The Academy: Book 2 (77 page)

             
Asa smiled, closed the sack, and was walking towards the door when a dark and cold thought came to him, like a hangman whispering cold breath into his ear. He stopped, and his skin crawled as he considered the thought.

             
Teddy’s a Multiplier. His intentions are skewed. You got this idea from the same person who carved out a secret mansion in the mountains, and then tried to KILL YOU within it!

             
Asa looked at the door, and responded to the voice in his head by speaking aloud: “He didn’t bite me, though. He took the suicide pill. He would have rather killed himself than bitten me.”

             
Asa took two more steps, and then the cold voice responded:
He was different back then. He had only been a Multiplier a few days when he took the suicide pill. Now, he’s been one for well over a month. You’ve seen the vicious ways in which Multipliers act
(an image of Ned straining as he choked Rose with all his strength flashed across Asa’s mind).
Two days in, his gums were only spotted black! Now, they’re as black as charcoal. Do you really think that he hasn’t changed? Can you really trust him? And what about the radio? Wasn’t he talking to someone on the radio? Do you think that he could have been speaking with the Hive?

             
“SHUT UP!” He screamed, and the noise echoed loudly among the walls. “He hugged me last night. If he was going to bite me, or wanted something to happen to me, he would have hurt me then.” He blew out the candle, put it back on the door-side table, and walked out into the fog. He shut the door behind him, leapt into the air, and flew over to the backside of Fishie Mountain.

             
He was in the air for fifteen minutes, trying to find the location of the waterfall. He couldn’t remember exactly where it was. All the time he was in the air, he was trying not to think of Allen shooting Ned, or the Davids with slit throats out in the woods. He tried not to wonder what they would do if they found him.
They would torture me, probably, and try to get some information out of me. Then, they’d either kill me or bite me.
Every time he pushed one of these thoughts away, it resurfaced, but was more violent and more convincing. He hugged the bombs to his chest, and thought about how much better he would feel when this was all over.

             
He was blind in the fog. He found that even his echolocation cries offered him limited visibility due to the hanging moisture.

             
After a time, though, he heard the rushing sound of the waterfall, and landed in the jungle one hundred yards from the Multiplier’s lair. He stood under the canopy and contracted his wings back into his shoulder blades.

             
In the dim light, he could see that the tree trunks and the green vines that wrapped around them were covered in droplets of condensation, like a glass of ice water on a summer’s day. The cicadas were singing away, just like last night, when he had come here with Jen.

             
Jen,
he thought, and his heart palpated. He wondered if she was looking for him now, at the dance. He wondered if he didn’t show up at Viola’s dwelling tonight if the Sharks would come looking for him.

             
He shook his head again, and reminded himself to concentrate on what he had to do.

             
Carrying the sack of bombs by his side, he walked as quietly as possible through the jungle. He carefully avoided any fallen leaves on the dark dirt floor. He walked slowly, only moving seventy-five yards in the next three minutes. As he got closer, the waterfall came into view and he felt like he might vomit. He could see lights shining through the falling sheet of water;
Someone’s home,
he thought, and almost giggled.

             
The sound of rustling branches came to Asa and he snapped his head back just in time to see a dark form moving forty-feet above him through the tops of the canopy. It was gone in a flash, disappearing into the fog.

             
Asa’s mouth was instantly dry and he tried to imagine what could have just glided through the canopy like that. At first, he thought it was the shape of a chimpanzee, but then he began to wonder if it could have been a human.
Or a Multiplier?

             
He groaned, and leaned against a tree. The incredible fear he was feeling reminded him of when the police officer Harold Kensing had held a gun to his head the night before Conway kidnapped him and taken him to the Academy. Asa closed his eyes. He was back in the police car, now, looking at the dashboard where the radio had been pulled out. Harold king had the gun to Asa’s head. He told Asa, “
I just remember the black gums. They have black gums and a black tongue and they held me by the neck and told me that if I didn’t do this that they’d kill my whole family and me. Oh, Asa. They could. They could. And trust me, there’s no reason for me not to kill you right here and now, Asa Palmer, because they are powerful, much more powerful than the fishy place thinks that they are. They’ll find you anywhere. You’re as good as dead, son.”

             
Asa opened his eyes. He was back in the dark, foggy jungle, looking across the water at the spider-like shadows in the foliage. His legs felt unsteady beneath him as he looked at the lights behind the waterfall, and imagined a hundred thousand Multipliers living in an expansive cave behind the sheet of water. He guessed that they would be getting ready to leave now; to head to Town and feast on everyone they found.

             
Asa clenched his fists, and remembered that these were the Multipliers who bit Brumi.
And they bit Teddy. And they killed Bruce.
He thought of Roxanne’s tears when she had been told.

             
No longer wondering what the shadow was that had moved above him, Asa whispered, “No more, you bastards.” He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants, picked up the sack of bombs, and began to move out of the jungle and into the clearing on the bank of the river.

             
The fog was thick, but if a Multiplier came out of the waterfall, they would be able to clearly see Asa now as he moved beside the river. He felt incredibly aware of every breath he took. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat, and his fingers growing numb because he was holding the sack so hard.

             
Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. That’s it. You’re doing well.

             
A crow screamed in the jungle, and Asa jumped. He looked over and could see the black bird regarding him with beady eyes. Asa put his finger to his mouth to tell the bird to hush. The bird screamed again, as if in protest to Asa’s actions.

             
He went on, though.

             
The rocks directly beside the waterfall were slippery, and Asa used a great deal of concentration in selecting rocks that wouldn’t slide out from under his feet when he stepped on them. He climbed upwards, holding the bag above him so that it wouldn’t hit against the ground and make noise. When he was halfway up, he turned around and sat down. He was eye-level with the forest canopy now, and was close enough to the waterfall that he could touch it.

             
He looked at the earth beside the waterfall, and felt wary of Teddy’s plan. In theory, it had made sense. While he was speaking with Teddy the night before, he imagined bombs exploding at the mouth of the cave, and the entire river above the enclosure crashing down on the Multipliers within. But now, he didn’t feel so sure that it would work that way. The earth was hard-packed and rocky. He scooted even closer to the waterfall, and put a hand on the damp dirt. He imagined one of the bombs going off, and the waterfall and cave beneath remaining intact.
If the bomb doesn’t kill them, then it will just work as a firework to let them know that I’m here.

             
Asa saw that this wasn’t a time to give up and turn around, though. He was already beside the waterfall with the bombs in hand. He wanted to attack the Multipliers, and didn’t have any better ideas.

             
He reached inside the potato sack for the first bomb.

             
He held out the cantaloupe-sized explosive and examined it in the ghostly light. The fuse coming out of one end was wrapped in barbed wire that would spark with another substance inside when tugged upon. He didn’t know how big the explosion would be, but he suspected that it would be substantial. He knew that he would only have enough time for one chance, so he began to take out all six bombs and layer them into the rocks beside the waterfall. His plan was to pull four fuses, then fly away, and hope that the other bombs exploded in the presence of harsh trauma and extreme heat.

             
He was placing the fourth bomb when he heard a noise that turned his blood to ice and pumped his heart so full of adrenaline that it kicked at the wall of his chest like an angry bull.

             
FLICK

             
Then quiet. Asa couldn’t muster the courage to turn around. He sensed that the sound was close, but didn’t know how close.
Am I visible in the fog?
he wondered.

             
FLICK FLICK FLICK

             
Then there was a heavy sigh. Asa turned around as slowly as possible, trying to remain invisible.

             
Sitting five yards to Asa’s right and a step or two lower on the incline was Rose. She was wearing a short skirt that barely covered any of her legs; they were so pale that they seemed to glow. Thin, black spaghetti straps were the only things resting upon her bare, bony shoulders. Her legs were crossed in front of her, and she was smoking a cigarette. When she exhaled, the smoke was barely visible in the dense fog.

             
Asa’s eyes widened and his mouth gaped open in shock. He watched as the tobacco at the end of her cigarette reddened when she inhaled, illuminating her pale face. He hoped that she was drunk, or high, and hadn’t noticed him. He stayed as still as a statue, hoping that if he didn’t move, she wouldn’t detect him.

             
She exhaled, looked out onto the foggy jungle and spoke, “What are you doing here?”

             
Asa followed Rose’s gaze, suddenly terrified that there was another Multiplier below that he couldn’t yet see. She took another drag, and exhaled again. Still, Asa couldn’t see anyone down there.

             
“I asked you a question,” she said. She inhaled, and then her head turned and she was smiling at Asa. Her lips were covered in thick Salvaserum, and in the faint light, it looked like Bruce’s blood.

             
Asa opened his mouth to scream, but only a faint rasp came out. Instinctually, he tried to grab one of the bombs, but his hands were slick with sweat and he dropped it into the river below.

             
Then, Rose was on top of him. The cigarette was gone from her mouth, and the Salvaserum was now all over her neck. She swiped the remainder of the bombs aside, where they fell to the water. Asa hoped that they would explode, and in a miraculous chain of events, he would be able to wriggle free of Rose’s grip and fly away.

             
But they didn’t explode. They made soft THUNKS in the river below, and then were taken away by the current.

             
Rose was straddling Asa, and smiling insanely wide. Asa couldn’t tell the difference between her teeth and her gums because of how much Salvaserum she was producing. “Oooooh, look what I’ve found. Is it he?” Her hands went to Asa’s hair and pulled it up off of his forehead. Somehow, her smile widened. “It is!” she bent down and smelled Asa’s neck. Hot Salvaserum fell to his neck. She sat up and moaned. “I found him! I found Asa Palmer!” she was talking in ecstasy to no one in particular. She bent down and whispered in his ear. “I want to bite you so bad. I want to rip out your throat and pour Salvaserum into your bloodstream.” She was whimpering with a desire to kill him. Asa tried to jerk away, but her hands were wrapped around his wrists like unbreakable shackles. She was unbelievable strong. She smelled of alcohol.