Going Wild (13 page)

C
harlie let go of the bar and sighed. “Well, that didn't work.”

Mac frowned and deleted the video. Maria patted Charlie on the shoulder. “Good try, though,” she said, smiling weakly.

Charlie shook her hands out and walked away from the Dumpster, trying to figure out what went wrong. Maybe it wasn't a bad enough memory.

And then she remembered that the powers activated out of necessity. And in that memory Charlie hadn't actually been in danger herself.

“You want to go home?” Maria called out.

Charlie didn't answer. She was thinking hard. “I wonder . . . ,” she said under her breath. She looked up at Maria and Mac. “I'm going to try this again.”

She went back to the Dumpster, gripped the bar, and took a few deep breaths. She closed her eyes and thought back to the memory, back to the moment she looked up from her book and saw the green car careering across the lanes. And this time Charlie imagined herself in the street, next to the blue car. Now the green one was headed right toward her.

Charlie's heart raced, and in her mind she screamed. She put her hands out, her eyes like slits, barely daring to look as the vehicle neared. She caught a glimpse of the driver's frightened face.
No!
Charlie yelled. She braced her feet and leaned forward, and in slow motion, her hands met the grille of the car. She leaned into it with all her might, pushing and straining, knowing she had to stop it or it would run her down.

The car's hood crumpled under her fingertips. Charlie's feet slid backward on the pavement. And then they both came to a stop.

Charlie could feel her muscles crying out, her hands aching from gripping the Dumpster. She opened her eyes, expecting to see it in the air. Instead it was on the ground, exactly where it had been all along.

She whipped her head around to look at the others—had she lifted it and set it down?

Mac and Maria were staring intently at her. “Are you done?” Maria asked.

“Did I do it?” asked Charlie. She let go of the bar and stepped back.

Her friends exchanged an uneasy glance. “No,” Maria said. “It didn't move.”

Charlie's shoulders sagged. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her arms trembled. It certainly felt like she'd done it. “Are you sure?” she asked, knowing it was a ridiculous question. “Not even a little?”

“Nope,” said Mac. He deleted that video, then clicked off his phone and put it in his pocket. “My guess is, the device can detect the difference between real danger and a memory of danger.”

“So we need to find some real danger,” Maria said.

“Excuse me?” said Charlie.

“Exactly,” Mac said. “We need to do something different, like drop the Dumpster on her head.”

“What?” cried Charlie. “No stinking way. Are you nuts?”

Mac and Maria continued their conversation as if Charlie wasn't there. “We've got rope back home,” said Maria, looking around. “Is there a way to do some sort of a pulley system so that you and I can lift it?”

Mac's gaze fell on the nearby athletic building. A new section being added on to it. The building housed tools, athletic equipment, and the custodian's golf cart. Evidently it had run out of room, because weathered-looking hurdles and some football equipment were stored outside. Mac's gaze traveled up to the flat roof, where a newly placed beam jutted out from one corner. “I wonder if we can somehow use that for the pulley?” he mused.

“Hmm,” said Maria.

“Excuse me?” Charlie said, more forcefully this time.

Maria and Mac turned to look at her. “What?” asked Maria.

Charlie gave them an incredulous look. “You are not dropping a Dumpster on me.”

Mac turned toward Charlie. His look was just as surprised.
“Why not? You won't get hurt. Your powers will kick in, and you'll catch it.”

“Oh, right,” said Charlie. “You're a hundred percent sure of that?”

Maria scratched her head and glanced at Mac. “Well, not a hundred percent,” she admitted.

“Even if my powers kick in,” said Charlie, “we don't know if I'm strong enough to stop the Dumpster from crushing me. Besides, you two won't be able to lift it. It's way too heavy.”

Mac wrinkled up his nose. “Yeah, I suppose you have a point there.”

“What if we try dropping something lighter on you?” Maria suggested.

Charlie looked skeptical. “Like what?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.

Mac went to the football equipment and hurdles. “These won't work—they're all chained together.” He took a few strides away from the building, then turned and looked at the top of it. “Could we get a bike or the lawn mower or something from your shed, Maria?” he said.

“Sure,” said Maria.

He squinted against the sun and put a hand up to shield his eyes. “Actually, hang on. There's lots of stuff up there: a bundle of two-by-fours and some beams and a big bucket of something.” He went around to the old side of the building and spied a pallet of
cinder blocks. “I'm going to take a look.”

He pulled a few blocks off to make steps, then climbed to the top of the stack. From there he grabbed hold of the flat roof and hoisted himself up. He swung a leg over and rolled onto the pebbled rooftop. Then he went to where the construction supplies lay, disappearing from sight.

Charlie flashed Maria an anxious glance. “I hope he knows how to get back down again,” Charlie said. She was a little nervous about getting caught, but neither Mac nor Maria seemed to be.

“He does,” said Maria, sounding very sure of herself. “Mac and I have been on a few of these roofs, actually. Science building, language arts.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but Charlie could tell she was proud of her feat. It was kind of cool to have fearless friends. It made Charlie want to be fearless too.

A moment later Mac reappeared. “There's a big loose wooden beam up here,” he said excitedly. “I can slide it along the roof, but I can't get it over the lip. Come up here, Maria. We can probably lift it together and push it over the edge.”

Maria didn't need any urging. She ran to the pallet of cinder blocks and began climbing like Mac had done.

“But how will we get it back up on the roof?” asked Charlie.

“Your strength will be activated, so you can just toss it,” said Mac matter-of-factly.

“Oh,” said Charlie. “Yeah, I suppose.” Part of her was still troubled about this experiment—what if her strength didn't kick
in and the beam landed on her? But the other part of her was certain the bracelet would come through. Plus, Charlie desperately wanted to be daring like her new friends. She really liked that Mac and Maria just assumed she was willing to test out her strength like this—they seemed to think she was as brave as they were. She didn't want to let them down. Besides, she could always jump out of the way at the last second if she didn't sense the bracelet getting warm.

Feeling better about her options, Charlie moved closer to the edge of the building and tried not to think too much about a big wooden beam hurtling down on top of her. It was better if she didn't dwell on it.

After a minute or two of loud scraping noises, Mac's and Maria's heads appeared. With a huge grunt they hoisted the beam and balanced it on the lip of the roof.

Charlie looked up uncertainly. It was thick and long and very solid looking, with shiny metal plates on either end. “Gulp,” she muttered, wondering if there were any nails sticking out of it. She flexed her hands and wished for gloves. What was it her mother had said at the dinner table once about getting cut by rusty metal? Some horrible consequence—lockjaw or something. Even though the metal on the beam was shiny and new, she pulled her sleeves over her hands just in case.

Maria peered down at her. “You okay? Are you ready?”

Charlie broke out in a cold sweat. She centered herself below
them and looked up. “How heavy is it?”

Mac glanced down at her as he and Maria struggled to balance it on the narrow lip. “It's not that heavy,” he said. “And it doesn't have far to fall, so it won't pick up much momentum.”

“Okay,” Charlie said. Her voice shook.
This is crazy
, said a voice in the back of her head.
Get out of here!
With a glance at the ground next to her, she plotted her landing spot in case she ended up chickening out and diving to safety. But she kept her feet planted.

The bracelet was stone-cold. Charlie widened her stance and raised her arms above her head, fingers outstretched inside her sleeves. “Okay,” she said, so scared that she didn't even feel like she was inside her own body. “I'm ready.”

Mac and Maria tilted the beam, almost losing their grip, then steadied it once again. “On the count of three,” Mac said.

Maria nodded.

Charlie cringed.

Mac counted. “One, two, thr—”

“Wait. STOP!” Maria cried.

Mac stopped. Charlie peered through her fingers at them. They both looked at Maria.

“We can't do this,” Maria said. “What if her powers
do
actually fail? This thing could kill her!”

Mac's mouth opened and closed. Charlie clutched her heart, trying to breathe as the absurdity of what they were about to do
became clear to all of them. She sank to her knees in a daze.

“You're right,” Mac said reluctantly. “Let's pull it back.”

Maria let out a breath and nodded.

“Ready?” said Mac. “Go.”

They both pulled hard on the beam, but the metal plate attached to Mac's end caught firmly on the edge of the roof. Mac's hands slipped off, and he went tumbling backward. Maria lunged to try to hang on, but she couldn't control the unwieldy beam by herself. It teetered on the edge of the roof for an eternal second, then dropped over the side.

“CHARLIE!” screamed Maria.

W
hen Charlie heard Maria's screams she looked up and saw the big hunk of wood hurtling toward her. There was no time to get up or roll out of the way. She put her hands in the air as the beam made impact. An instant later she was on her back, holding the thing above her face. The bracelet pulsed with heat on her arm.

She stared, trying to make sense of what had happened as Maria and Mac scrambled to the edge of the rooftop and peered over, their faces horrified. “Charlie!” Maria yelled again.

“I'm okay,” Charlie called.

The two gaped down at Charlie, holding the beam above her face.

“Whew,” said Mac. “We're coming down.” They disappeared.

Charlie, still stunned, noticed the dents her fingers had made in the wood. She grimaced and threw the beam into the grass next to her, then looked at her hands. Amazingly she was unscathed, except for a few tiny splinters in her fingers. She rolled to all fours and got up, then began dusting herself off as Maria and Mac made their way down to the ground.

“¡Lo siento!”
Maria cried, running to Charlie's side. “I'm so
sorry. It was an accident. The metal caught and threw everything off balance.”

“Yeah, sorry,” said Mac, breathing hard and wheezing a little from the exertion. He pulled an inhaler from his pocket and used it.

“It's okay,” Charlie said, rattled. “I'm glad you screamed, Maria.” She looked at the long hunk of wood, then tentatively bent down and picked it up. It felt as lightweight as her backpack. She moved away from the building, holding it like a giant javelin, and tossed it as carefully as possible onto the roof. It banged and thumped and settled out of sight.

“Wow,” Mac said. He couldn't help staring at Charlie. “That was pretty amazing.”

“Thanks,” said Charlie.

“Is the bracelet warm?”

“Yes.” She showed him.

“And . . . you're not hurt or anything, right?”

“No, I'm fine.” Charlie narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

Mac shrugged innocently. “I just thought you might want to see how much you can actually lift now that you've got the thing activated.” He looked pointedly at the Dumpster.

“Oh yes!” said Maria. “Now's a great time to do that.” She faltered, searching Charlie's face. “I mean, if you're up to it.”

Charlie let out a deep, ragged sigh. She shoved the warm bracelet back up her forearm and pulled her sleeve over it, then
wiped her hands on her jeans and flexed her fingers a few times. She walked over to the Dumpster.

Silently Mac got his camera cued up.

Charlie rested her hands on the bar and closed her eyes, and then she strained with all her might to lift it.

When she heard a distant sound of yelling, Charlie opened her eyes. Maria and Mac were both exclaiming unintelligible things next to her. She looked up and nearly gasped, for she was holding the Dumpster above her head, and loose pieces of trash were tumbling out. “Whoa,” she said as a bag of something hot and slimy hit her in the face and fell to the ground. “Blech!”

Totally grossed out, Charlie dropped the container, which made the ground shake and the asphalt crack below it.

“Yikes,” she said. She stepped back and looked at her hands. It really was possible.

Standing here with Maria and Mac witnessing everything made the powers seem more real. Charlie tried to comprehend the strange predicament she was in. These crazy things were really happening. These powers belonged to her and her alone, whether she wanted them or not. As long as the bracelet was stuck on her wrist, Charlie had a choice. She could tiptoe around telling herself the bracelet was bad, dreading the next time something happened. Or she could accept the fact that these abilities were hers to use and, in using them, try to learn how to control them—at least a little, she hoped. They'd already learned so much today. But it had
opened up even more questions, like who could create a device that would do this . . . and why?

As she stood there, Maria and Mac having an excited conversation in the background, a tiny thrill raced through Charlie, conflicting her thoughts. As much as she wanted to get the thing off her arm, part of her couldn't wait to see what else she could do.

“Gorilla, maybe,” Mac said as they picked up the trash and threw it back into the Dumpster. “Nah—whale. Hmm. Or maybe an ox?”

Maria and Charlie exchanged an amused glance as Mac carried on the conversation with himself, but they, too, wondered which animal's strength Charlie had adopted. Once they went back to Maria's shed, Mac researched the weight of different Dumpsters, and factoring the trash inside, he thought that Charlie had probably lifted more than six hundred pounds.

“Sheesh,” Charlie murmured. “I'm amazing . . . but only when necessary.”

“Amazing when necessary,” quipped Maria. “That should be your motto.”

Charlie laughed. “I like it.”

But Mac wouldn't be distracted. “We still have one more experiment to do.”

Charlie narrowed her eyes. “We do?”

“Yeah. The healing one.”

“And just how are we supposed to test that?” Charlie asked warily.

“Well, I was hoping you'd get hurt by the falling beam, actually,” Mac said.

“What a nice thing to say,” Charlie said drily.

“Sorry. But since you didn't,” he said, back to business, “I was thinking we could start with a cut, like on your arm or something. Somewhere that your parents won't notice—”

“Absolutely not,” said Charlie.

“And then move on to breaking a bone. Just a small one, like a toe—”

“I don't think you heard me.”

“And if we're really daring,” Mac went on excitedly, “we could try cutting off a limb to see if you can regenerate—”

“Stop. Talking. Now,” Charlie said, with an eerie calmness in her voice.

Mac stopped. “What?”

“Um, I'm not really interested in hurting myself, much less cutting off a limb, just to see how fast I can heal. Thanks anyway.”

“But—but animals!” Mac said. “Here. Look what they can do.” He searched “animal healing ability” on his iPad and started showing Charlie the various pages. “See? Lizards can regenerate limbs. And starfish—you won't even believe this, but some starfish can regenerate almost entire new bodies!”

Mac seemed way too excited about cutting off Charlie's body
parts. And testing this ability was one thing she wasn't going to give in to, that was for sure. She already knew she could heal fast based on how she'd recovered from the soccer injury. That was enough information as far as she was concerned.

“Not happening, Mac,” Charlie said once he'd exhausted his resources. “Sorry. Actually, not sorry. And since you're starting to sound a little bit crazy with all of this, I think we might need to call a time-out.” She got up to leave. “Maybe you can go back to actually finding out what the secret code is to deactivate this thing,” she said, shoving up her sleeve and shaking her arm. “Remember? That was the plan.”

“I have a program gathering a list of the most frequently used passwords as we speak,” Mac said. “Once I've got them all, we'll start trying them.”

Charlie stopped midshake and glanced at the bracelet, frowning. “Hey,” she said. “Look at this. The screen is different.”

Maria and Mac crowded around to see it. Instead of the red words declaring
DEFENSE MODE
scrolling across the screen, there was a gray-circle graphic sliced like a pie into five sections, each containing a strange line drawing. Three of the drawings were animated, like GIFs. The other two didn't move.

“How did you get to this screen?” Mac demanded.

“I don't know,” Charlie said.

Mac took a short video of the screen and then randomly pushed a few buttons on the bracelet. The screen went back to the scrolling
message, reminding them that defense mode was in place and asking for a deactivation code. He pushed more buttons and, after a few tries, discovered that if he held down the two buttons on the side of the bracelet nearest Charlie's hand for two seconds, the screen flipped to the chart.

“Maybe it happened when you caught the beam, or when you were lifting the Dumpster,” Maria guessed.

“Hmm.” Mac let go of Charlie's arm, typed a few notes into his phone, and studied the photo of the chart, zooming in on the individual pie pieces. “So what's the chart for? The drawings look like vines floating through the air or something.”

“Or worms.” Maria shrugged, stumped. “And why aren't those two animated?”

Charlie squinted at the device screen. After a bit she looked up. “It's a chart of the bracelet's abilities. Look at this first one.” She held out her arm to Maria.

“All I can see is a bunch of swirly lines being blown side to side in the wind,” Maria said.

Charlie smiled. “Focus on it. It's a cheetah running—do you see it? Here's the head.”

Maria looked again. All at once her face lit up. “Oooh,” she said. “I see it now!”

“Show me,” said Mac, yanking Charlie's arm closer.

“Screw your eyes up a little,” Charlie said. “It'll come into focus.”

After a minute, Mac's face changed. “Whoa, I got you now. Cool.” He squinted and said, “What are the other ones?”

All three of them stared. Charlie's arm began to ache from being held up. The second pie slice had darker-gray vine lines moving in an up-and-down pattern.

“Elephant!” Mac cried. “Darn it, I should have guessed. He's standing on his back legs and facing us. But what the heck is he doing?”

Maria tilted her head. “He's lifting a log up and down. Do you see it, Charlie? Ha! A bodybuilder elephant.”

No matter what Charlie did, she couldn't see what Mac and Maria were seeing. She looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and then looked back at the bracelet. The elephant shape finally came into focus. “Oh!” she said, giggling. “I see it now. I think I was trying too hard before.”

Mac pointed to the screen. “What's the third one?”

The third animated drawing was made up of lines that all met and twirled around like a pinwheel. The outer edges of the lines rolled up and then stretched out as they rotated in a circle.

“Sweet,” said Maria, looking up. “This one's my favorite.”

Mac looked harder.

“What is it?” asked Charlie. “A flower? The sun? No, it's got to be another animal.”

“Oh, it's a starfish!” exclaimed Mac.

“Starfish are very cool,” said Maria.

As soon as they figured it out, Charlie could see the third drawing was a starfish too. She turned to Mac, her eyes like slits. “Don't get any crazy ideas.”

He rubbed his hands together eagerly.

“I mean it, Mac,” said Charlie. “You'd better keep the pointy objects away from me!”

Maria looked at all three wedges. “So each wedge shows an animal that is part of the chimera. You have the speed of a cheetah, the strength of an elephant, and the healing ability of the starfish?”

“I guess so,” Charlie said. She turned back to the bracelet. “What about these two sections that aren't animated?”

“More abilities?” Mac guessed. “Maybe they become animated once you activate them.”

“I'll bet that's it,” said Maria. She squeezed Charlie's forearm. “How exciting!”

Charlie's eyes widened, and she glanced back at the chart. “More?” she echoed.

“I sure hope so,” said Mac, his grin growing wider by the minute.

“Whoa,” Charlie said under her breath. There were two more abilities that she hadn't activated yet. She had no idea what they could be.