A Measure of Disorder

  Alisha had ventured into a couple of towns along the way and bought an army’s worth of hamburgers and fries with the credit card she still had in her purse, but it had been risky. She was the only one who still looked human, so she had to go alone. A man had tried to follow her the second time, but she had convinced him it was a bad idea with the use of her power.

  After everyone had eaten their fill in the kitchen, Alisha had assigned them rooms, couches, etc., and they had fallen asleep. The door to her room had been closed. She opened it, and it had been like stepping back in time.

  She dropped her purse on the floor and flopped down on her bed. Familiar smells mixed with a mustiness from lack of use and her own need of a good, long shower. She thought of her parents, probably lying on a beach in southern France, or dining in a fancy restaurant, and wondered if they missed her. Probably not, she decided. She had always been a disappointment to them. They had tried to put her in a prestigious boarding school, but her test scores hadn’t been high enough, and her father hadn’t been willing to spend the extra money for the school to “overlook” the bad scores. She had taken dance and music lessons when she was younger, but had never shown much promise in either. Her two, much older brothers, had both graduated from college with promising careers. Alisha had been an accident of a drunken Christmas party — a complication at a time when her parents had been looking forward to their years with no children in the house. They were probably glad to be rid of her.

  She drifted off to sleep, tear stains coloring her pillow.

  * * * *

  Alisha woke to a bright, late afternoon sun shining in her face from her bedroom window. She was disoriented for a moment, then she looked at her clothes and wrinkled her nose from the smell of riding dragonback for days. She grunted in disgust and stalked off to the bathroom.

  She felt much better after a hot shower and a good half an hour rifling through her closet of clothes. She had always liked clothes, but had never really appreciated them. After first wearing the same outfit for weeks, then trading it for homespun linen, it was heavenly to have the feel of fine cotton, silk, and other fabrics against her skin. After trying on several outfits, she decided on a black pair of designer jeans, and a simple dark cotton top. As much as she wanted to dress in some of her finery, she knew stealth would be important if they were to accomplish their goal. Still, it could be fashionable stealth.

  After doing her hair, she walked to the kitchen to find something to eat.

  On her way, she passed Mrs. Minch, who was on the computer in the den. Probably guiding Zoe through more Internet research, she supposed. It had been a huge bonus to discover Zoe could live in a computer as easily as an open flame — she had been an enormous help in finding information about the waste site in Washington State.

  Alisha saw Todd in the living room, playing video games on the big screen. That boy is a complete “vidiot,” she thought, shaking her head. She had wondered why he’d even been brought along. Brandon had said Todd was a special type of Gobinstratstorai. He could heal fast or something — Alisha hadn’t really paid attention.

  The rest of the Gobinstratstorai were in the kitchen, eating. She couldn’t believe how much food they could pack away. Alisha opened a cupboard and pulled out a heat-and-eat bowl of soup and tossed it in the microwave. While that was heating, she grabbed a box of crackers from the counter and a soda from the refrigerator. The microwave beeped and she carried her meal to one end of the dining room table.

  She blew on a spoonful of soup to cool it, and watched in disgust as the Gobinstratstorai ate bowlful after bowlful of pork and beans, ravioli, and anything else they could get their grubby hands on. Alisha had shown them how to use the can opener that morning before they had gone to bed. The only food in the house was dried or canned since her parents were gone for the summer.

  Unable to take her eyes off them, much like passing a car wreck on the side of the road, she noticed their skin didn’t look as green as before. Also, all their ears were smaller, and the clothes of the large ones looked loose and ill fitting. Suddenly, it dawned on her what was happening. They’re changing! Just like we did when we got there!

  Alisha had been fortunate her changes had been mostly internal, granting her the ability to control others with her mind. She shuddered, thinking she could have been hideous like Mrs. Minch. Maggie had become tiny, but at least she was still cute. Mrs. Minch hadn’t been pretty to start with, but Alisha could hardly stand to look at her now.

  Then, another thought occurred to her: If these guys are changing, will we change back to our old selves? She didn’t feel any different, but she hadn’t before either. She would have to keep an eye on Todd and Mrs. Minch.

  Just as Alisha was finishing her soup, Mrs. Minch came around the corner with a netbook in her hands. She sat in the seat next to Alisha and put the computer on the table.

  Alisha quickly studied her. Mrs. Minch’s features didn’t seem any different — her ears were as big as ever and her skin still had a sickly green cast to it.

  She met Alisha’s eyes and said, “We have a problem.”

  37

  Ryan Vargas studied his computer screen with a mouthful of danish.

  His eight foot square cubical wasn’t spacious, but he enjoyed his job as a Computer Specialist in the offices of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C.

  He methodically chewed the sweet pastry as he pored over the information scrolling across the screen. He took a minute to double check what he saw with one of their other surveillance computers, then he picked up the phone and swallowed his bite of breakfast.

  Ryan punched in a short series of numbers and listened while the phone rang on the other end.

  “Peterson, here. What is it?”

  “Ah, yes sir,” Ryan began, “I have some more hits on that group of kids that disappeared in Idaho a few months back.”

  “Okay,” the voice on the other end said. “What have you got?”

  “Well, we’ve been tracking a cell phone intermittently across the Dakotas, Montana, and now Idaho…”

  “Yes, I’m aware of that,” Peterson said tersely. “What else do you have?”

  “Ah, a couple of credit cards have come through: Alisha Hester’s and Teresa Osorio’s. Multiple purchases in the Dakotas and Montana. Additionally, I found a report of a stolen car in Wilmot, South Dakota, which is near where we first picked up the cell phone, and the dates match up.”

  “Hm, okay… anything else?”

  “I’m working on getting security camera footage from the businesses now. I should have it in the next couple of hours.”

  “Very good. Alert the FBI and local authorities and let me know if anything else pops up.”

  “Yes, sir. Will do.” The connection closed and Ryan hung up the phone.

  He looked over the list of purchases that had been made again. They didn’t make much sense. There were a couple of big fast food tallies — over seventy-five dollars each, that’s a lot of french fries, he snickered. And there were a couple of Walmart stops, but no big ticket items. Just some clothing, snack food and, on one, a car charger for a music player. Lastly, there was an ATM withdrawal and a couple of gas pump tallies, which also tied in with the stolen car.

  Ryan dug through some papers on his desk and found a map of the U.S. He pulled a pen from his pocket and marked the locations and times of each of the credit card hits, and the cell phone locators he had. They made a pretty straight line from eastern South Dakota, all the way to Idaho, but some of the time stamps didn’t make sense. Like they had backtracked for some reason. Or maybe it’s more than one group, Ryan surmised.

  But, how or why the class had so completely disappeared outside of Boise in the spring, and now shown up in eastern South Dakota, making a beeline back to Idaho was mystifying. Maybe someone had found the kids’ personal items … but why would they be so far from their original location? Ryan shrugged. Hopefully the security cameras will have something.

  He picked
up the phone again and punched for the building operator.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, get me FBI, Missing Persons, please.”

  “Right away, sir.”

  38

  Jenni never thought she’d learn to drive going across Montana in a stolen car.

  They had traveled back roads as much they could, to avoid attention, but had gotten lost a couple of times, even with maps supplied via the Internet from Mrs. Osorio.

  Around noon of the first day, they had stopped at a Walmart in a small town in South Dakota for supplies. They needed food and a charger for Mrs. Osorio’s MP3 player. Jenni had suggested they also get some normal clothes, so they wouldn’t stick out so much when they had to go out in public.

  Jenni had gone in alone with Mrs. Osorio, while Mr. Kain and Crank waited in the car. Everything had gone smoothly and Jenni had filled up a cart with snacks and other food and drinks, as well as some jeans and T-shirts. They even found the right kind of charger for the player.

  The store had an automated check out system, and Jenni held Mrs. Osorio up to the card reader and had pretended to swipe a card while a spark leapt to the checkout machine. Mrs. Osorio accessed her own credit card account, and registered the purchases on it. They had all agreed they didn’t want to steal anything else if they could avoid it.

  An attendant, standing nearby to help customers, gave Jenni an odd look, but soon went back to filing her nails. Jenni waited nervously for the computer to process the transaction. Finally, it instructed her to take the receipt and her items. She held the MP3 player in the hand she used to take the receipt, and Mrs. Osorio sparked back into the player. Hurriedly, Jenni put all the bags in her cart and wheeled everything out to the car.

  The next day, they had decided to get some cash from an ATM machine instead, so Jenni didn’t have to take the chance of getting caught without a credit card.

  Mrs. Osorio had been able to connect briefly with Zoe twice more along the way. Brandon’s group had reached Boise in the early morning of their third day back. Mr. Kain had been driving and they were approaching Bozeman, Montana.

  “The way I see it,” Mr. Kain said after hearing the report from Mrs. Osorio, “we have two choices. We can keep going to Boise ourselves, but we’ll still be behind them because we all need to get some rest soon.”

  “What’s the other?” Jenni asked.

  “We know where they’re going, so we could head north, toward Washington. I’ve been looking at the map we picked up, and I think we can get there about the same time, or even ahead of them.” Mr. Kain paused to let the implications sink in.

  Tears welled up in Jenni’s eyes. “So we won’t be able to see our families.”

  Mr. Kain nodded. “That’s right. But, if we don’t take this chance to make up ground, I don’t see how we’ll have any way to stop them.” He turned to her then and said, “Jenni, I know how hard this is for you, for all of us.”

  Jenni had been holding out hope she might be able to see her mother and father again. She had tried to keep her mind off it. They had to find a way to stop Brandon and Alisha, but there had been too much time to think while driving on lonely roads with Mr. Kain sleeping in the back seat. It wasn’t fair! She was back on Earth, but couldn’t see her family again!

  They talked about contacting the authorities, but who would believe their story? The only way to put an end to it was to do it themselves somehow, and to do that, they had to remain hidden.

  In the end, they all agreed to go north, but it was the hardest decision of Jenni’s life.

  They rested a few hours in a campground, then got back on the road. They decided to chance taking the Interstate Highway, so they could make better time. Jenni drove so Mr. Kain could rest more and drive the upcoming night into Washington.

  He switched to the driver’s seat just before they got to Missoula, Montana. Jenni tried to buckle herself in next to Crank as they had before, but found it difficult to make the belt reach.

  “Man, Crank, you’re going to have to lay off the cheese puffs!” she said jokingly. “You’re gaining weight.”

  Crank chuckled. “Yes, I noticed this morning my pants were tight. I do love your cheese puffs though!”

  Jenni managed to get the buckle latched, then noticed that Crank’s pant leg didn’t even reach his ankle.

  “Crank,” Jenni said, alarmed. “I think you’re growing.”

  Crank looked down at his pants, and then back to Jenni in shock. “Oh, my!”

  Mr. Kain looked over and shook his head. “Nothing we can do about it right now, let’s get moving.”

  They got off the interstate and took Highway 12, west, toward Washington. The road led through the mountains and National Forest land in northern Idaho.

  They drove through the late afternoon and into the evening, snacking on the last of the food they’d bought. Mr. Kain glanced down at the instruments. “We’ll have to get gas again soon,” he said.

  Jenni checked their map. “There’s a little town called Kooskia coming up in a few miles, I think.”

  Mr. Kain nodded. “Sounds good, we’ll gas up and grab some more food for our last push. I think we can get there before midnight. Then we’ll have to figure out a plan.”

  The sun had set a few minutes before, and they were coming out of the heavily forested mountains. A river ran along the left side of the road and there was little traffic.

  They rounded a corner and, ahead in the distance, Jenni saw flashing lights.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  Mr. Kain saw them too and slowed. “I don’t know but it doesn’t look good.”

  “We need to get off this road,” Mrs. Osorio said. “I just got phone signal back — that’s a road block for us up there!”

  Mr. Kain slowed more. Up ahead, Jenni saw a dirt road, leading off to the right. “There!” she pointed.

  “I see it.” Mr. Kain braked and turned down the small road. They bounced uncomfortably and Jenni felt a prickling at her neck. She reached up and took Matt from her neck. He changed into a flat circle and showed Jenni a combination of words and pictures.

  “Matt has an idea,” Jenni said as she studied the stone. “Pull off to the side, past that grove of trees up ahead.”

  “Okay, I don’t think we’re going to get very far on foot though,” Mr. Kain said, worried.

  “Lori,” Jenni called. “Matt wants to know—”

  “She says, ‘Yes’,” Mrs. Osorio interrupted. “She can do what he’s asking. We can see what he’s writing.”

  “Okay, good,” Jenni said, glad she didn’t have to play interpreter.

  Mr. Kain pulled into the grass and shut off the lights and engine.

  “Everybody out! Grab your things,” Jenni said, reaching for the strap of her pack and opening the car door.

  “Now what?” Mr. Kain asked.

  Jenni set Matt on the ground and immediately earth and rock began to build up around them and the car. She noticed lights moving through the trees in the distance. The police had seen them leave the road and were in pursuit.

  Soon, they were enveloped in darkness under Matt’s dome of dirt.

  “Jenni,” Mrs. Osorio said, “Lori says you’ll need to get as small as you can to save space.”

  “Okay.” Jenni set her pack down and concentrated. She shrank down and took a small Faerstrastenai form with wings. She nearly forgot to create clothing for herself as her shirt and jeans became too big. She was always incredibly self conscious when she made herself small and couldn’t wear her clothes. No one could see anything when she did it right, but in her mind, she knew she was naked. It was very disconcerting.

  She flexed her tiny wings and flew up to Crank’s face. “Can you pack my clothes for me?”

  Crank nodded and Mrs. Osorio said, “Everyone close together, and get Bonnie’s bottle out and open it.”

  Crank put Jenni’s clothes away and pulled out Bonnie’s bottle. Mr. Kain shouldered the pack and held Mrs. Osori
o. Jenni could hear a couple of cars coming up the road outside. She landed on Crank’s shoulder and waited.

  The earth began to move under their feet and they sank as Matt tunneled into the ground.

  “Lori is creating a sphere of air around us while Matt moves us under the ground. Once we reach the water, Bonnie will take over,” Mrs. Osorio explained.

  “Water?” Jenni said, confused.

  “The water table is high here, being close to the river. Matt is taking us down to it, then Bonnie will move us to the river.”

  Mr. Kain chuckled. “Hopefully no one is claustrophobic.”

  They continued to move slowly down. Matt created a stone platform under their feet, and then they broke free of the dirt and emerged, inside their air bubble, in an underground river.

  Bonnie jumped from her bottle, into the water surrounding their bubble. The only light was from Mrs. Osorio’s screen.

  Jenni could feel, more than see, their movement — it was disorienting and frightening. They were trapped, twenty or thirty feet below ground, with only a small bubble keeping them from being crushed by water and rock. She trusted her friends, though, to keep them safe.

  “How did you know the road block was there to stop us?” Mr. Kain asked in the darkness.

  “I received an email from Zoe,” Mrs. Osorio answered. “She told me she discovered the authorities had picked us, and her group, up from the credit card, and cell phone usage. She also said Mrs. Minch had found out she was talking with me, and made Zoe plant a tip of our location to the police. The only thing Zoe could do to help us was send me a message. She didn’t know if she’d be able to contact us again.”

  Jenni felt a change of direction and Mrs. Osorio continued, “We’re under the riverbed now and Matt and Bonnie are bringing us into the river itself.”

  They broke through the ground again, startling a few fish. The water was about ten feet deep and they remained under the surface, letting Bonnie and the current carry them downstream. Jenni could faintly see the night sky through the water above them.

  The river would carry them close to their destination if they continued to follow it, but they had lost the car and the police were looking for them. How were they supposed to stop Brandon and the others now? Jenni sat dejectedly on Crank’s shoulder as they drifted through the water in their bubble of air.