The Academy: Book 2

by Leito, Chad

  Every student (including Jen, who usually looked so tough) was wide eyed and so paralyzed with fear that they could not move. Seconds ticked by. There were no more sounds from the roof. The humidity and heat were stifling.

  Just as Asa’s heart began to calm down, Stan did the equivalent of shaking the shoebox with the hummingbird in it: He began to laugh. It wasn’t the kind of laugh you would emit while watching a sitcom at home. No. This was the kind of howling, jackal-like, hitching, crying, miserably hard laughter that children produce when they’re being tickled too much. He couldn’t breathe he was laughing so hard. Finally, “You-you-you guys! HAHAHA! You guys were so scared! And-and-and…”

  He stopped laughing, and the smile was wiped off his face as though a medical doctor had just told him he had cancer.

  Clack clack. Clack clack clack.

  And then a scraping sound, and then a WHOOSH!

  Several students screamed as the animals broke through the glass and spilled inside. Asa would have screamed also, but he was too scared and no sound came from his dry throat.

  In the middle of the room stood the pterosaur, its size unmistakable. Its children must be the size of Blood Canaries. The thing’s beak was shaped like a seagull’s, except it was black and about the size of a dining room table. The pterosaur’s talons clacked on the tile as it landed, it bent forward, and let out a scream so full of rage and hatred that Asa thought, this is what a demon sounds like. At the sheer volume and pitch of the cry, what was left of the windows around the room shattered. The inside of the animal’s mouth was jammed full of teeth, all of them at least the width and length of Asa’s hand. Its tongue and throat were pink.

  The pterosaur began to sprint forward on four legs, like a quadruped. Asa examined the animal’s movements and saw that it was using its back two legs to propel itself forward. The upper portion of the animal’s well-muscled wings served as front legs, as long as a giraffe’s. The thick membranous part of the wing that caught wind and made it possible for the animal to fly hung useless as the pterosaur sprinted with amazing speed through the room.

  It was a miserable looking creature. The only area of the pterosaur’s body that had feathers was the top of its head; these feathers were long and green—they stood straight up, like a Native American headdress. The rest of the animal’s body was pink, soft, and raw. There were sores that looked like enormous pimples covering the animal’s entire chest and legs. Some were draining blood, while others were oozing white pus. The stench was unbearable. The rest of the animal’s skin was white, cracked, and so dry that it bled with any movement.

  The eyes were angry, and a bright yellow like lanterns.

  Asa saw an enormous electronic collar around the animal’s neck.

  Flanking this goliath were pterodactyls. As Robert King had mentioned earlier, these were not as large as the ones depicted in movies. They were each the size of a Great Dane dog, but appeared to be exhibiting the ‘double muscle’ mutation seen in genetically altered livestock. Their shoulders were as hard and big as bowling balls beneath their white, scaly, reptilian skin. Their chests were wide with muscular striations and thick, beating veins. It was as though someone tried to pack all of the muscles of a horse into an animal the size of a large dog. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on the creatures.

  Five pterodactyls landed around the pterosaur, and, just as the pterosaur had done, began to run like miniature bulls, using the top ends of their wings as front legs. They were disturbingly fast, and made odd grunting noises through their tiny nostril slits. They, like the pterosaur, had mouths full of shark-like teeth. Shock collars were wrapped around their necks.

  Asa lay on the floor, watching these monsters swarm in upon the Sharks. They moved with such speed that it was disturbing. Panicking, Asa’s eyes searched the room for a way out, or for something that he could use to defend himself. He saw the window close by, and thought about jumping out of it. He could then glide to the ground, under the fifteen foot barrier that the shock collars prohibited these flying, prehistoric creatures from going through. But, did he really think that he could outfly these animals that had been naturally selected due to superior flying abilities in prehistoric times? He did not. And, he recalled that Robert King’s hologram had guaranteed that they wouldn’t be able to outfly either the pterosaurs or the pterodactyls. What then?

  My drill!

  Asa’s armband drill seemed like his best, surest weapon. He reached his right hand over to his armband, and pulled up on the fabric. Usually when he did this, a hole emerged that he could put his thumb through. After putting his thumb inside, he would have the ability to make a fist and activate the drill. Except this time, the hole in the fabric did not automatically emerge as he tugged on it.

  Asa looked down, and to his horror remembered that his armband had been switched out along with his suit at the beginning of this Task. This one hadn’t been programmed to work as a drill.

  A scream broke Asa’s concentration on the drill, and he looked up, into the room.

  Jen was the closest to the pterosaur, and was sprinting towards the stairs. The giant beast’s shadow completely engulfed her as it ran forward on its wings and back legs. The ceiling above was as high as a gymnasium’s, but the pterosaur’s feathers atop its head still brushed the high surface. Asa’s brain couldn’t get over the size of the creature.

  The pterosaur’s lantern eyes locked onto Jen; her dark blond hair whipped behind her head with her strides. Juan Chavez, another Fishie ran beside her, also moving towards the stairs.

  It felt as though someone had poured a pitcher of ice water into Asa’s stomach. With a perverse terror, he saw the pterosaur’s jaws open, and its leg muscle’s flex as it prepared to leap at Jen.

  For a tenth of a second, Jen’s eyes flittered over to the resurrected ancient creature. Her next step was faster than the others, fueled by adrenaline. But all the adrenaline in the world wouldn’t allow her to outrun such a thing as the pterosaur.

  The pterosaur’s muscular thighs contracted, springing the animal forward, towards Jen. Its mouth was open so wide that the jaws were ten feet apart, ready to snap shut.

  Then, Jen did something that showed unexpected ingenuity and callousness. Or, Asa thought, perhaps it was an accident.

  As the pterosaurs gaping, stinking mouth moved forward to grab Jen, she dove. She collided right into Juan’s legs, making him flip over into the air. With the speed at which he was running, he was easy to trip.

  Asa thought that Juan never had enough time to realize what had actually happened to him before he died. One minute, he was sprinting towards the stairs, and then the next, Jen had dove at his legs and he was tumbling into the air, above where Jen was situated on the floor. This maneuver put Juan in the air right inside of the pre-historic creature’s open mouth. The jaws snapped shut with a sickening crunch. Asa saw, disturbed, that the prehistoric bird did, in fact, chew Juan only twice before swallowing him.

  Asa was confident, though, that the initial snap of the animal’s jaw had killed Juan. He didn’t even scream. Alive one moment, and then just gone. He didn’t see it coming.

  While the pterosaur was swallowing Jen’s classmate, she reached the stairs and began to sprint down.

  A great deal of blood had been spilled on the tile. Asa glanced around and saw that every single pterodactyl had dark red clotting stains around its mouth like heavily applied lipstick. Several of Asa’s teammates were laying facedown on the floor, not moving. The pterodactyls were chasing the students down, locking their jaws on the back of their necks, and then spinning and jerking until the humans weren’t fighting anymore. Immediately after killing a student, the muscular reptiles sprinted off to catch another student and jerk them to the ground. They took no break to feast. It was as though they were purposefully piling up the bodies so that they’d have a great meal for later.

  Stan and Janice were nowhere to be seen.

  To Asa’s left, a pterodactyl leapt at Lilly Bloodroot. Her
purple eyes looked so dazed, and reacted slowly to the approaching reptile with the bloody jaws. But her body reacted fast. As the pterodactyl tried to leap onto her, she fell on her back, so that the animal dove over her. Lilly then planted her feet on the pterodactyl’s chest and shot the murderous animal into the air.

  This would have been a good plan if the attacker hadn’t been one of the most adept flyers in history. Its wings expended and in one flap, it was on Lilly Bloodroot. It tried to bite her in the face, but Lilly’s strong, mutated hands held the muzzle at bay for a moment.

  I must prove myself. These people must trust me, Asa thought.

  Asa was on his feet and sprinting towards the pterodactyl when it lifted its right claw and swung down upon Lilly’s chest, drawing blood. She yelped, but her grip did not loosen.

  Out of the corner of his eyes, Asa saw Viola Burns also approaching to help. I have no idea what we’ll do when we get there, though. This is like running into a burning building without a hose.

  Not thinking, acting on instinct, Asa jumped onto the pterodactyl’s back. The reptile hissed in rage. Even though he was in a near death situation, Asa couldn’t help but be in awe at the musculature of the pterodactyl beneath him. The beast’s body felt like marble with a thin, tight layer of snakeskin pulled over it. Asa had the reptile in a chokehold and was squeezing as tightly as he possibly could in an attempt to either restrict the animal’s airflow or the supply of blood to its brain. No matter how hard he squeezed, he felt as though he was making no progress. Every inch of the creature was solid; trying to close its airway was like trying to squeeze a cannon tight enough that its barrel shut.

  The pterodactyl reached back its front claw and slashed Lilly’s chest a second time, ripping through her suit and flesh. Again, Lilly cried out, but her grip on the bloody muzzle didn’t waver. Over a white, scaly shoulder Asa could see that the jaws were now closer to Lilly’s neck. Beneath Asa, he could feel the muscles of the cold, scaly creature trembling with force; it was doing everything in its power to kill Lilly.

  Viola Burns approached the hissing pterodactyl from head on. Asa was glad to see that they had backup, but concerned: How can she help? She’s only going to get herself killed. Cries and more hissing could be heard throughout the room, but Asa was too concentrated on the pterodactyl below him to care.

  Viola Burns ran until she was one foot away from the pterodactyl’s head. She pulled her hand backwards, and Asa saw the red-metallic, shimmering polish covering her fingernails.

  Wasn’t that another color earlier?

  Viola brought her hand down to the reptile’s face, backhanding the creature. Asa thought that no matter how mutated Viola was, the backhand would be a poor choice of offense. How much could a blow like that seriously hurt that wide set of jawbones?

  Asa was wrong, though. He didn’t consider the fact that he was unaware of many of his teammates’ mutations.

  Immediately as Viola’s fingernails made contact with the reptile’s skin, there was a sound like the clap of thunder and a cascade of pterodactyl blood, bone and tongue splashed down onto Lilly Bloodroot’s face, turning her white hair red.

  Anguished, the pterodactyl reared back. Half its jaw was now missing.

  In the animal’s pain, it had stopped trying to bite down on Lilly’s neck. Lilly released the pterodactyl’s crumbling jaw and made her right hand into a fist in front of the reptile’s face. It was an odd gesture to make. Is she hesitating punching this thing? Lilly’s eyes were locked onto the pterodactyl’s nostrils.

  Asa noticed a bump on Lilly’s forearm, just below the palm of her hand. It looked somewhat like a terrible spider bite in that it was swollen and there were two small holes in the topmost part. This area looked different from a spider bite in that it wasn’t red, but the same pale color as the rest of her skin.

  For the second time that day, Asa forgot that many of his teammates probably had mutations he didn’t know about. They didn’t know about his echolocation, so why would he know all of their secrets? He didn’t think much of these bumps.

  The pterodactyl was hissing more frantically below Asa. It moved back and forth, jerking its head in sporadic movements.

  Another pterodactyl approached quickly from behind Viola Burns. It charged at her, not slowing, not hesitating and when it opened its gaping jaws to grab Viola’s neck, she placed her hand deep into its throat. In that instant, Asa heard the same thunder-like noise that had been emitted when Viola had blown the jaw off of the first pterodactyl. This time, with Viola’s hand lodged deep inside, whatever power she had was more effective. The top half of the pterodactyl’s head was blown off. Brains splattered to the tile and the carcass fell to the ground.

  Meanwhile, the pterodactyl Asa was on top of was still reeling from the initial blow and dripping blood. It was waving its head frantically. Beneath this animal, Lilly was still holding her fist up to the creature, and Asa noticed that odd bump again.

  The pterodactyl froze for a moment, and the bump on Lilly Bloodroot’s arm contracted, spraying a fine, pink powder at a fast rate. Just as the powder shot out, the pterodactyl’s head jerked again, and all of the pink, mysterious powder flew right into Asa’s face. It covered his skin.

  Not knowing what this powder was, he had enough of a sound mind to hold his breath so that he wouldn’t inhale any of the substance. However, immediately after the pink matter made contact with his skin, he began to cough uncontrollably. These involuntary contractions and relaxations of his diaphragm filled his lungs with the pink powder. He actually felt it go down his throat and into his lungs. It was warm, and the linings of his airways began to feel tingly like a human extremity that hasn’t had enough circulation.

  Lilly cursed. “I’m so sorry, Asa.”

  Asa hadn’t seen Viola coming towards them, and suddenly he heard another explosion; this time, the pterodactyl beneath him died, and fell to the tile.

  Asa rolled with the animal and tumbled onto the floor. Knowing that other prehistoric creatures were still standing, and still hungry, he got quickly to his feet.

  Asa tried to look across the room to take stock of the remaining pterodactyls and the enormous pterosaur, however, a dark black smoke was filling the room. Panicking, he circled around, and saw that the smoke was coming in through all of the windows from the outside.

  Is something on fire? Is this some type of lethal gas?

  The thick, black smoke piled in until the only things Asa could still see were the floor beneath him, the two dead pterodactyls—their muscular bodies still twitching—Viola Burns and Lilly Bloodroot. Oddly, Lilly’s eyes began to grow as Asa looked at her. Now they looked to be the size of purple pool balls.

  Has her skin always been that rubbery? Each time she blinked, a thousand wrinkles moved throughout her face like ripples in a pond.

  “Are you okay, Asa?” Viola asked him. He remembered the day that the Sharks had had their first morning run. It had been Viola that he had run directly in front of before going deep into the jungle after Jen. Were her hair follicles so thick back then? Or is something happening to her? Is she changing in some way? Asa wondered. Each of Viola’s individual hairs was as thick as spaghetti noodles.

  Lilly looked at Viola, then back at Asa. “We need to grab him and take him downstairs.”

  “Okay,” Viola replied.

  Asa began to shriek. The two females moved towards him, arms outstretched. Their mouths were dripping black, thick liquid. Asa tried to run, but found that his feet were now nailed to the ground. He saw stakes going right through his shoes and into the tile.

  Then, things began to get strange.

  17

  A Hungry Night

  Asa was driving along White Bridge Road in Dritt, Texas, his hometown. He was fourteen again, except this time he knew about the Academy. He knew that he was going to have to go there, but didn’t know how to stop it.

  On the radio some people were talking about the Wolf Flu on Dritt PM, the radio station that R
obert King had bought for his son, who lived in the area. They spoke about all the major issues concerning the epidemic, but never mentioned Robert King. Most people only had negative things to say about him, and since the man was paying the bill, they didn’t want to make him mad. Without anything positive to say, the radio-people remained completely silent on the issue.

  The old Volvo smelled like his mother; the cracked leather seats reminded him painfully of the parent he had lost to the Wolf Flu.

  In the purple light of the moon, Asa could see that White Bridge Road was covered in corpses. They were all naked, intertwined like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. You couldn’t see the gravel underneath because of how dense the bodies were. All of them had jaundiced yellow eyes that glowed in the dark like children’s nightlights. Their skin was sallow, sagging. There were bags underneath their eyes.

  Wolf Flu victims.

  Driving over these bodies made the cabin of the car shake and jostled Asa up and down. He had a throbbing headache, and each bump was like driving a nail into his skull. He kept driving though. The crows were with him, watching him from the trees. There was one with a broken beak that he had seen before and would see again. But that wasn’t what would save him. There was someone else there, too. Someone watching him, holding the dog until just the right time.

  And then, there were flashing lights. Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue.

  The police car behind him was swerving. But it wasn’t really a police car; it just had those lights on top, and the word “Police” painted into the side. It was a bulldozer. The giant, metal wheels crushed the corpses underneath to nothingness so that when you drove over them, you wouldn’t notice as much. The exhaust pipe was sending out great billows of the same thick black smoke that had spilled into the Sharks Home Base in the Tropics.