Quaranteen: The Loners

  32

  Lucy hid under the staircase as the battle with the Skaters neared its end. She clutched a length of pipe in her hand, but there was no point. She was too afraid to use it. She’d never seen a battle like this. It wasn’t like the drops. It was more cutthroat.

  She dared to peer out at the madness. There was a large fire in the center of room where the Loners once were. Someone had set a broken-down couch ablaze. Silhouettes tangled in the fire’s light. The first face she recognized was Will’s.

  He slashed at a Skater with a knife, and the Skater dropped the board he was wielding. With a clean kick, Will shot the skateboard across to Ritchie, who stomped it in two. Ritchie snatched up the two pieces and chucked them in the fire.

  All around the circle, Loners were stripping Skaters of

  their boards whenever they had the chance and sending them to Ritchie for destruction. The Skaters clutched their remaining boards to their chests and began to retreat into the shadows. Soon they were gone altogether. When the battle was over, Will led the Loners out of the commons in the direction of the ruins.

  Lucy waited until they had all passed before sliding out from under the staircase. The fire crackled in the center of the room. It was the only sound that remained. She felt like such a coward, but she didn’t know what else to do. She followed their path but paused in front of the doors to the foyer.

  Lucy looked down at herself. Her dress was clean, she had no cuts or bruises on her arms, she clearly had not participated in the battle. She couldn’t bring herself to open the doors.

  Lucy bent down and rubbed her hands across the dirty floor.

  She wiped the filth on her face and dress, then reached down and ripped her dress to her thigh.

  She took a breath and stumbled into the foyer. She expected everyone to be looking at her, watching her. They weren’t, not even David. They were standing in a circle around something.

  She saw it all so fast. David was crying. A giant portrait of him was on the wall. Dorothy’s body. It was too much.

  She went to David’s side. He stared up at the mural.

  “She fell off the ladder,” David said.

  A twenty-foot construction ladder lay by Dorothy’s body.

  David wiped the tears off his cheek.

  “We’re going to give her a proper funeral,” David said.

  “We don’t have time,” Will objected.

  “We’ll make time. Help me lift her into the cage.” David, Will, and Ritchie picked Dorothy up and placed her gently into the Skaters’ rolling cage. Lucy took David’s hand; she wanted to be close to him. She wanted him to smother the insecurity flaring up inside her. David pulled hard on her hand and whipped her behind him. Over his shoulder she saw that Zachary and the Geeks had entered the foyer. The Loners picked up their weapons.

  There were about twenty of them, lightly armed, and they stumbled into a clumsy formation behind Zachary when they saw the Loners. They looked liked they’d happened upon a stickup and it was too late to walk back out of the bank. The Geeks quickly drew what weapons they had.

  David walked forward, putting his hands up to show he meant no harm. Will motioned for the Loners to keep close to David.

  “Zachary, what’s up?”

  Zachary relaxed and smiled at David.

  “We heard there was a mural. I wanted to see it for myself.

  It’s . . . kind of unbelievable.”

  Lucy watched David closely. He wasn’t looking at Zachary anymore. He was studying the Geeks. Most of them were from the art clique. They had paint on their clothes and X-Acto knife cuts on their fingers. Zachary stared at Dorothy’s body.

  His head was bowed, and his expression was grave.

  “Do you mind if I. . .?” Zachary gestured toward the mural, and David shrugged.

  Zachary walked away from the Geeks to a central spot in front of the mural. He was quiet for a while.

  “It’s really something, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” David said.

  “I don’t suppose you’d be all right with it if my people changed it to my face, would you? I’d probably keep the eye patch,” Zachary said with a wink.

  David smiled and shook his head. “I like it the way it is.”

  “I want you to know I don’t condone this bounty on your head business. Sam is a pig.”

  “I agree.”

  “Somebody’s got to take a stand against that guy. I think we should join forces.”

  Zachary pointed toward a far corner, signaling that they should talk privately. David nodded in response.

  “How badly do you want out of this school?” David asked.

  Zachary shoved David. David stumbled on his blind side, his foot tangled with the rungs of the construction ladder, and he fell to the ground. Zachary pounced on him.

  Will and five others broke into a run to intercede, but Zachary was already behind David, his fingers in his hair. Zachary pulled David up by the head, produced a knife, and held it to David’s throat.

  Lucy choked with dread. She could almost feel the knife at her own throat, its sharp edge denting her skin.

  “Stay back!” Zachary yelled at her. He sidestepped toward the Geeks, pulling David with him.

  “I’m gonna kill you,” Will snapped at Zachary.

  “Will, back off!” David shouted. He lowered his voice to talk to Zachary. “Hey, man, this is the wrong move. You aren’t a fighter.”

  “Shudup, David. You don’t know what I am.” David stomped Zachary’s foot. Zachary cried out in pain.

  David pushed the knife away and elbowed Zachary in the face.

  David twisted Zachary’s hand behind his back and pried the knife out. It was hardly a fair fight. Zachary was instantly overwhelmed by David’s strength. David pressed the knife to Zachary’s neck.

  The Geeks charged David but stopped a dozen feet short.

  The Loners piled in around him, weapons out.

  “Come on,” Belinda said, pulling Lucy in with the Loners.

  “We’re getting out of here.” Belinda stopped cold. She narrowed her eyes at one of the Geek girls with curly locks dyed a rich auburn.

  “That’s my hair!” Belinda said.

  The Geeks were shouting at the Loners, and the Loners were shouting back. David raised his voice above all the noise.

  “Move out of the way. We’re walking out of here!”

  He waved for the Geeks to clear a path. They didn’t budge.

  “MOVE!” David shouted again. “You want me to kill him?

  Huh? I’ll run this piece of metal right through his brain! You want him to be another Brad?”

  Some of the Geeks moved, but others stared David down.

  “Tell ’em, Zachary,” David said. “You really want to die today?”

  “Do what he says,” Zachary finally said, and the Geeks parted.

  David pushed Zachary toward the hall the Geeks had come from. Nelson dragged the rolling Skater cage. The Loners flanked the cage, and the Geeks kept a five-foot distance on all sides. Will and the twins brought up the rear. Belinda had one arm looped through Lucy’s. She felt Belinda’s arm slip out. Belinda lunged forward and snatched the Geek girl’s auburn hair right off her head. It was a wig. The girl’s hair was white underneath, and she covered her head and ran off, embarrassed.

  “Get your own hair!” Belinda said.

  Belinda pulled the wig over her head and rejoined the Loners. They all backed up through the double doors to the hallway. The twins shut the doors, and Will stuck a pipe through the door handles. It would hold for a little bit. He turned away from the door and locked eyes with Lucy. His gaze fell to her neck where the diamond pendant still hung.

  He hurried past her.

  “Will, wait a minute,” she said, but he ignored her.

  “Get in,” David said from behind her.

  Lucy turned to see David holding open the door to the cage, the same cage that housed Dorothy’s corpse. Zachary shook his head in disbelie
f at David.

  “David, get real. I can’t get in there. She’s dead.” David gripped his forehead suddenly and closed his eyes.

  He cringed. He looked like he was in serious pain.

  “You should’ve thought about that before you pulled a knife on me,” David said. “Now, get in!”

  “You’re an actor,” Ritchie said. “Act like she’s Paul’s new girlfriend and snuggle up.”

  Zachary climbed in, grumbling.

  “I’ll let you out when we get to Freak territory,” David said.

  “You’ve got my word. Now I want yours. If any of your Geeks try to get in our way, you call ’em off.” Zachary nodded but kept his eyes down.

  “I want to hear you say it,” David said.

  “You have my word.”

  “Thank you,” David said as he closed the door.

  Zachary kept his word. At every hallway intersection, in every classroom door, there were Geeks waiting for them, now heavily armed. Every time, Zachary motioned for them to stand down. Lucy could see that Zachary was in misery, utterly shamed in front of his own gang. What would happen to him once he was returned to the Geeks? It seemed too easy

  for people to turn on one another these days.

  She looked ahead to Will, again at David’s side. She wanted to clear the air.

  “Will,” Lucy said, hurrying to his side, “I shouldn’t have kept this.”

  She began to unfasten the necklace. He gave it a glance, then looked ahead.

  “Keep it. What am I going to do with it?” Lucy lowered her hands, leaving the necklace in place.

  David turned and shouted back down the line, “Ritchie, come up here and swap with Will!”

  Will looked at David, upset, “What are you doing? I’ve got this.”

  “I need you watching for Geeks coming up the rear. Lucy, will you help him?”

  Will sighed and walked back. Lucy gave David a thankful little nod. She caught up with Will.

  “You can’t avoid me forever,” she said.

  “I think I can.”

  “I can be pretty annoying.”

  Will stopped. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want to make it up to you. I don’t want to lose our friendship.”

  “I can’t be friends with you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because”—he hushed his voice as Ritchie hustled

  past—“because I loved you. Real sorry, but I can’t go back from that. You can be as annoying or cute or whatever as you want, but it’s not going to change anything. When we get to the outside, I don’t really want to see you again.” Will walked away.

  “Looks like somebody saddled the wrong horse.” Lucy looked over to Zachary rolling along beside her, in the cage. He was sitting cross-legged, his hands draped over the bars. He watched Will walk to the back of the line and relieve Ritchie.

  “What?” Lucy said.

  “You know, one of my best friends was supposed to graduate last week. She got migraines just before she started losing her marbles. She was holding her head just like David’s been doing up there. He’s dying, isn’t he?”

  “No.”

  “Clearly a lie. You’re a very bad actor. Do you want a tip? The key to a good lie is—”

  “I don’t want anything from you. David’s always been a friend to you. How could you do what you did?”

  “Hold on, honey. David and I are friendly. Not the same. My friends are going to starve if I don’t find a way to feed them.

  Would you do any different?”

  Long wrinkles cracked his cheeks. She hadn’t realized how emaciated he looked before, but now she was closer. Stage makeup was caked on his face, but it couldn’t hide the droop

  in the skin under his eyes or the hollows under his cheek-bones.

  “I wouldn’t do what you did,” Lucy said.

  “Oh, I’m just a bad person, is that it? Nobody knows what they’ll do till it happens. What are you gonna do when David’s dead on the floor? Are you going to fight?” He looked her up and down. “’Cause, honey, I think you’ll run,” Zachary said. He pulled his arms back through the cage and turned away.

  David wasn’t going to die. They were going to get out. She and David would be able to go to the lake house and live the dream she . . . Lucy stopped herself. No, she realized. It couldn’t happen that way. By tomorrow, David wouldn’t be immune to the virus anymore. He’d have to stay as far from her and any other teenager as he could. Once they were on the outside, Lucy would have to make her way with Will . . . no, not Will, he’d sworn her off. She’d have to make her way with Belinda, living where? Not with her parents. She was toxic to them as well. She and Belinda and whoever else was with them would have to live on the run until they phased out of infection. That would mean years before she could be in the same room with David again. Years without being touched by him. Could she wait for David? Could he wait for her? She didn’t know the answer. The brutal truth crept into her head: She might not ever see David again after today. She felt alone, as though she’d been kicked out of the Pretty Ones all over

  again, and thrown to the animals.

  When the gang reached Freak territory, David opened the cage and made good on his word. He let Zachary go.

  “We didn’t know Dorothy was a brave girl, but she showed us different. Sure, she made mistakes. We all have in here. But what’s important is that she kept trying,” David said.

  David looked at all the Loners surrounding the cage where Dorothy lay. He strained to squeeze out his thoughts, and his head pounded.

  “This place has forced us to make a lot of decisions that we shouldn’t have to make. And sometimes, doing the right thing just brings you more misery. You start to wonder if there’s any point to trying at all. Dorothy’s mural reminded me of when I stood in the quad with eight people behind me, facing all of Varsity. I was sure I was dead. But you all saved me. You came to my defense, and together we overcame. We can do it again. We’re gonna get out of here. We’ve still got trouble ahead, and when we make it outside these walls, who knows what’ll be going on. It could be worse out there than we ever saw in here.”

  “Yeah, but we’ll be free,” Will said.

  “And there’ll be food courts,” Belinda said.

  “And fresh underwear,” Mort said.

  “And cars. I just want to drive. Like a road trip, across the country,” Sasha said.

  “And new movies,” Josh said.

  “And parades,” Leonard said.

  “Parades? What the hell are you talking about?” Ritchie said.

  “If I want to see a parade, what do you care?” Leonard said.

  “David’s trying to say something nice, you guys,” Lucy said.

  “And hamsters,” the girl twin said.

  “And sledgehammers,” the boy twin said.

  Everyone stared at the twins. They twirled each other’s hair.

  Lucy took David’s hand. “What you said, David. It was beautiful.”

  “We’re going to get out of here,” David told all of them.

  They lifted Dorothy’s body and walked it to an open locker.

  They gently hoisted her into her metal coffin. David put his hand on the door.

  “Dorothy, we won’t forget you.”

  33

  The Loners crossed the line into what once was the humanities department. Now it was Freak territory. He needed to be spry and alert, but David was seeing things.

  First, it was the mural. He saw clouds drift across the painted sky. Then it was Dorothy. As he closed the locker door, he saw tears drop from her eyes. Neither of these things was possible. He didn’t realize it would start this fast.

  David knew what happened to kids who missed their graduation. They stopped making sense. They would lose track of a conversation, then they stopped talking to anybody altogether. And finally, they started talking to people who weren’t there. They all cracked in the end.

  It was happening to him now, but
he couldn’t let anyone

  know. They were depending on him. Will sidled up to David.

  “What’s wrong?” Will asked.

  “Nothing. I’m just worried about the Freaks.” It didn’t look like Will bought it, but it wasn’t untrue. David didn’t want any trouble with the Freaks. They already hated the Loners. Sam’s ransom was just the cherry on top. When they happened upon two Freak guards, Will and the twins snuck ahead, pounced on them with knives, and threatened to kill them if they made a sound. They dragged the guards off to be bound and gagged and locked away in the nearest classroom closet. The rest of the Loners watched from a distance.

  David kept seeing thin, dark fingers flickering at the edge of his vision. He kept thinking someone was standing behind him and reaching over his shoulder. He looked back and saw Lucy.

  “What?” she said softly.

  I’m losing my mind.

  “Nothing,” he said. Lucy was depending on him too. He waved the Loners forward.

  David looked through the open door of a classroom beside him. He didn’t see a classroom. He saw a clean, white hospital room. He could faintly hear the monotonous beep of a heart monitor. He could see someone’s arm, an IV taped to it. A curtain was drawn halfway so he couldn’t see the person’s face.

  The harder he strained to see a face, the dimmer the room

  got until what he saw before him was a dilapidated classroom, but with the hospital room still hanging there, transparent, a suggestion of a room.

  “David, we should go,” he heard Lucy whisper.

  All he had to do was get everyone through Freak territory. Once they were on the other side, it was a short trip to the ruins. As long as they could navigate to room 1206, they could find their way to the outside. The longer he took, the less immunity he’d have against the fatal pheromones that everyone around him emitted. The less immunity he had, the more fevered his mind would become until the hallucinations drove him insane, and the meat of his lungs would unspool inside his chest.