Barcode: Cavern of Youth (13 page)

Now, I’m staring at my two newest buddies who don’t seem upset that we’re about to get in trouble with the chancellor.

I begin with a light giggle that evolves into a chuckle. Richard catches wind and his laugh starts as well. Carmen rolls her eyes, but she’s joining us.

Gonzales barges in the door and we try to stop, but a few sounds leak out. She rushes over to the other two and roughly drags their heads around. She analyzes their spine with a hand-held device that shows X-rays and MRI results.

It takes her nearly ten minutes to finish the process, but she states, “I don’t see any head or spine trauma, though you’re all brain dead for trying to fight half a cafeteria of gladiators.” She also attempts to search for broken arms and ribs, but the handcuffs are in the way. These MMIBS-reinforced stone cuffs with barcode imprints are too heavy to lift above our heads. “Makes no sense to tie you down if you’re injured. The idiots that run this school are beyond me.”

Her evil expression spooks Carmen quite a bit. Richard doesn’t seem moved either way.

Finally, Gonzales makes her way over to me. She doesn’t use her device, but she lights the tattoos near her ears. They shine an eerie purple. She walks over and investigates my face. I always had a thing for her creepy light gray eyes.

Her powerful, bone-shaped barcodes are from the goddess Mictecacihuatl. They’re small, but I imagine having the strength of an Aztec goddess makes her more frightening.

Gonzales feels my face and touches various parts of my spine and back. For half a minute, she examines my closed eyelids with her hand resting on my cheeks.

“Why are you smiling?” I ask while listening to Professor Gardezi approach the door.

“I’m extremely happy you’re here. Classes will finally be fun again.”

“What?”

Gardezi angrily stomps into the room. I’ve never seen him this upset. Barbarously he shouts, “Are these the students that started the fight?”

Gonzales finally backs away from me. She reaches for Gardezi’s arm, taps it twice and turns around. “They started the miniature revolution.”

“Revolution?” Carmen echos timidly.

I stick my tongue out at her and twist my face to make her smile. “Something like that. A few of the students that are constantly bullied threw punches of their own while we were fighting. That’s why the professors struggled to break the brawl.”

Taken back, Gardezi tilts his head and squints his eyes. “You noticed while having your butt-handed to you?”

“I guess I did get it pretty bad, but I’m good at noticing things like that Z-class puzzle you’re destroying in your pocket.”

Gonzales reaches in her friend’s armor pouch and removes four digital paper-thin tablets that glow one of four different colors every second. The objective is to program the devices by tapping the proper colors in order: purple, red, blue, yellow.

With his arms still crossed, Gardezi smirks and attempts to correct me, “Nice magic trick. You knew what was in my pocket, but you know nothing about this. It’s not just a Z-class device, but a training program that starts you with A-class puzzles and moves you through more advanced problems.”

“I assume you solved several by dumb luck, so you don’t have the skills necessary to complete Z. There’s no shortcut to it. You’ll have to restart the training if you want to get it right.”

“You sound as though you’ve done it.”

“Never.”

“Then, what makes you think you can give me advice?”

Carmen raises her eyebrow. She confidently proclaims, “He can solve it.”

“You’re making things fun already.” Gonzales releases a nefarious laugh and lays the four pieces on my bed. Gleefully, she contends, “Do it.”

“Cool.” I begin by programing the yellow to only blink every three seconds. Trying to chase down every color becomes a problem if I don’t.

“Stop this now. It took me hours to get the programming where it is.”

“That’s your problem.” I say with my fingers moving swiftly and Gonzales holding him back. “I’m going to reprogram it.”

“Then we’ll be here all day. I have the pattern set to work on every four hours.”

“You can’t get all four colors to synchronize within this short amount of time.”

“I can if I click black.”

“There is no black.”

“When the colors change, there’s a split second where nothing shows.” I stop pressing the cards and reorganize them into a square verses the line that Gonzales originally placed them in. Then, I throw my hood on and open my eyes with my face extremely close to the tablets. There’s no way I’ll be able to see purple and blue when this thing gets going. “My fingers are just fast enough to tap some of the blacks and negate your programming. That way, I can start over from scratch.”

“Writer, this is breaking my heart. Look at the pattern he’s creating, Maria. If he messes this up, I’m going to kill you.”

To that Gonzales replies, “I wish you’d try. I’ll happily slit your throat and use your barcodes for my much needed experiments. Kwan’s no longer useable and I’m not allowed to access even the arm of Arnold. Not to mention, he’s worthless now that his code has disappeared.”

“That’s the strange thing,” Gardezi says with a concerned expression. “His codes haven’t reappeared on another child. Neither have the Amazons’.”

“I’m aware.”

“Can you two shut up?” Carmen insists as she notices my hesitation.

With a monotonous grunt, I say, “Thank you, love.”

“You’re very welcome.”

My fingers do a bit more dancing but the weight of the handcuffs are slowing me down. Instead of focusing, I allow them to distract me and make a huge mistake. Purple.

“There. Dammit. Hand it over or I’ll be forced to buy an entirely new set.”

Gardezi lunges towards me. Gonzales, Richard, and Carmen step between us to hold him off the best they can.

Currently, three colors are programmed, but not in order. That’s the worst possible scenario for these type of activities. I can’t believe I hit purple.

I flash my eyes as Carmen jumps on Gardezi’s back and covers his mouth. She uses the weight of the cuffs to force him to the ground. With the silence, I’m able to concentrate and reverse the order. He finally overpowers all of them and knocks me out of the way.

I didn’t finish.

“Everything’s in order, but you can’t tell, I’m sure. Though it looks like purple and red are switched—”

“They’re not,” he mutters, sounding astonished. The brute strikes the colors quickly. He even taps black three times. Within seconds, the colors flash in order and Carmen helps me from the ground.

Gardezi grabs my shoulders and slams me on the bed. I haven’t visited the cave in nearly a week. I don’t have enough of the fog in my lungs. My muscles are aching more with each passing second and he just leveled up the pain.

“Who the hell are you?” he asks while removing my hood and looking into my face.

“Kay.”

“And you’re blind?”

“Sorta.”

“Obviously not if you got the colors right. What in the world?” Gardezi grabs the restraints around my wrists and grips them tightly. I apply a force near them while twisting the bars in his hand. They break under the pressure. “If you’re really this brilliant and intuitive, you’re going to help us find the Cavern of Youth this year. Darius is going to flip when I show him.”

Gardezi grabs my arm and painfully drags me out of the room. Once we’re outside the door, I slip away from his hold. He spins around in the hallway and looks back, surprised. When he finally returns to the room, I point to Carmen. “I don’t go anywhere without her. I’ll help you with the cuffs.”

Richard asks, “Can I at least go back to class?” He sneezes and struggles to wipe his nose. “Nah. Can I go home?”

Gardezi releases the others and rushes us to the first floor. Richard ditches while waving back to us.

Gardezi’s heart pounds out of his chest. He walks faster than I can jog. I think he’s anxious.

In one swift movement, he grabs Carmen under one arm before lifting me as well. Then, he charges down the hallway, not stopping until he reaches Professor Jules’ classroom. The big man drops us on the ground. We both land on our feet and hands.

With one thrust of his hand, Gardezi bursts into the classroom. Jules’ reaction isn’t a pleasant one.

“What is the meaning of this?” he blares like some old timer. “Shouldn’t you both be in your classrooms?”

Gardezi slaps the cards on Jules’ desk in the square order I solved them and points to me. “It only took three minutes.”

Professor Jules removes his glasses and inspects the blinking colors. “Professor Gardezi, did you see this?”

Laughing he replies, “I’m showing you.”

“No.
This
.”

Jules begins moving the cards into different orders. When he places them in a horizontal line, the colors blink twice before switching. When they’re vertical, the colors blink to the beat of my favorite song,
No Tomorrow
by Kid With Wings.

Gardezi turns around and asks, “You did this purposely?”

“I thought I had enough time to be cocky. I didn’t think Carmen would give up and let you free.”

“Sorry, papi.”

Students try asking Selena what’s happening, but she can’t hear the cards on the table. She still manages to tell most of the conversation.

Malik scrutinizes us maliciously. I notice that his injured hand is wrapped in additional bandages. He rubs his wound and grimaces. The mutt isn’t happy with what Selena’s telling him.

“Dad!” He shouts loudly across the room, “That’s the kid.”

Jules looks at Carmen. “What did you do? Touch her butt?”

“Yes,” I reply.

Malik corrects, “No. The blind kid.”

Smiling I confirm, “Definitely me. Funny story if your class has time to hear it.”

Students openly giggle. When Jules frowns at them, a frightening silence captures the room.

Gardezi leans into Jules and whispers, “He may be smart enough to replace Kode.”

Placing his glasses back on, Professor Jules calmly utters, “Bring him on the next mission.” Then, he turns to us. “You two are late, that’s minus five points on your next assignment. Find your seats, now.”

As we walk to our desks, Jules lectures the other two professors for skipping out on their own classes and taking more pride in their work.

For the remainder of the day, I feel not only Angie’s eyes, but Malik’s too. The school day goes by quickly, but it’s a bit boring without Richard around to help me start some fights.

After the final bell, I walk out to the front of the school with Carmen. Once we’re at the top of the stairs that lead down to the street, Malik “accidentally” attempts to bump into her. Swinging my fair lady out of the way, I place my body in the line of fire and fly off the steps.

The pain from the bandages have returned and I won’t be able to release any energy to break my fall. Yet, before landing on the unforgiving concrete, something big catches me.

He glances at my eyelids, but immediately traces his eyes over my bandages.

“And who are you?” Monte asks with his standard charming smile.

Once my brother places me on my feet, I reply, “Kay.”

“Kay? That’s it? No last name or anything.”

“Just Kay.”

“Nice. I don’t like giving away too much information either. Maybe I should try being more mysterious.”

“Monte Payne. You carry a seven foot ax and you’ve been into some illegal activities recently. You and Angie suspect someone killed your brother.” Monte never looks at my face again. He continues examining my wraps.

“Whoa. Where are your barcodes that give you that type of information? My brother didn’t have any, but Tartarus gave him all types of knowledge. There was never a question I’d ask that he wouldn’t know.”

“I thought you’d want to kill me for saying that stuff.”

“I’m not the killing type. Well, how much do you know about my illegal activity?”

“Enough.”

He chuckles. “Then, I guess you know that was a lie.” Looking up at Malik, Monte narrows his eyes. Carmen walks down the steps but stays away from us. She leans against the railing on the furthest end. “I like you Kay. You remind me of my brother, brutally honest and always picking fights with the wrong people.”

“I think I like Kode too.”

“But what are you doing at this academy if you’re so young?”

“Special advantages. I’m Dennis Colt’s adopted son.”

“Hmm. So Spencer
is
dead.”

“That’s a strong assumption.”

“It’s one Angie came up with. She said she could feel his murderer near. Sadly, she thinks the same guy possibly got Kode. You meet Angie?”

“Of course. She hates me.”

“She hates everyone that’s not Kode or me. Anyway, you’re a bit small to mess with these guys and I’m cool with them. Come to me if they give you any problems.”

“One thing.” Monte leans his head back and looks down on me. He was never the type to actually offer people favors or to have someone ask for one. Saying he’ll protect me means he thinks I’m useful, and not in a way that’s beneficial for me. “Why the hell would you let people at this school think that Malik is stronger than you?”

Though he’s laughing, his blood is boiling. “I was set up. I’m occasionally given assignments by the teachers and Vincent put me on a
special task
during finals. Without my normal team of Angie and Kode, the operation took longer than usual. I missed my chance
and
heard that he beat Angie.”

“You know it was fixed.”

“I can’t imagine anyone convincing that demon to lose a fight, but it had to be. I wouldn’t have to activate the codes on my chest to beat Jules.” He looks down at me again and taps on his chest plate. “You knew about those, right?”

“Of course.”

“I swear. If my brother could talk, he’d sound just like you.” Monte grunts and pats his Afro. “I’ve been in the hospital for a week and need to get my report to the staff. I’ll catch you in class,
Kay
.”

“Yeah.”

Eleven

As Carmen and I walk home together, I can hear Hayley cooking in my kitchen. Hopefully she’ll leave once she finishes. If she sees us with these injuries, we’re likely to get an earful.