The Academy: Book 2 (22 page)

             
That was when the exit doors opened again, and long shadows were cast onto the floor. People screamed and turned, looking at the three men who had just entered. It was understandable for the students to be scared upon seeing the Multipliers, especially considering Brumi’s dripping black wound.

             
This is it,
Asa thought.
They’ve broken the contract and now there’s no turning back. The Multipliers are going to do everything in their power to take over the human race now.
This is what the Multipliers in the woods were waiting for.

             
“SILENCE!” Hollered the ugly Multiplier from the other room. Shouts and screams continued to erupt from the crowd. “QUIET!”

             
Brumi was still squirming on the ground, and Jessica was still fighting with McCoy.

             
One of the Multipliers drew a gun. “Back away from McCoy!” Jessica didn’t listen. There was a three second pause between the command to “back away,” and the gunpowder explosion. Then red was dripping from Jessica’s side. She fell to her knees, and then a second bullet from the gun raced through her brain and out her skull with a sharp crack. She fell on her cheek to the stone. Her head smacked on the floor and then she stared at the wall with unmoving eyes.

             
She should have listened. This place isn’t soft on insubordinates.

             
The crowd was now silent, except for a few sobs. McCoy had Jessica’s blood all over him, and he turned and looked at the Multipliers. Asa thought that he detected fear in McCoy’s eyes.

             
“What happened in here, McCoy?” the ugly Multiplier said. He pointed his handgun at the ground, but did not holster it. “Seems as though it got a bit rowdy.”

             
McCoy just pointed at Brumi and then backed up a step.

             
Derden the Multiplier approached Brumi, poked her with his foot, and she let out one sharp scream before continuing to sob.

             
Brumi kept her mouth open, and her teeth pressed against the stone as she groaned into the floor. She coughed and spat. Her hair hung down to the stone, now bloody and wet. In addition to being in great mental distress, Asa saw that she was experiencing body-rattling tremors. Her exposed back was tight with spasm.

             
“What happened here?” repeated the ugly Multiplier.

             
“You tell me,” McCoy said. “Looks like a Multiplier bit the girl. She didn’t show up earlier, and a few minutes ago she barged through the exit door, dripping with that that black stuff.”

             
“What do you mean,
you tell me?”
barked the ugly Multiplier. “I didn’t bite her. No Multiplier bit her. We’re not allowed to do that.”

             
“Someone bit her, Jermaine!” McCoy said.

             
Jermaine looked the girl over. He had short, fat fingers that he ran through greasy hair. His face resembled a bulldog’s. “What happened to you, honey?” Jermaine asked.

             
The girl just continued to sob. She gave no indication that she had heard what he said.

             
“This must be some kind of sick joke, McCoy! What is this? Really?”

             
“This isn’t a joke! This girl entered in hysterics.”

             
Derden the Multiplier walked over and picked the girl up by her hair. Brumi screamed and grabbed the Multiplier’s hand for support. Her brown eyes shot around the room as though she had just woken up in a strange place.

             
“What happened to you, girlie?” Jermaine asked.

             
“M-M-M-Multiplier. He bit me.”

             
Jermaine laughed. “No, there’s no way a Multiplier bit you, honey. We’ve got a contract. We’re not allowed to bite.”

             
Derden was staring at the girl’s neck. “I’m not so sure, J. This looks like a Multiplier’s work.”

             
“It is a Multiplier’s work!” shouted McCoy. “Don’t play stupid!”

             
Jermaine examined the wound. “Where is this Multiplier, then?” he asked. “What did the Multiplier look like?”

             
Her answer sent goose bumps up Asa’s back. “Dirty,” she said. “He was a dirty man. Sticks in his hair. Smelled awful. Breath like stew.”

             
Teddy and Asa shared a discreet, knowing look.

             
“Well,” Jermaine said. “If you’ve noticed, none of us are dirty. All of the Multipliers here have a dress code—we’d never be seen with sticks in our hair.”

             
“I don’t think this Multiplier was from here,” Brumi said.

             
Jermaine’s face turned ugly: “There aren’t Multipliers outside of the Academy, so it must’ve been from here. Tell me this is a joke!”

             
Brumi shook her head. Tears were falling onto her exposed torso.

             
“We’ve got to kill her,” Derden said.

             
“What?” asked Brumi.

             
Jermaine stared at Derden for a moment. “I want to sort this out first,” he said. “There aren’t Multipliers outside of the Academy, this little twit is lying to us!”

             
“It’s the rule,” Derden responded. “We’re supposed to kill a Multiplier bite victim immediately. We’ve already disobeyed. We’re not supposed to interrogate like this.”

             
“Then how will they find out who did this? I don’t want to catch heat for this!” Jermaine said.

             
Teddy was crying. A female a few rows down from Asa was sobbing intermittently. The sounds echoed through the stone room.

             
“They’ll run an investigation,” said Derden. “You’re going to catch heat for it if you don’t kill her. Give me the gun.”

             
Groans went through the students in the seats. They shifted where they sat, unable to be still and watch.

             
“PLEASE! NO! NO! PLEASE!”

             
Asa couldn’t get the image Brumi in those final moments out of his mind. Her eyes wide, and she was begging so fast at the end. She stuttered and twitched, and Asa saw in her eyes that she would do absolutely anything for them not to kill her. But, they did, of course. Derden pushed her to the ground, backed up, and shot her. He didn’t want to get human blood on his suit.

             
From there, the students were expected to continue on as though it was a normal day. Teddy had to make another trip to the nurse to get more nasal tampons because of his nosebleeds. Asa thought that they were stress-related.

             
Stress isn’t the right word, though,
he thought.
It’s not strong enough. I think his nosebleeds are agony-related.

             
The next class was vaguely named “Science Class,” and was taught by a wiry haired man named Professor Stern. Professor Stern had a thin mustache, and talked quickly. He spoke of quantum physics, gene mutation, and chemical biology, moving from one subject to another without pause. After the first hour and a half lecture, Asa still didn’t know what the class was concerned with. He sat in the room, and typed out notes from what Professor Stern was saying, but he couldn’t mentally keep up with the topic changes, or understand the science-intensive material. Teddy entered class halfway through with his nasal tampons in place. Asa made a mental note to ask Teddy to explain what the Professor was talking about at a later time.

             
Next, they had “Responding to Medical Emergencies,” which was taught by Benny Hughs. Benny had won the Winggame Season Most Valuable Player award last semester. Now he was a graduate and was already teaching students. It felt odd to Asa that Benny Hughs was now an Academy professor, but it was the natural order of things.

             
The class rolled along for an entire four hours. Benny (who wanted to now be addressed as “Professor Hughs”) spent the first half-hour outlining what the class would cover this semester (which was techniques on advanced first aid, guided by the Academy’s mutation knowledge; They would learn how to use Academy engineered gene manipulating serums to treat health emergencies), and the rest of the time telling stories. His stories always began with “
When I was a student…
,” as though it were years ago, instead of just a month.

             
Asa let his thoughts drift away from the classroom in this period, wondering if the Multiplier that had bit Brumi was one of the ones he had encountered in the woods.
If a non-Academy Multiplier bites someone, is the contract my father made broken?

             
The thought had him on edge all class period. If it was true, he could expect Multipliers to barge in, dripping black, and bite some of the students and kill others. Multipliers, as Conway had explained to Asa, had a limit on how many people they could Multiply in certain time periods. They were biologically engineered to only be capable of changing one person every thirty days; after that, their black saliva would dry up for one moon cycle. If they wanted to take over the world, as Asa believed they did, they would have to kill many more than they changed, because of this limitation.

             
But, if an all-out Multiplier attack ever did come, Asa suspected that they would change him, instead of killing him. He believed that this action would satisfy some disturbed urge of the Multipliers to get back at his father. Asa’s father had made the contract that prohibited Multipliers from Multiplying while either Asa or Charlotte were in the Academy. If the Multipliers broke this contract, genetically engineered crows were instructed to deliver letters to news stations and government headquarters that revealed damning information about the Academy, such as the Academy’s whereabouts, their objectives, and their past actions. It was believed that if the Academy fell, there weren’t currently enough Multipliers to take over the world before they were eradicated. The outside world would fear Multipliers, and try to destroy them, if they ever found out about their existence. For the time, Multipliers were dependent upon the Academy, just like a parasite relies on a bigger, more independent organism. He could imagine Volkner getting an intense satisfaction in Multiplying the son of the man who had been so against Multipliers having the freedom to Multiply at will. Asa thought that Volkner would want to do the deed himself.

             
I haven’t seen Volkner yet this semester,
Asa realized. He brushed it off as coincidence.

             
The class went on without incident. Asa was the first student out the door when it finished, and he began a quick flight over to Conway’s cabin.
I have so much to tell him: The monkeys, the polaroid, the Multipliers in the woods, Gill’s letter, Brumi being bit…

             
He was relieved to see that the cabin’s chimney was puffing out blue smoke as he neared it, a sign that Conway was home.
What will he say?
Asa wondered. He did not discount the possibility that Conway might tell him to leave the Academy, or that Conway would want to go with him. There seemed to be sufficient evidence that a Multiplier uprising was imminent. Things were changing.