Katherine jabbed an elbow into his ribs. Jonah realized that he’d begun swinging his head from side to side, his arms tensed, and his fists ready, like someone looking for a fight.
“Don’t act so weird,” she whispered. “People are starting to stare.”
Jonah dropped his fists and forced himself to concentrate on what Mr. Hodge was saying.
“Before I go on, I need to introduce Gary Payne, another caseworker who will be assisting me with your group today,” he said. “Gary, come on up here.”
A younger man, dressed more casually in a sweatshirt and jeans, jogged up the stairs to stand by Mr. Hodge. He was barely taller than Mr. Hodge, but he was much bulkier. Jonah could see bulging muscles where Gary had pushed up his sweatshirt sleeves.
Muscles?
“Is that E?” Jonah leaned over and whispered urgently to Katherine and Chip.
Helplessly, they both shrugged. Who could tell?
“On the hike, I’ll lead the way, and Gary will bring up the rear, to make sure there aren’t any stragglers,” Mr. Hodge said, grinning to make it seem like a joke. Like, who would want to lag behind on such a beautiful day, on such a lovely hike?
Mr. Hodge began explaining the point of the hike, something about fitting into nature, finding one’s identity through connecting with one’s environment.
“For the first part of the hike, I want you to walk in complete silence, to really concentrate on what you’re seeing around you,” he said. “Then we’ll stop and chat about what we’ve discovered in that silence.”
We’re not allowed to talk?Jonah thought, his panic spiking again.Not to each other, not to the other kids?
“Let’s head for the middle of the pack,” Katherine whispered. “So Gary and Mr. Hodge can’t see us talking.”
Oh, that’s right. Break the rules.It was strange how much relief Jonah felt, realizing that was possible.
Mr. Hodge jumped down from the stairs and began leading the group through a hallway and out a door at the back of the school. Jonah let about a dozen kids file out ahead of him; he could see them stretched out across the yard in the sunshine, headed for the woods of the nature preserve. It was a cheerful scene, but Jonah got chills watching. It reminded him of something, something from when he was a little kid….
The Pied Piper, he thought. He and Katherine had had a book of fairy tales when they were little. She had loved it, but he had hated it, because of one illustration that frightened him: the one of the Pied Piper leading the children of Hamelin to their doom. In the picture the children were skipping and laughing and dancing to the piper’s tune, but Jonah knew what was going to happen to them. He couldn’t stand for them to be so happy when they ought to be scared.
Mr. Hodge isn’t playing any music, Jonah reminded himself.He’s not magical. He can’t force us to do anything we don’t want to do.
And yet Jonah was following him, pushing his way out the door….
“We’ve got to warn the other kids,” Jonah murmured to Chip and Katherine.
Katherine looked startled, but Chip nodded and fell back to talk to the boy behind them.
“I’m Chip Winston,” he heard Chip say softly. “I called you a few weeks ago—have you gotten any more strange letters?”
No! That approach would take too long! What if they had only a few more minutes?
Jonah sped up and fell into step with the girl ahead of them. He didn’t even take the time to glance at her name tag, to see if she’d been on their survivors list or not.
“You can’t trust Mr. Hodge or Gary,” he muttered. “Pass it on.”
She gave him anAre you crazy? look and pointedly did not step forward to talk to anyone else.
Jonah sighed and stepped up to the next kid himself.
“You can’t trust Mr. Hodge or Gary,” he whispered quickly. “We’re in danger. Be careful.”
Jonah reached three more kids before he felt a hand on his shoulder, just as they were about to step into the woods. It was Gary, who’d rushed up from the end of the line.
“Didn’t you hear the instructions?” he hissed in Jonah’s ear. “This is the silent part of the walk. If you can’t follow directions, you’ll have to stay at the back of the line with me.”
So they stood at the edge of the woods while all the other kids filed past. Katherine shot Jonah a white-faced worried look as she walked by, but there was nothing she could do.
Chip didn’t even glance in Jonah’s direction.
Good, Jonah thought.Pretend you don’t know me. Then they won’t be watching you, and you can give out the rest of the warnings….
He could feel the weight of Gary’s hand still on his shoulder, heavier than it should be, holding him in place. Finally the last kid walked past, and Gary let go.
“Okay, your turn,” Gary said quietly. “But remember—no more talking!”
How could Jonah talk when Gary was right behind him, watching?
Despairing, Jonah trudged forward. He could see the other kids snaking along the trail ahead of him, going deeper and deeper into the woods. Jonah had managed to talk to only five of them. Even if Chip reached all the others, would they believe him? What could they do, anyhow?
After about a mile, Jonah realized that Mr. Hodge was gathering everyone together at the front of the line.
“Circle up,” he called out.
He was standing on a rock now, so they could all see him. Jonah joined the back of the crowd and tried to inconspicuously angle himself away from Gary, toward Katherine and Chip. Gary didn’t try to hold Jonah back, but Jonah could feel his eyes on him.
“Few people know this, but there’s a rather extensive cave back here, right off the path,” Mr. Hodge was saying. “It’s one of the best-kept secrets of Clarksville. It’s usually off-limits to the public, but we’ve received special permission to take all of you in. We’ll talk about your identities in the cave.”
Did those words sound ominous to anyone else? Jonah looked around, but most of the kids just looked bored and distant, as if this was a particularly dull class at school.
Mr. Hodge bent down, ready to scramble down from the rock, but then he straightened up again.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said. “There’s a really interesting rock formation, right as you enter the cave. I forget the exact scientific explanation, but there’s something odd about the composition of the rock, so if you spread your hand out and touch it in the right spot, you can feel one patch of the stone that’s about fifteen degrees colder than the rest of the rock. It’s very bizarre. I’ll show you where to touch as we’re going in.”
Then he hopped down from the rock and led them downhill, down a winding offshoot trail toward a crevice behind the rock.
“Touch right here,” he instructed the first boy behind him, a gangly kid who kept tripping over his own feet. Mr. Hodge pointed to an outcropping along a towering stone wall. “Spread your fingers out—feel it?”
“Uh, yeah,” the boy said, sounding surprised.
“Now, you go on through there, and you can sit on one of the benches at the back of the cave,” Mr. Hodge said. “Next?”
Jonah watched a girl repeat the same process. After barely a second with her hand against the wall, she jerked back.
“Ow!”
“Oh, you couldn’t have felt it that quickly,” Mr. Hodge said. “It doesn’t hurt. Here. I’ll show you.”
He took her hand and pressed it against the rock once more.
“See?” Mr. Hodge said.
“Sure,” the girl said, but Jonah had the impression that she was just trying to get away. She followed the gangly boy into the cave.
Jonah watched the next few kids, watched the way Mr. Hodge seemed so determined that each kid touch the rock, that each hand linger on the rock for at least a couple of seconds. It reminded him of something from a movie, a scene he couldn’t quite remember. It was a movie he’d watched at school, in science…the one about that horrible epidemic maybe? Oh, yeah—wh
en the scientists went into their laboratories, where all the deadly viruses were kept, they’d had to place their hands on a scanner to get in, to prove who they really were.
There couldn’t be any dangerous viruses in the cave, could there? Not with it hanging open, the air circulating freely…
Jonah saw his mistake.
“Katherine!” He spoke softly, through gritted teeth, because Mr. Hodge was looking back at him, looking at all the kids coming down the hill.
Katherine turned her head—maybe it would just look as if she’d heard an unusual birdcall and was trying to listen more closely.
Jonah pretended to trip, stumbling against Katherine’s back.
“That’s a hand scanner!” he hissed in her ear. “Like fingerprinting! They’re checking our identities, making sure we really are the babies from the plane, I bet. Whatever you do, don’t touch that rock! Just pretend.”
He watched Mr. Hodge pressing another kid’s hand against the rock, forcing the kid’s palm flat against the stone.
Jonah changed his mind.
“No,” he told Katherine. “Run! Run back to Mom and Dad, tell them we’re in danger, tell them to come and save us….”
Katherine shook her head, nervous red spots standing out on her pale face.
“What could I say that they’d believe?” she whispered. “No. I’m staying with you.”
Jonah thought about grabbing his sister, holding her back, dragging her away to Mom and Dad and safety. Or just bolting himself. The muscles in the backs of his legs tingled, wanting to take off, all but screaming,Run! All the adrenaline in his body seemed to have pooled there. It was like the moment in a basketball game when every cell in his body seemed to know,Time for your breakaway…go! Now!
But what about all these other kids, the ones he and Chip had never gotten a chance to warn? The ones stepping so trustingly into the cave? The ones marveling so stupidly to Mr. Hodge, “Oh, you’re right! It is cold!”? The ones who were actually giggling?
How could he leave them behind?
The kids in front of him kept stepping up to the rock, then into the cave. The kids behind him pressed forward, trapping him and Katherine and Chip between them and the stone wall, the rock, and the cave. Even if Jonah decided to run now, he couldn’t.
The girl in front of Jonah moved up to the stone wall—it was Andrea Crowell; Jonah recognized the braids from behind. She pressed her hand firmly against the rock, tilted her head to the side, deliberating. She turned to Mr. Hodge.
“Does it have something to do with oxidation levels?” she asked.
Behind Andrea, Katherine held her hand toward the wall. Only Jonah was in a position to see that she didn’t actually touch it, that she kept a millimeter of air between her fingertips and the rock.
She stood like that for a long time, then slipped past Andrea into the cave while Mr. Hodge was explaining to Andrea, “I don’t know; I’m not a scientist. I’ve heard the explanation, and it might be something about—what did you call it? Oxi—oops, hold on there, young lady, did you touch the rock?”
He was talking to Katherine now; he’d seen her trying to slip past.
“She did—she took forever,” Jonah complained. “Isn’t it my turn now?”
Quickly, probably hoping that nobody would notice, Mr. Hodge looked back toward Gary, who was watching from the end of the line. Gary gave a small nod, and Mr. Hodge let Katherine past.
Jonah stepped up to the rock. His knees were trembling now; all the adrenaline seemed to have drained away.
Had he just saved his sister—or doomed her?
TWENTY-SEVEN
They were all in the cave now, lined up on four rows of benches in a surprisingly large, open rock room. One dim lightbulb glowed overhead, casting ghostly shadows on everyone’s face. Mr. Hodge had handed off “feel the rock” duties to Gary right after Chip entered the cave, so they hadn’t had a chance to whisper to any of the other kids. Jonah was feeling jumpy again. He’d picked the seat closest to the exit, and he had a plan: if anything happened—any strange odor arising out of the deeper part of the cave he couldn’t see into, any sound of an airplane, anyone showing up with ray guns or futuristic sunglasses—he’d grab Katherine and Chip and take off running. He’d go for help.
Nothing could happen as long as he sat close to the doorway out. He was sure of it.
From his vantage point, Jonah could see Gary standing by the mysterious spot on the rock wall outside. Gary touched the rock with one finger, then stood there staring, his eyes narrowed, concentrating. Then he touched the rock again, a quick brush of his forefinger. He turned and walked into the cave.
“Is that everyone?” Mr. Hodge asked.
“All good,” Gary said, which was a strange answer.
“Very well, then,” Mr. Hodge said, smiling.
Gary nodded.
Jonah heard the noise first, a sort of grinding that seemed to be coming from just the other side of the rock wall. Or maybe,inside the rock wall. He peered out through the entryway, blinking at the sunshine that filtered down through the trees. And then the sunlight seemed to narrow, to dim.
The entryway was closing.
“No!” Jonah screamed.
He threw himself toward the opening, toward the last rays of sunlight.
The opening was only five steps away, maybe six, and Jonah stretched out his legs, sprinting like he’d never sprinted before. In a second his right foot would be out in the sunlight, he’d slip through—
Something slammed into him from the side, knocking him to the rock floor. It was like being tackled in football—this was why he’d never liked football—without any pads or helmet. And it was like he was playing on a stone field. And, oh yeah, like his tackler had muscles of stone, as Gary seemed to.
The sunlight disappeared.
“Are you an idiot?” Gary demanded from above him. “You could have been crushed in that door. Killed.”
“Caves don’t have doors,” Jonah muttered back, though his jaw felt broken, smashed against the rock.
“This one does. It’s been modified,” Gary said. “They want to use it for meetings.”
And it was so strange that Jonah and Gary could have that conversation, while behind them, the other kids were gasping and shrieking. Jonah could especially hear Katherine screaming, “Jonah, oh, Jonah, are you okay?”
Oh. She was screaming it directly into his ear, because she was sprawled on the ground beside him.
Gary was scrambling up.
“He’s fine,” he called out. “He just panicked. I guess we should have warned you that we were closing the door, so we could have some privacy.”
“You have to open it,” Jonah said, raising his face from the ground. “I—I’m claustrophobic.”
He grinned, amazed at his own quick thinking. He thought maybe he should act a little wacko, so everyone would believe that he’d been freaked out by the notion of being closed in, cut off from the outside world. He stood up. All the other kids were staring at him, their eyes bugging out…. Oh. Right. They already thought he was wacko.
“I mean it,” Jonah demanded. It was a relief to let all his panic come through in his voice, to sound as scared as he felt. “Open the door. You’ve got to.” His voice cracked. Maybe, on top of everything else, he truly was claustrophobic. The walls seemed closer together than they’d been before. The air seemed to be running out.
“Now, now,” Gary said, clamping his hand down on Jonah’s shoulder once more. “Calm down. If this is really a problem for you, I can take you out the back entrance, so you don’t ruin this workshop for everyone else.”
Jonah’s eyes met Katherine’s. She was still crouched below him. He wanted to ask her advice, work out some plans. If Jonah went off with Gary, could Katherine and Chip and maybe some of the other kids overpower Mr. Hodge? Would they know to do that? Or was Mr. Hodge already too suspicious of Katherine and Chip because he’d seen them with Jonah?
Anyhow, was Gary even t
elling the truth about a back entrance? All Jonah could picture was himself bound and gagged and hidden at the back of the cave, helpless while all the other kids were taken away.
Jonah took a deep breath, ready to say, “No, that’s all right. I feel better now. I can stay.” Then suddenly Gary’s hand was jerking him backward, pulling him toward the ground again. Jonah’s shoulder slammed into the rock, even harder than before.
“What’d you do that for?” Jonah started to ask. But Gary had already let go and was rolling away from Jonah. Jonah raised his head. Now he could see what had happened. Gary hadn’t meant to pull Jonah down. Jonah was just collateral damage, falling with Gary when somebody else knocked Gary down. Now Gary and the other man were wrestling on the ground, first one rolling to the top, then the other. The other man was also wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and hiking boots; he was—
“JB!” Katherine shrieked. “You came back!”
Jonah felt the relief flowing through him. He relaxed against the stone floor, letting go of all his fears. JB had protected them before; he’d protect them now. Jonah didn’t have to worry about what to do, how to save the other kids. JB would save them all.
Except…
JB was getting his head pounded into the stone floor. It’d been quite a while since the last time JB had rolled over on top of Gary, the last time he’d seemed to be dominating this fight.
Jonah jumped up.
“Katherine!” he screamed. “JB’s going to lose if we don’t help him!”
Jonah lunged at the struggling men. He grabbed Gary’s arm—his thick-as-a-tree-stump arm, with biceps as distinct as rope—and, by bracing his feet against the ground, Jonah managed to keep Gary from punching JB again.
No—scratch that. Gary’s arm continued forward. Jonah had managed only to keep Gary from punching JB quite so hard.
“Chip!” Jonah screamed. “Help!”
Jonah glanced up to see that Chip and Katherine and even some of the other kids were rushing toward him. Katherine, with a girl’s sense of fighting, went straight for the hair, jerking Gary’s head back by entwining her fingers right down to the roots. Jonah had to admit—it seemed to be working.
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