by Morgan Rice
“Everyone says that’s the worst one,” Oliver commented, recalling the rankings his friends had told him.
Immediately, Oliver regretted his words. Esther looked crushed.
“Not that I think that,” he said hurriedly, trying to backtrack. “I mean, other people say magnetism is the worst so I guess it’s a matter of perspective.”
Esther gave a little grunt in response. Oliver felt awful. This was going terribly!
They walked in awkward silence. Esther kicked at some stray pebbles on the path. Oliver racked his brains, desperate for something to say that may save the disastrous date.
“So when are you from?” he asked.
“1977,” she said. “New Jersey. You?”
“New Jersey!” Oliver exclaimed. “Me too! Only about forty years after you.”
“Neat,” she said. “So in your timeline, I’m like fifty years old. Creepy.”
Oliver couldn’t tell whether he’d saved the conversation or not. Esther was hard to read. And making her think about herself as an older woman might not have been the best idea. He tried to think of more things to ask her, but Esther spoke up instead.
“So are you Italian?” she asked. “My family are. Were, I should say.”
Oliver heard the hint of melancholy in her voice. It was evident to him that something had happened to Esther’s family. He didn’t want to press it, though.
“Me? No,” he replied, chuckling as he pointed at his sandy blond hair. “My family moves around a lot. We’d only been in New Jersey about a week before I came here. And I don’t really know my ancestry. It’s not really talked about at home. Not much is.”
Now melancholy had seeped into his voice. Families were clearly a touchy subject for the both of them.
Oliver wanted to steer the conversation to something safe. Pets? No, that would be a bit boring. Favorite switchit players? Not something he had a lot of insight into.
But before Oliver had the chance to utter any of his questions, something in the distance caught his eye.
“Hey, look,” he said. “What’s that?”
Esther squinted up at the sky where Oliver was pointing. A dark mass was moving on the horizon, undulating like some kind of strange cloud. It soon became apparent that it was made up of winged creatures, moving like a flock of birds.
“They look like bats to me,” Esther said.
“Have you ever seen bats in the garden before?” Oliver asked.
Esther looked confused as she shook her head.
All at once, the cloud of bats changed their trajectory. Now they were heading right for Oliver and Esther, and they were racing at an alarming speed.
“They’re coming this way,” Oliver stammered, starting to feel wary of the strange sight.
Just then, Oliver saw a flash in the eyes of the bats. It was a peculiar kind of shimmery blue. He remembered instantly Professor Amethyst’s words, about the strange blue color in the eyes of their enemies. Could they be rogue Seers disguised as bats in order to infiltrate the school?
“Rogues!” Oliver shouted.
Esther reached out and grabbed Oliver’s hand, clutching it tightly in hers. She looked petrified.
“We have to stop them getting any further into the school,” Esther said.
“Your sonar shield!” Oliver said, remembering the pulse Esther had used in switchit practice.
A look of determination suddenly came over Esther’s face. She changed her stance so that she was rooted to the ground, then pushed her powers outward. Suddenly, it was as if a shield had been placed around them, like a protective glass cloak.
The bats pelted the protective shield, screeching, flapping their horrible black wings. But they failed to penetrate the protective barrier, slamming instead against it.
Esther pushed the protective shield outward. It ebbed out like ripples on water, driving the bats backward.
Oliver’s mouth gaped open. Esther used her powers with such beautiful precision it made his heart hammer.
“You’re amazing,” Oliver stammered.
“Thanks,” Esther said through gritted teeth. “But I can’t hold this forever. We need to warn the others. There’s a panic button.”
The strain was evident on her face. Oliver leapt to attention.
“Where’s the button?” Oliver asked.
With her full concentration on the shield, Esther called over her shoulder, “There, in the trees!”
Oliver turned and hurried for the large oak. When he reached it, he searched the bark, frantically trying to find anything that resembled a button. He noticed a raised knot in the bark, too perfectly spherical to be natural. Whispering a silent prayer beneath his breath, Oliver slammed his palm against the knot. Immediately, a shrill wailing sound pierced the air.
In just a matter of seconds, the once tranquil gardens were swarmed with teachers and security staff. Oliver saw Doctor Ziblatt amongst them, and Coach Finkle. There were also many guards, the Seers who dedicated themselves to defending the school.
Professor Amethyst emerged from the crowd. “Esther. Oliver. Get back. Leave this to us.”
Esther didn’t need telling twice. She let her shield down and slumped forward with exhaustion. Oliver caught her in his arms.
“Esther!” he exclaimed, alarmed.
“She’ll be okay,” Professor Amethyst assured Oliver. “She’s just drained herself by using up all her powers. Just get her to safety.”
Oliver nodded with determination. He slung Esther’s arm around his shoulder and heaved her up to standing. She had just enough strength left to support her weight, but she leaned heavily against him as they hurried through the grass and along the path.
When they reached the open door to the gardens, Oliver saw yet more guards holding back crowds of students craning their necks to see what was going on.
Oliver took a quick glance over his shoulder. Immediately, he wished he had not. An epic battle was taking place in the once beautiful gardens. The bats were transforming into humans. Their eyes flashed blue.
Then the guards reached inside and bundled Oliver and Esther out of the garden, blocking their view. But Oliver had seen enough to know that this was what Professor Amethyst had warned him of. Their enemies. Rogue Seers. Somehow, they had penetrated the School for Seers. They were under attack.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Oliver helped Esther to the bench under the kapok tree. She slumped down, her head hanging forward. Oliver sat beside her and secured his arm around her waist.
The whole atrium was full of confused students, their expressions ranging from shocked to terrified. The shrill alarm continued blaring.
“Oliver!” a voice called.
He looked up and saw Hazel running across the atrium toward him. Behind her followed Simon, Walter, and Ralph.
“What’s going on?” Ralph asked when they reached him. “Are you okay?”
“Oh no, Esther!” Hazel cried, her eyes round with fear. She crouched down to tend to Esther, tenderly wiping stray tendrils of hair from her face.
“We’re fine,” Oliver said. “The school is under attack from rogue Seers.”
Everyone gasped.
“We’ll be okay,” Oliver reassured them. “Professor Amethyst and the guards are dealing with it now.”
He tried to make himself sound confident and ignored the shiver that ran through his body as he recalled the eerie blue eyes of the rogues.
Hazel looked up from her crouched position. “What happened to Esther?”
“She drained her powers,” Oliver said. “She made a shield to hold back the attackers. She saved us. It was awesome.”
Esther raised her head slightly and allowed herself a timid smile. Then she croaked, “Not exactly the way I was expecting our date to go.”
Just then, the alarm shut off. The hubbub of the students in the atrium ceased immediately. Everyone turned to look at the door of the garden.
Professor Amethyst came striding out. The guards and
teachers, including Doctor Ziblatt, Coach Finkle, and Mr. Lazzarato, followed him. All eyes watched with rapt attention.
“School meeting,” Professor Amethyst announced. “Now.”
No one needed telling twice. The entire school scurried toward a door Oliver had not yet entered. It was marked with a letter D, and the light glowed softly to indicate they could all enter.
Oliver and Hazel helped Esther to her feet. Although she was considerably more stable now, they supported her between them as they shuffled toward the D door. The three others followed behind.
“The D is for debate or discussion,” Ralph explained, defaulting to his teacher-mode. “Although I don’t think there’ll be much in the way of discussion going on today.”
As they entered the atrium, Oliver glanced about him. It felt like a cathedral, with large pews in a horseshoe shape and a stage in the middle upon which Professor Amethyst stood. The atmosphere was solemn and foreboding.
They took their seats. Not a moment later, Professor Amethyst began to speak.
“Rogue Seers,” he announced, projecting his voice across the vast expanse. It was met by rapt silence from the onlookers. “Those who have turned to the dark side.”
There was a collective gasp, followed by murmuring and hubbub. The head teacher cast his eyes downward. He looked ashamed, Oliver thought, as if he perceived the Seers turning rogue as a personal failure. It made his own determination to stay on the right path grow even stronger.
“They were trying to steal the Orb of Kandra,” Professor Amethyst continued. “In order to destroy the school. The crisis was averted thanks to our fearless security personnel and teachers. That, and the actions of our brave students sounding the alarm.”
He looked directly at Oliver and Esther. Oliver squirmed in his seat.
The headmaster continued. “I have sealed the tear in the invisible wall that protects us. But we’re not out of danger yet. For the rogues to have even found the school to enter in the first place, they must have been aided. I fear that amongst our midst there is a traitor. A spy.”
There was another large gasp. Oliver looked over at his friends. Ralph in particular looked very troubled at the news. Simon had turned an even paler shade of white. Esther grabbed Oliver’s hand for comfort and Oliver squeezed it reassuringly.
“Your timetables will be disabled for the next forty-eight hours,” Professor Amethyst added. “To give the faculty and myself time to strategize. I’d like everyone to rest, eat healthy meals, and get lots of sleep. Normal classes and schedules will resume in two days’ time.”
Oliver checked his timetable and saw that it was completely grayed out, with no coordinates or ticking clock. For the first time since coming here, his every move was no longer predetermined. It left him feeling strangely unmoored.
With the announcement over, everyone filed out of the atrium and headed toward the F hall. Esther was now more or less back to normal, but Oliver hung closely by her side just in case. Everyone was silent and solemn as they clipped into a table.
The table rose and clicked into place. The food chutes moved into place, displaying a vast array of colorful foods. No one took anything. They were all too stunned. Finally, Simon broke the silence.
“I know I ought not admit this,” he said, “but I for one am rather scared.”
“Me too,” Hazel agreed with a nod.
“It was too close a call,” Ralph commented. “For people to penetrate the invisible wall. It makes me feel very unsafe. What if they come back?”
“Do you think the school is still in danger?” Simon asked.
“Professor Amethyst said he closed the rip,” Hazel reminded him.
“But he also said there was a spy!” Walter exclaimed.
Oliver listened to his friends discuss the situation, but remained very quiet. The attack had sent his mind reeling. As he looked at the faces of his friends, he could tell that everything had changed. The attack had stolen everyone’s innocence and sense of wonder, replacing it with heavy reality, with the weight of their collective missions. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Esther sat amongst them now as a new friend.
A girlfriend? Oliver wondered.
He didn’t know how to define their relationship but he was very glad to have her by his side.
The group of friends picked at their food. No one was hungry and barely a morsel had been eaten between them when the motorized arms came to collect their dishes. Then the table descended and everyone left the F hall.
They didn’t even need to say aloud where they were heading. They all made a beeline straight to the Z atrium. It was flashing white to allow the students to enter freely, as per Professor Amethyst’s instructions for them to get lots of sleep. Oliver was grateful. He was exhausted.
Ichiro was on duty, his usual smile replaced by a sort of heavy weariness. He showed each of them into their sleep pods without any joking quips.
Oliver attached his wires and monitors quickly. He couldn’t get to sleep soon enough. He wanted to put the terrors of the day out of his mind. So as soon as he was wired up, he pressed the white button and fell into a deep, instantaneous sleep.
*
Oliver found himself standing on the edge of a tall building. Though he’d never seen the School for Seers from the outside, he instinctively knew that that was where he was standing. He could see the shimmering bubble-like barrier of the protective shield arcing all around the building, encompassing the vast green fields of the school grounds that stretched on.
Just then, something in the distance caught Oliver’s eye. There was movement. Some kind of dark shape was bobbing on the horizon.
Oliver squinted and tried to decipher what he was seeing. The shape seemed to be bobbing, up then down, over and over. With a gasp, Oliver realized what he was looking at. An army. One hundred men strong. The strange movement was their perfect march.
Oliver gasped. The army was heading straight for the school!
As they drew closer he could make out more details. Their uniforms were a dusky khaki color, reminiscent of the uniforms worn by soldiers in World War Two. And they were maneuvering something along with them, some kind of weapon on a metal gurney with wheels. It looked like a rocket, with a strange egg-shaped body and wires protruding from it. Oliver recognized it instantly. The first atomic bomb. He’d seen its image in his inventors book.
The army reached the shimmering boundary of the school’s protective wall and stopped in one sudden, uniform motion. Oliver watched on in stunned silence as they began to adjust the bomb, angling it toward the wall.
“They’re going to blow up the school,” he stammered aloud.
Just then, a single figure broke from the line of soldiers. He walked up to the bomb, held his hand over the button, then paused and turned to look up at Oliver.
Oliver let out a desperate scream of realization. He knew that face all too well.
It was Lucas.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Oliver awoke with a gasp. The dream bounced around in his mind. Had it just been a dream? Or a premonition? Oliver’s dreams had guided him before, so why not this one?
Frantically, he mulled it over in his mind, trying to make sense of the idea that Lucas had been behind the attack on the school, that he was sending an army to finish the job. Why would he want to destroy the School for Seers? How did he even know about it in the first place? He wasn’t a guide like Armando, nor a Seer.
In a flash, Oliver remembered his conversation with Professor Amethyst in the sixth dimension. The headmaster had told him of rogue Seers who aided the most evil people in humanity. Could Lucas be one such person? Not just bad but… evil? Was that why he’d seen him leading an army?
Whatever the reason, Oliver knew he had to act. And fast. The visions he had when he closed his eyes at night were more than just dreams, they were premonitions. Armando’s death. The rainbow mantis shrimp. The universe was guiding him.
Suddenly, Oliver heard a voice ring out
inside his mind. It was Ms. Belfry’s, telling him to always follow his dreams. Oliver wondered now if she’d meant literally, if there was something she knew about him.
Whether she did or not, her words coming to him in this moment seemed like a rallying cry, like another sign from the universe to guide him on his journey.
There was no time to waste. Oliver had to foil Lucas’s plan, stop him in his tracks in order to protect the school. He had to leave and return to the factory.
As he felt his pod moving beneath him, he tore off the monitors and wires, willing it to move faster, to free him quicker.
Finally, it clicked into place. The lid hissed open and Ichiro’s smiling face appeared above him.
“Hi, Oliver,” he began.
But Oliver was on his feet in an instant.
“Sorry, Ichiro! No time to explain!” he cried.
He hurried for the airlock. Inside, he went straight up to the locker, pulling out his freshly laundered clothes. He changed quickly in the changing room. As he hurried out, he slammed straight into Hazel.
“Oof!” she cried, stepping back. “Are you okay, Oliver? What’s the hurry?”
“I’m fine,” Oliver stammered, barely making eye contact. He gazed at the door, desperate for the white light to allow him to leave. “I just have to… I have things to do.”
He went to move past her, but Hazel took a step to block him. She fixed her concerned, gray eyes on him.
“Oliver, what’s wrong?” she said, more insistent this time.
Just then, Ralph emerged from the changing room. He took a second to survey Hazel and Oliver before him, then quirked his head to the side. “What’s going on, guys?”
Oliver’s mind was reeling too much to get his thoughts in order. “I have to stop him.”
Ralph and Hazel exchanged a confused glance.
“Stop who?” Ralph asked.
Oliver’s mind was frantic. He paced away from them only to find his route blocked by Walter, Simon, and Esther coming out from behind the changing curtains and into the main airlock.
