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We walked along behind the school, headed for the back entrance. It would've been faster to jump the fence and cut through the primary school, but I wasn't in any hurry.

‘So what do you reckon it is?' I asked, reaching for a topic I knew she'd be interested in.

‘What do I reckon
what
is?'

‘Tabitha. What's Shackleton's big plan to wipe everybody out?'

Jordan shrugged, but I could tell she'd given it plenty of thought. ‘Probably a code name for something, right? Some kind of poison, maybe? A password that sets off a bunch of bombs?'

‘Alien death ray?' I suggested.

‘There's no such thing as aliens,' said Jordan.

‘No such thing as super-powered homeless people either.'

Jordan looked at me like she didn't think the end of the world was something to joke about.

I noticed she'd redone her braids since yesterday. Usually she only did them every couple of weeks, but I guess our death-defying trip out to Phoenix's massive secret prison wall was reason enough for her to –

‘
What?
' said Jordan, catching me looking at her.

‘Hey, about that list of building stuff,' I said. ‘I was thinking, why don't I ask my dad about it?'

‘No,' said Jordan.

‘Like, not actually tell him what we found,' I said quickly, ‘just –'

‘No,' she said again. ‘Peter, don't you dare.'

‘But –'

She stopped walking. ‘
No
, Peter.'

Frustration flooded into my voice before I could stop it. ‘Listen, this thing you guys have against my dad is really getting –'

‘No-one's got anything against your dad,' Jordan snapped. ‘We agreed not to tell anyone about this. Calvin and Pryor are just waiting for an excuse to come after us. You really want to risk giving them one?'

‘Fine,' I said. ‘Forget it. Just a suggestion.'

Jordan didn't answer. She started walking again, hands sliding into her pockets. I followed behind, furious at myself for snapping at her. So much for
that
plan.

Something jolted inside me as we turned in through the school gate. After everything that had happened over the weekend, after seeing what this town was really all about, school felt like a completely different place to the one I'd left on Friday.

I should've known things around here were too good to last.

They'd already started falling apart, even before Tabitha. Friends ditching me for no reason. Dad getting more and more obsessed with his work until I hardly even saw him anymore.

And then Jordan had arrived, and for a while, things were looking up again.

And then Luke showed up.

And then the world was ending.

‘Why would your dad know about construction stuff, anyway?' Jordan asked, lowering her voice as we walked past a bunch of Year 8s. ‘I thought you said his job was writing press releases for the local paper.'

‘It is,' I said, which was as at least
part
of the truth.

Dad was part of the original Shackleton Cooperative team that got Phoenix up and running before the rest of us got here. He'd flown in close to a year ago now – four months before me, and ten or eleven before Jordan and Luke. I'd never been completely clear on why they needed their public relations guy there so far in advance, but up until now, it hadn't really seemed like a big deal.

Jordan pulled a face. ‘If that's all he does, how would he know anything about …?'

She trailed off, her attention wandering to the other side of the playground. There were about fifty people crowded around the side of the English block, pushing in for a closer look at whoever had been pinned up against the wall. Usually, a scene like this meant a punch-up, but I had a feeling that wasn't what was going on today.

We went over to join the crowd. As we got closer, I could hear people yelling out questions.

‘How'd you get out?'

‘What did you do to him, anyway?'

‘Why didn't you just pull his beard? That's what I would've done!'

We stopped behind some hobbit-sized Year 7s. Luke was standing in the middle of the crowd, looking exasperated. It was his first day back at school since Crazy Bill beat the living crap out of him last week. The school had been buzzing about it ever since. And now the vultures were coming in, looking for a blow-by-blow of the whole thing.

‘I already told you,' said Luke, gritting his teeth. ‘I didn't do
anything
to him. He just charged up and started laying into me!'

No idea how to handle a crowd
, I thought, shaking my head.

In front of me, the hobbits were whispering to each other.

‘I heard Crazy Bill eats human hearts,' said one of them, leaning forward for a better look at Luke's bruises. ‘That's why he was attacking him! He was trying to cut his heart out!'

‘No way!' said the other kid. ‘My dad was there when it happened. He said that guy's girlfriend jumped on Crazy Bill's back and tried to pull him off.'

My gut churned and I shoved them both out of the way. ‘Luke!' I called, pushing my way through the crowd, Jordan behind me. ‘C'mon.'

Luke shot me a grateful smile and started moving towards us.

‘Hey, wait! What happened to Crazy Bill?'

‘They arrested him, right? Officer Calvin took him to the security centre.'

‘No, he got out again. My brother saw him escaping on Saturday night!'

‘I don't know
where
he is,' said Luke, shouting now. ‘Just get out of my face, will you?'

The bell rang just as he pushed through to Jordan and me.

‘What in the
world
is going on out here?' grunted a voice from behind us.

I turned around and came face to face with a balding old ranga who'd just come storming out of the English block.

Mr Hanger. The biggest tool in Phoenix. And in a town plotting the extinction of humanity, that's saying something.

‘Peter Weir,' he sneered. ‘Why am I not surprised?'

‘It wasn't me, sir!' I said, imagining his head exploding. ‘I was trying to break it up!'

‘It's true, sir,' said Luke. ‘Pete was just trying to get me out of –'

‘
Thank
you, Liam,' said Hanger, cutting Luke short. ‘I'm quite capable of asking for your opinion if I want it.' He looked out at the rest of crowd, who were still hanging around. ‘All of you: straight to the hall. The principal has called a special assembly.'

‘Another one?' someone shouted. ‘What for?'

‘Why don't you go over and find out for yourself?' said Hanger, which is Teacher for
I have no idea, but I won't admit I'm not in the loop
.

The crowd broke up and started heading across to the hall.

‘Peter,' said Hanger, fixing me with his disapproving-teacher face, ‘the next time I find you causing a disruption like this, I will not hesitate to arrange a detention.'

‘Yes sir, Mr Hanger,' I said, flipping him off with both hands as he turned away.

‘Seriously,' said Luke. ‘That guy has issues.'

‘Whatever,' I shrugged. ‘C'mon, Liam. Assembly.'

The hall was half-full by the time we got inside.

‘What do you think this is about?' asked Luke as we headed downstairs between the rows of red seats. ‘Can't have anything to do with us, can it?'

‘Don't see how,' said Jordan. ‘Not after Reeve bailed us out. They still don't know we know anything.'

We slipped into a row of seats and edged our way across to the far end.

‘Does that matter, though?' said Luke. ‘Calvin obviously still suspects us. And something tells me he's not the innocent-until-proven-guilty type.'

‘He had his chance,' I said, sitting down next to Jordan. ‘If he and Pryor wanted to do anything to us, they would have done it back in that interrogation room, not out here in front of the whole school.'

‘Unless they've decided to make an example of us.'

‘Nah mate, Calvin's been ordered to keep it under wraps. Remember what Shackleton said in Crazy Bill's recording? Until Tabitha wipes out
everyone
on the outside, he wants us all to believe that Phoenix is just an … ordinary …'

Jordan and Luke were both staring at me.

What? What did I do now?

‘Mr Shackleton?' said Jordan. ‘He was the other voice in that recording?'

‘Y-yeah …'

‘You
knew
he was involved in all this?' she hissed, obviously having a hard time keeping her voice down. ‘Way back then, you knew? And you didn't tell us?'

Oops.

‘No! I thought –' I said, scrambling for the rest of the words. ‘I mean, yeah, it sounded like him, but I didn't know – that was before –'

‘Before you believed any of this was actually happening,' Luke finished.

‘Right!' I said, nodding at Jordan. ‘Exactly. I never meant to –'

‘Don't worry about it,' said Luke. ‘It doesn't make any difference now, anyway. We already figured out he was part of it.'

Jordan opened her mouth, probably to say that it definitely
did
make a difference, but then she saw the expression on Luke's face and decided to drop it.

I sighed and turned my eyes down to the front of the hall. This morning was really not going my way.

There was still no-one on the stage. The few times that Pryor actually bothered to show up for an assembly, she always waited until everyone was sitting down before she came out to talk to us. She liked to make an entrance.

I turned back to Jordan. ‘How's your mum?'

‘She's fine.'

‘And the baby? Is everything – ?'

‘Yeah, everything's fine.'

‘Okay, great,' I said. ‘That's good.'

Oh, yeah. We were totally connecting.

I never thought Pryor arriving could make my life
less
awkward, but I was almost relieved when she finally appeared on the stage.

She walked out from behind a curtain, footsteps booming out into the hall. The whole place fell silent. She crossed to the lectern at the front of the stage, her giant mole casting a shadow across her chin under the glow of the stage lights. Like sunset over Uluru.

There was a loud creaking sound as she adjusted the microphone in front of her.

‘Good morning, everyone,' she said, smiling up at us. ‘Thank you for joining me here on such short notice. I have an announcement to share with you all regarding an important change in school policy.'

‘Great,' I said under my breath. The last
important change
had been bringing in that bloody curfew. And the way things had been going for us lately, this latest announcement would probably be just as painful.

The next words out of Pryor's mouth turned that
probably
into a
definitely
.

‘Jordan Burke, Luke Hunter, and Peter Weir,' she said, stretching a hand out towards us. ‘Would you three please join me on stage?'

Chapter 3

M
ONDAY
, M
AY
18
87
DAYS

Two hundred faces turned to stare at us.

Stay calm,
I ordered myself.
Don't do anything stupid
.

She wouldn't do anything to us. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

I glanced sideways at the others. Luke looked stunned. Jordan was already getting up, nudging him to move. I stood up and started making my way along the row, shuffling awkwardly over other people's knees and feet.

Pryor stared up at us, hands gripping the sides of her lectern a bit too eagerly. I watched her face, looking for some clue about how this was going to play out, but she wasn't giving anything away. Her usual fake smile was pasted across her face.

I stopped at the end of the row.

I could take her,
I thought wildly.

She was by herself. Unarmed. If we had to, the three of us could take her out right there on the stage.

And then what, idiot?

As much as I hated to admit it, Pryor wasn't a moron. If she was coming after us, she would've already planned for an escape attempt. There'd be half a dozen security officers waiting outside, ready to grab us if we tried to do a runner.

‘Hurry up,' Jordan whispered, poking me in the back, and I headed down the stairs to the stage.

The hall was silent. Waiting.

Not that anyone knew what was really going on in this place, but the vibe between us and Pryor was pretty hard to miss. They could tell something was up.

And if they liked hearing about Luke's beating, I had a feeling they would
love
whatever was coming up next.

I could hear Jordan breathing behind me. Steady. Not letting the pressure get to her.

Keep smiling,
I thought.
Just keep –
A sharp crack of noise from the stage broke the silence. It caught me off guard, and I almost face-planted into the bottom step. I looked up at Pryor, my mouth dropping open a bit.

She was
clapping
.

Some kids started joining in, and by the time we got up onto the stage, the whole school was applauding us. Applauding with no idea why, but hey, that's what you do at school.

Up the back of the hall, Cathryn, Tank and Mike – the people who
used
to be my best mates in this place – were on their feet, giving us an extremely sarcastic standing ovation. I mouthed a few choice obscenities at them and walked the last few steps to the middle of the stage. I'd never realised how massive this place was until I was standing at the bottom of it.

‘Thank you,' said Pryor, and the clapping died down.

She waited, letting the silence drag, giving us time to get good and freaked out.

I kept grinning out at the audience, trying to play up the class clown bit. Classic Peter, busted by the principal again. Nothing to see here, folks.