Bugged Out!

by Matthew Porter

  Abby threw her arms down. “There goes that plan. How are we going to get inside now?”

  “Aw, man!” said Nick, snapping his fingers. “I thought for sure that would work.”

  “Wait!” Kelly said excitedly. “I think I have an idea.”

  “I’m all ears,” said Nick, looking at her intently.

  Kelly pointed at the barrier wall. “I could try lifting a portion of the wall by changing its gravitational pull, just enough to create a small opening for us to get in. It shouldn’t be too difficult, in theory.”

  I nodded. “It’s an interesting plan. Definitely worth a shot.”

  Nick looked nervously at Kelly, then at the barrier. “Be careful, Kelly.”

  Kelly walked as close to the wall of energy as she could without getting fried. She reached her hands out, closed her eyes, and concentrated. Her hands started to glow purple, and a small portion of the barrier wall began to cast a similar glow. A hole about three feet across opened up and created a door just tall enough for us to crawl through.

  Kelly’s hands began to shake. “Hurry,” she said, her voice strained. “I can’t hold this for very long.”

  Nick quickly slid through the opening, then Abby crawled through, then me.

  Kelly’s panic seemed to intensify as she looked at us from the other side of the barrier. “I guess I didn’t think this through all the way... How am I going to crawl through? If I break my concentration at all while I’m trying to cross, I could get zapped.”

  “Just go slowly,” I said.

  She winced. “I can’t. I have to be quick or it’ll close. Here I go.” She got on her knees and began to crawl through the opening while keeping her hands up.

  “What are you doing?” someone screamed. It was a F.E.S.P.A. man. He was running toward us with a rifle in his hand.

  Kelly glanced over at him, which broke her concentration. Her hands and the opening stopped glowing, and the doorway began to shrink fast.

  The edges were mere inches from touching her skin when Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her to the other side just as it collapsed.

  “Thanks,” she told him as she stood and brushed the dirt off her skirt. “That could have ended very badly.”

  He smiled. “What are friends for?”

  The F.E.S.P.A. man approached us from the other side of the barrier. “You kids are in serious trouble. I’m calling this in!”

  We ran for it.

  I was barely able to make out what the F.E.S.P.A. man was saying because of the rumble of the barrier. “Report. There has been a breach in the barrier. Repeat. There has been a breach in the barrier. Suspects are on the run. They are four youths, two males and two females.”

  We reached a side door. With any luck, those F.E.S.P.A. goons had forgotten to lock it. I turned the knob, and felt an electrical shock. I quickly jumped back. “It shocked me,” I said, rubbing my hand.

  “How are we going to get in now?” asked Kelly.

  Nick looked around the corner. “I think I have an idea, but you guys probably aren’t gonna like it.”

  “Anything is better than just standing here waiting to get caught,” said Kelly.

  He grinned and took a step back. “We won’t have to wait anymore.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Abby, looking at Nick suspiciously.

  He jumped out into the open and whistled loudly. “Hey, guys! Over here!”

  “Nick, what are you doing?” asked Abby, looking about ready to kick him.

  A F.E.S.P.A. man spotted Nick. “You there. Freeze. Put your hands in the air!”

  Nick put his hands up and looked over at us, motioning us to come out, too.

  “He’s lost his mind,” grumbled Abby.

  The three of us joined Nick as two men in hazmat suits forcefully grabbed his arms. Five more came and seized me, Kelly, and Abby and herded us around the school and through the front entrance.

  It was an absolute warzone inside. Insects were crawling around everywhere as the people from F.E.S.P.A. tried to spray them with some kind of mist. The walls were covered by strange sheets that were as thin as paper that glowed an eerie green color. If the insects didn’t make me feel as though I were in a bad sci-fi movie, this certainly did. The sheets made it unbearably hot in the school; I was dripping sweat just walking down the hallway.

  The more they sprayed the mist, the more agitated the insects got. Some were outright attacking the men, but the hazmat suits seemed to supply them with at least some protection.

  The men corralled us into the boys’ locker room near the gym and shoved us on the bench in the middle of the room. There were tables with computers and other machines set up, and it seemed to be their makeshift base of operations. Interesting choice.

  Another man walked in, and everyone in F.E.S.P.A. attire saluted him. He wore a different suit from the others: it was red and emblazoned with five stars on the front. Obviously their leader.

  The man glared at us. “Do you realize how much trouble you’re in?” he said threateningly. He paced along the bench, looking at each of us. “You’ve ignored an official order and crossed the barrier. And speaking of, you’re going to explain exactly how you managed to do so without frying your little bootsies off.”

  Nick shrugged. “I guess we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.”

  The F.E.S.P.A. leader picked Nick up by the shirt. “Don’t try me, boy. I am going to make your lives very difficult if you don’t cooperate.”

  Nick grinned at him cheekily. “I guess we ought to tell ya then, sir.”

  The man slammed him down on the bench. “Good to hear, brat.”

  Nick dug the Edania Organization card out of his pocket and gave it to the man. “There’s a lady called Kristy. She’s the vice president of the Edania Organization. She should clear it all up.”

  The man snatched the card from his hand, looked at it, and then threw it on the ground and stomped on it. “I don’t care who sent you here. We don’t answer to anybody, especially the high-and-mighty fools at that organization. You lot belong to them, do you? If that’s the case, I know exactly what to do with you.” He tapped on the assault rifle strapped to his belt.

  Nick stared the man down, never losing eye contact. This seemed to make the F.E.S.P.A. leader angry, because he grunted and punched Nick in the face.

  Kelly, Abby, and I winced as Nick’s head shot to the left. Nick didn’t seem to mind too much, though. He just spat out some blood and looked back at the leader with an even cheekier grin. “That’s the best you got? Where’d you learn to fight, a retirement home?” he said, though his cheek had already started to sport a nasty bruise.

  The man grunted at this as he took out his phone. “I’m going to make a call. You’re all going to go away where nobody can find you, not even the Edania Organization.” He dialed a number and walked away.

  “Ooh, I’m so scared,” said Nick mockingly.

  Kelly slapped him hard on the knee. “What is wrong with you? Why did you get us caught on purpose?”

  Nick rubbed his knee. “I got us in here, didn’t I?”

  Kelly’s eyebrows shot up her forehead. “Yeah, but now we’re stuck and can’t go find the Ark. And we’re probably going to be killed or sold or stranded or God knows what else.”

  Nick didn’t seem to be fazed by our situation. He just shrugged. “We’ll find a way out of—”

  “And you’re making things worse by running your mouth,” Abby interjected.

  Nick crossed his arms. “I was just having some fun.”

  “Are you crazy?” Abby said reprovingly. “We don’t know who these people are or what they’re capable of, and you’re just running your mouth and making them angrier.”

  “Clearly, they are capable of much,” I said, looking around the room at all of their computers and advanced equipment. “And I don’t like the fact that they seem to know about the inner workings of the Edania Organization. Perhaps we should think of an escape plan.”

  “
We got this, J-Man,” Nick said, then turned to Abby. “C’mon, Abbs. Do your freezy thing.”

  Abby rolled her eyes. “I’ve been trying this whole time. There’re probably too many people in here.”

  Nick sighed. “Time for plan B, then.”

  “What’s plan B?” I asked, wondering what he’d been concocting.

  He looked around the room. “I’ll let you know as soon as I think of it.” Not exactly the thing I’d hoped he’d say.

  A ruckus came from the hallway outside. There were several screams and the sound of rapid footsteps.

  A man in a hazmat suit ran into the locker room. “Excuse me, General Southland? We have a code six. I repeat, we have a code six. The insects are becoming too hostile.”

  Still on the phone, the general looked up at him. “What are you talking about, soldier? You’ve been trained to deal with situations like these.”

  The man shifted uncomfortably. “But, sir, these insects are—”

  A mantis scurried through the door, lunged onto the man’s leg, and crawled up to his neck. It let out a screech, then punched its proboscis through the hazmat suit several times. It managed to make a hole big enough to stick its head through, and it jabbed its long tongue into the man’s neck. The man screamed in fear and pain as he tried to pull the creature off of him, but the insect had latched on with its straw-like mouth.

  Southland frowned. “Man up, Johanson. Don’t let these little bugs get the best of you.”

  Johanson fell unconscious on the floor before he could answer. The insect removed its proboscis from his neck and stared at the general. It lunged onto his leg and began to climb up his body. He swatted it off with his cell phone and quickly ran out of the room.

  “There’s plan B,” Nick said. “The evil mutant bugs are gonna clear the room for us. I’m a genius, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah,” Abby said, rolling her eyes. “It’s great when a plan really comes together.”

  I stood up. “At any rate, we should probably take advantage of the confusion and head to the basement,” I said, and we ran out of the locker room with no trouble.

  Abby sighed. “I’m so glad I’m out of there. How can you boys stand having your locker room smell like that? It made me want to vomit a little.”

  “You get used to it, Abbs,” said Nick as he stepped over an unconscious F.E.S.P.A. agent.

  Once we turned the corner into the cafeteria, we found ourselves in all-out war zone. The F.E.S.P.A. agents were firing their guns, which shot lasers instead of bullets, at the insects, and the insects were lunging at the F.E.S.P.A. agents. We crept against the wall to avoid detection, but General Southland caught sight of us.

  “The four of you, get back here!” he screamed.

  We ran through the lunchroom battlefield and down the main hallway to the liberal arts wing. Behind us, no fewer than eight F.E.S.P.A. agents were in hot pursuit.

  Insects tried to jump at us from the walls and ceiling as we ran, and we had to throw them off of us before they were able to stab and drain us. Finally, we reached the basement entrance. To my surprise, the door opened with no problem.

  “Stop or we’ll shoot!” General Southland threatened as they caught up to us. Not giving us time to react, he shot his rifle and a red-orange laser zoomed toward us.

  The laser quickly turned purple and changed its trajectory, flying right at Kelly. She threw her hand upward right before the laser zapped her and managed to deflect the shot upward with her power. The laser beam blasted the ceiling with a loud ZABOOM, and part of the ceiling started to crumble above us.

  The four of us ran into the basement to avoid being crushed. The ground shook under our feet, and we tumbled down the cold metal steps, crashing to the cement floor.

  “Wow, what an entrance,” said Nick, cracking his back.

  “At least we’re in the basement now,” I said.

  Abby stood and looked up the stairs. “The problem will be getting back up. The door is blocked by the debris, not to mention those freaks on the other side.”

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Kelly said, flicking her hair out of her face. “Right now, let’s try to find the Ark.”

  We walked farther into the basement, which quickly got much darker. I stepped on something squishy.

  Kelly yelped. “Ouch! That was my foot!”

  “Sorry,” I said, walking more carefully now.

  “We need to get some light in here,” said Nick. I heard him patting himself. “Ah, here we go.” There was a clicking sound, and a blinding light flashed before my eyes. “Smartphones. Gotta love ’em.”

  “Not in my face, Nick. Now I really can’t see,” said Abby, shielding herself from the bright light.

  “Sorry,” he said. “But now we can see where we’re going instead of fumbling around.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t use your fire power,” Kelly said.

  Nick chuckled. “Gotta save it, right? Don’t wanna run out of juice in case we have to fight the bugs.”

  The basement was much larger than it had looked on the schematic, and it was difficult to navigate in the semi-dark, even with my keen memory. Amid several storage rooms, nooks, crannies, and crawlspaces, we soon got lost. I even tried using my Scan ability to see if it could help us find our way, but I couldn’t get it to work.

  “Where are we, the French catacombs?” asked Abby, sounding irritated. “Who built the basement like this, anyway?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered, looking around. “But I think we are beyond the perimeter of the basement by now. These walls look much different...older.”

  “It’s giving me the creeps,” she answered.

  “We’re going to have to try another corridor,” Kelly said, pointing ahead. “This one’s a dead end.”

  “Wait—” I said, suddenly feeling a strange sensation. “Do you guys feel that?”

  “Feel what?” asked Nick.

  It was like some kind of invisible force was tugging at me, drawing me toward the end of the corridor. “Come on, let’s go a little farther.”

  “But it’s a dead end,” said Kelly.

  “Remember what Kristiana said about the Arks?” I said as I started toward the end of the corridor. “If you get close enough to one, you’ll feel its pull. Do you guys not feel it?”

  “Now that you mention it, I do feel something,” said Abby.

  “Me, too,” said Nick. “It feels so funky…”

  “I do, too. I just hope it’s not group hysteria,” said Kelly.

  We reached the end of the hallway and saw a crack in the left side of the wall. It was narrow, but seemed big enough for us to go in one at a time.

  Nick approached it. “I’ll go first,” he said, turning toward us. “J-Man, have the girls follow, and you come last. That way I’ll have their front, and you have their backs.”

  Kelly slipped into the snug space between Nick and the opening.

  “What are you doing?” Nick asked her.

  She put her hands on her hips and looked at him in disapproval. “You think that just because we’re girls we need protection? Please.” She squeezed through the opening.

  “Hey, I was just trying to be heroic.” He followed after her.

  Abby went next, and I went last. As I sidled along, the path narrowed farther, and it made me feel claustrophobic.

  I heard Abby scream up ahead. Her voice echoed heavily in my ears. I slid down the narrow path as fast as I could to reach her.

  “Abby, are you okay?” I didn’t get an answer. “Abby, Kelly, Nick? Guys?” My heart started to race. I didn’t hear anything but scurrying insects and a distant humming.

  Something crawled over my foot. One of the mantis nymphs was looking at me hungrily. I tried to kick it off, but I was barely able to move my feet. I tried to slide away, but the space was too narrow. I didn’t know where the others went. I was alone.

  I yelped in fear as something grabbed my hand. I was pulled upward and through a small crack in t
he top of the wall. I realized it was someone’s hand that had taken mine.

  “You good, J-Man?” asked Nick as he helped me up out of the hole.

  “Y-yes,” I said a little shakily. “But one of the insects tried to attack me…”

  “Me, too,” said Abby as she cringed. “That’s why I screamed. Luckily, I was able to kick it off of me.”

  “Woah,” said Nick as he shone his light into the pitch-black room.

  It was vast and dark, with a single red light above an entryway fifty or so feet away.

  Kelly tripped and caught herself on the wall. “I think I found a light switch,” she said.

  The fluorescent lights above us flickered on, and we were able to see that we were in an abandoned workshop. Rusty tools lined the walls; some were on the floor.

  “Where are we?” asked Kelly.

  “We must be in the old part of the school that caught fire twenty years ago,” I said. “I’m a little surprised the place still has electricity…”

  Abby looked around and shivered. “I don’t like it down here.”

  “Me neither,” I said, looking nervously at the rusty tools and other sharp objects. I hoped everyone had gotten their tetanus shots...

  “Wait, what’s that?” asked Kelly, pointing at something in the corner of the room.

  “It’s…a person!” Abby gasped.

  Whoever it was, they were huddled in a fetal position, and they weren’t moving. We ran over, and Nick knelt and gently shook them. “Hey...are you—” The girl’s pale, motionless body turned over and Nick yelped as he quickly backed away from her.

  Kelly started to weep. “Th-that’s Darla Charleston.”

  Sure enough, it was. I recognized her from psychology. But more vividly, I recognized her from the weird vision I had. Even though I had never been able to get a crystal-clear look at the girl in the vision, there was no mistaking her. I remembered how scared she was, how panicked. And now she was lifeless in the corner of some forgotten room like she was nothing.

  “Is she...dead?” Abby said, her voice cracking on the word dead.