The Academy: Book 1 (14 page)

             
“Those monkeys were white,” Teddy said.

             
“And their fur was thicker than any I’d ever seen,” Asa added. “I’ve never seen such a thick track of woods before.”

             
“That’s because these aren’t woods,” Teddy said. “It is jungle.”

             
It struck Asa that, as bizarre as it seemed, he was looking into an artic jungle. The plants, vegetation, and animals that comprised the biomes of tropical atmospheres had somehow been uprooted and planted again in a cold, mountainous region.

             
“How can that be?” Asa asked, his eyes searching around him. “Jungle organisms thrive in temperatures that are much warmer than this.”

             
“How do you carve buildings out of mountains? How do you build the biggest underground railroad system in the world, and your seismic activity not get noticed? How do you grow wings? There’s a lot we don’t know yet, Asa Palmer. This jungle is another drop in a bucket of water.”

             
McCoy was a few paces ahead of them, and Asa and Teddy both slowed their walking so that they could talk with more privacy. “Where do you think we are?” Asa asked. “What is this?”

             
“They call it The Academy,” Teddy said. His eyes were big and round, and his cheeks were red from the cold. “But I don’t know what that means. I have no idea. We’re called Fishies, I know that. But I don’t know what any of this means. Humans solve unknown problems by connecting new situations to similar things that we’re familiar with. I’m not familiar with anything similar to this.

             
“The chaperones at the train station did say one thing, though; they said that we were going to work for a humanitarian place. How could
this
,” Teddy spread his arms out wide, “be humanitarian. Isn’t humanitarian about giving? Being frugal? This is the most expensive compound I’ve ever seen. Just feel the inside of your parka. That’s real fur. Very expensive.”

             
Asa opened the side of his coat up and looked at the inside. The fur was thick and soft; it looked like it had been cut from a great, white feline. He ran his numb hands along it and could feel the warmth that it held. He liked Teddy, and wanted to ask them about the crows, but thought that it was too soon. “They said something indicating that people get
deployed
from here,” Asa added. “Have you heard of the Burk Farm Angel—the video that shows that guy flying through the air? The chaperones at the train station said that that might be one of them—that someone had been deployed to North Dakota.”

             
“Interesting,” Teddy said, and his breath fogged out in front of him. He was about to say something else, but them McCoy turned around and narrowed his eyes at them. Asa and Teddy shared another look, and then kept walking. They maintained their silence for the remainder of the walk.

             
It was ten minutes before they reached the end of the road and were standing at the massive door that Asa had seen from the dock. The Fishies stood on iced-over marble steps that were hundreds of feet back from the great, wooden entryway and still, Asa thought that they might have to back up more if it opened outward. Stone goldfish the size of cows were chiseled into the rock around the door so that they appeared to be swimming along the side of the mountain.

The sun had set and it was darker. Hundreds of fire torches were scattered among the walls, coming ou
t to light up the faces of the Fishies. Asa stole a glance over at Stridor and Charlotte and saw that they were still talking. They both had their hands deep into the pockets of their parkas and she was looking up at Stridor, smiling; her green eyes were
beaming
.

Absolutely beaming.

The entryway doors themself were impressive. They were made entirely out of wood, and looked to Asa to be the size of a football field turned on its side. Huge metal hinges held each one to the rock, supporting hundreds of tons of wood. Three quarters of a way up were thousand pound metal knockers that no man would ever be able to use.

Well,
Asa thought, remembering how many times this place had surprised him.
I suppose someone might use them.

Asa noticed that McCoy was looking intently at his forearm like a quarterback reading plays. Then, with his opposite hand, he pressed a certain spot on his arm, and the great wooden doors began to open.

The wood gave out a deafening creak and the doors swung wide out towards them before coming to a halt. The doorway led into an enormous, fire lit foyer.

The room was round and massive. The floor was covered in triangular patterns of thick marble that ran in
kaleidoscope shapes to the center of the room. There, in the middle of it all was a circle pattern in the center of the rock. Inside this circle was an orange fish made of shimmering stone.

“Move inside!” One of the chaperones shouted, trying to be louder than the wind. The
Fishies all made their way up the stone and inside the man-made cave. Stridor and Charlotte led the way.

The hundreds of people packed themselves inside the room and the doors began to groan shut again. The air was warm, and Teddy and Asa took off their parkas. A fifty-log fire was roaring in the fireplace. Thick leather chairs and couches were dispersed among the room, surrounding wooden coffee tables. The first group of people to enter the room occupied these, and
Charlotte and Stridor occupied a couch together. Asa looked at the back of Stridor’s head and wondered what kind of accident had made those maroon blotches. Fire, maybe? Or a chemical burn of some kind? Asa then looked at Charlotte. She had pulled part of her curly hair back behind her head and was sitting cross-legged on the leather. Dirt still speckled her cheeks from their descent through King’s Lake.

Charlotte sensed Asa staring at her, turned, and looked at him. Asa blushed and looked away. He was sure that she noticed, but he did nothing to correct the situation. When she returned to her normal sitting position, he did not look back.

Asa and Teddy stood together in the center, waiting to see what would happen next. Teddy was shifting from his left to right foot. “What’s wrong?” Asa asked.

“I have to use the restroom.”

A shrill, terse whistle broke out throughout the room, echoing in every corner; everyone stopped talking, rustling, or moving. Everything was silent except for a succession of squeaking noises that came from Teddy’s shoes—he was still shifting from foot to foot. Asa gave him a harsh look to tell him to
stop,
and
stay still.
Teddy didn’t seem to know what the look meant. He continued to shift back and forth.

A podium stood on a small stage next to the closed wooden door. A woman climbed up, smiling with perfect white teeth, and faced them. She was tall with a healthy, heavy build and a big chest. She wore the same black uniform that all the chaperones did, and smacked gum while she talked.

“Hello, my name is Meg, but people call me Meggers.” She giggled and turned and looked at all the Fishies. A few were smiling. “And you, guys and girls, are Fishies. Congratulations on being chosen to join the Academy! Being a Fishie means a few things—number one, it means that you are, as of today, three months within your fifteenth birthday. So, either three months older, or younger. Secondly, it means that you are the lowest of the low in this place. Remember that. If someone, other than a Fishie, asks you to do something for them, you’d better do it!”

Teddy was still shifting. The incessant squeaking made it hard for Asa to concentrate.

“Okay,” Meggers continued. “And you are now standing in Mountain One of the Academy, or as it is most commonly known—Fishie mountain. This is where you will live for the next six months with all of the other Fishies. Make friends. Be social. This place is hard and you’re going to be asked to do things that seem impossible. A strong peer group makes these tasks a whole lot easier!” Meggers smacked her gum some more and then smiled. Asa got the impression that she thought she was really cool—that all of the Fishies were wishing that they were her right now. Asa didn’t like that trait in people.

Teddy was moving back and forth more drastically now—he was picking his feet up and stepping side to side instead of just shifting his weight. Asa saw that he was stepping on the orange goldfish on the floor, which meant that they were in the direct center of the room.

“And now, to tell you a little about this place…”

Teddy took a step to the side and rested his weight on his parka, which shot out from under him. He yelped, and slapped onto the ground flat on his back.

The sound of the incident was not at all proportional to what had just happened; it sounded as though a cannon had just gone off. The noise echoed through the foyer, seeming to reside for minutes.

Teddy quickly stood up, brushed off his pants, and acted like nothing had happened. Everyone was staring at him and his face had turned ruby red.

The next thing that happened made it impossible for Teddy to pretend that he hadn’t fallen.

“What’s your name?”
Meggers asked, looking right at Teddy.

Teddy looked around as though she weren’t talking to him. His face turned a
darker shade of red.

“You—the boy who just fell—what is your name?”

Teddy pointed at himself and asked, “Me?”

“No,”
Meggers said, “The other person who just fell.”

Laughter filled the hall.

“What is your name?” Meggers asked. She smacked some more on her gum.

“Teddy.” His head was lowered and he was staring at his shoes.

“Like Teddy bear?” Meggers asked.

Asa wished that this would stop.

Teddy nodded, cleared his throat, and then said, “Yes.” His voice was trembling and tears were close to the surface.

“Has anyone ever called you Teddy Bear?”

Teddy shook his head.

Meggers
stood up a little taller, a little prouder, and said—“Teddy Bear just demonstrated something about this foyer. It is entirely symmetrical; the whole thing is a circle and there is an object opposite of another object on each side to counterbalance the sounds. If you look up, you can see to the top; notice how the dome has that gentle curve to it.

“If you stand at the center of the room and make a loud noise, as Teddy Bear demonstrated, there is this great echo.”

Everyone looked up.

Meggers
smacked her gum some more and went on—“Behind you, on either side of the fireplace, is a hallway. The one on the right goes to the boys’ dormitory, and the one on the left goes to the girls’. When I dismiss you, you will follow these down to your living areas. From there, you will receive instruction from another chaperone on how to pick your bed. Afterwards, each student will undergo a physical exam by one of the nurses, then there will be an assembly, in which the president of the Academy will speak, followed by a quick dinner before bed. If you have any questions, feel free to ask your chaperones. You are dismissed.”             

8

Tiger Tails and Bad Omens

             
Asa and Teddy walked together amidst a long line of males as they snaked through tunnels of long underground hallways and up and down spiral staircases. The corridors were dark, and damp, and cold. Nearly everyone pulled their parkas back on. They could hear the sound of monotonous, dripping water, but could not tell where it was coming from. A few people spoke, but not many, and when they did it was in hushed voices. Lanterns were sparse. Spiders spun webs in corners. Every so often a rat would screech from the shadows.

             
As they were walking, Teddy whispered a question to Asa—“Isn’t it odd that no one here has the Wolf Flu? No one even looks sick.”

             
Asa hadn’t thought of that. He had been too preoccupied thinking of other things to remember the pandemic that was sweeping the outside world. “Yeah,” he said. “Very odd.”

             
Teddy’s face looked grave and serious with long shadows cast from the sparse light. Asa recalled the last few hours in his head; ever since the train station, he had not seen anyone that even looked as though they had come down with a cold. Dr. Varbas had the Wolf Flu, but he was outside of this compound. Everyone here looked perfectly healthy while the world outside was dying.

             
McCoy came up behind Asa and patted him on the shoulder. “Havin’ fun, mate?” he asked. “Who’s your friend?” McCoy, unlike everyone else, seemed to not be phased by the dark, grim length of corridors that surrounded. He smiled like it was a summer’s day.

             
“This is Teddy June. And I’d be having more fun if I knew where I was.”

             
McCoy smiled again. Asa looked at McCoy’s shoulders and again noted how massive his muscles were; they affected the way that he walked, so that he was perpetually puffing out his chest. “Nice to meet you, Teddy June. And don’t worry about it, Asa. You’re fine here, I promise. The assembly will clear things up.”