The Seeking Serum

by Frank L. Cole

It was still early morning, but the sky had started making its change to gray, the sunlight just above the majestic plateaus out on the horizon.

  Priss’s nose twitched. “Why the Grand Canyon?”

  “Some wards play on memories. I think this was intended for just us. Dad’s way of trying to send a message.”

  “What sort of message?”

  “That there’s no point in trying anymore,” Wanda said. “That the gap between us and stopping him has widened to the level of impossibility.”

  When they first hit where the ward’s powerful effects took hold, Tobias had casually turned the truck around, whistling all the while, and headed back the opposite direction. No one had argued, and it wasn’t until several miles down the road when Wanda realized they were going the wrong way. The bizarre experience happened three more times, one right after another, before she took control of the situation and forced Tobias to stop driving. They approached the dome on foot, testing the strength of the distractor potion, until they found the spot where the ward began diverting their attention.

  “We have reason to believe this ward completely surrounds the city,” Paulina announced, crunching through the leaves as she and a few of her Stained Squad appeared on the road. “I’ve made some phone calls, and the report is the same on the other side, coming in from the east.”

  Tobias stooped over a portable camping stove at a closed service station nearby. Neon lights announced gas prices and illuminated his hunched frame as he tossed herbs into a cauldron. The fumes from his potion circled into the air, and raindrops began to fall in a concentrated torrent above the others. A microburst of wind whooshed toward the invisible barrier, but broke against it, dispersing with a soft roll of thunder.

  “That didn’t work either.” Tobias chucked a rock toward the dome. The rock instantly looped back like a boomerang, and he barely had time to duck as it whizzed past.

  Wanda turned to Paulina. “What means do you have of snapping this?”

  Paulina shivered. The older woman had her head wrap cinched close, trying to stay dry from Tobias’s manufactured rainstorm. “We could punch a hole, perhaps. We’d need a lot of wardbreakers for something this complex. It could take several hours.”

  “Several hours?” Wanda snapped. “My son is trapped in there, surrounded by an army of Scourges!”

  “Yes, I know, but my insect wranglers are still on their way. I’ve called them several times, but they keep turning around and finding themselves lost and confused.”

  “Well, bring them here.” Wanda angrily jabbed her finger at the ground. “We’ll punch a hole from this spot.”

  Paulina nodded, and she and her soldiers headed back into the woods.

  Wanda’s phone rang. Cocking her head, she gazed down in amazement at the name on the screen. Wanda showed the phone to her sister before she answered it gruffly. “Finally decided to check in on your friends, have you?” Wanda asked.

  On the other end of the receiver, Bolter fell silent, though Wanda could hear him fretting about what to say.

  “Do you even know what has happened back here?” Wanda demanded.

  “I . . . um . . . I heard,” Bolter replied feebly. “How is everyone?”

  “We’re not good, Bolter,” Wanda said. “Gordy is trapped inside the city, and all but one of the Chamber members have been ExSponged.”

  “Oh, my,” Bolter muttered. “And I suppose you harbor some ill feelings toward my abrupt departure?”

  “You could say that,” Wanda answered. Bolter didn’t work for her. He was free to make his own decisions, but they certainly could have used his help throughout the whole ordeal.

  “Where is Gordy now?” Bolter asked.

  Wanda heard violent clanging in the background, followed by an earsplitting shriek. It sounded as though Bolter was calling from some auto mechanic’s workshop, though she had no idea what had made that awful screeching noise.

  “We don’t know.” Wanda bit her lower lip. “I hope somewhere safe and hidden.”

  “Perhaps I can help. I should be ready to leave within the hour. I’ll try to find—”

  “You can’t enter the city,” Wanda said, cutting Bolter off. “No one can. There’s a force field blocking all entry.” More shrieking rose in the background, and Wanda held the phone away from her ear.

  “Hmm,” Bolter mumbled to himself. “Well, I can at least make my way to you and, oh yes!” His voice squealed with excitement. “I’ll just call Gordy and pinpoint his exact location!”

  “Call him?” Wanda shook her head. “Nothing works inside the force field. No electronics. No phones. There’s no way of reaching him.”

  Bolter giggled. He may have also dropped the phone, because Wanda heard a thunderous clatter as though the receiver had been kicked across concrete.

  “Bolter?” Wanda asked. “Hello?”

  “Yes, hello! How are you?” Bolter’s voice returned, and Wanda sighed in frustration. “Sorry about that. It’s a madhouse here. A productive madhouse but insanely distracting. You let me worry about finding Gordy and getting him to safety. It’s the least I can do.”

  Before Wanda could protest further, the line went dead. When he wanted to, Bolter could be the most stubborn Elixirist she knew, but it was good to hear his voice again.

  “I can’t believe Dad did this,” she muttered, returning her attention to the canyon. “He’s really going through with his plan this time.”

  “And he’s far more equipped to outlast his enemies than he was thirteen years ago,” Priss said. “Dad was always ambitious, but this is taking it to another level.”

  “There has to be a way through.” Wanda squeezed the straps of her satchel, the leather twisting in her grip. “Something he missed.”

  Someone cleared his throat from behind, and Wanda spun around. Standing next to the gas station, surrounded by more than two dozen strangers, was a man Wanda hadn’t seen in more than a decade. His hair was longer than she remembered, and he had lost some weight, but she recognized him almost instantly.

  “What are you doing here, Yosuke?” she demanded.

  “Perhaps we can help.”

  The founder of the Swigs, an individual highly wanted by B.R.E.W., was standing less than ten yards away, and she no longer had the authority to arrest him. And yet seeing Yosuke after all these years ignited a glimmer of happiness within her. Yosuke had been her friend and her trainer. Because of his intervention, she and Priss had avoided Banishment for the part they had played in their father’s first attempt to overthrow B.R.E.W. Wanda owed Yosuke her life—a life she had been able to share with her family. But that didn’t change what he had become.

  Wanda plunged her hand into her satchel, and Yosuke flinched in surprise. “Already wanting to fight?” he asked, appalled. “I’ve come to offer you the assistance of the Swigs.”

  “I don’t need your assistance,” Wanda snapped. Yosuke’s people were a ragtag mess of shady Elixirists, and Wanda didn’t have time to entertain them.

  Yosuke bowed slightly. “But maybe Gordy does.”

  Wanda’s eyes narrowed, and she whirled on Tobias. “Is that where you went during my meeting? You took my son to him?”

  Tobias looked appalled. “Did I not mention I love a good cup of creamed ham?”

  “You’re in on this, too, aren’t you?” Wanda growled at Priss.

  Priss shrugged, smirking. “This is all on Tobias.”

  “My dear, foolish Wanda,” Tobias said. “Are you really refusing help? If what you say is true, then we’re about to square off with a massive Scourge army. We need reinforcements.”

  “Yes, but not from criminals,” Wanda insisted.

  The group standing behind Yosuke grumbled at the comment, and their leader held up his hand to calm them. “From what I hear, you are all criminals now, and the institution that has named you as such
is about to be no more. Can we not put aside our differences and unite for the betterment of society? We are equal in our hatred of Scourges. None of us wishes to experience a world where the Manifesto is our guiding government. It would certainly be bad for my business.” Yosuke sighed. “And it doesn’t matter anyway. I have met your son. He is a wonderful boy, and I intend to do all that I can to rescue him, with or without your permission.”

  Though it pained Wanda to admit it, she needed help. Without B.R.E.W. as her support, she and her friends were severely outnumbered. And before he had moved to the Swigs, Yosuke had been one of the most amazing Elixirists Wanda had ever met. With him on their side, they stood a fighting chance.

  “You might as well make yourself comfortable,” Wanda conceded. “We have a long wait ahead of us before Paulina’s insect wranglers arrive.”

  Yosuke clicked his tongue. “If we needed bugs, we could’ve brought some from my restaurant. I have plenty scurrying about the floor. But perhaps there is another way—one not requiring a long wait.”

  “That ward has created a dome over the town,” Priss explained. “There’s no going through it.”

  “Agreed,” Yosuke said. “Masterful work. An unprecedented display of power. But what if we didn’t need to go through it?”

  “How else do you intend to bypass the ward?” Wanda raised an uncertain eyebrow, glancing sideways at Priss and Tobias.

  “My dear, isn’t it as plain as day?” Yosuke asked. “You’re talking to the founder of the Swigs, after all, with miles and miles of established tunnels at my disposal.” He folded his arms confidently. “We simply travel under.”

  This is a bad idea,” Gordy whispered.

  “I agree,” Adilene and Sasha said in unison.

  “I’m telling you, no one’s in there,” Max answered.

  The four of them crouched behind the dumpster in the driveway of Gordy’s old house. The overflowing garbage smelled of rotted banana peels and something deeper than normal decay. The bin had been resting against the side of the house, untouched, for more than a month.

  Estelle’s headlamp dimmed as the scooter, no doubt relieved to be free of the heavy load, reversed into the backyard and parked beneath Jessica and Isaac’s jungle gym.

  “It just feels too easy.” Gordy could see a pile of junk mail heaped on the doormat. “What if it’s a trap?”

  “Then they’ve already waited a long time to spring it,” Sasha said. “My guess is they’ve moved on by now.”

  “Exactly.” Max nodded. “I snuck in a couple of days ago, and it was just fine.”

  “Why did you go in there again?” Gordy still couldn’t get over how Max had barged in without checking with him first.

  “For snacks,” Max replied. “And potions and stuff. But I think your wards have kept everyone way.”

  “If the wards are still working, how did Max get in?” Adilene asked.

  Max looked baffled for a moment, then shrugged. “I must be impervious to magic spells.”

  “Big word, smarty-pants,” Sasha said, snickering.

  Max smiled as if he considered Sasha’s jab a compliment.

  “My home wards allow certain people in. They always have,” Gordy explained. “Bolter, Grandma and Grandpa Stitser, people from my dad’s work—they’re allowed through. Adilene and Max can come and go whenever they want because they’re friends of the family.”

  “There’s that,” Max agreed. “But also my imperviousness.”

  “Do you think he’s right, then?” Adilene asked. “Have your wards kept other people away?”

  Gordy gnawed on his lip. “I don’t think they can prevent anyone from B.R.E.W. from coming in, unless my mom specifically altered the wards, which I don’t think she did. But they should keep Scourges away.” In theory, at least. Nothing felt certain anymore. Gordy had once believed the home wards to be impenetrable. Boy, had he been wrong. Since Esmeralda’s attack on his house, he had seen wards consumed by bugs more times than he could count.

  “And B.R.E.W. would have already gone in by now to perform a search,” Sasha reasoned. “We probably don’t have anything to fear at the moment.”

  “That’s what I’ve been saying,” Max blurted. “It’s the safest place around!”

  Going to Gordy’s house hadn’t been their first choice, despite Max’s suggestion.

  Sasha’s neighborhood had been overrun with Scourges; they couldn’t even drive on the road for fear of being spotted and had to get close to Sasha’s house by climbing over fences. Sasha’s parents had been standing out on the front lawn, acting as if everything was normal. Sasha tried to help them, but her mom told her they were waiting for a taxi because they were going to a big meeting at Kipland Middle, where her father would be getting his job back in a wonderful ceremony. Never mind the fact it was four o’clock in the morning.

  Adilene’s neighborhood was no different. She spotted her parents filing into a line of people walking casually down the street. Her dad held a Tupperware container filled with papusas he intended on selling at a school function. Both he and Mrs. Rivera were in their pajamas. They had been Blotched. Gordy had to drag Adilene away before they were caught and Blotched as well.

  Steeling his nerves, Gordy crept onto the porch. He checked through the windows, saw that it was empty, and then tested the doorknob. The door was unlocked, just as Max had said. After a scan through the living room to make sure the coast was clear, Gordy beckoned to the others, and they slipped into the kitchen without incident.

  “Brilliant!” Max repeated. He whipped open the refrigerator door and then frowned with disappointment. “You guys don’t have anything to eat.” Opening a carton of orange juice, Max sniffed the lid and, though looking somewhat repulsed, took a sip.

  “We haven’t exactly been home, you know,” Gordy said.

  “Gordy, can you come here for a second?” Adilene called out. She sat in one of the chairs around the kitchen table. “You need to see this.” Lying upon a piece of cloth in front of her was a rod-like object. The tip glowed with a haunting, off-white light, and there were strange markings carved along the exterior. Adilene ran her fingers along the edge of the cloth, not daring to touch the wand. “This was given to me.” She cleared her throat. “By Doll.”

  Gordy blinked, trying to process the information.

  “Wait,” Max said. “Are you telling me that Slim visited you?” His voice cracked with uneasiness. “The skeleton?”

  Adilene nodded.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t just someone dressed up in a skeleton costume?” Max asked.

  Gordy’s head snapped up. “Did he know who you were?”

  “I . . . I don’t know. I think, maybe.” Adilene winced, pressing two fingers against her left temple and gasping in pain.

  “What’s wrong?” Gordy asked. Adilene hadn’t said much all evening, and he’d assumed it was because they had been running for their lives. Now he suspected something else was wrong.

  “I have a splitting headache,” she said. “I’ve had one all week.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?” Gordy opened his satchel, but his jar of Boiler’s Balm was empty.

  “It’s okay. It’s just my eyesight,” she said.

  “What about your eyesight?” Max asked between gulps of rancid orange juice. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and belched.

  “You’re disgusting,” Sasha said.

  “I need glasses, I think, or at least an eye exam. It doesn’t matter right now,” she said testily. “Doll wasn’t there for me, not directly anyway. He was looking for you. Maybe he couldn’t find you, but for whatever reason, he came to my house and dropped off the wand. Along with this.” She handed a piece of paper to Gordy. “I didn’t read it.”

  Gordy unfolded the paper and saw his grandfather’s name inked at the bottom.

 
; My Dearest Gordy,

  I hope you took the necessary steps before opening this letter. Normally, I would have implored you to deliver this message directly to your mother for inspection. One can’t be too careful these days, especially when all manner of creatures can be employed by the darkest of means.

  Gordy gasped and tossed the paper onto the table as though it had burned him. Max dribbled orange juice down the front of his shirt.

  “What’s wrong?” Adilene asked.

  How could he have been so stupid? That letter had come from Mezzarix, the Scourge of Nations, and Gordy hadn’t thought to test it out for Dire Substances. What if he had been Blotched? What if Adilene had been Blotched this entire night?

  “Sasha, hurry! Spray this.” Gordy scooted back from the table, giving his grandfather’s letter a wide berth. He didn’t feel like he was under the influential spell of a Scourge, but he also had no idea what that actually felt like. Would his mind be clear enough to notice a difference?

  Rolling her eyes, Sasha brought out her bottle of Detection Spray. “We’re all doomed,” she murmured, spritzing the paper.

  Clenching his hands into fists, Gordy waited for something to pop or fizzle, but after a solid minute of nothing, he felt able to breathe. He picked up the letter and continued reading.

  As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, I am constructing an army. B.R.E.W. will be dissolved within the week, and the secrets our Community has kept hidden for three hundred years will be brought into the light. After the annihilation of B.R.E.W., I intend to continue my removal of governments everywhere. Humans are the only species who place limitations on power. It isn’t natural. My plan will not find success without casualties, and for that I feel a hint of sorrow. But only a hint.

  Now, Gordy, you must heed my warning. I know my Scourges will be ruthless as they tear apart that little town of yours on a mission. In order to protect you, I am entrusting this weapon in your very capable hands. I care not about anyone other than you, my precious grandson. I urge you not to show restraint. When it comes to protecting your well-being and your potion-making abilities, you must be vigilant. The world cannot lose such a gift.