The Academy: Book 2 (60 page)

Asa threw his hips up, trying to buck Cameron off of his body, but Cameron remained atop him. Cameron’s grip was stronger than ever. “Tap!” he growled.

Asa’s heart was thudding. He could feel the blood beating in his skull. There was a weird kind of numbness creeping in around his shoulders and he was beginning to wonder if this was what it felt like before you passed out from oxygen deprivation when he remembered what Roxanne had been saying to him during their lessons.

You’ve just got to feel the electricity; it kind of starts up at your shoulders, and then you just thrust it downward.

Asa tasted blood in the back of his
mouth, and he grabbed Cameron by the shoulders and smiled. Asa thought that there must have been something telling in his smile, for in the last moment before he was electrocuted, Cameron had a glint of fear in his eyes.

As Asa pushed the tingly feeling towards his hands, it felt like someone hit the back of his elbows with hammers. Lightening exploded out of his palms, temporarily blinding him and shooting Cameron’s limp body far away.

When Asa’s vision returned, he was falling towards the water. The Winggame match was still going, but suddenly, he was too tired to care. He knew that he should now try to fly towards the opposing team’s goals, but the electricity shooting out of his hands had taken absolutely all the energy out of him. He felt that even breathing was too much work.

He shot through the fog and slammed into the water before passing out. He woke up six hours later in Viola’s apartment, and she explained what had happened. Asa shot Cameron into the water. The Sharks
won five points to four, and were headed to the Winggame Championship.

Asa felt as though he didn’t have any time to be excited about this new development. He continued on with his electrocution lessons with Bruce and Roxanne, which were as pointless as ever, but more frustrating because Asa now knew that he could really shock someone if he could get over his mental barrier.

Asa spent all of his free time that week studying with Teddy. Teddy was almost always in a bad mood, and his gums were turning a darker shade of black every day. Asa always walked away from the conversations with Teddy feeling emotionally and mentally drained. Not only were they covering difficult subject matter, but Teddy was always trying to
convince
Asa of something.

Asa would sometimes get frustrated when working on a difficult math problem. “You know,” Teddy chimed in. “If you would only take some
Vipocrit, this would be a lot easier.”

After the fifth time hearing this
that day, Asa lost his temper, “I TOLD YOU ALREADY, NO! I’m not getting the drug for me, and I’m not getting it for you!”

They went back to studying, both of them only talking when necessary.

Asa felt as though he did well on all of his finals, but after turning them in, his anxiety was amplified. He knew that the Multiplier attack would come at any day.

On the day before the Winggame Championship, Asa woke up early and went out from Viola’s apartment. The Sharks weren’t going to have a physical practice that day; Bruce said that their bodies needed the rest. Asa flew down to Conway’s, and entered without knocking. Ozzie had grown used to Asa coming and going, and had stopped growling at him. Asa walked down the stairs of the dim basement, and found that Teddy was asleep in his cell.

Pausing on the stairs, Asa looked at his friend for a long time.

Standing there, he thought about different things.

He thought about his father. He thought about the Davids. He thought about the Multipliers lurking on the mountainsides around him. He thought about the upcoming Winggame match. What he spent most of his time thinking about, though, was how thankful he was to have never been bitten by a Multiplier. The Salvaserum that ran through Teddy’s veins was changing him in so many ways. At that moment, he decided that being bitten by a Multiplier was his biggest fear. He had a strange premonition that it would happen to him; that he was going to be bitten; that he was going to change.

             
Feeling sick, he turned around and walked out.

28

Stan’s Confession

             
The clouds loomed overhead like it was about to rain as Asa flew over the Moat back towards his dwelling. The sun was partially blocked out, and Asa thought—
the forests are so dark that Multipliers could be marching towards the mountains right now.
In his mind, he saw ten thousand of the mutated humans, all dripping with Salvaserum as they approached the mountains, lusting over thoughts of biting everyone they found. He thought about it, and came to the conclusion that ten thousand Multipliers wouldn’t be accurate. If they were to attack there would be closer to
one hundred thousand Multipliers.
Robert King had said there were a quarter of a million Multipliers in the Hive. As Boom Boom had convincingly argued, if the Academy goes down, they’ll most likely take over the world.
The Hive probably knows this.
Asa looked around at the mountains.
They’ll probably do anything they can to bring this place down.

The premonition that a Multiplier would soon bite him was causing his stomach to churn and he felt nauseated.
Why is this bothering me so much?
he wondered. He knew that it was illogical, but deep within he felt a cold certainty that his fears would come true. He could see it in his mind—a faceless Multiplier with yawning jaws that dripped with thick Salvaserum. He imagined feeling the purulent, thick liquid pump into his neck.

             
A shiver went over his body.

             
It’s not real. I’m not going to get bitten. It’s just a silly thought.

             
He didn’t feel so sure. Carmen the Multiplier Hunter had told him that a group of Multipliers from the Hive would attack at the end of the semester.
It will be tomorrow; classes will be over, and so will the Winggame season. And when they pour over the Mountains, I’ll be their first target.

             
He tried to think of something else. This was difficult, but he forced his thoughts in the direction of the upcoming Winggame Championship.

             
Asa could see the Wolves flying over the Moat, running different plays and practicing flying drills. Even though the Winggame Championship was tomorrow, they hadn’t taken the day off of physical practice, as the Sharks had. Asa didn’t know anyone, outside of the Sharks, who believed the Sharks would win the championship. The Wolves were undefeated. Even more notably, they had all twenty-five players. The Sharks, like the rest of the teams, had had many players die during this year’s Task. They would be entering the match with only ten competitors versus the Wolves twenty-five.

             
Asa thought they were going to lose. As a rule, he generally believed that he could overcome adversity, but this was just too much. The Wolves were good before they had more players than any other team; seeing as they outnumbered the Sharks more than two to one, they seemed unbeatable. Asa kept this pessimism to himself; there was no benefit in sharing his negative beliefs with his teammates.

             
He landed on Mount Two just below Viola’s dwelling and began to trudge up the rock towards the red door. A flock of crows flew overhead, their shadows drifting over the stone. He was glad to see that the birds were returning to the Mountainside. As his mother had told him, they were his guardian angels.
But if there is a Multiplier attack, what could the crows realistically do to stop it?

             
“Asa!”

             
Asa jumped and was startled out of his daydream. He turned, and saw Charlotte coming out of a dwelling near him. He felt his face flush hot; for a moment it was hard to breathe. “Hi,” he said as pleasantly as he could. He felt nervous. He hadn’t spoken to Charlotte in months. He felt this was not a good time for him to speak with her again. He felt on edge, and worried—like there was a strange electricity floating through the air. He wondered if she could see how jumpy he was, or how his eyes kept involuntarily moving over to the tree line to check for hoards of Multipliers attacking the mountains.

             
Charlotte looked calm and collected; Asa became concerned that Carmen hadn’t visited her to warn her about the upcoming Multiplier attack. Charlotte was wearing a gray, long sleeve shirt and running shorts. Her wavy dark hair was pulled up in a ponytail and her cheeks were red from the cold. She was smiling, which Asa found incredibly odd—she hadn’t smiled at Asa all semester, ever since he began to ignore her. He had hurt her. He felt an incredible urge to come to her, grab her, and tell her that he stayed away from her not out of dislike for her, but out of
love
for her. He knew that the Multipliers wanted to kill both Charlotte and him; Asa felt as though when they were together, they were too much of a target. Deciding to not spend time with Charlotte had been agonizing for Asa; he knew how much she cared about him, and her letter earlier in the semester had expressed how much he had devastated her.

             
But now, she didn’t look devastated at all. She didn’t look like she wanted any comforting from Asa, much less needed it.
She looks happy, controlled, and light hearted. It’s as though she has gotten over me. It no longer pains her to see me.

Asa thought that this was good. In the past, it had been tense when they ran into each other and he used to clearly see the hurt on her face when she looked at him. Now, there wasn’t even a trace of distress in her deep blue eyes.
This is exactly what I wanted, right? I don’t want to see her in pain, right?
Asa felt his throat tighten.

“How are you?” she asked.

Asa then heard himself talk at a pace he thought was too fast. “Good. I’m excited about the Winggame Championship tomorrow. Are you going? You don’t have to. I was just wondering. Are you going?”

She smiled. “Of course. Everyone is going. I’m happy for you. Are you going to the dance tomorrow?”

Asa nodded. “Yeah. It’ll be fun.” He then tried to smile, but found that he could only halfway do it. He looked at the doorway she had just come out of. “I thought your dwelling was way up at the top.”

“This is where
Shashowt lives. I’m over here a lot.”

Asa felt irrational anger boil up in his chest. “Oh. Okay.”
Why am I talking like this? Do I always sound this weird and stiff when I talk to people? Can she tell that I’m nervous? Why am I nervous? Why should I be?

Charlotte looked up at the sky. “I hope it doesn’t rain. I’ve wanted to go for a jog out in the woods for some time, but it’s been so cold. Running on the treadmill is fine, but it’s boring.” She looked up at the clouds again. “I think that I’d better go if I want to beat the rain. See you, Asa.”

Asa knew that he should tell her not to go out into the woods, and that Multipliers are out there killing chimps and tying them up by their legs.
And they’ll slit your throat too, honey.
But he couldn’t find the words. The conversation was paining him, and he wanted to end it as soon as possible. “Have a good run,” he heard himself say.

She smiled at him again before walking down the rock and beginning to jog into the forest where Harold
Kensing was buried, where Davids had slit throats and were hung up by their ankles, and where Asa had come across Multipliers at the beginning of the semester.

“I’m glad that she is getting over me,” Asa whispered to himself, but the words tasted funny in his mouth. He looked at
Shashowt’s door. Shashowt had always been interested in Charlotte, but Charlotte hadn’t ever seemed taken with Shashowt.

Maybe something has changed. Maybe he’s different—or maybe her preferences have shifted.

He turned, feeling different emotions flood over him, and continued up to Viola’s dwelling. He opened the red door with a loud creak, and stepped inside. The fire was low and crackling over a layer of red embers. The air smelled like earth, and old tree roots were tangled in the black dirt ceiling. A hot teakettle sat on the stove, adding a lemony aroma to the room.

Jen sat at the long, wooden table, holding one of the rock grenades Mike Plode had made in her hands. Asa shut the door behind them and they were alone.

“Don’t play with that!” Asa said.

“Why is that?”

“It’ll blow up! It’s sensitive, if you disturb the flint inside, it could spark and kill you and probably everyone in the surrounding fifty dwellings!”

She stood quickly, leaving the grenade on the table, took his hands, and pressed against him. “What are you going to do about it?” She looked up through loose strands of blond hair at Asa. The fire was reflected in her blue eyes.

She’s flirting with me,
Asa thought anxiously. He didn’t know how to flirt; he had never been able to talk to girls. His mouth felt like it was filled with glue, and he stood there awkwardly, not knowing how to respond.

He also didn’t know if he liked what was happening. Males in the Academy thought Jen was attractive; he had heard Mike Plode and Stan
Nuby talk about her. Every time Asa and Jen entered the cafeteria, male and female eyes followed her. Not only was she fit and pretty, but she also had a cocky, feminine swagger about her that seemed magnetic. It was hard to take your eyes off her. Asa didn’t know how he felt about her, though. He loved her, as a friend. And she was attractive.

But she’s not Charlotte.

His mind flitted back to Charlotte, and he wondered if she was still okay, jogging through the forest alone.

“The dance is tomorrow,” she said. “Would you accompany me? I know the guy is supposed to ask the girl, but I got tired of waiting.”

“Tired of waiting?”

“Have you asked someone?”

“No. Am I supposed to?”

She shrugged. “Other people have.”

“Oh.”

“So?”

“Huh?”

“So will you take me?”

His mouth felt dry. “Yeah.”

She stood on her toes, kissed him, and then let go of his hands. “I would stay, but I need to go work with my Blood Canary. We have a week to move ours, and mine doesn’t seem to want to budge. But I’ll see you tonight, for practice at the Lab. I hear Bruce has been working hard on some intricate plays for the championship. It should be fun to see what he’s come up with.”

She opened the door, and Asa called—“See you,” and then she was gone.

Asa sat down. His heart was pounding, and for some reason, he felt dizzy. He stared at the fire, trying to calm himself.

“The dance,” he said out loud to himself, and then shook his head.
Was I supposed to ask her? Has she been waiting for that?
He was grateful that Jen was assertive enough to take the initiative and ask him.
I hadn’t known I was supposed to go with anyone.

The dance was scheduled for the following night, after the Winggame Championship. It was a big topic of conversation amongst students in the cafeterias and in between classes. The Academy was providing each of the females with a dress and each of the males with a suit. Asa hadn’t worn a suit since his mother’s funeral.