Two Schools Out - Forever

by James Patterson

  Again.

  110

  An hour later we were almost a hundred miles away. I had no idea what would happen to those kids.

  "So, Itex," I said to Fang.

  "I told you it was like a deer," Angel said.

  "That's ibex," said Nudge. "And they're more goatlike than deerlike."

  "Whatever," said Angel.

  "It's not ringing a bell," said Fang.

  "They have long horns and live mostly in mountains," Nudge explained.

  "No, I mean Itex," Fang said. "They said it was a big company, but I've never heard of it. Which doesn't mean anything."

  "Yeah, I guess your education has a few gaps in it," I said. Except for the past two months, none of us had been to regular school, ever. Thank God for television.

  "Can we look it up somewhere?" Iggy asked. "Like at a library? Are we close to a town?"

  I looked down at the incredibly flat land below us. I saw the tiny buildings of a small town, about fifteen minutes away. "Yeah. Good plan. Twelve points west, everybody."

  So it turned out that Itex owned, like, half the world. It wasn't just a company. It was a huge multinational, multifaceted conglomerate that had its fingers in virtually every type of business there was, including food, medicine, real estate, computer technology, manufacturing, and even book publishing-so heads up, whoever's reading this.

  The more info we found on the Web, the more I started remembering the Itex logo. Now that I recognized it, I realized I'd seen it on a million things in my life, going all the way back to the School where we were created. It had been on test tubes, pill vials, lab equipment-you name it.

  I logged off the computer and stood up. "Let's get out of here."

  I'd seen enough.

  111

  "No."

  "Please, Max," Nudge begged.

  We were airborne, heading south. On the Web we'd found an address for Itex headquarters. It was roughly between Miami and Everglades National Park.

  "No way. It's too risky. The whole place is fenced in. There's a million people there. We'll be in crowds."

  "Fang?" Nudge wheedled.

  Fang shrugged, as much as he could shrug while flying. He held up his hands as if to say, Talk to the boss. I'm just the hired help.

  That wiener.

  "Pleeease, Max?" The Gasman added his voice.

  I stared ahead stoically, refusing to look down at the tall water tower wearing mouse ears. Of course, we had to pass right over Orlando.

  "Max?" Nudge said.

  I didn't respond. I knew what she was trying to do.

  "Oh, come on!" said Total, from Iggy's arms. "We're not going to the Magic Kingdom? How lame is that?"

  I glared at him. It didn't faze him.

  "A couple rides?" Angel asked wistfully. "Splash Mountain?"

  "Maaax?" Nudge said again.

  I made the supreme mistake of looking at Nudge. Shoot! I winced and looked away but not quickly enough. She got me. She had given me Bambi eyes. Now I had no choice.

  I gritted my teeth. "Fine. A couple rides, some cotton candy, and we're out of there."

  Everyone cheered. Fang gave me a look that said, You sap.

  "Who let whom have a freaking dog?" I responded.

  He chuckled.

  And we were on our way to the land of the Mouse.

  112

  "Disney World?" Ari felt like his head was about to explode. "Disney World?" His gravelly voice rose into a harsh shriek. "They're not on vacation! They're on the run! They're running for their lives! Death is following them like a bullet, and they're on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?"

  He snapped his teeth shut so hard the impact jarred his skull.

  This was the end.

  He would show them what a freaking Small World it was. There was about to be a rain of destruction on Main Street, U.S.A.

  113

  Disney World. You've probably been. I'm assuming that most of America has been there, because you all seemed to be there the day that we went. All of you at the same time.

  When the gates opened, we poured in with the rest of the crowd and found ourselves on Main Street, U.S.A. It was, well, adorable. I admit it freely. Old-fashioned storefronts, an ice-cream parlor, a trolley line in the middle of the street-all painted bright, cheerful colors. Everything was pristine, everything in perfect shape.

  "I want to go in every shop," Nudge said, awed. "I want to see every single thing."

  "Don't these people have jobs?" Fang muttered. "Why aren't these kids in school?"

  I ignored him. If he had backed me up, we wouldn't be here.

  "We need to pick the most important things," I said, as we headed toward Cinderella's Castle. "In case we can't stay too long."

  "I vote for Pirates of the Caribbean," said Total. He was wearing a small leather halter and a special vest that said "Guide Dog at Work. Do Not Pet. Thank You." We'd bought sunglasses for Iggy, so the two of them had quite the team costume.

  "Ooh, Swiss Family Treehouse!" said the Gasman.

  "Yeah!" Angel agreed.

  Nudge stopped and stared up at the castle. "It's so... beautiful."

  "Yeah," I said, smiling at her. Inside, of course, I was wound tighter than a yo-yo. All these people-we were horribly exposed and yet contained within a crowded space, so I was twitching like a water drop on a hot skillet.

  Avoiding the worst of the crowds, we headed for Adventureland.

  "Yes! Pirates of the Caribbean!" Total said. If he could have made a fist, he would have punched it.

  Being in a dark, enclosed, watery place with a bunch of strangers sounded like a nightmare to me, but as usual I was in the sensible minority. We got in line, and actually, it didn't take too long to get onto a boat. I was trying hard to keep it together for the younger kids, but my heart was pounding and sweat broke out on my forehead. I glanced at Fang and saw that he was just as twitchy as I was. Because we were the only two who had any freaking sense.

  Please, I begged silently, please do not let my last moments on earth be me crammed into a tiny boat in the dark, surrounded by mechanical singing pirates.

  Yes, that would be cruel, my Voice said snidely.

  I ignored it.

  114

  "I want my own treehouse like that," Gazzy said around a mouthful of cotton candy. "I mean, for all of us. Wouldn't that be so cool?"

  "So, so cool," Angel agreed, ice cream dripping down her wrist. "Can we do the Swiss Family Treehouse again?"

  I handed her a napkin. "Maybe after lunch." Biting off a piece of my ice-cream sandwich, I did another 360 sweep. No Erasers. I couldn't say for sure we were the only mutants here because, you know, Disney World. But so far no one had morphed right in front of us.

  "We could make one," Iggy said. "Find a humongous tree and build our own treehouse."

  "Yeah!" said Gazzy, pushing another wad of cotton candy into his mouth. "We could do it! I know we could."

  I rubbed his shoulder. "Okay. I'll put that on our list of things to do. Try not to eat too much junk, huh, Gazzy? I don't want you hurling on Splash Mountain." He grinned at me, a lighthearted child's grin that tugged at my heart. Yeah, yeah, if only.

  "This way to Frontierland," Fang said, pointing to a sign.

  I scanned the crowd again, then looked down at my map. "First Frontierland, and then-looks like the only good thing in Liberty Square is the Haunted Mansion."

  "I want to see Mickey's Country House," Angel said.

  "That's in the Toontown Fair place," I told her. "We need to go through some other stuff first. But we'll go."

  She shot me a beautiful, innocent smile, and I tried to put all thoughts of our country's government out of my head.

  "You know what's creepy?" Nudge said, eating caramel popcorn. "A chipmunk that big." She pointed at an adult-sized costumed chipmunk who was waving and strolling around.

  "Who is that?" Total asked. "Chip? Or Dale?"

  "Don't know," I said. "As long as he doesn't turn i
nto a huge, chipmunky Eraser, I'm good. Yo-look. There's Splash Mountain. Line doesn't seem too bad."

  "Is your dog talking?"

  I turned around. A sunburned child was looking at Total suspiciously.

  I laughed. "Our dog? No. Why? Does your dog talk?" I gave her a patronizing smile.

  "I thought he was talking," she muttered, still staring at Total.

  I said to Gazzy, "Jason, have you been practicing your ventriloquism again?"

  Gazzy shrugged with the perfect amount of bashfulness and nodded.

  "Oh," said the girl, and looked away.

  I narrowed my eyes at Total, who pulled his lips back over his teeth in an embarrassed, ingratiating grin.

  Not amused, I glanced over at Fang. He smiled, lighting up our immediate area, and offered me some Cracker Jack.

  115

  He had them. Ari took a bite of his ice cream bar, feeling the thin chocolate crunch between his teeth.

  He'd seen them go into Splash Mountain. Now he was sitting on a bench at the exit, waiting for them to come out. It had taken a long time to find them in this place. He couldn't fly here, and he couldn't unleash a huge crowd of Erasers to sweep the joint. Too much commotion.

  But now he had them. They would be out any minute. He had radioed six backup teams, which were less than five minutes away. Ari smiled. The sun was shining, the weather was great, he was eating ice cream, and all his dreams were about to come true.

  A small crowd of people momentarily passed between him and the ride's exit, and Ari moved so he could see around them. He knew that people were staring at him. He looked different. Even different from other Erasers. He wasn't as-seamless. He didn't look as human as the rest of them did when they weren't morphed. He kind of looked morphy all the time. He hadn't seen his plain real face in-a long time.

  "I know who you are."

  Ari almost jumped-he hadn't noticed the boy slide onto the bench next to him.

  He frowned down at the small, open face. "What?" he growled. This was when the little boy would get scared and probably turn and run. It always happened.

  The boy smiled. "I know who you are," he said, pointing at Ari happily.

  Ari just snarled at him.

  The boy wiggled with excitement. "You're Wolverine!"

  Ari stared at him.

  "You look awesome, dude," said the boy. "You're totally my favorite. You're the strongest one of all of them and the coolest too. I wish I was like you."

  Ari almost gagged. No one had ever, ever said anything like that to him. His whole life, he'd been the dregs in everyone's coffee pot. When he was really little, he'd idolized the bird kids and they'd ignored him. He'd loved Max, and she'd barely known he was alive. It would have been great when they disappeared, except his father had disappeared too. Ari still tasted ashes when he remembered realizing that his own father had chosen them over him. Ari had been left behind, with strangers.

  Then they'd started augmenting him. At first Ari had been glad-he would be an Eraser, be one of them. But he wasn't. He was too different, too patchworky. The others had all been made Erasers as infants, as embryos. When they were human they looked really human. When they were wolves they looked really wolfy. Not Ari. He was stuck in a partially morphed state, never all human and still less than wolf. He looked weird. Ugly. He didn't fit in anywhere.

  "You're, like, a total celebrity," the boy chattered on. "I mean, who cares about SpongeBob SquarePants? I'm sitting here with Wolverine!"

  Ari gave him a tentative smile. It didn't matter that the kid had mistaken him for somebody else. This kid thought he was cool. He wanted to be like Ari. He was impressed.

  It felt so good. It felt amazing.

  "Gosh, could I have your autograph?" the kid went on, starting to look for a piece of paper. "My mom wanted me to get Goofy's autograph. Like, I'm so sure. Goofy! But you-here, can you sign my shirt?"

  He held out a black marker and pulled on his T-shirt to make it taut.

  Ari hesitated.

  The boy looked uncertain. "I mean-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bug you. I know you're famous, and I'm just a little kid." His face fell.

  "No, that's okay, kid. Hope your mom doesn't mind," Ari growled. He took the marker in one pawlike hand and signed "Wolverine" with a flourish.

  The kid looked awed and thrilled. "Gosh, thanks, mister. I'll never wash this shirt again. You're the best. I can't wait till I get back to school and tell everyone I met Wolverine and he signed my shirt! This is the best day of my life!"

  Ari's throat ached and his nose twitched. He swiped one hand across his eyes. "No prob. You better get on back to your folks."

  "Okay. Thanks again! You rock!" The boy pumped a fist into the air and ran off.

  Ari sat for a moment, dazed with emotion. Suddenly he straightened. The flock! Max! Where were they? His eyes raked the trickle of people passing through the exit. The bird kids were nowhere to be seen. Six minutes had gone by-they must have come out. He'd missed them!

  For God's sake! That dumb little kid!

  You need to stay focused, Ari, said his Voice. Keep your eyes on the prize.

  Ari strode off to meet his backup teams, which were now in sight. Yeah, he knew he needed to stay focused. He was all business.

  But inside, part of him still smiled and held on tight to that warm, wanted feeling.

  116

  "God, I'm soaked," I moaned, pulling my wet sweatshirt away from my skin. I shook my hair out of my eyes, sending drops flying.

  "That was so great," the Gasman said happily.

  "Splash Mountain really lives up to its name," Nudge said, bouncing a little.

  "I hated that ride." Total sounded grumpy. And he'd hardly gotten wet at all.

  "Let's go again!" Gazzy said.

  We were almost all the way through the exit when I saw him: Ari, sitting on a bench. A little kid was talking to him excitedly. I froze, and the others bumped into me.

  "Turn around," I said under my breath. "Bandada-nayshapay."

  "No-oh, no," Gazzy whispered. "I can't believe it. Not now."

  But I was already pushing them back through the exiting crowd.

  "Sorry, kids," the attendant said. "You have to exit out that way only."

  "No, no," I said urgently. "We left our digital camera in the log! Mom will kill us! We just need to run back and check..."

  The attendant paused for a moment, and in that moment I forced us all past him. "Excuse us, excuse us, coming through!"

  Then we were back inside the ride. A walkway, almost concealed by false boulders, ran along one wall. We zipped down it, hearing the attendant calling after us.

  "Here!" Fang said, stopping suddenly. I'd almost passed the door completely-it was practically invisible. Quickly we shot through it and found ourselves in a long, dimly lit corridor. Child's play. In seconds we had raced to the end of it and out its exit. We found ourselves behind some large shrubs.

  "Come on," I said grimly. "Over to that fake mountain and then an up-and-away."

  Three minutes later we were airborne, fading into the setting sun, leaving Disney World far behind. Nudge had tears running down her cheeks, and Gazzy and Angel both looked bitterly disappointed.

  "I-," the Gasman began.

  "What?" I angled one wing slightly and pulled closer to him.

  "I wish we could have gone into the Haunted Mansion," he said. "It's supposed to be awesome."

  I sighed. "I know, guys." Everyone was flying steadily, but each face was a mask of disappointment and frustration. "There were a bunch of things I'd been hoping to do too." All involving seeing mouse ears in my rearview mirror. If I had one. "But you know we had to go." Flock, one. Ari, zip.

  "I hate stupid Ari!" Gazzy said. He punched and kicked the air in front of him. "He always ruins everything! Why does he hate us? It's not our fault they turned him into an Eraser!"

  "It's not that simple, sweetie," I said.

  "His dad left him," said Iggy bitterly. "Just like all
of ours. Then they Eraserfied him. He's a walking time bomb."

  "How does he track us so easily?" Angel asked. When she'd seen Cinderella's Castle, her face had looked as though it were made of sunlight. She was still young enough to really get caught up in the magic of an enormous, all-powerful marketing juggernaut.

  "I don't know, Ange," I said. That was the ten-thousand-dollar question, in fact.

  Below, the landscape was a spongy green, with nothing but a carpet of treetops to look down on. The trees ended abruptly, and beyond them we could see huge refineries or some kind of water-treatment plants or something.

  I heard a faint buzz only a split second before a buglike helicopter popped up from behind the trees. It was pointed a bit away from us but almost immediately turned and headed in our direction, like a curious insect.

  "Okay, guys, scatter and zoom," I instructed quickly. "Meet up in fifteen minutes, same heading." I angled my wings sharply and peeled off to one side. From a corner of my eye I saw the rest of the flock split up, zipping off in all directions.

  The chopper hesitated. It had News 14 Florida painted on the side. So maybe not an Eraser chopper, maybe just a news cam tracking traffic.

  But they'd seen us. I arched my back, pointing downward, then dropped into a screamingly fast descent. I rocketed toward the ground at two hundred miles an hour, which meant in less than a minute I had to angle out of it and swoop up again so I didn't squish like a mosquito on the windshield of the world.

  Who said poetry was dead?

  When I finally looked back, the chopper was nowhere in sight. A few minutes later, I saw various-sized dark specks coming at me. My flock.