Sophomore Freak (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 2) (23 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

we all make sacrifices

Nobody smart leaves five nuclear bombs unattended.

Probably remembering the last time we’d parted company, Rhapsody refused to leave my side. “It won’t be long before Vivienne comes back,” she said.

The Collective? I didn’t trust them. “Alright,” I said.

We sat next to each other on the coolest part of the ground adjacent to the pit. All around us the angry earth bubbled and popped, sending fragments of hot dirt into the air. The heat didn’t bother me, but it scalded Rhapsody. She found a patch of grass to sit on and twirled her hair around her fingers.

“What’s up with you and Girl Genius?” she asked me after a long silence. “There’s really no good time to ask. . .”

Keeping in mind we could easily die in the next twenty-four hours, I was honest. “Is she into Selby again, or something?”

Rhapsody squinted and made a sound like she was hurt. “They disappeared from camp together after you left. Who knows?”

Maybe they’re making another video
. “I can’t even deal with them right now.”

“Gotcha,” she said with a hint of regret in her voice. “Nuclear apocalypse first.”

Soon we saw Vivienne running towards us. Hughes, Courtney, Camuto. and Peters were with her. Esteban was behind them. Where was Welker? 

“You made it back,” Esteban said when they were within earshot.

I scratched the back of my head. “Don’t sound so surprised.”

“What did you do to David?” Vivienne asked. She sounded like she cared.

“He murdered my stepmother.” I deadpanned. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

“Sorry,” Vivienne said, shrugging. She still expected an answer.

“I did to him the same thing you all did to Cherish Watkins,” I said.

Vivienne gasped.
Did she figure out what King told me about the prisms they had left across the planet?
“Oh,” she said with relief. “So you
didn’t
kill him?”

“No,” I admitted.

Esteban laughed. “Good move.”

The area rumbled with a series of violent tremors that shook us to the ground. Courtney fell on a geyser of steam and screamed, holding the scalded skin on her back.

Hughes helped Courtney back to her feet. “Did you find the aquamarine?” he asked me. “We’re running out of time.”

“Too busy fighting your old friend,” I said to him. “Are you sure Vivienne’s containment field isn’t going to fail? Maybe I should get the one from the HAARP compound.”

The color drained out of Camuto’s face. Peters paled, as well.

Oh no. It was happening.

The solar storm ravaged the sun’s surface. Layers of emerald green, royal purple, hot pink, and sunset orange light rippled across the atmosphere. Although we were less than an hour from sunset, the colorful sky lit up like the middle of the day. Northern lights occurring on this part of the planet weren’t normal. Our bodies must have adjusted to the radiation increases. I didn’t collapse in pain anymore. Neither did the others.

“The storm is in its main phase now,” Hughes said.

Esteban raised his eyebrows. “Uhh. . .i-it’s not supposed to do that until midday tomorrow, is it?”

The storm was early,
way early.
Rhapsody, Esteban, and I were surprised, but our “benefactors” weren’t.

“Wait, you knew this was going to happen!” Rhapsody screamed at the Collective. “You weren’t going to tell us? So we just cross our fingers now and hope the planet doesn’t cut in half?”

Courtney had been friendlier to us, so I approached her. “Where is it?” I asked. “You knew where the heliodor was all this time. Where is the aquamarine?”

She turned to Vivienne. “Do you know?” she asked her. “He’s our only chance.”

Vivienne’s lips trembled. “Belinda and I. . .we hid the aquamarine in your town. An abandoned chemical plant. . .it’s in a foundation beam. . .the northeast corner.”

Rhapsody smacked my shoulder. We both were thinking the same thing.

We mumbled out the name of the plant where our parents used to work. 

Vivienne nodded. “Yes. That’s the place.”

The muscles in my face, neck and arms tensed. I paced in circles and cursed at her until spit flew out of my mouth with every word.

“Is there a reason? Other than slowly killing our parents from cancer, I mean. Is there another reason why you waited this long to say something?” Rhapsody asked Vivienne.

“Because of what it does,” Vivienne said solemnly. “Belinda and I knew the anarchy David would have created with it. We had to keep it hidden until. . .”

They never thought I was going to beat him. “I’m going,” I said, interrupting her. 

Esteban stepped forward and carefully approached me. “You’re needed here. Let me go in your place.”

It was true. I was the invulnerable one, the last chance to catch the spiking radiation. Would I die when I absorbed it? If I didn’t, wouldn’t everyone else?

“Alright,” I said with resignation. “How will you get it out of concrete?”

Rhapsody cleared her throat. “He’ll take me along. I can ghost it out.”

Every worst case scenario flashed in my head, where it explodes and they both go with it. Another tremor shook the ground for a few seconds and hot steam shot into the air. Its temperature had to be way over one hundred degrees. 

Peters peeked over at the pit and cursed. “I hate it when David’s right.”

I dropped my chin to my chest. Vivienne’s pit had broken open.

Rhapsody came close to me. Maybe I was hallucinating but I swore I could still smell her perfume. She placed her hands on my chest. They were shaking, so I used my hands to steady them.

“I suck at goodbyes.” She looked down at her feet.

I squeezed her hands. “Then come back and you won’t have to say it.”

We hugged and I sneaked a kiss on her cheek. She whispered something in Spanish in my ear. She must have figured she’d have to come back to translate it for me.

Esteban waved to us before teleporting them in a puff of golden smoke. Depending on how far he could go per transport, they could be away for a while.

Peters grabbed my forearm and pointed to the pit. “It might blow soon.”

I looked at him, with no choice but to have faith in whatever he told me. “Am I coming out of this? Will I be okay?”

His eyes flitted back and forth, as if he was calculating the odds in his head. “I don’t know, Jason. None of us do. It’s King’s theory, not mine.”

“And no theory becomes truth without a test,” I said.

Peters patted me on the back. “Good luck,” he said.

Obviously I couldn’t wait for Esteban and Rhapsody to return. Though the sun was less than an hour from going down, the crystals were reaching a critical stage. The flares were ongoing and getting bigger.

Whoever coined the phrase “it’s hot as Hell” must have stood next to a pit full of nuclear radiation. The heat didn’t burn me, but I was uncomfortable in it. Courtney attempted to say something to me before I jumped inside, but I didn’t want to hear it.

There was no explanation she could give for what Vivienne and Belinda had done to make it okay. Their game of “Keep Away” with King had given George and my mom incurable bone cancer. No wonder George had a hissy fit when he saw the green emeralds. He must have seen the aquamarine somehow.
How many others had died because of them?

“Jason!” Camuto yelled at me as I closed in on the pit. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I screamed over the hissing steam fountains.

“For saving us,” she said. “For saving
me.”

I nodded. Lifting the lid, I eased down into the pit and closed it myself.

How long I was down in the pit was impossible to tell – minutes, hours. At the worst, the humming of the energy was deafening, but eventually it tailed off.

I actually fell in and out of sleep in there. The heat didn’t seem to be hot anymore. It was comforting, almost cool. My heartbeat, which throbbed in my ears at one point, was quiet to the point of nonexistence.

I waved my arms and moved my legs around in the pit, which was large enough for me to stretch out around the jutting stones. They were light and weightless. I shouted up toward the lid, “I’m okay,” but I had no voice. I plugged my ears with my fingers and tried again so I could hear inside my head. Nope, no voice.

Suddenly the energy of all five crystals pulsed to a fevered pitch. Their humming reached the sound levels of a jet engine. Gusts of hot wind shot up from the bottom of the pit. Rhapsody and Esteban were too late.

This is it.
I maneuvered over to the crack in the side of the pit. It was almost exactly the width of my body. I spread my limbs out, making a giant letter “X” over it. I believed Rhapsody and Esteban would appear in the next few seconds. They’d dump the aquamarine crystal down onto me, and I’d shield them from its energy, too.

Cocooned by blinding light, I said a quick prayer for my soul and closed my eyes a split second before the explosion.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

sophomore freak

I remember lying on the pit’s crack and feeling like a piece of human barbecue. The radiation burned through my body like nothing I’ve ever experienced. A bath on the sun, perhaps, or a sauna in Hell? Something like that.

Then, just as quickly, peaceful waves of coolness washed over me. No pain or any other sense of feeling. I blinked my eyes, seeing nothing but whiteness, no shades or colors. Heaven should be white. Our pastor talked about Jesus and whiteness, like snow. Every Sunday I’d drifted off during the sermon, or I’d started thinking about food. It was amazing I remembered that much about church service.

Mom? Debra? No sound came from my numb throat. Was I dead?

Through the fuzzy white cotton wrapped around my memory, I recall opening my eyes to another brilliant light. Not white, but closer to a yellowish orange. Like the irises of a nocturnal animal, almost artificial. I stared it down, trying to figure out its origin and shape, until its brilliance burned my eyes.

I inhaled, and my right lung was sore but
functioning.
My bad leg was wrapped in something heavy, bandaged and cold.

So I’m not dead after all.

Closing my eyelids, I started sorting through things. The solar storm had happened. The heliodor, morganite, goshenite, scarlet emerald and green emerald provenance crystals had detonated beneath me. Nobody had known what would happen when they did, but I had survived it. If the world had split in half, I was on the remaining piece.

What about the radiation? Did it escape?

The first true time I woke up it was in a hospital bed. Not North Hospital, somewhere else. An auburn-haired phlebotomist came to my room to take my blood. When she opened the blinds to let light in I pretended to be asleep. My window didn’t open up to anything I recognized. Rain pitter-pattered against the glass, drawing trails and patterns. Drowsy, I nodded off again. I wasn’t sure for how long.

My body tensed. Looking around, all I saw were wood panels in the room. Rhapsody sat at my left side and jumped when I moved. From the deep wrinkles in her black Sex Pistols t-shirt and the tired look in her eyes, I figured she had been with me for a while. She gently stroked my hand and tried not to cry, but couldn’t stop herself.

Now we didn’t have to say goodbye.

“Welcome back,” she sniffled, sounding like she had practiced what she would say. She clutched my fingers and laced them in hers. “Don’t touch your throat.”

Of course I wanted to do it, which is why she held onto my hand. Bending my left arm would compress the IV needle in it, which she would know. To satisfy my curiosity, she used the front-facing camera on her new phone to show me why I shouldn’t bother.

Everything on my face looked okay, except for a small cut to my lip and a bandage taped to my neck. A horde of mosquitoes biting me on that exact spot would itch less than this.

Rhapsody dabbed the back of her hand at her running mascara. “You were on a ventilator for a while.”

A while? How long? Sighing, I rolled my head to the other side of the bed. Debra wasn’t there, although I half expected her to be. She had been there for most of the hard times in my life. Now she was gone. My bottom lip trembled and I fought back the tears.

What about the aquamarine?
I wouldn’t try talking, but I mouthed it to Rhapsody and squeezed her hand until she got the message. She looked up and I heard the door open and quickly close.

“He’s awake,” Rhapsody said, waving to somebody on my right. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Courtney, alive and well. She had been present at ground zero, so Hughes and Camuto must be okay, too.

Courtney eased into the empty chair next to Rhapsody and cleared her throat. “When you wear prisms as long as we have, your body builds up a reserve of radiation,” she said in a rocky voice. “Thank you. We owe you our lives.”

My eyes narrowed at the sight of her. Hate filled my insides, for her and everything she and the others had done. Besides, I hadn’t saved everyone. Debra died and there was still the matter of all of those crystals the Collective left across the globe.

She scooted her chair closer to me and leaned over. The fabric of her white button-down shirt gapped enough for me to spot her heliodor necklace. “You’re safe.”

Remembering her definition of “safe” – that we were more powerful than our enemies – didn’t comfort me. After all, like most of my other fights I’d lucked out against King – he’d almost killed me. And if she’d had a reserve, hadn’t he? What if he’d survived, after all?

“Your body absorbed the worst of the explosion’s radiation. We contained the rest. It was touch and go with you for a while.”

Rhapsody answered before I could ask. “You’ve been in a coma one day and thirteen hours short of three weeks.”

It was worth it, only if King was truly dead.

“While you were out,” Rhapsody said, “they fixed your lung, your ACL and PCL ligaments, and the gunshot wounds to your chest. Ray. . .he paid for it all, Debra, too.”

Debra, too? My heart monitor’s beeping upticked. Oh, God, her funeral?

“Easy, Jason,” Courtney reassured me. “Her neck is broken, but she’s breathing.”

My tense body relaxed. She was alive, even if Ray had something to do with it. I’d stay home, get home-schooled, and help her get better, if that’s what it took. 

“Explanation,” I groaned. My voice had gotten deeper, and not in a good way.

Courtney ran a hand through her thick blonde hair. “There’s time for that.”

Rhapsody made eye contact with me. Being around Courtney wasn’t acceptance for her, it was
tolerance.
She and the Collective had poisoned countless people. They’d buried the aquamarine underneath the plant. Their hands were dirty with our parents’ blood.

“It wasn’t a chemical plant when we buried it there,” Courtney assured us.

It didn’t help. What about the aquamarine now? I moved my mouth to pronounce the word, but couldn’t.

“It exploded,” she said. “We didn’t get there in time.”

If she finished another one of my thoughts, I’d think she was reading my mind. It exploded? There had to be consequences, effects, problems that had to be solved. . .

“Nobody died,” Courtney said. “But we have work to do.”

We?

She dug in her purse and pulled out a new necklace for me. On it were diamond-shaped prisms in all five colors – even the aquamarine, which sparkled a little brighter than the others. No morganite, which was good.

I didn’t get it. Weren’t the blue prisms supposed to do something awful, cause anarchy? Why would she give them to me? Better yet, why would I want them?

“The necklace is reinforced tungsten,” Courtney said. “I’ll wait until you’re released from here to give it to you. Miracle recoveries are investigative news pieces waiting to happen. You never know who’s watching.”

Like the Collective, who had been watching us far longer than I thought? Without my new necklace I’d have no chance of defending my loved ones, or holding the Collective responsible for what they’d done. I’m sure my best friend would want to do the same.

“Here, you’ll need this, too.” Rhapsody unfolded a white piece of paper in front of my face. At the top it read
Champion, Jr., Jason Ray. North High Schedule for 2013-2014 School Year. Grade 10.

“Great,” I moaned.
I actually made it to tenth grade.

“We have three classes together and the same lunch,” she said,
“but
you’ll have homeroom with Sasha.”

I’d left things with her unresolved, but Rhapsody and I weren’t on pause. She understood that, I think. That reminded me of what she’d said to me before the pit exploded. I think I knew, but I wasn’t sure. “What’s
te amo
mean?”

Rhapsody blushed and looked down. “You’re such a gringo.”

That was true, I guess. “I’m. . .normal.”

Rhapsody tapped my left hand. “Nope. Still a
freak.”

I thought about it for a second. I’m good with that
.

THE END