by Amy Ignatow
“Where is anyone?” The Hammer asked back. They were the only moving car on the road. “Do you think they’ve all been . . . taken?”
“What? Taken where? Nobody’s been taken.” Farshad looked into the windows of the houses as they drove slowly down the eerily quiet street. “Look, that guy’s watching wrestling in his underwear.”
“But is he really?” The Hammer asked suspiciously.
“I’d rather not look at the half-naked guy again, if that’s cool with you. Nobody’s been taken.” Farshad saw the headlights of a car in the distance. “See? Another car.”
It was a white van, and it was driving very, very fast toward them, and suddenly it was so close that Farshad could see the white-hazmat-suited people driving it before it blew right past them. It was the same kind of white van with the same hazmat suits that had taken Mr. Friend away.
“Oh no,” Farshad said.
“What? What? Who were those guys?”
“They were the people who take people away. Turn around! Follow them!”
“This is a terrible idea!” The Hammer said as he clumsily turned the car around to follow the van. “Oh my god oh my god oh my god ARE THEY ALIENS?”
“What? No!”
“Then who are they and why are they taking people and where are they taking them?!?”
“They’re scientists from Auxano who have genetically or chemically altered some of the kids at school so that they’d do better at tests and now the kids are freaking out so the scientists are going to imprison them in the labs, just like they did Mr. Friend!”
“I KNEW IT!” The Hammer screamed as he sped down the residential road.
“No, you didn’t, you just asked me if they were aliens.”
“I’M VERY FRIGHTENED.”
“Slow down, slow down, they’re slowing down, we don’t want them to see us.” Farshad could see the mob of Company Kids in the distance, and he could hear them howling like predators at the approaching white van.
“Oh,” The Hammer whispered, “I am definitely keeping my distance.” He parked in the shadow of a large tree. “Do you really think that they’re going to just grab them? How? There’s not enough room in the van for all those kids.” He took out his cell phone, pointed at the scene, and began to record. “This is THE HAMMER,” he said in a completely different, much more gravelly voice, “and I’m here in the heart of Muellersville. What you’re seeing is some local kids who have been given MIND-ALTERING SUBSTANCES by the Auxano Corporation and set loose to cause destruction and mayhem. I have seen smashed-up cars, assaulted mailboxes, and I personally saved one young boy from becoming the prey of . . . THE HOWLING ZOMBIES OF DEBORAH READ MIDDLE SCHOOL.”
“Seriously?” Farshad hissed.
“That was the voice of the boy I saved. He’s very frightened . . .” The Hammer’s rough voice trailed off. “Look, look, another one!” he whispered in terror.
From around a corner came another white van, and then another, and another, until there were seven vans surrounding the Company Kids, who snarled and screamed.
And then they attacked the vans.
“Oh nooooo!” The Hammer squealed in an alarmingly high-pitched voice.
Then there was smoke—someone in a white hazmat suit had lobbed some sort of smoke bomb into the crowd, and the Company Kids dropped their weapons and began to violently cough. Some doubled over, and a few seemed to pass out. The white hazmats poured out of the seven vans and systematically grabbed the kids and put them in the vans. Once every last kid was in, the doors were shut and the vans all disappeared in a line down the road. The whole thing took less than a minute.
The Hammer put his phone down. “What do we do . . . Do we follow them?”
“No,” Farshad said. He felt like he was going to throw up. “We know where they’re going.”
Nick held tight to Rihanna as they traveled in Abe’s buggy through the cornfields and grazing pastures that surrounded Muellersville. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do with a chicken once he got home. His mom was going to think he’d lost his mind. Maybe if he could learn to focus his power he could teleport Rihanna to somewhere safe . . .
“I just got service,” Cookie said. She was looking at her phone. “My parents are freaking out.” She looked up at Nick and Martina. “There are news reports of a major gas leak in Muellersville and everyone is strongly encouraged to stay in their homes until the leak is contained.” She started texting back to her parents.
“A gas leak?” Nick asked. “Since when?”
“Since a mob of out-of-control kids started destroying everything in their path,” Martina said.
“Are you saying that there is no gas leak? That it’s all a cover-up?”
“Possibly.”
“Can they do that?” Nick was aghast.
“I don’t know. But it’s weird that a gas leak is happening right at the same time that a mob of out-of-control kids are destroying everything in their path.”
Nick looked at Martina. Her insights never failed to surprise him. “So, what do we do?”
“My mom wants me to stay at the party until the threat is over,” Cookie said. “Because she still thinks I’m at the party.” She held out her phone to Martina. “Do you need to call your parents?”
“No.”
“Oh no, my mom,” Nick said. Cookie handed him her phone.
“Nick!” His mother sounded frantic. “What number is this? Where are you?”
“I . . . I ran into my friend . . . Martina, and she lent me her phone to call you.”
“Where are you? Are you at her house? Are you still at the library?”
The library? What? “We’re just walking down the street on our way home,” he said, hoping desperately that his mother couldn’t hear the sounds of the moving buggy, or of Rihanna’s clucking. It was not quiet.
“Nick, listen to me, you have to get inside! There’s some sort of gas leak emergency and it’s not safe to be out and about. I’m with Jilly at the hospital, and the police and the hazardous materials guys blocked off so many roads that it took us forever to get here and Molly is still trying to make her way over, so this is SERIOUS. Get home!”
“Is Jilly having the baby?!?”
“Yes, sweetie, yes, look, I have to go, get home, Jay is there, keep him there, call his parents, just—I’m coming, I’m coming, Nick is fine, he’s with some girl . . . I don’t know what girl, a girl—just get back to Molly and Jilly’s and get inside, okay? And call me when you’re safe.”
Nick handed the phone back to Cookie. “Why did you tell your mom it was Martina’s phone?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I panicked.”
“Are you ashamed to be talking on my phone?” Cookie asked. She looked mad.
“No! It’s just that it’s easier for me to say I was with Martina because my mom doesn’t know who Martina is. Everyone knows who you are.”
“Because I’m black?”
“Well, yes, and because you’re named after a pastry. And because you’re the most popular girl in the school and it doesn’t make sense that the most popular girl in the school is hanging out with me.”
Cookie leaned back, folded her arms over her chest, and looked out the window. “Well, I used to be the most popular girl in the school. I’m pretty sure that isn’t true anymore, seeing how all my friends want to murder me.”
“Oh,” Martina said, “I think they want to murder everyone. You’re not special.”
“Thanks, Martina,” Cookie growled.
“Sure.”
“Hey,” Nick said suddenly, “does anyone know where Farshad is?”
“Oh, we meant to tell you, he—”
And all of a sudden, Cookie disappeared. And so did Martina. And so did the whole buggy.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” a thin-haired man screamed from the driver’s seat of the moving vehicle where Nick found himself.
“BOK!” bokked Rihanna.
Oh. They hadn’t disappeared,
Nick realized, seeing Farshad in the passenger’s seat of what seemed to be a minivan. He had. The driver continued to scream.
“SHUT UP AND LOOK AT THE ROAD!” Farshad commanded, and the man stopped making noises, even though his mouth continued to hang open. “Oh, hey, Nick.”
“Hey.”
“I see you have a chicken there.”
“Her name is Rihanna.”
“Does she have any dangerous superpowers?”
“Nope, she’s just a chicken.”
“Okay.”
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” The man at the wheel looked like he was about to cry, and Nick couldn’t blame him. When a twelve-year-old and a chicken randomly beam into your minivan you get to freak out.
“Mr. . . . Hammer, this is a friend,” Farshad explained. “Nick, this is The Hammer.”
“You mean the blogger?”
“You’ve read my work?” The Hammer asked hopefully.
“Sure,” Nick said, catching Farshad’s eye.
Farshad shrugged. “Jay made me meet up with him.”
That explained a lot. “Of course. So . . . where are we going?”
“I am taking you boys home,” The Hammer said, a note of hysteria in his voice. “Can you put on a seat belt, please?”
The backseat was taken up by little-kid car seats, but Nick decided not to argue with the strange man who was suddenly driving him around, and with some effort he wedged himself between the two bulky seats.
“Wait, slow down,” Farshad said. Up the road Nick could see a white van that was toppled over on its side. The back doors were wide open.
“Oh no,” The Hammer breathed, stopping next to the overturned van.
It was a mess. There were skid marks on the road, and Nick could see scratches and indentations where someone (or many people) inside had kicked and punched their way out of the back compartment. Thankfully there was no blood.
“The driver is still in the car!” The Hammer said. “And someone else! What do we do?”
“We have to get them out!” Nick said, bolting out the door and ducking down to look through the windshield. “Are they alive?”
“Let me, let me,” Farshad said as he approached, hooking his thumbs around the windshield and pulling it off the van as if it were made of tinfoil. Behind them, The Hammer fainted. “Check on him.”
The Hammer seemed okay. “Get his phone, it’s charging in the minivan!” Farshad commanded. “And call for an ambulance!” He was dragging the driver and the passenger out through the hole where the windshield had been. They were both wearing white hazmat suits.
Nick set Rihanna down by The Hammer and ran to get the phone, quickly calling 911 and giving them the street name. Back at the van Farshad was taking the hoods off of two injured Auxano goons. Nick heard Farshad let out a little gasp and he ran back to him.
The driver of the van was Dr. Deery. The passenger was Ms. Zelle. She moaned without opening her eyes. Farshad and Nick both took an involuntary step backward.
“What do we do?” Nick asked. “We can’t just leave them here.”
“But we can’t let them see us, either,” Farshad whispered. “Did you call the ambulance?”
“They said they’re on their way. How did this happen?”
“The Company Kids went berserk at that party. Dr. Deery’s formula is making them completely insane.” Farshad looked up at the busted van. “And strong. The Auxano guys came to pick them up.”
“So they escaped?”
“The ones in this van did. There were six other vans.” Ms. Zelle moaned again. “We have to get out of here.”
In the distance Nick could hear a siren approaching. “What about that guy?” he asked, looking at The Hammer.
“He’s crazy. Let’s go! Can you zap us out of here?”
“Yes,” Nick said decisively, grabbing Farshad’s arm. Nothing happened. “No. We should probably run.”
They took off. “If we see the Company Kids we should run the other way,” Nick wheezed as he struggled to keep up with Farshad. “They tried to kill us before.”
“Roger that,” Farshad said. They ducked behind a hedge about a block away from the accident and watched as the ambulance approached. “Do you think they saw us?” he asked.
“Probably not?” Nick whispered, adjusting his glasses. The Hammer was coming to and twisting around with a bewildered look on his face. Nick realized in horror that Rihanna was standing on Ms. Zelle. He gasped. “We left Rihanna! We have to get her!”
He tried to get up but Farshad grabbed him and pulled him back. “Nick. We cannot go back for the chicken.”
“Bok!” Rihanna said to the paramedic, who did not seem to know what to do with her.
“But we can’t just leave her there!” Nick said. He knew that he sounded like a crazy person, but he didn’t care.
“She’ll be fine,” Farshad hissed, “but we won’t be if Ms. Zelle sees us. We need to go. NOW.”
Nick had to admit that Farshad was right.
And they were gone.
Every road into Muellersville seemed to be blocked off by parked police cars with flashing red and blue lights, and every time Abe tried a new route they’d just be blocked by more police barricades (from which he always maintained a healthy distance). It seemed to Cookie that they’d circled the entire town before Abe gave up to pull the buggy over to the side of a darkened country road. He hopped off and poked his head through the window. “I don’t know what to do,” he admitted. “Every road that I know is stopped.”
“Could you park this thing and maybe we could walk into town through the woods?” Cookie asked, eyeing the horse. She really didn’t want to walk through the woods at night (or ever), but it seemed like a better option than spending another hour in the bumpy buggy going nowhere.
“I could send her back to the farm,” Abe murmured, “but then no one would be there to detach her from the buggy. No, I can’t do that.”
“Then we’ll just get out and walk,” Cookie said, opening the buggy door and trying and failing to exit with grace. How those Amish girls could do it in their long skirts without falling over was anybody’s guess. Martina shrugged and followed her.
“But you can’t!” Abe said. “It’s not safe.”
“Nothing is ever really safe,” Martina observed.
“Thanks, Martina, real helpful. Look,” Cookie said to Abe. “I’ve been chased, threatened, teleported, and I’ve had to hide inside of a sticky dumpster, and that’s all happened over the past few hours, so now all I want in the world is to get home, make up some sort of lie about how I got there, take a shower, and go to bed. That. Is. All. I. Want. It’s just a short walk through a slightly terrifying dark forest, which compared to everything else we’ve been through is sort of no big deal. So we’re going.” She looked expectantly at Martina.
“Bye, Abe,” Martina said, and the two set off for the woods.
“Wait!” Abe said, and ran up to them. “Let me try something first.” He ran ahead of them to the edge of the forest and stood silently for a moment.
“Is he peeing?” Cookie whispered to Martina.
“No,” she whispered back, smiling. “He’s trying to help us get home.”
There was a rustling in the woods, and Cookie watched in astonishment as animals began to emerge from the shadows. Squirrels first, then groundhogs. A pair of beavers. A family of deer, complete with an enormous stag. Chipmunks. A skunk. Many bunnies.
All the animals gathered in a semicircle around Abe, who continued to stand silently. After a moment he turned back to Cookie and Martina. “They will make sure you get through the forest safely. I have asked them to protect you until you get to the other side.”
Cookie couldn’t find her voice. She’d seen a lot of unbelievable things since the bus accident, but this was almost too much for her to grasp. Martina grabbed her hand.
“Thank you, Abe.” She began to walk to the woods, half dragging the gaping Cookie along with her.
&nbs
p; It was very dark and there was no discernable path. Cookie activated the flashlight function on her phone and held it out in front of them. Their wildlife escorts were keeping a safe distance, but when Cookie and Martina moved, they moved with them, scrambling through the undergrowth at the edges of the light from Cookie’s phone.
Very slowly and very carefully, they made their way through bramble and over gnarled roots and fallen trees. Cookie clung to Martina for dear life with one hand and to her phone with the other. The idea of spending another hour circling the town in Abe’s buggy or even sleeping on a bale of hay next to a bunch of chickens in his neighbor’s barn began to seem not quite so bad.
Martina suddenly stopped walking and quickly put her free hand over Cookie’s phone, blocking out the light. Cookie could hardly see in front of her own face, but she could feel Martina’s hand ferociously squeezing hers.
Did you see something? Cookie struggled to make her thought reach Martina’s brain.
The animals. They’re tense.
Cookie didn’t feel like asking how Martina knew that. She’d just come to accept that Martina knew stuff. And a moment later they heard a howl.
Wolf? Cookie asked desperately, despite the fact that she was pretty sure that was no wolf.
And then the rage thoughts were back, those same thoughts that had terrified and dizzied her at the party. She clung to Martina’s hand in the dark.
You HAVE to shut them out, Martina thought to her.
Cookie took a deep breath.
She was Daniesha Cookie Parker. She was the only African American girl in her class at Deborah Reed Middle School. She was the most popular girl in the school, and. She. Was. Not. About. To. Be. Taken. Down. By. Some. Crazed. Science. Experiments! SHE WAS COOKIE PARKER.
The howls were getting closer and it was all Cookie could do to maintain control over her brain. Whose stupid idea had it been to go through the woods anyway?
“They’re coming!” Martina whispered, and panicking at the sound of her voice Cookie raised her cell phone flashlight without thinking and pointed it in the direction of the sounds of people crashing through the underbrush.
