Outbreak (2 page)

It was Michael.

We were nose-to-nose for about one second.

‘EEEEKKKK!' My brother gave a loud yelp. His whole body sprang off the floor and his head hit the underside of the desk. ‘Ooowww!' he rubbed his scalp and glared at me.

‘What are you doing here?' I whispered angrily. I couldn't believe I'd crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn because of my brother. Although on second thoughts, I
could
believe it: he was always doing things to annoy me.

‘What's it to you?'

Suddenly, there was another high-pitched cry: ‘
You did it! You saved me! It's a miracle! A miracle spelt W. O. W.!
' This time, I could see exactly where it came from: in Michael's hands was a gaming device. On the screen was a girl wearing a sparkly dress and a crown.

‘Are you playing
Princess Sparkle
again?' I didn't even try to hide my snort of laughter.

‘Get lost!' Michael turned so I couldn't see the screen.

A while ago, our parents had banned Michael from playing violent video games 'cause he'd suddenly started acting weird. They thought the games had affected him, but the truth was, he'd caught a glimpse of
my glowing zombie eyes and freaked out. Ever since then, Michael had only been allowed to play stuff made for little kids.
Princess Sparkle and Her Magic Glitter
is about this princess who throws glitter into the faces of her enemies and says things like, ‘
It's OK not to be perfect!
' and ‘
Every day is a second chance!
'

Totally. Lame.

The weird thing was that after a month or two of playing it, Michael had become even more obsessed with that game than he'd ever been with the violent stuff.

‘
You've done it!
' came Princess Sparkle's voice again. ‘
You've unlocked the next level. Remember, there's no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.
'

Princess Sparkle

I rolled my eyes. Princess Sparkle made me want to vomit. As if glitter would be a useful weapon! Luckily,
I
hadn't been banned from decent games.

I yawned and stretched, wondering if I should bother going back to bed. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, but at least my bed would be warm.

I was heading to my room when I glanced across the hall and noticed the lumpy shape in Michael's bed again. If my brother wasn't in it, then who was? I crept into his room. Up close, I could see that it wasn't a human shape at all. I flipped back the blankets. Pillows! And
Princess Sparkle
figurines! I didn't even know he'd started collecting them.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

Run Princess Sparkle, Run!

I went into my room and pulled on my clothes. I could hear Mum getting out of bed so there was no point in crawling back under the covers now.

Just as I finished getting dressed, she poked her head around the door. ‘Oh, you're up already? Good. Don't forget, today's the last day of term.'

I'd completely forgotten we were nearly on holidays. Two weeks off school! The days seemed to stretch out endlessly in front of me. Suddenly I felt rich.

I followed Mum into the kitchen. ‘What are you going to have for breakfast?' she asked, switching on the kettle.

‘What is there?'

‘Look in the cupboard. There's cereal, toast, fruit . . . what do you feel like?'

‘I dunno. Maybe toast,' I told her.

‘Well, pop some in the toaster.'

I sighed. ‘I always burn it!'

Mum was forever trying to make me do things for myself. But I've noticed that if I do them badly enough, sometimes she just takes over and does them herself. I don't think she really minds. In fact, I'm pretty sure it makes her feel useful.

‘BENJAMIN ROY! I am not your slave. If toast is too much trouble, you'll have to get yourself some cereal or go hungry!'

‘OK! OK!' I tipped cereal into a bowl. My strategy usually worked. But I must've misjudged Mum's need to feel useful this morning.

‘I need a coffee,' Mum said, spooning instant coffee into her cup. She poured in boiling water and milk with a frown. She was always grumpy until she'd had her first coffee of the day. She tried to
gulp it down. ‘Ouch! Hot!' She fanned her mouth with one hand.

Michael appeared, whistling cheerfully. He mustn't have noticed the figurines yet.

‘You're in a good mood this morning,' said Mum.

‘Last day of school.' He grabbed a slice of bread and spread butter and jam on it, then stuffed half of it into his mouth.

‘Slow down before you choke,' said Mum. ‘The food isn't going to run away.'

‘It can't run anywhere now!' Michael chomped his teeth so I could see the toast
and jam all mushed up in his mouth. It was so gross.

Mum tried a smaller sip. ‘Ahhhh, that's better. Report cards are due this afternoon. I don't want anyone “forgetting” to bring theirs home like last time.'

Michael's mouth dropped open and I got a second look at his breakfast. He lifted up his eyebrows with his usual ‘innocent' expression. ‘That was a complete accident!'

‘Hmmm,' said Mum, in her I-don't-buy-it voice.

I watched silently, hoping Michael would get into trouble.

Dad wandered in, dressed in his overalls. He worked as a mechanic at a garage in town. ‘Everybody looks happy this morning,' he said, reaching for the coffee jar.

‘Last day of school,' Mum explained.

‘Aaaahhhhh! When I was at school, on the last day a few of us put glue on everyone's chairs. Except ours, of course, we weren't stupid enough to sabotage our own.'

‘And I bet nobody could guess who did it,' said Mum.

‘They didn't have a clue.' Dad winked at me.

I wasn't sure if I believed him or not.

‘Sabotaging things is just the sort of thing I
don't
want them to do, especially when they're about to get their report cards.' Mum opened the fridge and took out our lunchboxes. ‘Time to get moving. You don't want to be late on the last day.'

I still had cereal left but I gobbled it down in a couple of mouthfuls and dumped my bowl in the sink. I was starting to feel excited. Two weeks of holidays!

But if I had known what was going to happen before the end of the day, I probably would have crawled right back into bed and pulled the covers over my head.

‘Bye, Mum. See ya, Dad.' I slung my bag onto my back. Outside, the sun was warm and a few birds were chirping in the trees. I grabbed my bike from the shed, and in a flash, I was racing down our driveway for the last time before the holidays!

I tore past cars parked along the road. I lived just a few blocks from Sophie, so I always stopped at her place on the way to school. Sophie's house stood out from all the others, 'cause it had a big old bus parked in the front yard. It'd been there since the Knights arrived in town a couple of years ago. Now it was used as Mr Knight's office. He'd covered all the
windows so you couldn't see inside it, which was kinda weird, but he wasn't exactly a normal guy.

Mr Knight. No kidding - this is actually one of his aprons.

I pulled into their driveway. Usually Sophie was sitting on the steps waiting for me, but she wasn't there today.

Mrs Knight appeared at the front door. She looked like she was heading to her job at Seabrook Nursing Home. ‘Hi, Ben,' she said, jogging down the stairs and making for the car parked in their driveway. ‘Sophie's inside helping her dad. Go on in if you like.'

‘OK.' I dumped my bike on the grass.

Mr Knight and Sophie were just inside the front door. Sophie was standing at the foot of a ladder. Mr Knight was a few
rungs up, fiddling with something on the ceiling.

‘Battery,' said Mr Knight.

Sophie handed him a small, rectangular object.

‘Oops! Sorry!' said Mr Knight as the battery fell with a clunk to the floor. ‘Oh, hi, Ben.'

‘Hi,' I answered, picking it up and handing it back.

‘New batteries for the smoke alarms,' he explained, as he pushed the battery into place and clicked the cover closed.

‘A smoke alarm at the front door
and
another one at the back door is a bit over the top, Dad,' Sophie grumbled.

‘Well, Soph, as I've said to you before, you can never be too careful.'

Sophie rolled her eyes and mouthed the words ‘you can never be too careful' at me
as he said them. I guessed she'd heard them before.

Sophie

‘All done,' said Mr Knight, climbing down. ‘Do you have your lunch, Soph?'

‘Do now.' Sophie grabbed her lunchbox off the dining table, sliding it into her bag. ‘Hey! It's the last day today!'

‘Yup. Bye, Mr Knight!' I waved.

‘Have a good day!' Mr Knight picked up the ladder and started lugging it through the house.

‘Quick!' Sophie whispered. ‘Before I have to help him do the other one!'

I followed her out and down the steps.

‘Race you!' Sophie yelled as she jumped on her bike and peddled down the driveway.

We both knew that since I'd become a half zombie, I was way faster than her. But
winning all the time wasn't much fun, so for the last few weeks, every time we raced, I'd ridden my bike backwards. This is just as hard as it sounds: you've got to sit on the handlebars and peddle the opposite way to normal. But the really tricky bit is steering. You can only do this by looking over your shoulder all the time.

‘VVRRROOOMMMM!' I roared as I zoomed past.

Sophie gave a surprised squeak then peddled harder.

Seabrook wasn't a big place so we took a long-cut around a few extra blocks and through the park in the centre of town. Most of the other kids walked or rode bikes, and the closer we got to the school gates, the more crowded it became. Finally, I braked and climbed off— riding backwards
was too hard with so many people around. Sophie sailed past, looking triumphant.

I caught up to her at the bike rack. The bell had just gone and everyone was rushing to class.

‘Come on!' She rolled her front wheel between the metal struts.

I pushed my bike into the space beside hers then we jogged up the school steps. A few stragglers were still putting their bags in their lockers.

‘Quick!' said Sophie, as we ran down the long hallway to our lockers.

I skidded to a stop and dumped my bag on the floor. When I opened the metal door of my locker, an avalanche of glitter poured out.

‘What the . . . ?' The stream of shiny flecks fell onto my bag like a hideous sparkling waterfall.

After a stunned second, I put two and two together. It added up to Michael. I guessed he'd discovered the figurines before he'd gone to school.

‘Is that
glitter
?' asked Sophie as it cascaded onto the floor. ‘Do you know how hard that stuff is to get off?'

I didn't answer. In amongst the glitter was a piece of paper. I picked it up and unfolded it. More glitter fell everywhere.

‘Guess who?' I showed the note to Sophie.

‘Michael! But how did he get the glitter in there?'

‘He must've poured it in through the vents,' I said.

It was going to be impossible to get it all out of my locker and off my bag. How did my brother think of this stuff? You had to be a special kind of twisted to use
glitter
for revenge.

‘What are we going to do? We're already late.'

‘You go,' I told her. ‘I've got to clean this up first.'

When Sophie was gone, I unzipped my bag. Inside, it wasn't as bad as I feared: my books were pretty much glitter-free, which was lucky, 'cause I could just imagine what everyone would say if I had glittery books. I dusted off a few loose specks then closed
the bag and stuffed it, glitter and all, into my locker.

The corridor was completely deserted now. But just as I turned to head toward class, a flash of colour on the floor caught my eye. Glitter — a few specks — leading away from the lockers. I followed the trail. Perhaps some had stuck to Michael's shoes? But the glitter led toward the back of the school,
away
from the classrooms. Why would Michael have gone in that direction, where there was only an emergency exit, and beyond that, the oval? I glanced at a clock on the wall; I'd already missed the start of class. It wouldn't make much difference if I arrived a few minutes later.

The glittery trail led around a corner into another, smaller corridor. It ended at a dusty stairwell that I guessed led up to
the first floor of the building. Ever since I could remember, most of that level had been out of bounds. There was nothing on the first floor anyway, except for the headmaster's office and sick bay, and I'd never visited either of those places. Plus everyone used the other, much bigger staircase just inside the front entrance of the school. So why would Michael go this way?

I glanced around to check that the coast was clear, then ducked under the rope that blocked off the cramped, winding stairs and jogged up, two at a time. In a few seconds, I was at the top standing on a small landing. The space was empty except for a single wooden door. I tried the knob but the door was locked. I'd reached a dead end.

Feeling disappointed, I turned to head back down when I heard a faint sound. It was coming from near the floor. I crouched down and switched my vision to infrared. A warm glow crept out from beneath the door. I poked my fingers underneath and pulled something out.

‘
Help me! Won't somebody help me
?' The tiny, high voice was suddenly loud in the silence.

I stared at Princess Sparkle. Michael would never leave his device here! He must've dropped it and somehow it had been kicked under the door. But what had my brother been doing up here?

On the dusty floor were large, adult-sized footprints. Running through them were a couple of long streaks that led to the door and disappeared, as though someone had been dragged through it
backward. A few specks of glitter shone in the dim light.

‘
Help me!
' cried Princess Sparkle. ‘
Help me, please!
'

I gazed at the screen. What had happened to my brother?