Lucas Ryan Versus: The Hive (The Lucas Ryan Versus Series) (8 page)

~ Big bang. ~

What?
Not now. Not this moment.

~ Warning. Big bang. They’re here. ~

Get out of my head!
I yelled back, inside my brain.

~ Goodbye. ~

What?

~ Trust no one. ~

Wait! What are you talking about?
It felt crazy to ask without using my voice.

~ Trust no one. ~

“Lucas, what is it?” Olivia asked, worried. I ignored her and concentrated harder. Our moment was gone now anyway.

What do I do?
I asked, in my skull.

~ Trust no one...but her. ~

The power flickered on, brightly, and then clicked off again. The room fell black.

“Lucas?” Olivia grabbed at me. Sophia ran up to us. Her face was pale and nervous.

“The power’s out all over...like...everywhere. Everything just went black, outside and in!” she panicked. I looked out the window in a hurry. She was right, everything was dark now. The sky, the parking lot, the school. Even the familiar colored lights on top of the police vehicles had stopped flashing. What the heck was going on?

“Something’s wrong...I have to get to my locker. Now.” I jumped up and ran to the door. I braced my footing, ready to pull on the door handle as hard as possible. With a twist and a jerk of my hand, I fell backwards onto the floor, as the door flew open. It wasn’t locked anymore.

“Mr. Ryan! Time for you to come with me,” General Love called out, with glee. Standing in the dark hallway, his long shadow looked like a snake. His eyes pulled together into ominous slits as they glared down on me. He didn’t look human.

“Lucas! Your phone!” Olivia called out. My phone flashed alive with a bright burst of yellow light. It flickered violently in a stunning strobe effect. The flashing sped up so fast that it began to resemble a solid, blinding beacon. Our shadows danced along the walls of the detention room. I ran over to my phone, scooping it up in my hand, hoping to extinguish the manic explosion of light.

A strange voice came from over the shoulder of the General. “He has the same spectrum as the package, General. He’s giving off the same energy.”

“Well, isn’t that interesting,” General Love smiled. “Tag him and bag him!”

“No!” Sophia wailed, as the first wave of electricity ravaged me from the stun-gun. Stars spun before my eyes and all I wanted to do was sleep.

LEVEL 10:
No One Knows

Dizzy. So dizzy. My head was pounding with a building headache. My eyelids pulled together as I tried to focus on my surroundings.

“He’s waking up, General,” a voice spoke from behind me. I sat up carefully, realizing where I was. The school’s medical room. I had been in the Nurse’s Office a couple times before, but never like this. It was cold and dark, except for my flashing cell phone. There were a half-dozen glow sticks littered around the room, two along each side of me and a few more on the sink counter, just out of reach. They shined bright green...I think. It was hard to tell, exactly. My sight was still fuzzy and my phone’s waves of yellow light weren’t helping the situation. The strobe effect seemed slower and more obvious now. Why was it slowing down?

“Welcome back, Mr. Ryan. Lovely little gadget you have there.” General Love pointed at my phone. It was wrapped inside my right hand. I tried to set it down, but it was stuck to my skin. Locked tightly against my flesh like the mysterious stone had done the day before. I tried not to panic.

“It’s just a phone,” I coughed. I pulled the phone to my chest, blocking the bright pulses of light, just a little.

“Just a phone?” he asked, with an eyebrow raised.

“Yes,” I gulped.

“A phone that just so happens to be attached to you like a second skin. A phone that can only be removed if I chop off your hand,” he rumbled, like a promise. He leaned forward, pressing his fists down onto the table I was sitting on. The knuckles in his hands all popped in unison.

“So what?” I pouted. My head hurt and I was in no mood for threats.

“So, I’d chop your wretched fist off if I could,” General Love screamed, filling the room with fear.

“Shut up and do it then!” I dared, clutching my phone tighter to my chest. An angry smile curled at the sides of his lips.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” I dared again, even louder. He leaned back, shocked by my lack of respect for him. I was so scared at the moment, I thought for sure he would see through my tantrum.

“Because, there are no knives left,” Olivia said from behind me. She sounded angry.

“Olivia...” I gasped, happy to see her. For a brief moment my headache disappeared. I searched the small room, quickly. “Where’s Sophia? Is she all right?”

“I don’t know. They took her away. They won’t tell me where!” she cursed, ready to fight all of them. The guards stepped forward in defense of the General. I jumped to my feet to try and calm her, but found that I was still very lightheaded. I began to fall sideways and Olivia slid next to me. She gently steadied my stance before turning her anger back to General Love.

“Where is she?” she demanded. A giant and gurgly laugh poured from his mouth. The sound made my skin crawl.

“You’ll get your sister back when I get my answers, young lady!” he threatened, again. “And when I get my weapons back...all of them.”

“What is he talking about?” I asked, confused. Olivia’s worried eyes found mine.

“You promised, Lucas,” she whispered. My heart fell into my stomach. I had promised to get her sister out of this fiasco. I never should have promised such a thing. I still had no idea what was going on. I had to do whatever it takes to get Sophia back. General Love stepped up to me with his muscular arms crossed.

“I want some answers, son. Now,” he said. No kidding, so do I.

I looked up at his hard eyes, trying not to notice his disfigured, missing ear. “Okay.”

“Come with me,” he ordered. General Love marched out of the room. Olivia steadied me again and handed me my precious backpack. She stole a nervous glance at my phone wedged in my hand. I gave it a small shake, trying to loosen its hold a little bit. It was no use.

“Thank you,” I said, with a loopy smile. She nodded in understanding. The guards pushed at Olivia and I to move forward. A second shove scooted us out the door of the Nurse’s Office. My anger came to life as my balance returned. With a couple more unwelcome shoves we found ourselves in the dark school hallway. I was now seething with anger. What was wrong with me? I never let my anger get the best of me. I hated confrontation.

The flickering light on my phone had settled to a steady pulse. It lit the gloomy corridor like a scene from a horror movie. The halls were now empty, except for the military personnel and scattered police officers. As my eyes focused down the hallway in the direction of my locker, I was surprised to find something familiar. The same yellow light pulsated around the set of lockers my secret was hiding in, as if warning me. The bright S.O.S. blinked in the same rhythmic timing as my phone. I held my phone in front of my face to be sure I wasn’t seeing things. Olivia let a long, nervous breath out.

“What’s down there, Lucas?” she asked, in a whisper. I didn’t know anymore. I’m not sure I ever knew. Holding my phone tighter, I squinted my eyes. Even with the yellow strobe of light constantly flashing, it was still so dark in the school. Too dark. The power was officially off, but it shouldn’t be this dark, this unnaturally black.

“I found...something...” I trailed off, trying my best to answer her question. Olivia looked at me worried.

With a not-so-polite shove from the guards, we slowly began to move forward. I held my digital torch out in front of me to light up the blackened corridor. General Love followed closely on our heels. So close, I could hear his breathing only inches away from us.

“It’s too dark. I can’t tell what is up there...” I sighed. “I mean, what is that?”

“I don’t know,” Olivia said, trying to make sense of what she was witnessing. Up ahead, where my locker should be located, was a huge shadow. It was made of many shapes and sizes, and reached up to the ceiling. It reminded me of the outline of a wild and jagged city, made of sharp and pointy buildings. It was hard to distinguish any visible markings within this shadowy cityscape with the flashing light everywhere.

General Love stepped backward, aligning his position with the closest guard. “Manning, what’s the latest reading of the situation?” he asked, quite loudly. The guard was still holding the same handheld meter that scanned me in the Detention room. He glanced at the flickering screen, quickly.

“No reading, General.”

“What?” General Love snapped.

“It stopped working as soon as we left the office,” Manning said, as fact. He leaned away from General Love, obviously nervous of his commander’s brooding demeanor. The General stared at him hard before turning back toward me and then my hidden locker.

“That means it has a range of 100 yards now. It’s getting stronger,” General Love said upset. Manning nodded without a word, putting away his broken gadget. Their conversation was distracting and I tried to concentrate on the mysterious wall of shadows in front of me. My eyes strained, causing a momentary headache. It was just too freakin’ dark. I was at my wits end.

With my free hand massaging my forehead, I closed my eyes and mumbled, “I wish I could see...” Olivia was the only person close enough to hear me. In one bright flash the lights came back on...all of them. The school lights, the parking lot lights, all the emergency vehicle lights. Even the flashlights in the hands of military team. I stopped moving, as did everyone else, except General Love. He stepped forward with a large grin, filled with a new awareness.

“How did you do that?” Olivia whispered, in my ear. She squeezed my arm tighter, pulling herself closer to me. I looked at her scared face, trying to hide my own confusion. I didn’t have time to think about what had just occurred, because of the mind-numbing sight before me.

“Oh my God. Is that?” I choked on my own words. General Love burst out with a hearty laugh from behind us.

“My weapons!”

I fell speechless. My locker was now hidden behind a wall of guns and ammunition. Knives, grenades, baseball bats, hockey sticks. Any and every kind of weapon I had ever seen in an action movie was stacked in a jagged, puzzle-pieced wall that reached up to the ceiling. Even the stun-gun I had been knocked unconscious with earlier was stuck together in a impossible, apocalyptic piece of art. My legs felt like noodles.

“Impossible,” I gasped.

“You like it?”General Love asked me.

“What is it?”

“I like to call it the Sea-O-Death!” he smirked, and then slapped me on my back.

“How many?” I started to ask.

He cut me off. “All of them! Every last one of my mighty toys!”

I glared at him lost. “This isn’t possible.”

“I don’t care, Mr. Ryan. I want answers. I want my guns back, and I want what’s in that locker. I want
your
weapon, now,” his joking tone faded.

“Weapon?” My head spun. Could
it
be a weapon?

“E.M.P., magnetic time-bomb, school locker nuke...I don’t care what it is. I just want it!” General Love’s voice trembled with a weird desperateness.

“I...don’t...” I stuttered, and found Olivia’s worried face. Even as scared as she was, she would not let go of my arm. In my head, Sophia’s voice rang out...

“Save me.”

I had to do something. I had to try and save Olivia’s sister. I promised.

“Well, are you going to help, Mr. Ryan?” General Love said, with a nudge.

“I’ll try.”

“Good,” he smiled.

“For you,” I nodded toward Olivia. She watched as I pulled from her grasp, and slid my bag over my shoulder.

With a new quaking in my hand, I placed my flashing phone directly in front of me. The pulsating yellow lights stopped with a crackling hum. Both my phone and locker fell dark. I inhaled a long breath. Suddenly, the sound of stretching metal scraped at my ears. It was loud enough for most of the audience to hear too. Uneasiness spread through the crowd behind me. Slowly, my phone started to vibrate. My fingers pulled from its surface, stretching themselves in relief, but my phone remained attached to my palm, as if magnetized. I was terrified to move. So was everyone else.

“Lucas, what’s happening? Olivia whimpered. My eyes found hers. My phone slid down my palm as if it was coated in baby oil, leaving a sparkling trail. It slowly came to a rest between my lower wrist and forearm. It was vibrating so hard now that I thought for sure my bones might shatter. I grabbed at it with my other hand, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Lucas?” she asked, again.

“It hurts,” I winced. My phone centered itself along my skin and dug into my flesh. It burned as it burrowed in, but the vibrating slowed to a dull throb. Thump, thump, thump. I could hear my pulse synchronize with it. Thump, thump, thump, as if we were one, now.

General Love took a large step backwards, motioning for his men to do the same. I enjoyed their fear, but I wasn’t sure why. My phone continued to amaze. It molded itself into a more elongated shape, sleek and formfitting. It no longer hurt. Amazingly, it felt good, comforting. It felt...right. I flexed my arm, staring at my new, alien gauntlet. Strength filled the muscle in my arm and hand.

“This is weird,” I smiled at Olivia. “A good weird.”

She glanced at me worried. “Are you...okay?” Her stare accused me of being crazy. For all I knew, she was right. None of this was sane. I slowly lowered my arm to my side and took a small step forward, sensing a growing confidence coming from inside my locker. In front of me, the wall of ammunition and death began to tremble and shake. Gently at first, but then, violently. With a wicked grin, I pushed myself forward.

“Lucas!” Olivia yelled. I glanced over my shoulder, finding her worried stare, and winked at her.

“Let’s get this party started!” I called out, flexing the new strength in my fist. I shouted at the top of my lungs, “MOVE!”

As I ordered it, the wall of weapons came alive like an army of toy soldiers. They spun and twisted around, jumping out of order and then back in place. All standing at attention. All in a unified line down the hallway. I flicked my new mechanical wrist and they all flew toward the wall. Every piece of weaponry lined themselves along the corridor of lockers, their firm casings clanking against the metal. The line of ammunition covered every locker down the whole hallway. Each gun and blade stuck against the wall like overpowered refrigerator magnets. General Love blinked in amazement.

“Incredible,” he said, wickedly.

As the onlookers studied the impossible sight, something caught my attention. Stuck against the locker door next to mine, was the backpack that magically held my schoolmate, Grant, imprisoned. I could still hear him as he screamed out for someone to help. I wondered what exactly was hidden away in that bag. I reached out and removed Grant’s backpack without any resistance. Easily, I removed its contents; a couple school books, a sack lunch, and a small, black bag with a gold drawstring. Along the back of the bag, sewn in white thread, was a few words of wisdom...

...
‘HEAVEN SMILES ABOVE ME. WHAT A GIFT, THERE BELOW.’

“What is it, Lucas?” Olivia asked, from just over my shoulder. She had moved up, right behind me. I smiled and emptied the tiny bag out. Three silver throwing-stars fell out and hovered in the air. They looked like a relic from a Bruce Lee movie. They spun in the air, fluidly dancing around each other before slamming themselves into the locker door. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

“More weapons,” I chuckled. Was
it
some sort of ‘peace bomb’ in my locker? Did
it
come here to rid the world of all our evil death machines, starting with the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix, Arizona? I placed my hand on the surface of my locker door, enjoying the buzzing hum of the sheet-metal. Maybe
it
was some sort of super computer sent from the future to stop some horrible catastrophe? A laugh filled my chest at the ridiculous thought. I really have played too many video games.

“Go on, Mr. Ryan,” General Love ordered from a safe distance. My exotic armband began to blur with metallic silver smoke escaping its touchscreen. The smoke curled itself upward and into the vents lining the top of the locker door. In my mind I asked the door to open, and on cue, it did. With a thin and eerie creak, it slid open. As everyone around me held their breath, scared completely by the vision before them, I stepped closer.