I sprinted down the dark basement or cellar or wherever I was, the only light coming from my own eyes. A scraping sound echoed all around me. I couldn’t tell which way it came from, but I spun around against my will and beamed my light down where I had just run.
I expected to see the poor girl who was running right behind me, but the narrow hall I’d just been sprinting down was empty. The girl whimpered, and I realized that she was still behind me. What was going on?
There was another scraping noise, and this time it was louder...closer. I whirled around again, hoping to see the girl. But she had somehow gotten behind me again.
More scraping noises came from all around us. The girl let out a panicked scream, and she and I started running again.
We came to a dead end. The girl was out of breath, but I wasn’t. In fact, I couldn’t even hear or feel myself breathing at all. I turned around in all directions, once again against my will. It was like someone had an invisible, tight grip on my head and was swinging it around to look wherever it wanted me to look.
There was a narrow crack in the wall to the left, just wide enough for a person to fit through. I shuffled to the crack and sidled down the narrow passage.
The scraping sounds were even louder in here, and they seemed to surround us.
I quickly looked to my left, then to my right. Nothing was there, and everything was quiet.
Then, another scraping noise. I slowly looked upward, and my light beamed onto a giant insect crawling on the wall only two or three feet above me.
The girl screamed, and my vision shook violently like I was on a really old wooden roller coaster.
I popped out of the narrow passage into another dark room. I looked to my right and left, then I quickly moved straight. There was a shelf to my left with rusty tools on it that looked like they’d been there for decades.
The girl behind me screamed, and I fell onto the floor. I quickly sat up and looked all around. The girl’s breathing became shallower and more panicked. There were more scraping sounds, and several...things moved just outside of my range of sight. My light caught something that should have made my skin crawl, but I still couldn’t feel anything.
Dozens of giant insects were closing in from all sides, and I could hear their legs tapping against the concrete floor, which explained the horrid scraping sound I’d been hearing.
“N-no!” the girl screamed, and I started to stand, but quickly found myself back on the ground.
The girl’s screams were more desperate now. I turned around and finally saw the girl, but my vision was blurry now, and I could only make out her outline.
“Help!” she screamed. “Please!”
One of the mutant mantises landed on her. It let out a terrible screech before plunging its proboscis into her leg. The girl yelped in pain just as another insect landed on her.
Within seconds, the girl was buried under dozens of giant insects, and her screams were muffled by the sounds of their bodies moving all over her.
The sound of the swarming insects and the girl’s screams of pain and fear rattled my brain.
“No!” I heard myself yell and, suddenly, I could move again. Everything was dark, but I could hear the typical bustling noise of the school cafeteria.
I opened my eyes. My vision was blurrier than usual, but I saw that I was back in the lunchroom, much to my relief.
My heart was beating so hard, I thought I was about to have a heart attack. A cold sweat dripped down my face as Nick and Kelly stared at me like I had two heads.
“Dude, you okay?” asked Nick.
I blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the room.
“What happened?” asked Kelly.
“I—I don’t know,” I said, my voice strained. “I think it…it may have been…my Scan ability. Either that, or I am harboring some real psychological trauma. I saw the most disturbing thing.” I proceeded to tell them what I had experienced. The basement, the insects, and their victim.
When I finished, Kelly rubbed her elbows nervously. “Ew, that is so creepy.”
“Whoa, that’s intense. Do you know where you were, exactly?” asked Nick. “I mean, I know you were in some kinda basement or something, but did you recognize it at all?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Although judging from the number of insects, I think it’s safe to assume that it was their nest.”
“Was it...somewhere in the school?” asked Kelly, looking around like an insect was about to appear out of nowhere. “You said they were likely staying here for a reason.”
“I don’t know,” I said again, feeling a little useless.
Kelly’s whole body twitched. “So, if what you saw was real, then there’s a girl who’s being…fed on by all those bugs? If that many were biting her, she’ll…she’ll…”
“She will probably die,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. “I don’t know if it was real or not, but it sure seemed like it.” I thought about the girl, and how I was just a hopeless observer with lights popping out of my eyes.
Things got worse in physical education. It was Run of Death Day. We were required to run three and a half miles nonstop, something athletic people had little problem with. But for people like me? Well, let’s just say I could do the first half mile without dying, but it felt like I was having a stroke for the rest of the way.
Nick ran with me the whole time, pushing me not to quit. He told me to consider this the first day of “Nick Camp.” We were on the fourth lap around the track, and I was sure I was dying. As if my body were confirming my suspicion, everything suddenly went dark again, just like at lunch.
I was in a dark room. It was different than the other one; there was a barbed-wire gate in the middle of it, and I seemed to be on the wrong side of it. I was trapped, and I couldn’t move or feel my limbs.
I could feel something, though. It felt as though a powerful energy was electrifying the air with its presence. A moment passed before I realized that the thing radiating power was me. I was floating in the air, and was glowing a gray chrome color.
There was a flash of light, and I was looking at a small, flat, circular object that rotated slowly in the air. It had some kind of stone in the middle that glowed the same gray color I had just been emitting.
There was another flash of light, and I was back outside on the track. I was on the ground. Half of the class surrounded me. Mr. Isely was lightly shaking my shoulder, asking if I was okay.
“I’m fine. Just a little tired, I guess,” I said.
“Mr. Isely, do you want me to take him inside to get some water?” asked Nick.
“Good idea,” said Mr. Isely. “Have him sit down for the rest of class. If he’s not better in fifteen minutes, take him to the nurse.”
Nick helped me up, and we walked back into the school.
“You gonna tell me what that was all about? Was it your Scan thingy again?” asked Nick.
“I believe so, but it was a little different than before.” After I told him what I had seen, I said, “I think it may have been the Ark that Kristiana was telling us about.”
“Could you recognize the place this time?” he asked.
“I wish I could,” I mumbled. “The only other thing I could make out was a barbed-wire fence.”
“All right, well, let’s go sit down for a little bit. That power of yours looks like it hurts.”
“It seems to give me a headache for a few moments,” I said. “But then I feel fine.”
By the time we got into the locker room, I felt perfectly normal, as if nothing had happened. “I don’t need to sit down. I’m alright now,” I said.
“You sure, dude?” Nick asked, raising an eyebrow. “You kinda crashed to the ground, and you were rocking back and forth like you were having a seizure or something.”
I nodded. “I’m fine. No need to worry.”
He looked like he didn’t believe me. Finally, he shrugged. “If you say so.”
After physical education, we ran into
Kelly and Abby in the hall on our way to history. They were looking around with troubled expressions, like they’d just witnessed a gruesome sight. I knew the feeling.
“What’s the matter?” Nick asked them.
Abby and Kelly looked at each other, then back at Nick.
“You guys are freaking me out here. What’s wrong?” he asked.
Kelly took a deep breath. “The bell rang for ethics class, and everyone had left, even Mrs. Desie. But I had my notes all over the place because I was trying to organize them for the big test next week. Abby was nice enough to help me gather all my stuff. My pen started to roll off the desk, and I went to stop it with my hand. Then the stack of papers that I had just organized started glowing purple, just like those metal balls in the woods. They slowly floated above Abby. When I put my hand down, the papers flew all over the place—”
Abby interrupted. “Then I put my hands up out of reflex, and the papers froze in midair. That’s when I really started to panic. I mean, what would’ve happened if someone walked in and saw what was going on? We would be sold to the government and tested like the ugly little alien in that 1980s movie.”
“Did you get caught?” I asked.
Abby sighed. “No, the papers started to scatter again a few seconds later. But that’s not the point.” She sighed again, even louder. “This whole thing is going to give me an ulcer.”
“Aw, man, this sucks,” said Nick, throwing his arms down.
“Tell me about it. Now are you starting to understand the situation?” asked Abby.
“No, not that,” he said. “Everyone else has used their superpowers today but me.”
“That reminds me,” I said. “I think I saw the Ark, thanks to my Scan ability.”
“Did you recognize where it was?” asked Kelly.
I shook my head. “It was in another dark room that was unfamiliar.”
“We’ll find it, don’t worry,” she said.
We walked into history class and sat down. The second we did, Jeremy started whispering to Mark. They dropped Nick’s name in their little conversation.
Nick must have heard it, because he turned around and glared at them. “If you’ve got something to say to me, say it!”
Jeremy smiled devilishly. “I was just wondering how you can hang out with Dr. Stumpenstein and still get such a bad grade on your tests. Guess the little freak isn’t worth the time. Even he can’t help a complete idiot.”
Nick clenched his jaw. “Watch it, man. I’m no idiot.”
Jeremy’s smile got more demented. “Could’ve fooled me. Seems to me that you’re one of those moronic football-playing pretty boys.”
Nick stood up and grabbed Jeremy by the shirt. Nick pulled his fist back as though he was about to punch Jeremy, which I would have loved to see, to be perfectly honest. However, it would end badly for Nick if he picked a fight with Jeremy. His dad was the most successful prosecuting attorney in the Force-Pointe islands, and he would make sure that Nick would be expelled or perhaps even thrown in jail.
“It’s not worth it,” I whispered to Nick. “You’ll get in a lot of trouble.”
Jeremy snickered. “You’d better listen to the little freak. Hit me, and you’ll be out of this school. I have my ways of making your life here very difficult.”
Nick tightened his grip on Jeremy’s shirt. “Your threats don’t scare me.”
Kelly put her hand on Nick’s arm. “Come on, put him down before Mr. Simmons gets in here.”
Nick took a quick breath and dropped Jeremy back in his seat. Just in time, too, because Mr. Simmons walked in right when Jeremy’s rear end hit the chair.
Jeremy did not seem to take the hint; he continued heckling Nick throughout the whole period.
“The freak geek and the muscled moron,” Jeremy whispered. “That’s the weirdest friendship I’ve ever seen. Probably not a friendship at all. I bet he threatened to kill the little creep if he didn’t help him with his schoolwork. You know, I heard he had to transfer schools because he beat another student within an inch of his life at his old school. He should be in prison.”
Nick was shaking with anger. But he looked straight ahead, trying not to lose it.
Jeremy was relentless. “Must be a terrible thing for his mother, raising a monster. She must be so proud.”
Nick turned around. “Would you stop talking? You don’t know me, or my life, so stop pretending like you do. People like you make me want to explode!” The second he said the word explode, the halogen light above Jeremy’s desk blew up with a loud BOOM!
Glass shards rained all over him and his desk. One of the pieces that landed on his desk was on fire. The whole class jumped out of their seats and stared at the scene.
“What happened, Mr. Scott?” Mr. Simmons interrogated.
Nick stammered. “Well, I, uh…”
Mr. Simmons stared at Nick accusingly. “I heard you yelling, and then the light busted.”
“Mr. Simmons, it couldn’t have been his fault,” Kelly interjected. “He didn’t throw anything up there. That light exploded, like it overheated or something.”
Mr. Simmons regarded Nick for a moment, then grunted. “Mr. Scott, do not disrupt my class again. I understand Mr. DeGallo can be irksome, but you have to learn to bear it. Now, Mr. DeGallo, call Maintenance and ask them to come clean this mess up. And please move to the desk closest to mine. Don’t think I didn’t hear you provoking him over there. One more outburst and I will call your parents.”
Jeremy feigned innocence. “But, Mr. Simmons—”
“No buts,” Mr. Simmons interjected. “Just do it.”
Jeremy got up and brushed off the glass on him. He glared at Nick as he walked to the phone in the corner of the room. It was quite the gratifying moment. It was one of the only times Jeremy actually got in trouble for what he’d done.
You could almost cut through the tension as history class lagged on. Finally, it was over. On the way to our lockers, Nick sighed. “It’s not like I knew I would blow the light up. I just got so mad at him and…boom! But I gotta say that my power is pretty sweet.”
“You think you could talk a little louder? I don’t think the whole school heard you,” whispered Abby, looking around. “You’re yelling about blowing things up with your mind. People are going to think you’re crazy.”
Nick brushed her off. “They don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Abby rubbed her forehead. “Ugh, I’m getting another migraine.”
“Still, it was quite impressive,” I said. “There seems to be more to your ability than simply creating fire in your hand. Apparently, you can cause objects to combust as well.”
Nick smiled. “Pretty sweet, huh?” he said, flexing his arm. “Bring on the bugs. I’ll scorch ’em.”
Abby didn’t share his enthusiasm. “Nick, this isn’t some comic book or action movie. This is real life. I mean, we’re a bunch of teenagers. And so what if James can analyze things faster than a computer, or if Kelly can move a bunch of papers across the room, or if you can make a lightbulb explode, or if I can stop things from moving for five seconds? How is this going to help against all these bugs?”
“Come on, Abbs,” Nick said. “We got this. We were picked specifically to deal with this.”
“It doesn’t seem like we can deal with it,” Abby said, crossing her arms. “Like, what if you catch someone on fire if you get mad at them? Or what if Kelly throws someone off a balcony or down the stairs? Or what if we’re at a school assembly or something and I—I panic and freeze the entire student body?”
“Don’t worry, Abbs,” said Nick.
She sighed in exasperation. “Nick, if you say that one more time—”
“It’s okay,” said Kelly, intervening before tempers flared. “We’re in this together, remember, Abby?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand how you guys can be so optimistic about this.”
Suddenly I dropped the pen I was fidgeting with and ran into someon
e when I picked it up. It turned out to be the wrong someone.
“Watch where you’re going, Dr. Stumpenstein!” Jeremy snapped as he shoved me.
“S-sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” I mumbled.
Nick stepped in. “Back off. He didn’t mean to run into you.” He started toward Jeremy, but Kelly grabbed his arm.
“Come on, let’s go,” she said. “We have more important things to worry about.”
Nick didn’t stand down, and neither did Jeremy. The five of us were alone in the hallway.
Jeremy looked at Nick with a smug smile. “So, is it true? Did you really get kicked out of your old high school because you got into a fight with another student and almost killed him? Wow, you sure are a keeper.”
“Nick,” Abby whispered nervously.
Nick clenched his fists and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and started to walk away from Jeremy.
But Jeremy continued. “So, you practically kill a student who was weaker than you but cower from me? Some man you are.”
Nick turned around, picked him up by his shirt, and pinned him to a set of lockers.
“Ah, so you do have some guts,” Jeremy said. “Come on, then. Hit me!”
Nick raised his fist to punch him.
“Nick, stop it!” yelled Abby.
Jeremy continued to heckle. “Come on, a—” He didn’t finish his sentence. For the first time in his life, he was silent. In fact, he wasn’t even moving. He was as still as a statue.
Nick’s fist stopped just short of his face. He studied Jeremy for a second, then let go of his shirt. Even after Nick let go of his shirt, Jeremy was still up against the locker, floating in the air, completely motionless.
Abby stared at her hands. “Oh, no!” she said in a high-pitched, panicked voice as she started to pace.
Jeremy was completely immobilized. Nick waved his hands between Jeremy’s feet and the floor. “That’s so cool,” he said, his anger dissipating. “You think we can draw on his face or something without him knowing about it?” He chuckled.
Bugged Out! Page 14