall. It looked plain and drab, with nothing but a heavy-looking metal door in the facade.

  “This is it,” Hal said. “Ring the doorbell.”

  Spencer squinted to see the little button beside the fortified door. The Witches really did have a doorbell?

  Dez cast one glance all around the parking garage. Spencer knew he was looking for any sign of his invisible classmates. But the Sweeper boy looked right through them. Dez exhaled slowly, rolling his head from side to side in a neck-popping motion.

  Then Dez reached out one taloned finger and rang the Witches’ doorbell.

  Chapter 11

  “Your face!”

  The doorbell sounded strangely normal. Even waiting outside the door, Spencer could hear the resounding ding-dong as it echoed through the vast parking garage.