The Scavengers Strike Back

by Marcus Emerson

  ‘I know Brody,’ I said, feeling relieved. ‘Tell her to tell him I’ll be there.’

  Gidget jabbed her brother’s arm with her fist, getting him to wake up a little more. ‘C’mon, dude,’ she said, heading for the kitchen. ‘Let’s get some brekkie in you. That ought to wake you up.’

  ‘Later, guys,’ I said. ‘I’ll find you after I meet with Brody.’

  ‘You’re not hungry?’ Gidget asked as she guided her brother like he was some sort of sleep-walking zombie.

  ‘I already ate,’ I said.

  After the twins disappeared through the doors, I took a seat on the nook, staring at the statue, hoping to see something that I missed earlier.

  No luck though.

  From where I was sitting, I could see the aeroplane I had thrown in the bin sitting on top of a pile of crumpled lolly wrappers and other junk. Ms Chen-Jung must not have emptied that bin yet.

  All of a sudden, she appeared out of nowhere, jumping up from behind the rubbish bin, scaring me half to death.

  I yelped, scooting back on the carpet in the nook. ‘What are you?’ I shouted. ‘How do you just appear outta nowhere?’

  Ms Chen-Jung smirked at me, but didn’t answer. She went about her business and pulled the bag out of the rubbish bin, and along with it, my note from the Scavengers.

  I tried to hide the fact that my heart was skipping beats as Ms Chen-Jung tied off the rubbish bag and dropped it on top of her cart. After that, she continued down the hall, disappearing around the corner. At least, I thought she disappeared. She could’ve been standing right behind me for all I knew.

  I started thinking about the girl that Ms Chen-Jung saw yesterday. A lot of girls at the school had black hair. Naomi had black hair.

  I don’t know why Naomi would be involved with a prank like this, but if Naomi was involved, then it meant Victor was too.

  And Victor wanted to meet with me. I already told him no, so if I found him now, it would be on my terms, right?

  I sighed. ‘Looks like I’m about to meet Victor.’

  At the front of the lunch line, I handed Jesse my lunch money, only to have the register ring my food up as free again.

  ‘Still broken?’ I asked.

  Jesse took my money and slipped another rectangular piece of paper into the cash drawer. ‘Still broken,’ he said, shaking his head in annoyance.

  The air in the kitchen normally smelled of fried chicken (even when there wasn’t chicken frying), but that’s not what my nose was picking up. There was a hint of something nasty, like chemicals or something. It reminded me of permanent markers.

  ‘What’s that smell?’ I asked.

  ‘Food,’ Jesse replied casually.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘There’s something else though, like marker or something … ?’

  ‘Oh,’ Jesse said. ‘Yeah, I think someone’s working on a sign in the back. For a bake sale or something.’

  ‘Oh, cool,’ I said.

  ‘So, hey,’ he continued. ‘That kid who got busted yesterday … that’s your friend, right?’

  ‘Brayden?’ I asked. ‘Yeah, why?’

  Jesse fidgeted a bit before answering. ‘Just wondering. Is he okay?’

  ‘I think so,’ I said. ‘Got a week in the slammer ’cause of it.’

  Jesse nodded. ‘Bummer, man.’

  It was nice to know that other people cared about Brayden. After paying for my food, I stepped into the cafeteria, only to be greeted by a phone in my face.

  ‘Smile,’ the girl holding the phone said.

  Of all the people it could’ve been, it was Naomi.

  I wanted to ask her right there if it was her that Ms Chen-Jung had seen, but I didn’t. It wasn’t just because of what Gidget had said, but I thought that if Naomi somehow was part of it, I didn’t need her knowing I suspected anything … yet.

  ‘Please stop,’ I said, stepping around Naomi.

  She followed me, holding her phone out to me. ‘Come on,’ she said as if we were still best friends. ‘I just got this new phone, and I knew you’d want to check it out! The screen is huge, and games look amazing on it!’

  I didn’t say anything as I took my tray and continued walking between some lunch tables.

  ‘Chase,’ Naomi said, getting ahead of me. ‘Come on …’

  I had to stop walking because she cut me off. Setting my tray down on the table beside me, I gave up and took a seat. Naomi took the spot across from me, still pointing her phone at me.

  ‘Are you recording a video?’ I asked.

  Naomi smiled. And then she set her phone on the table. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just … it’s a new phone, y’know? I’m pretty obsessed with it, filming everything like crazy. I’ve never had a phone that shot in 1080p before, and I—’

  I think she could tell I wasn’t interested.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said again, softer that time. ‘I’ve filmed so much video on this thing that it probably weighs more than your phone now.’

  ‘That’s not how digital works,’ I said.

  Naomi paused, and then quietly said, ‘I know… it was a joke.’

  The silence between us was awkward, so I scarfed down all my food like my life depended on it, which if you think about it, everyone’s life depends on them scarfing food. Right?

  ‘I miss you,’ Naomi said flatly.

  It was weird to hear her say that. I almost coughed up my food.

  She must’ve understood my reaction because she continued, ‘Not in a cheesy romance movie kind of way. I miss you as a friend, dork.’

  I said nothing, but it was killing me.

  Naomi chuckled to herself. ‘Remember that time you spent the whole day talking like a caveman?’

  Naomi put on a low voice and did the worst impression of a caveman I’d ever heard. ‘Oog! Chase not finish homework. Ooga, oog! Chase need bathroom! Chase go number one! Maybe number two? Chase not sure until Chase go to bathroom! Wait, teacher just want Chase to find tree?’

  I couldn’t help it. I cracked a smile. ‘I only did that because I lost a bet,’ I said, surprised at how normal it felt to talk to Naomi. ‘It was either that or wear a dress to school. When my dad wins a bet, you better be sure he makes me follow through with my end of the deal.’

  ‘You got in-school detention because of that,’ Naomi laughed.

  ‘Just for one period,’ I said. ‘Mrs Olsen was pretty annoyed though.’

  Naomi smiled at me, but didn’t say anything else right away. I think she just wanted things to feel normal between us for another second.

  ‘I know things can never be the same with us again,’ Naomi finally said. ‘But I want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m sorry about everything that happened.’

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Naomi was apologising for the fact that she had turned against me, and that she had turned the entire school against me. Like saying sorry was going to fix all the damage she’d done.

  I really didn’t feel like sitting across from her anymore because I knew that if I started flappin’ my mouth, I was only going to say something I’d regret.

  Besides, I still needed to get outside to see if Victor was around.

  ‘Okay,’ I said to my ex-bestie as I took my tray and got up from my spot. ‘You’re sorry. Got it.’

  As I walked to the rubbish bin, I was afraid Naomi was following me, but when I looked over my shoulder, she was still at the table all by herself, staring at the spot where I had been sitting.

  My insides crawled, but not how I thought they would. I was shocked because I wasn’t happy to get away from Naomi. I was sad that she was alone.

  I shook the feeling and emptied my tray into the rubbish bin.

  Brody wanted me to find him during lunch, but before that, I had a couple of questions for Victor.

  About a minute later, I was outside.

  The dumpsters were to my right. There was a small security camera pointed right at the giant dumpsters, probably to keep kids from tagging them with spray
paint.

  Not that anyone would ever want to hang out by the dumpsters for longer than a couple of minutes. The stench was awful!

  Have you ever felt nervous about having to do something, and then you find out that you might not have to do that thing because of something else? Sometimes it’s the best feeling in the world. Like, I wanted to talk to Victor, but I was also freaked out by it. So if Victor wasn’t by the dumpsters, I would’ve been pretty happy about it.

  But as I got closer to the spot where Victor was supposed to be, I saw a kid sitting on one of those concrete parking stops behind the dumpsters. He was alone. The only other living things around were a bunch of birds.

  I quickly scanned the area for other Scavengers, but was shocked to see there weren’t any. Maybe the kid on the parking stop wasn’t Victor after all.

  Making a wide circle, I leaned over to get a better look at the kid. I’d never met Victor before so I had no idea what he looked like. All I knew was that he was an eighth grader who wore glasses.

  But when I saw the front of his shirt, I knew it was him. On the left side of his chest, there was a white patch that had the name ‘Victor’ sewn on it with red thread.

  And I was wrong about Victor being alone. He might’ve been the only kid out there, but he was surrounded by a dozen pigeons. They were pecking at tiny pieces of popcorn that Victor was feeding them.

  Victor looked up at me, squinting because the clear sky behind me was so bright. For an eighth grader, and the leader of the Scavengers, he wasn’t that scary.

  His hair was slicked back and he had an earring in his left ear. He looked like a member of one of my mum’s old boy band CDs from the ’80s.

  Victor exhaled slowly, pressing his lips together. ‘Chase Cooper,’ he said. ‘As I live and breathe.’

  ‘You must be Victor,’ I said.

  The boy nodded, but didn’t stand up. He continued to lightly toss popcorn to his bird friends. ‘Pigeons are so rad, aren’t they? Did you know they can fly at almost a hundred miles an hour? And they might be able to see up to twenty-six miles away?’

  ‘Um, no,’ I said honestly. ‘I didn’t know that.’

  ‘They help my stress levels,’ Victor said. ‘I feel calm when I feed them. My headaches disappear when it’s just me and my birds … such awful headaches.’

  ‘Yeeeeah,’ I said, not knowing what else to say.

  Victor pointed his snack towards me. ‘Would you like a bag of popped corn?’

  ‘A what?’ I asked. ‘You mean popcorn?’

  ‘Some people call it that,’ Victor said with a snide smile. ‘I prefer calling it a bag of popped corn.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s not weird,’ I said, and then added, ‘And by that, I mean it’s totes weird. How are you allowed to be out here right now? Eighth graders have lunch at a different time than the sixth graders. Shouldn’t you be in class?’

  ‘This is my class,’ Victor said.

  ‘Feeding birds is your class?’ I said, confused.

  ‘It’s my free period,’ he explained. ‘And I’ve chosen to sit out here and study pigeons. It’s a science credit.’ Victor tossed a piece of popcorn to one of the birds. ‘You left me hangin’ yesterday. I was out here waiting for you.’

  I looked around. ‘Where are the rest of your Scavengers? I thought you’d be heavily guarded since you’re their leader.’

  ‘No,’ Victor said, shaking his head. ‘Not everything needs a huge scene. I just wanted to meet the kid who beat Naomi. She’s my little champion, you know. I’ve never met anyone who showed more promise as a Scavenger. She’ll go far.’

  I was gonna ask him about Naomi and the statue, but what he said distracted me. ‘Wait, you just wanted to meet me?’

  ‘You’ve started a war, Chase, and I’m going to finish it,’ Victor said, looking at me through his thick-rimmed glasses. ‘Part of the art of war is to know yourself, and know your enemy. Well, I know myself pretty well, and based on all the information we’ve got about you, I know you too. But I’ve realised that I’ve never met you, and I think it would be a mistake to not meet with my enemy … before I destroy him. Do you know yourself? I mean, do you really know yourself?’

  ‘I had a dream where I met my evil clone on a space station …’ I stopped my dumb mouth from talking. Why would I talk about my weird dreams?

  Victor gave me a funny look, but continued. ‘Naomi really messed up your world, didn’t she?’

  ‘You have no idea,’ I said.

  ‘She’s cute, right?’ Victor asked. ‘She just got that new phone, and she’s filming everything like a little kid with a brand new toy.’ He paused. ‘She didn’t beat you in the end though, did she? She got greedy and missed the big picture. If only she had a little more focus with you …’

  ‘What’re you talkin’ about?’ I asked, my blood boiling. I was beginning to think it was a mistake to find this kid. A massive, massive mistake.

  ‘I’m not gonna mess with your social life, Chase. I won’t even make your friends, or anyone else, hate you. I give you my word. I’m just going to take the thing that matters the most to you.’

  I stared at Victor. ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘Your ninja clan,’ Victor answered coldly.

  I laughed. ‘You think people haven’t tried that already? Naomi did a bang-up job when she took most of them from me. They all went and joined your little club of creeps!’

  Victor stood up. He was short, like, super short for an eighth grader. ‘Don’t forget that the Scavengers know all your secrets, including your deepest, darkest struggles and fears …’

  I was silent.

  ‘I know you’ve struggled with being a good leader,’ Victor said confidently. ‘My plan is simple – I’ll take your ninja clan away from you for good, but not in the way Naomi did. No, I’m going to show your ninjas that there’s no point to your clan, that there’s no point to your leadership, and that you … have no purpose.’

  I hated what Victor was saying because a small part of me was afraid he was right.

  ‘Once your ninja clan is finished,’ Victor went on, ‘you’ll have nothing to identify with. You’ll be all alone in this school – a loner with no friends. And then you can do what you’ve been training to do the entire time you’ve been here … disappear into the shadows,’ Victor paused, smiling. ‘Wanna know the best part about my plan? Nobody will notice because nobody will care.’

  I kept my mouth shut. This kid was so full of himself. He knew what he was going to do, and he knew there wasn’t anything I could do to fight it.

  ‘Ouch, right? Man, I’m an evil dude!’ Victor said loudly, and doing the robot dance while making a beat with his mouth. ‘Nnn-st, nnn-st, nnn-st, nnn-st, nnn-st, nnn-st, nnn-st, nnn-st!’

  I tried to say more, but Victor just kept doing the robot and making techno sounds every time I tried to speak. It was a little like Zoe and Faith when they were beatboxing. Was this something that was cool now? Was I late to the beatboxing party or something?

  Backing away slowly, I left the kid to dance by himself by the dumpsters.

  Victor was easily one of the strangest kids I’d ever met at this school. He was also one of the scariest.

  Within minutes, I was on my way up the stairs to the second floor of the school. Lunch was almost over, and I’d already messed up twice by speaking to Naomi and Victor. I should’ve just come to Brody right at the beginning of lunch. I probably wouldn’t have felt so defeated if I had.

  On the second floor, I scanned for room 801. Most of the upstairs rooms were science labs and storage rooms, so I wasn’t sure why Brody wanted me to find him up there.

  As I passed the rooms, I could see some of the students through the tall rectangular windows on the doors. At this time of day, the rooms were filled with seventh and eighth graders.

  I turned the corner and started down another hallway. The sunlight was hitting the ground just right, glaring off the polished floor and hitting me right in the eyes. The firs
t floor was covered in carpet, but the second floor was one hundred per cent lino.

  The hallway I was walking down was still in the 600s so I still had a way to go until I got to room 801.

  I knew I’d be fine as long as there weren’t hall monitors roaming the hallways. Or even worse, any of the red—

  A swoosh came from behind me. I spun around but didn’t see anything. It was completely silent, and the air was calm.

  A little too calm.

  Another swoosh came from the opposite direction. I spun again, but there was nothing there.

  ‘Great,’ I whispered. And then I spoke up. ‘Helloooo?’

  Another swoosh, again from behind, but this time when I turned around, I was facing a small herd of red ninjas. They were at the end of the hall, about three metres away from me. Their masks were different – still red, but with a pattern.

  ‘Of course,’ I huffed, pulling my ninja mask from the hood of my sweatshirt, and yanking it down over my face.

  At that second, the ninjas started sprinting after me. I bolted.

  I sprinted down the hallway, my feet hardly making a sound. All I wanted to do was get away from Wyatt’s red ninjas, not alert the entire second floor that we were running around.

  At the corner of the hallway, I dropped to my thigh and slid along the ground, popping back up after I cleared the turn.

  But standing in my way was another red ninja. It had to be Wyatt because he was standing in place, watching his ninjas carry out his orders. Like the ninjas chasing me, Wyatt was wearing a new mask. He also had a yellow cape draped over his left shoulder. He must’ve upgraded his armour.

  Suddenly, two hands grabbed at my forearms from behind, while a third hand clutched the top of my ninja mask.

  The second I felt the cloth slide up on my face, I pulled my arms free. I grabbed my mask and pulled it back down before it was completely ripped off.

  Wyatt was still standing a metre away. He was staring at the scuffle with his arms crossed.