Adam watched through the small opening. They killed her! he thought.
Elianora was lying on the ground completely still. After a few seconds, to Adam’s surprise, she began to move.
“Get up,” said Larix.
She wobbled to her feet, swaying as she stood. She grabbed something from her front and dropped it on the ground. It looked like a dart. They didn’t shoot her with a bullet, but some kind of needle.
“You’ve just been given a version of our sleeping gas. The only way it works on us is if we get injected. Now, tell me my dear, where is the Heartstone?” asked Larix.
Elianora continued to sway, “It’s…It’s…” she seemed to be fighting the chemical in her body. “It’s…destroyed,” she managed to say.
Another shot sounded in the valley.
“I thought you might need a higher dose. You’ve always been pretty stubborn,” said Larix, still out of Adam’s view.
Elianora didn’t fall to the ground, but she didn’t pull the second dart out either. She stopped swaying, her head hanging forward.
“Quickly now. Tell me where you hid the Heartstone,” said Larix.
Elianora kept swaying slightly. In a slow motion, she struggled to raise her arm. It rose and fell, then rose again. Finally, with great effort, she pointed in a direction south-west of their current location and south of town. She muttered a word that Larix understood, but Adam only heard ‘ray’-something.
“Much better. It’s the first time that you’ve ever done something I’ve asked of you. I should’ve done this years ago,” Larix said, sounding almost giddy.
“Knowing you, there are traps and puzzles to get it. What do I need in order to find it?”
She swerved and then spoke in a slow, weak voice, too quiet for Adam to hear.
It was too low for Larix as well. “What was that? Please speak up,” he said.
“The key,” she said, barely clear enough to understand.
“And where do I get the key?” asked Larix.
Adam could see that she struggled with herself, trying not to say anything, but she lost the battle.
“He has it,” she said.
“Who?”
“Adam McTaggart,” she said, pointing her finger at the spot he was hiding.
Even though they didn’t see Elianora point, the other boys heard enough of the conversation to know what they had to do next.
Run.
Adam started the Lumiens enough that they could see, and they were off. Even Mark wasted no time complaining, as they were running out of fear and necessity.
It would be a long run to the school, judging how long it took to get to Town Hall through the other tunnel. It did the typical winding side to side that the other tunnels did, but sometimes it felt like it almost ran in a circle.
“How far is it?” asked Mark, puffing from the pace. They had slowed down to a jog a few minutes earlier.
“How do we know?” replied Kevin, almost angry.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer,” said Adam, puffing heavily, “but we need to have a plan.”
They jogged on a little further, thinking as they moved.
“Let’s go hide until they leave,” said Mark.
“Where? They’ll find us eventually. We don’t know if the leaves wear off in time. That, and Elianora will just tell them who we are and they’ll use our families as bait to draw us out,” said Jimmy.
“Jimmy’s exactly right,” said Adam. “Give me a minute, I’ve almost got a plan.”
Adam’s mind flew though images of all that had happened so far. Town Hall, Elianora’s Farm, Ben Casey’s house, the Kurling game, the tunnels, the meeting room underground. Non-sequential speech, heard from multiple persons, echoed in the hallway of his mind.
Ahead, a sliding door appeared as they rounded a corner. Adam opened it and they slipped through, sliding it closed behind them and checking to make sure it was locked. They were in the school basement, a place they had only heard about and never seen.
Adam looked around, trying to find something. There weren’t many things nearby other than some old wooden school signs against the far wall.
“Grab me that sign.” Adam pointed to the one he wanted. It had a picture of the school painted on the front, and was mounted on a thick sheet of plywood.
Kevin brought the sign over to Adam and helped him flip it so the longer sides were up and down. They slipped the wood in between the door handle and the door frame. It was nearly a perfect fit.
No sooner had they fitted the sign and they heard running footsteps coming to the door and the mechanism working. They saw the door move slightly, but the sign held tight.
“It’s gonna take them some time to get all the way back to Elianora’s and then into town again, thankfully,” said Mark.
“Let’s not be here when they get here,” said Jimmy.
Full of the adrenaline of fear, they made their way to the other door. Once Adam opened it he stopped in the doorway, looking at the mechanism.
“Anyone have any string?” he asked.
The others looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders, obviously not having any. Adam looked at the mechanism again, thinking. After a moment, he had an idea. He removed his shoe, then his sock, and put the shoe back on again.
“What are you going to do with that?” asked Mark.
“I’ve learned to watch and not question at times like these,” said Kevin.
Adam ripped the sock, starting from a small hole at the toe, then tore it again, making a strip. He reached into the mechanism and worked for a moment.
“There. That’ll work,” he said as he stepped out of the door frame. He slid the door shut then slid it open again without the use of the pin.
“Why didn’t you just use your shoelace?” asked Mark.
“If I have to run, I don’t want my shoe falling off. I can run without a sock,” replied Adam.
“Here’s my plan, or as much of it as I can come up with,” Adam began. “We need to split up. Jimmy, you go to your house and try to find your mom’s pin like this, so we don’t all have to stay together,” he flashed the pin. “Once you find it, you can go through Town Hall and find Mark in the meeting room. If you can’t find the pin at home, come back here and this door will be open so you can get in. Just make sure you leave a door open to the school.”
Jimmy nodded.
“Mark, how long will it take to start waking people up? Elianora mentioned that she showed you how,” said Adam.
“It can take anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour, she wasn’t sure,” said Mark.
“Ok, so you’ll have to get at it pretty quickly. As soon as Jimmy gets there, he can help you.”
“What if there are guards at the meeting room?” asked Mark.
Adam thought for a second. “Just act like you’ve been gassed. Wobble over to them slowly. They won’t think anything of it because you’re not 16 yet. They’ll just put you in with the rest of the townspeople,” he said.
“Just hang your head and moan like you do when your dad tells you he has chores for you,” added Jimmy, getting a chuckle out of Kevin.
Mark gave him a look of scorn.
“You can do it, trust me. Start with your dad and other League members. Fill them in on what’s happened and hopefully we can hold Larix off long enough that they can come up with a plan. If anyone comes to check on the prisoners, be sure to keep up the act, like Elianora told us to do. If you can’t wake them for some reason, just sit with the others until Larix and his men leave, then start waking everyone up.” said Adam.
“What are you and Kevin going to do?” asked Jimmy.
“Try and not get caught, that’s what,” answered Kevin.
Adam chuckled, “Something like that. They are going to be looking for me now that Elianora told them I have the key. Hopefully she doesn’t say anything about the rest of you. Regardless, I’m not going to tell you what we’re doing exactly.”
The othe
rs looked at him perplexed.
“I’ve been thinking about this, and I understand why Elianora wouldn’t tell anyone where the Heartstone was hidden. That was the only way to ensure Larix couldn’t use a combination of chemicals and his talents to get the answer out of others. If I don’t tell you what we’re doing and you get caught and forced to talk, you can tell them you honestly don’t know where we are or what we’re doing.”
They understood.
“Get going, and good luck,” said Adam, ushering Mark through the sliding door.
“What about the door at the top of the stairs?” asked Jimmy.
“I’m betting you can unlock it from the inside without a key,” said Adam, “but we’re coming with you to start.”
Adam closed the door on Mark, who looked like he was trying to act tough in his situation, then walked over to the stairwell. At the top, he saw that his assumption was right; the lock on the inside of the door didn’t need keys. That would keep students (or a teacher) from getting locked down in the basement.
The Teacher’s lounge was small and bare, with only a table and chairs next to an old couch and refrigerator. Adam grabbed a roll of clear packing tape from the counter.
“If Mark was here, he’d be raiding that fridge right now,” said Kevin.
“Do you miss him already?” kidded Jimmy.
“Not as much as you miss your Barbie Princess Dream House,” replied Kevin so fast that he must have been planning that one for a while.
Jimmy and Adam smiled at the jab, even though they were stressed.
They made their way into the dim hallway and then to the main exit door. Adam pushed the last one on the left open, unrolled a strip of tape and tore it with his teeth. He applied the tape to the latch and tested the door. It didn’t lock anymore, so he held it open and motioned Jimmy out.
“Good luck,” he said to Jimmy.
“Thanks, and be careful,” Jimmy replied nodding at them.
Adam closed the door as Jimmy turned and ran.
Town Secrets - The Book of Adam 1 Page 32
