The Impossible Race: Cragbridge Hall, Volume 3

by Chad Morris

  Carol called out over the sync where they had found it.

  The Bridge started to shake.

  Abby moved the perspective of the Bridge close to the bomb and added two spheres. The Bridge tremored again. “Grab it,” Abby told Carol.

  Carol moved to the other side of the room, and crawled from the basement of Cragbridge Hall into the auditorium. She stayed low to avoid being seen by the security bots. She spent several moments trying to pull at the thick tape used to strap the bomb down. She was trying to do it quietly so she wouldn’t draw any attention.

  A security bot paused, then turned to roll toward the aisle. Perhaps it had heard her.

  “Hurry, Carol,” Abby whispered. “A bot is coming.”

  Carol moved her lips, obviously mouthing words she wanted to say but couldn’t. She had to be quiet.

  The bot approached her aisle.

  The Bridge shuddered.

  “Oh, it’s impossible to do this quietly,” Carol whispered in frustration, then pulled on the tape with all her might. It ripped clean of the seat with a loud GRRRRAAAATT.

  All the bots in the room turned their heads toward the sound. The bot who had been investigating reached the right row and raised his stun gun.

  “Oh dearie,” Carol said, getting up and running toward it. That was the direction she had come into the auditorium from, and the direction she had to go to get back into the basement.

  The Bridge shook again, rattling the metal branches that crept up into the ceiling. Abby shifted the perspective of the Bridge closer to Carol.

  All the security bots raised their guns, but the closest bot fired.

  The instant Carol crossed in, Abby turned one of the keys. A fraction of a second longer, and Carol would have been out cold.

  “Whew!” Carol sighed. “That was crazy close.” She looked down at her hands and the tranquilizer bomb. “Where do we put this thing?” she asked.

  Abby hadn’t thought about that. “I don’t care as long as it’s somewhere else away from people and far away from here.”

  Carol nodded several times. “Yeah, I don’t want this thing to blow up in my face. My face is way too stunning for that.”

  “Help me turn the keys back,” Abby said. They had to be turned in unison to gain access to the past or present. As soon as they twisted the keys together, the Bridge rumbled and rattled. It hadn’t been given enough time to calm.

  “That really doesn’t sound good,” Carol said. “We’d better hurry.”

  Abby nodded as she began to change the Bridge settings.

  “Remember the part about this bomb killing anyone who is right next to it when it explodes?” Carol said. “I really don’t want to die right now.” She shook her head, her hands still firmly holding the tranquilizer bomb. “I bet you’re not super fond of the idea either.”

  Abby shook her head. “Let’s get rid of it.”

  The Bridge shook again, loud and deep.

  The Sahara Desert filled the other side of the room. Where there had been the dim cold floor of the basement, miles of sand dunes rose and fell under a scorching sun. A wave of suffocating heat overtook the room, making it feel like an arid wasteland. “We don’t have much time,” Abby said. “Hurry, throw it in.”

  Carol hurled the tranquilizer bomb into the sand. “Sorry if there are any cacti and lizards out there! You might take a long nap.”

  The Bridge rumbled hard, its branches creaking and shaking, but Abby couldn’t shut it down. She pulled two spheres to relieve some of the pressure, but went back to searching for the blond-bearded security officer in the recent past. She found the spot when he set the bomb in the auditorium, then fast-forwarded.

  “I was kind of hoping we could see the big explosion in the desert,” Carol complained.

  “No time for that,” Abby said, checking the time. “We still have another bomb, and only three minutes.”

  The Bridge rattled, shaking the entire room. It was a small earthquake in the basement. A piece of metal fell to the floor.

  “It’s falling apart,” Carol said.

  Abby didn’t answer. She watched as the security guard took the next bomb out of his quarters and looked up at the security tower. It was a perfect place for the tranquilizer bomb to go off. It would explode over the entire campus and the tranquilizing cloud would settle over it all. Plus, the second place Muns had kept Grandpa captive was in the Hindenburg, high in the air. The top of the tower was the highest place on school grounds.

  “It’s on the tower,” Carol announced through her rings to the rest of the team.

  The Bridge quaked and more metal fell off its branches.

  “One more,” Abby said.

  The entire Bridge shifted an inch along the floor and several entire branches fell from their places. One nearly crashed onto Abby.

  Carol pulled the keys. The scene of the tower faded.

  “We need to get the other tranquilizer bomb!” Abby yelled, reaching for the keys.

  “No,” Carol said. “Then there wouldn’t be a Bridge left here and Muns would win. There has to be another way.”

  “Like what?” Abby asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  Explosions

  Derick opened his eyes. It felt like someone had clubbed him on the head. He closed them again, trying to block out the pain.

  He felt his body moving. Was he just motion-sick, or was he actually going somewhere?

  He forced himself to open his eyes again. Three security bots were carrying him toward the gates to leave Cragbridge Hall. The memory of minutes before came rushing back.

  Derick struggled against the metal grip of the bots, but they held firm. After all he had done, after all his work, he was going to be pulled away from the school by programmed machines. Embarrassing. At least he had passed off his key and sphere. Muns might get him, but he wouldn’t get those.

  The last of the student crowd ballooned at the gates. It would be a few minutes before he was out.

  Student after student crossed through the open gates and left the school. Guards were escorting Mr. Silverton and Mr. Sul. They both had keys. Maybe they had spheres. If security hadn’t confiscated them before, they were both about to hand them over to Muns whether they liked it or not. If Muns’s men had already taken just one more key from anyone else in the other council, then Muns would have power over the past. If they had spheres, one more would allow him to interact with the present. Then, if they didn’t get rid of the tranquilizer bomb, no one would be able to stop him.

  Derick thought of the future. He thought of the Ash.

  He heard Carol relay that they had found the other bomb on the tower. He looked over at it and wanted to spit. Just under the top, he saw something strapped to a pole. The tower that was supposed to keep the school protected held its greatest danger. Several security bots stood at their posts in front of the tower. Many more than on a usual day.

  Carol announced that they had to pull the keys out of the Bridge. They only had a few minutes.

  Derick wriggled madly. He had to get free. He was the closest to the bomb. He had to stop this.

  One of the robots carrying Derick fell to the ground, followed by another. Derick tumbled with them. He twisted his body in time to see a car robot taking out his third robot with its drill.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “You’re welcome,” Jess answered through her rings. “Anjum sent me. The rest of the team is fighting the robots at the avatar lab.”

  Derick looked up at the tower and took off running. It was up to him. It was like the first challenge in the Race. He was the closest. His team was depending on him to get this done. He’d have to find a way past the robots, climb the tower, and race the bomb down to the Bridge in time. Surely they could start it up for the split second it would take to throw a bomb through. He would have to be the fastest he’d even been.

  He remembered the flash from the saturn’s footage, the flash from the future. It had to be the tranquilizer b
omb exploding. If that was right, if it was showing him this future, he would reach the bomb, but not get rid of it in time. And the explosion would be the last thing he’d ever feel.

  He’d have to run faster, do better. He had to change the future.

  Or . . .

  • • •

  “Derick, are you okay?” Abby asked over her rings.

  “Yeah,” he panted as he spoke. “Jess came and saved me.”

  “Where are you?” Abby asked.

  “I’m going after the second bomb,” Derick said.

  “We have just over a minute left,” Carol said.

  “Just get ready to crank up the Bridge so we can throw the tranquilizer bomb out of here,” Derick said. “You won’t have time to change any settings. We’ll only need half a second.”

  “Have you got the bomb already?” Abby asked.

  “No, but,” he said, painting some more, “I’m on my way.”

  “You can’t bring it here in time.” Abby was panicking. It would take a minute to even climb the tower. “Derick, don’t get close to that bomb.” She pictured the scene from the saturn over and over. She could hear Derick’s scream in her head.

  “I need someone at every door between the tower and the basement room,” Derick said, his voice calming. Was he not running anymore? “I’ll be coming fast. Rafa, take the first. Use an avatar if you need to. I’ll need someone else at the door in the dead-end hall.”

  “I’ll take it,” Rafa’s mom said.

  “Abby and Carol, stay there to turn the keys,” Derick commanded.

  “Derick, no!” Abby protested. “I know you want to save the day, but this is impossible!”

  “I can do this,” Derick insisted.

  “No. You can’t,” Abby said. “No one can. Don’t get close to that bomb. Come down to the basement.” Her voice was filled with emotion. “Down here we’re safe. It’s like a bomb shelter. After the Bridge rests we can use it to get out.”

  “Then what?” Derick asked. “We let Muns destroy this whole school? We let him terrify everyone else? Then school won’t be in session again for how long? I’ve got this, Abby. Trust me.”

  “I want to.” She was weeping now. “I . . . I can’t lose you. I can’t! You’re my brother. You’re who I look up to. You have to be here. You . . .” Her words choked in her throat.

  “I can—” Derick started.

  “There’s no way!” Abby interrupted, frantic now. “No way anyone could possibly run fast enough from the tower to here. You’ve only got thirty-five seconds. No one can—”

  “Abby,” Derick cut her off, “who said anything about running?”

  “What?”

  “Did you know that some animals can go up to 200 miles per hour?”

  “Derick, you’re not making any sense.”

  “Have you ever heard of a stoop?”

  • • •

  Derick sliced the straps with his talons and ripped the bomb away from the tower. The robots had fought their way to the avatar lab and Derick had been the first person inside.

  He flapped his wings hard twice and then he dove. He needed all the speed he could get.

  Again, he felt the rush.

  He tucked in his feet and cut through the air with his beak, his small body falling story after story.

  Faster, more.

  He tried to tilt his body to gain more speed.

  The ground was getting bigger, closer.

  He had to do this just right.

  Not yet.

  “Stoop. Stoop. Stoop,” he could hear Rafa chanting. He must be watching from his place at the door. Members of the Crash joined in.

  He couldn’t pull up yet.

  Not yet.

  He waited after the moment he had pulled up before.

  A little more.

  “Stoop. Stoop.”

  He waited longer than he had seen Rafa or the other members of the Crash wait. He needed all his momentum.

  Now! Derick tilted his wings and swooped forward. He glided right over the ground, the bomb only inches away from it. Now that he had his speed, he lifted a little and shot straight at the door to the main building on campus. Rafa held it open.

  “Keep up the speed!” Rafa yelled.

  “Oh, I’m not slowing down.” Derick rocketed through the hall, past the commons, and down to the secret hallway. It did take some adjusting, flying where there were no conflicting air currents. He found himself flapping more to compensate.

  “How much time?” he asked, rocketing through the hall.

  “Nineteen seconds,” Carol answered. “Wow, this tension is crazy. You can do this!” she cheered. “Because if you don’t, you’ll just bring it closer to all of us and explode the Bridge and all of us with it.”

  She was right. Derick flapped harder as he passed Rafa’s mother—and Jenkins and his shell—holding the secret door.

  “Thirteen, twelve,” Carol counted down.

  Derick dove down where the ladder was and through the dark corridor. It was harder to see in the dark underbelly of the school. And going as fast as he was, he barely had time to react to twists and turns.

  “Eight. Seven. Six. Five.”

  Derick flew through the large metal doors as Carol held them open.

  “Four. Three.”

  He was in the same room. He caught a glimpse of his sister at the Bridge. The keys were turned, the Bridge rocking in its place.

  He threw open his wings, and flung the tranquilizer bomb with his talons. It passed into the desert and exploded. The other bomb Carol had thrown in before exploded simultaneously. A burst of tranquilizer cloud rocketed toward them at amazing speed, but faded to only a ghost of itself a fraction of a second before it could fill the room and destroy them all.

  Abby had twisted the keys.

  The Bridge began to settle.

  Derick panted. “I told you I could do it.”

  “Show-off,” Abby retorted. Then she hit her knees. “You changed it. You changed the future.”

  “Yeah. I guess I did.”

  Don’t You Dare Apologize

  The Spartans’ sync exploded with cheers.

  “That was crazy,” Maria said. She had obviously stayed and not bailed out early like she had threatened.

  “Yeah, Spartans!” Malcolm called out.

  “I’m sorry that I couldn’t help,” Piper said from outside the gates of the school. “Dumb security robots.”

  “Congratulations, everyone,” Anjum said, his voice lighter than usual. “We just won something so much bigger than a contest.”

  “Oh, yeah, we did!” Carol said, jumping up and down. She turned to Derick’s falcon that had just dropped a bomb into the desert. It was perched on the console of the Bridge. “High five!” Derick reached up one of the falcon’s feet, but Carol slowed when she saw the talons. “Eep. Lots of pokeys on that one.” She gingerly touched her hand to the robot bird’s foot.

  For several minutes, Abby stood there, basking in her relief. Her brother was safe. They had saved the school and her friends and all those locked up in the medical unit. She hugged Carol. She just breathed in and relaxed.

  The giant metal door behind them opened.

  Abby whirled around to see Coach Adonavich, the dark-haired gym teacher. She had been unconscious for weeks. “Abby,” the coach said, out of breath, in her thick Russian accent. She had obviously run there from the medical unit. “What is going on?”

  “We’re okay,” Abby answered. “We’re okay.”

  “We just kicked Muns’s plan all over the place,” Carol corrected.

  Mr. Trinhouse, a large black man, stepped in behind Coach Adonavich. Abby’s heart started to beat faster. More of them were awake.

  When one more figure passed through the large metal doorway, Abby rushed across the room.

  Her mother.

  Abby buried her head in her mother’s shoulder. She wanted to laugh and cry and dance, all at the same time. She just hugged.

&nbs
p; “Where’s Derick?” Abby’s mother asked.

  Abby looked over at the falcon avatar. It had gone limp. “I think he’s on his way,” Abby said.

  “Sorry, it took us a while,” Abby’s mother said, pressing her hand against the back of Abby’s head, then smoothing her hair. “We had to break out of the medical unit.”

  “Coach Horne and Mr. Trinhouse ruined four beds slamming them into the door before it gave,” Coach Adonavich explained. Coach Horne was a gym teacher and had been a professional weightlifter.

  “You did more than your share taking down that door,” Mr. Trinhouse said back to Coach Adonavich. She had been a gymnast and was capable of amazing physical feats.

  Coach Adonavich nodded.

  “Then we had a problem with a few security bots,” Abby’s mother continued the story.

  Mr. Trinhouse raised a stun gun, still attached to a robot arm. “I had to borrow a couple of these to get us through.” He glanced over at Abby’s mother, who looked at the floor. She had dropped her stun gun to hug her daughter.

  “Then,” Abby’s mother continued, “we had to persuade an extremely polite robot at the entrance that we were okay to come down, and he shouldn’t hit us with a baseball bat.” Her last words were half-spoken, half-laughed. “I have to admit I wasn’t expecting that. He insisted that a girl named Jess approve us.”

  Abby smiled, but tears still streamed down her cheeks. “Where’s Dad?” she asked.

  “He’s still waking up,” mom said. “So are a few more. The tranquilizers affected each of us differently, but I think we should all be back to normal before too long.”

  Another figure stepped into the room. He was large—and carrying someone. It was Coach Horne, with Abby’s grandfather in his large arms.

  “I said, ‘Set me down,’” her grandfather commanded. “Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I can’t walk.”

  “It has nothing to do with being old,” Coach Horne said in his deep voice. “You’ve only been fully awake for a few minutes.” He obediently set down Oscar Cragbridge.