Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow

  * * * * *

  Neither me or Penny got a chance to run to the lab third hour. My teacher lectured the whole time and on top of it, Dan hadn’t come to school today, so I couldn’t beg him for the answers I needed. Then Penny told me that due to a group project, she didn’t get a chance to duck out, either.

  It wasn’t until my fourth hour did a window of opportunity open up.

  I took a seat near the front of my World Issues class while Mr. Langspur rolled a television into the room. He had a grave look on his face, too. “Class, I’m afraid we’re about to witness one of the biggest natural disasters in our country’s history. Watch.”

  He flipped off the lights and moved to show the TV. It was on the news, which never meant anything good. This time was no exception. The biggest hurricane ever spun right at the East Coast. Below it, huge letters read Record Evacuation Underway as Hurricane Janelle Approaches U.S. East Coast. Mr. Langspur stood there, transfixed as a guy’s voice droned out of the TV. Around me, the class did the same.

  I couldn’t believe my luck. I mean, yeah, the hurricane was bad and everything, but I had my own problems right now. I didn’t have time to worry about normal stuff like that.

  After feeling the outline of the plastic CD case in my backpack, I slowly got up from my chair and slipped out the open door. Nobody noticed. At least, I think they didn’t. Mr. Langspur didn’t yell at me to sit back down or anything. He’d started talking about his brother who lived on the coast. Poor guy.

  No one walked out in the hall and figures in shadow form—or otherwise—jumped out at me. A locker slammed in the distance and a teacher closed a door near the corner. Here went.

  I walked quickly up the four hundred wing and past the office, hoping I just looked late to a class. The computer lab was way over in the art hall, according to Mr. Harvey. The distance seemed like a real hike now, especially now that I was alone. I figured if anything came after me, I could scream and someone would come running.

  Okay. The art hall. Drawings and paintings in a glass case stared at me. I tiptoed past a classroom with foreign language posters covering the window. A partially open door halfway down caught my eye. I held my breath and peeked in.

  Bingo.

  The room had all the lights turned off, but rows of tables sat in the middle of the room. That is, rows with computers on them. Computers that didn’t show the Blue Screen of Death. Their screens glowed with the purple-and-gray Westonville High School logo.

  I ducked in and gently closed the door behind me. I couldn’t help pumping my fist. The Shadow Regime probably didn’t even know about this room. “Yes!”

  Now cast in darkness, I chose a computer near the back of the room so a teacher wouldn’t see me if they walked by. I clicked on the Internet icon and loaded the disc into the computer, as I couldn’t remember the link to the Youtube videos and I didn’t have time to do a search. I brought up the Open First folder and clicked on the link.

  After several tense seconds, the Saga of Gabe Cruz popped up in five parts. I scrolled down and clicked on Part Five with a sweaty palm.

  The loading screen popped up, and the bar grew across the screen much faster than the other four entries. A short entry. Bad sign. My heart pounded faster and my palms tingled with anticipation. Finally, after three very tense minutes, Gabe Cruz appeared on the screen.

  He looked way worse in this video than he had in the last four. Cold sweat rolled down the sides of his face and he trembled like he had the flu. He was sitting in his room again. Only now his door was barricaded with his bed.

  “Oh, my god,” he moaned, wiping the sweat off his face. “They’re after me. This is no joke. This thing on my arm,” he said, rolling up his sleeve to show the A, “I think it’s a tracker. They’re using it to find me. I can’t run anywhere. It burns every time those freaks are close, like it’s telling them where I’m at.”

  He glanced behind him again, then at the camera. His eyes were wide and terrified. I found myself rubbing at the A on my own arm as goosebumps rose on my skin. A tracker? No wonder that Shadow One found that window I was at yesterday. I could only pray it didn’t go off before I got done with this.

  “They chased me on the way home from school—they were in this blue van and yelling at me through a loudspeaker. Something about a procedure twenty-eight. Please, listen! If anyone’s out there watching this—”

  Gabe went dead silent and sat bolt upright. One of the portals grew wider right behind the back of his chair.

  “No!” I yelled, unable to help it. “Move!”

  Black and spinning, it took up the entire screen behind Gabe. The bright purple swirls spun inside of it, making my head ache. Gabe turned his head just in time to see two figures in blue armor running out at him, their heads cut off by the screen.

  He leapt back, arm hitting the webcam. It titled and fell back into place.

  I jumped. I couldn’t help it.

  Two pairs of arms sleeved in blue caught his arms and wrenched him backwards. Gabe thrashed and screamed as the chair fell out from under him. One of his hands hit the camera again, and it tilted off the desk and hit the floor. It landed only to show Gabe’s flailing feet vanishing into the portal.

  The black and purple vanished, leaving a view of his floor. The screen faded to black. At last, white letters appeared on the screen: Gabe Cruz, Missing Since May 28.

  Then, in smaller letters: Please share this video with everyone you know.

  “Damn it!” I rose from my chair, fists clenching. I didn’t know whether to feel angry. Or scared to death. Or both. Most likely both. Suddenly, Josh and Kristina didn’t seem so bad anymore. The Shadow Ones had abducted Gabe from his own room. Was that what I had to look forward to, with this tracker on me? No wonder Dan and Sean were too scared to tell me anything. They didn’t want to end up in that portal with Gabe, and I didn’t blame them. I scanned the dark computer lab to make sure no portals had opened. Only glowing screensavers stared back at me.

  I closed out the screen. No way I wanted to see any more. I had all the info I needed. Only the screen stared back at me with its two folders.

  Two files. I’d almost forgotten there was a second folder Sean wanted me to see.

  I closed out the window and clicked on the Open Second folder. A newspaper clipping appeared on the screen a second later. Gabe Cruz smiled out at me from a school photo. Just above him, huge black letters read Teen Missing Since Thursday.

  Wincing, I scrolled down to the next page without reading the article. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t mention anything about shadow people.

  Another article glowed on the screen. Mall Curfew Protester Vanishes.

  Below the headline, a girl of about sixteen stood in front of a big shopping mall. She held a sign that read Revoke Mall Curfew: Unfair to Teens.

  Good for her. I gripped the table with all my might. I just wished she hadn’t disappeared.

  I scrolled down again, only to see a third headline screaming out at me:

  Activist For Rights of Older Workers Missing.

  An older guy smiled from the steps of a courthouse, unaware that he was doomed. A chill ran down my spine as I scrolled down once again. This was getting scarier by the second.

  24-Year-Old Man Disappears Before Protest On High Car Insurance Rates For Young Drivers.

  No. I wasn’t seeing all this. This couldn’t be true. The Shadow Regime couldn’t be as bad as this. Someone would’ve noticed. I moved on to the next page.

  Girl Protesting City Curfew Goes Missing Over Weekend.

  I scrolled down again. A lump formed in my throat.

  Advocate For Elderly Vanishes.

  Again. I wanted to scream.

  4 Protesters Missing, Manhunt in Progress.

  I couldn’t do this anymore. It was too horrible. Everything I’d just seen spun through my head. The S
hadow Regime really had a grip on the world, and nobody even knew about their evil. All I could do now was tell Penny and Ryan about this at lunch and go into hiding. Preferably with armed guards around me.

  The A on my arm burned.

  I leapt out of the chair. Gabe said something about this. It burned when—

  Footsteps approached out in the hallway.

  My heart stopped. I frantically closed out the screen and slid out of the chair. They were close. I scooted under the desk as far as I could. A couple of muffled voices floated in and the doorknob jiggled.

  I prayed for it to be a teacher. Or a hall monitor. Or even the creepy Burger Planet astronaut. Anything but the Shadow Regime.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t plant the virus in the computer lab,” a man scolded someone outside the door. “What if one of those delinquents skips class to come down here? They might see those videos. Actually, why didn’t you take them off the Internet?”

  “I already did the library and that classroom yesterday,” another guy argued. His voice sounded muffled behind the door. “And emailed the virus to half the town. It’s kind of hard to sneak around here and not get caught. I tried to get down here yesterday, but there were classes in here. And someone keeps posting the videos online. I can’t do anything about them.”

  I squeezed myself farther under the desk. I knew those voices. One belonged to the window guy. The other one, the techie’s, sounded familiar too, but I couldn’t place it.

  Just then, the door opened. Light spilled into the computer lab. Two shadows stretched across the floor only feet from me.

  Yikes.

  The gray-haired guy sighed. “You need to figure out that it’s not good to get the boss mad at us. You’re the techie, not me. I’m no good with computers. Do you realize I was born two hundred years ago?”

  Whoa. I guess A. Gist was right about the immortal thing.

  The man from the cafeteria stepped into the room. The second figure followed and shut the door behind him. The room fell back into semidarkness. I officially had no escape. I could only hope this tracker didn’t give off a signal again, or I was hosed.

  “Great,” the techie said. “There’s twenty-five of these things in here, George. We’ll have to do them one at a time.”

  “Boss’s orders,” George told him in a snotty tone of voice. I liked this guy about as much as A. Gist. “I’ll stay by the door.”

  “I hate this. I never wanted this job.” The techie seethed. He stomped away from his companion…and towards me. A pair of jackboots drew closer.

  “Well, if it wasn’t for you,” George said coolly, “We wouldn’t have to be down here right now. But orders are orders. Get used to it.”

  The techie walked right in front of her. I held my breath. If he stopped at this computer, I’d be spotted for sure.

  The A on my arm burned again and I about died. Not good.

  “You know what?” George asked. “My sensor’s going off. We must be close to that girl.” I heard rustling as he dug in a pocket. “Oh, yes. I’m picking up the signal. Strong, too. She can’t be more than fifty feet away.”

  I gulped. It was all about to hit the fan. It might really be scream time.

  “Someone in here?” the techie asked. “I don’t see anyone.”

  “This thing doesn’t lie.” A pause. “Hmmm. Not to mention there’s a backpack sitting just a few feet from you.”

  The light clicked on.

  A pair of legs in blue pants and black jackboots stood five feet away. The shiny boots turned to point at me. Busted. If I wanted to avoid a trip to another universe, I had to move now. Waiting for them pull me out wouldn’t do any good. They’d have to fight to take me away.

  “Aaarrrrr!” I shot out from under the desk and stood as the room tilted around me. If I made enough noise, someone would come. I could take them by surprise. I could—

  I stopped cold.

  No one moved or made a sound. The techie Shadow One stood frozen two feet away from me. In one horrifying moment, I placed his voice as a wave of sickness washed through my guts.

  Tall and very skinny, he stared back at me with wide brown eyes. My gaze landed on his black, spiky hair, which was now spotted with bright blue.

  It was Gabe Cruz.