by Nisa Ryan
Bending down, Ms. Walker yanked one of the vials from the Professor’s hands, examining it in the flashing lights streaming through the windows.
She handed the vial to Marybeth, who shoved the vial into one of her cardigan pockets before kneeling to fish the remaining vials out of his pockets. She dropped them to the floor and nodded as Ms. Walker proceeded to stomp on each one. Letting the contents sizzle over the floorboards.
Marybeth turned to the Professor, glaring at him she said, “I have a pretty good idea on who has been orchestrating everything and no, it isn’t the Professor – he’s just some pathetic leech – but, until I get some real evidence there isn’t much I can do,” she frowned, “other than bringing this piece of work into the Bureau,” she said approaching the locked door. Rapping on it gently with her knuckles, I stood back and waited, “You think the bureau will want to – oh, I mean,” my voice went quiet as I glanced at the centaur, did she know about Marybeth?
Ms. Walker crossed her arms, a foot still firmly pressed on the Professor, “I know about Marybeth, did you think they would plant an MIB agent here without my permission?” she mused, “Though I honestly had thought that, well – the Professor and I... I didn’t think it would be him.” she trailed off. I pursed my lips and nodded in understanding; she must feel so betrayed. The Professor began to cackle. Pushing his broken glasses up onto his face, he grinned, “Oh, you’ve so much to learn,” he howled as fog and mist began to write across the floor. Ms. Walker neighed and reared up, nearly ramming her head into the ceiling, tentacles of fog wrapped around her forelegs. The fog rolled across the floor and seemed to flow down the stairs and out the door where it dissipated into nothing, “Well shit,” Marybeth exclaimed.
Chapter 6
“Once we get inside, I can have Marybeth immobilize Mr. Sanchez, but you’ll need to make sure he doesn’t get to us first,” she said. I nodded. I only had one working arm, but I would try.
“Alicia! Is everything okay in there, we’re trying to get in, but maybe you could try to unlock it from...”
The door swung open, and clouds of ghostly smoke billowed out from inside the room. A pair of glowing red eyes stared out at us while the rest of his body was completely entangled in loops of hair.
Alicia had her arms wrapped around his arms, squeezed against his waist, and her ankles locked above his knees as she held him on the floor, “It’s about damn time. I couldn’t reach the door, and I can’t use my teleportation like this, but it’s like he’s gone crazy. I couldn’t keep him off of me. He kept trying to bite me and sorry I’m just not into that,” she said with a grimace.
Rolling my eyes, I motioned for her to release him as Ms. Walker, and I stood on either side of the door. Alicia narrowed her eyes at the equine lady, but she didn’t say anything.
As soon as Alicia unwrapped herself from around him, Zane scrambled to his feet and threw his body through the air. His arms had partially transformed into wings and flapping them wildly, he shot up into the air but only managed to slam his head into the ceiling hard enough that he crashed back into the floor.
“Ugh, and you like this guy? He’s pathetic,” Alicia accused, floating over Zane’s back as Marybeth kicked at one of his hands with the toe of her boot. He was out cold.
I shrugged, “I didn’t say I liked him; I just like looking at him,” I said, “Come on, help me get him out of here.” Marybeth knelt and helped haul Zane up over our shoulders, with an arm for each of us we half dragged him down the stairs and out of the house.
Zane moaned, his head lolled to one side as his eyes cracked open, the strange red glow was gone, but his eyes had dark circles around them. “Where am I?” he asked, his voice rough and groggy.
“Rescuing you, I think?” I wasn’t really sure anymore. Were we rescuing him or restraining him?
Marybeth shrugged, causing Zane’s head to bob back, “Yes, freak. We’re rescuing him,” she said over his head to me, and then to Zane, she asked, “Why were you locked in a closet?”
Zane rolled his shoulders, and his head flopped back onto my shoulder again, his hair smelled so good. Closing his eyes, he said, “I was trying to hide. I didn’t want to hurt anyone... again.”
Marybeth and I shared a glance. She had accused him of killing his family before, and maybe he had, but clearly it was because of whatever experiments the Professor had been working on — sending craze induced dead, undead, and other monster students out into the towns and cities across the world to wreak havoc for his twisted desire to end the peace between the humans and us.
Us. That was the first time I’d referred to myself as one of the creatures that go bump in the night. It felt good like maybe I did belong here.
As we made our way down the stairs and out the front door, I winced against the bright lights of the emergency vehicles on the lawn.
I was waiting for the police to open fire, for the gathered crowd to gasp and howl - hiss and jeer - but there was nothing. Instead, what I found was all the people as expected. Only they were frozen places like statues. The entire town looked like it had hit the pause button as children were stopped running down the streets with buckets of candy flying, adults stood on their stoops with hands full of candy hovering over open bags. Despite the scene at the cottage at the end of the street, most of the Halloween celebrations seemed to have been carrying on like normal.
Alicia floated up to one of the uniformed men, his gun up and aimed at the door with the tip of his fore-finger just resting against the trigger. She tapped his nose and, when nothing happened, not even a blink, she thumped him between the eyes and laughed.
Marybeth groaned, “Leave them alone. I put a temporary stasis spell on them; they’ll go back to normal as soon as I release them,” she said between breaths. Zane was cute, but he was heavy too. As we walked among the living statues, I couldn’t help but marvel at the scene; every human stood stiff, doing exactly whatever it was they were last doing before Marybeth had spelled them.
“You really do work for some secret organization?” I asked.
She nodded, “Yes.”
“Usually when these things happen in movies it means that the person who found out the secret gets...umm,” I said, I didn’t even have to finish the sentence.
Marybeth nodded, her fire-red hair snapping as it bristled, “Usually yeah, but... this is a special case,” she said with a smile, “We happen to be looking for a new agent. I mean, you’d have to wait till you graduated from Undead Academy but - if you were partial to the idea, we’d have an opening waiting for you,” she smiled, glancing over at me, “Apparently the Elders are impressed with how you’ve handled this. Said you had the type of gumption we need in times like these, with people like the Professor actively trying to work against us,” she finished, her voice gone bitter.
My eyes grew wide, I couldn’t tell if she was serious but if she was that could be a life-changer, imagine me, Britta Peters, Zombie agent of the MIB.
It could be perfect, my family would be so proud, they’d have a reason not to regret my change anymore, and I could do something good for all of us, monsters and humans.
I nodded enthusiastically, “Actually, yeah. That sounds amazing,” I said.
Marybeth continued to help me across the lawn and out into the street with Zane, once there Ms. Walker clopped over and directed us to lay him across her back saying said she’d carry him the rest of the way back to the Academy, it’d be quicker and she could work on getting him back to normal.
“But what about the other vampires, there were two more I’m positive,” I said. Ms. Walker nodded, “Don’t let it bother you, Ms. Peters, it’s already been taken care of,” she said. “Even as we speak other B.M.I.I members are using their magic and their powers to repair the damage. Thankfully not one human was harmed; however, the Professor is still out there, and we need to discuss your... strange appetites, later on, Ms. Peters,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me as they flicked over the blood-soaked into my clothin
g. I winced, oh, yeah. I ate a vampire... and he was probably a student here. We all need to be on guard,” she said. I couldn’t help but notice the hurt in her voice. Ms. Walker had loved that mad scientist.
∞ ∞ ∞
As Ms. Walker galloped away, I helped Marybeth and Alicia to repair the damaged home as best as we could. The terrified people hiding beneath the stairs were found and guided out by MIB agents and soothed with warm blankets and hot chocolate.
Picking up frames that had been shaken loose from their nails on the wall and straightening them out, I began to look at the images of the happy family. It made my heartache, and my stomach flipped as I longed to be home with my family. With a sigh, I pulled myself away and entered the room that Zane had locked himself into.
It was a small room with only one bed and a desk and posters of baseball players plastered on the walls. Whoever lived in here was the sporty type, a baseball bat was left leaning against the small desk next to the bed that was wrapped in a blanket covered with images of baseballs. Pressing a hand against the doorframe, I ran a finger over the edge of it with a smile. The family had carved little markers for keeping track of their kids’ heights over the years; besides each marker, a name had been carved.
I stopped, my smile fading, Zane, his name was carved clearly near several of the markers. This was his home. Or at least it used to be.
He must have come here out of pure instinct. Clearly this family hadn’t lived there in a long time. All the images portrayed a happy human family with three kids, none of which were Zane or looked like him in any way.
I felt the air grow cold as Alicia floated up the stairs, she observed the photos with me and, glancing at me, said,
“I guess the Professor knew Zane would come here first. Maybe he was trying to get away from the Professor, so he went to the one place where he still felt safe,” she said, bending over to trail her fingers along the markers, “I wonder what really happened to his parents?” she asked out loud and, picking a photo up off the ground placing it on the desk.
I shook my head, “I’ve no idea...but I bet the Professor does, he holds the answer to all of this,” I said.
Alicia crossed her arms and screwed her lips up into a smile as she floated in from another part of the house, “And what are you supposed to do about that?” she asked.
Shaking my head sadly, I walked back out of the room and towards the stairs, it was about time we got going. We’d done as much as we could. The witches’ repair team could do the rest. I sighed, “Well, I’ve got two more years here at Undead Academy and then I thought I might join the MIB,” I said casually, I didn’t think she knew about Marybeth and her association with the organization, and I didn’t want to be giving away any secrets that weren’t mine to share.
Alicia cocked an eye-brow, twisting a strand of hair between her fingers, “How strange, I was considering joining up as well. I hear they are looking for young and hot new agents. People fresh out of school with connections and know-how. People willing to go the distance. Sounds a bit like us, right?” she said, catching up to me and elbowing me in the ribs. She winked. I smiled, feeling a blush creep over my face, and nodded.
Crossing her arms, Alicia tilted her head to the other side, pointing a slender finger at my shoulder, “So, how about we go and get that arm fixed now? It’s kind of grossing me out, freak,” she said and laughed. But her laugh was pleasant, and I knew she was only teasing. I felt my skin turn from olive to rust with the deepening blush, and I looked around the house, wanting to look at anything but Alicia.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” I agreed.
Chapter 7
A month later and my arm is nearly back to full mobility. Occasionally I have to get the stitches tightened, especially after gym class, and I attend physical therapy once a week to do some exercises to help rebuild the lost tissue, but since I’m a zombie, it’ll be slow going. I occasionally get those strange thumps in my chest, but for now, it’s an issue I’ll worry about later; otherwise, it’s been great.
I’ve settled down rather well at Undead Academy, and my parents even came to visit me. I mean, they had to after all that has happened, but they were thrilled to hear from Ms. Walker how much I’ve grown in such a short time. She detailed all my recent accomplishments just without, you know, the gory details and the fact that I may have eaten another student.
The MIB is still investigating that, after examining the body, we couldn’t find anything to identify the rogue vampire with, and he didn’t appear to be a student registered here. Zane claims he didn’t know either of the vampires in question, and his memories of the entire incident and the ones from before are fuzzy at best.
And, get this, my parents even wanted me to consider moving back home. Mom admitted that she was pretty freaked out after what happened with Casey, I mean, I can’t blame her. I was pretty scared as well, after all, and I’m not quite sure I can ever forgive myself. I’m pretty damn sure Casey’s parents will never be able to forgive what happened but, yeah. Let’s leave it at that.
MIB Agents live on the campus with us now. After what happened with the Professor, they have placed the school on a near lock-down. Ms. Walker was cleared of any crimes; she didn’t understand that the Professor was secretly trying to start a war with the humans, and they were positive he’d been using the serum to manipulate her decisions.
Despite that, she’s being watched until further notice, and all her decisions are passed through the MIB agency first. She is Principle in appearances alone, and all student activities are now planned and moderated by Marybeth and her team of agents.
All of the Professors’ lab equipment was confiscated, and Chemistry class, along with Biology lab, had been canceled until a suitable replacement could be hired.
∞ ∞ ∞
“Agent Marybeth Salamander?” a man dressed in armored MIB gear questioned of me, I nodded, “Yes?” I said, snapping my fingers, I was growing impatient.
“It’s Agent Giralt; he says we found it.”
I nodded curtly and followed the man to where a group of armed guards stood, ready to defend us as we opened the laboratory.
The door to the Professor’s lab was set beneath the stairs that led up to the Ms. Walkeres office in the main building; it had been well hidden in a storage closet, using a fake floor that included a pully system.
I and a handful of MBI proceeded to follow them down. This wasn’t over yet. Stepping onto the platform, I nodded as the platform was lowered. It went down for at least thirty feet, if not more, and then, reaching the landing; I stepped out into the lab at large with a spell on my lips and wand in the air, ready to defend myself.
This wasn’t like the lab that students used; it was the one the Professor had created for his research. Research that he wasn’t supposed to be doing. We had cut his funding almost three decades ago.
Along each wall were rows of tanks filled with a green liquid that glowed with an unnatural light, kind of like how Mt. Dew looked when you sat it on one of those light-up coasters. But I was guessing this wasn’t a delicious tank of soda and was instead something deadly.
I was right.
Agent Giralt glanced at me, “Agent Salamander, you should check this out,” he said, his weapon raised. He looked like an iron giant, too heavy with the pounds of armor he wore strapped over his chest, legs, and arms and topped with a helmet and goggles. I paced beside him, my heels clicking on the stone floor, as he and the other MIB agents cleared the room, there was no one else here. Just the empty tanks and row after row of file cabinets stuffed to bursting with paper that ran down the center of the room. As I passed them, I gave them a perfunctory look, noting the names and dates on each label. Some of them seemed ridiculously old, “2006, 2001, 1996, 1940, 1877...” I read them aloud as Agent Giralt gave the all-clear signal with a wave of his hand and the rest of his men, armed and armored, entered the room and began to package items, collect boxes, and confiscate papers and computers alike, by t
he time they were done here the place would be cleared of all traces of there ever having been a laboratory.
At the end of the room, against the wall, was a desk with several maps hung above it; there were red thumbtacks pushed into the squares that represented buildings on each of the crumpled sheets. One of the maps was Hex Hollow.
And the house we’d just recused Zane and Britta from had a red pin firmly pressed into it.
I narrowed my eyes. Clearly, it meant something. I turned on my heel and ordered one of the men to inform the team waiting outside that we needed someone to go back to that house and double down their search. There must be something we’ve missed. Why are all these houses marked? It has to do with his experimentations.
Taking note of the other homes, I glanced down at the papers strewn across the desk. Detailed information on every student here was splashed across the pages along with images. Correction, it wasn’t every student... it was every created monster student... zombies, some types of ghost, a few werewolves and vampires and... there was Britta.
Images of Britta before she became a zombie and after were stapled into the file pages along with detailed medical information lined out in neat bullet points,
Brittney Peters, 16yr old, Human, Female.
I have administered 1st dose of ZBY2395 on Oct. 6th. No immediate effect apparent.
I have administered 2nd dose of ZBY2395 on Oct. 14th. No immediate effect apparent. Dammit.
I have administered 3rd dose of ZBY2395 on Oct. 22nd. Still no apparent effects. I’m almost there, what am I missing?
I administered the 4th dose of adjusted ZBY2395-1 on Oct. 29th. Eureka! It’s alive; I did it.
This is the one! Now all that remains is to administer the doses to the rest of the student body; it’ll be easy. I’ll add it to their blood rations and see what happens. That idiot goat-lady thinks they are vitamins and vaccinations. She was so easy to convince.