Higher Institute of Villainous Education (21 page)

‘Grab an extinguisher, Shelby,’ Laura yelled, taking one for herself. She ran towards a point on the landing where the first few tendrils were starting to appear over the edge of the balcony, and depressed the lever of the fire extinguisher. An icy-white cloud of carbon dioxide gas shot out, enveloping the waving tendrils and making them recoil instantly as if they had been burnt. Shelby also fired her extinguisher at the encroaching tentacles, quickly repelling them from the balcony.

‘Brand, you’re a genius!’ Shelby shouted happily as several other students who had seen what the two girls had done snatched their own extinguishers from the wall.

However, Laura knew that it was a temporary reprieve at best – there were only so many fire extinguishers on the top landing and they would not last for ever.

Otto snapped the casing back on to the final sleeper and shoved the weapons back into his pack.

‘OK, all done. Let’s go,’ Otto said as he jogged across the lab towards Raven. She turned towards him and the look on her face sent a chill through him.

‘I’m afraid it might be too late,’ she said quietly.

Otto looked into the corridor and saw that the only route back to the hydroponics cavern was blocked by a mass of the creature’s tendrils. They only had to get a few metres past the seething green barricade but it might as well have been miles away.

‘How fast can you run?’ Raven asked, never taking her eyes from the approaching vines.

‘Fast enough, especially when my life depends on it,’ Otto whispered.

‘Stay close to me. When I say run, you go and don’t look back. Understood?’

Otto nodded.

‘I think it’s time this thing got a pruning.’ Raven reached both hands over her shoulders and drew the twin gleaming swords from their sheaths on her back. She advanced towards the tendrils, her pace calm and measured, Otto just a metre or so behind her. The thorned vines seemed to sense her presence, rearing up from the floor as she approached. Raven kept moving forwards, both swords drawn, waiting for the first inevitable attack. She did not have to wait long – several of the tendrils suddenly whipped towards her and Otto, eager for fresh prey. Raven reacted instantly, both swords swinging in lightning arcs through the air, neatly severing all of the attacking vines, the dead ends dropping to the floor with a wet slapping sound. Raven continued to advance, repelling each strike as it came. The nearer they got to the passage leading to the hydroponics cavern the faster the vines whirled, Raven’s swords becoming little more than a silver blur as she hacked a way through. With only a couple of metres to go, one of the dozens of tendrils that were simultaneously attacking snuck past her guard, ripping a long gash into her thigh. Raven grunted in pain but never slowed, swinging the two blades even faster now as she carved a path through the spinning green blizzard for Otto and herself. They were now only a couple of metres from the adjoining corridor, which appeared to be mercifully free of the monstrous vines. Raven slashed to one side, finally clearing the path enough for them to get through.

‘Go!’ Raven shouted. ‘Run as fast as you can! I can’t hold them back for ever.’ Her face and uniform were streaked with the green juices that sprayed from the severed tendrils, her once gleaming blades dripping with the same foul slime. Otto knew there was no time to argue. He leapt through the gap that Raven had cut and sprinted down the corridor. Several tendrils snaked down the corridor after him.

‘You should be worried about me, not him!’ Raven yelled, hacking at the vines with even greater ferocity. The tendrils pursuing Otto seemed to hesitate for a moment before coiling back on themselves and joining the dozens of others slashing at Raven.

Despite Raven’s instructions to the contrary, Otto could not help but look back as he ran down the corridor. He could just make out the dark figure amidst the twisting coils of the vines, her blades still flashing, before the green wall thickened and she disappeared finally from view.

‘That’s it! I’m out,’ Shelby shouted as she threw the empty fire extinguisher at the approaching tendrils. She and Laura had fought desperately to hold the tendrils back as the last few students had locked themselves in their rooms but it had done little good.

‘Open up!’ Laura shouted, banging on the last door on the landing. The door slid open slightly and Nigel’s terrified face appeared in the gap.

‘Are they gone?’ He squeaked.

‘No, but we will be if you don’t let us in,’ Laura said angrily.

‘OK, OK,’ Nigel replied, opening the door fully.

‘Come on, Shelby, we’ve got to get inside!’ Laura shouted.

The two girls ran through the door as Nigel shut and locked it behind them.

‘Where’s Franz?’ Shelby asked, looking around the room.

‘He locked himself in the bathroom. He won’t come out,’ Nigel explained.

‘And I am being quite happy to stay here,’ Franz’s muffled voice added from behind the bathroom door.

‘We should be safe in here, shouldn’t we?’ Nigel asked, looking from one girl to the other.

There was an enormous bang from the room’s main door and the thick metal buckled inwards slightly.

‘Oh, sure, for about the next two minutes,’ Shelby replied.

Otto ran out on to the walkway to find a scene of utter chaos. The tendrils were attacking from all sides now as two guards wielding the last pair of functional flamethrowers fought to keep them at bay. Nero lay propped against the wall, his eyes closed and blood-soaked bandages wrapped around his chest, his face pale. Crouched next to Nero were Wing and the chief, who both looked up in surprise as Otto appeared.

‘Otto!’ Wing shouted, grinning at him. ‘Are you OK? Where’s Raven?’

‘She didn’t make it,’ Otto said quietly. ‘What happened to Nero?’

‘He was wounded when the creature attacked us. We have to get him to the infirmary but the way is blocked by that thing.’ Wing jerked his head in the direction of the hideous mutated plant in the middle of the cavern; it had grown noticeably in the time that Otto had been away. ‘It should be me lying there instead of him. He was hurt while trying to protect me.’ Wing looked distracted – the experience had clearly shaken him.

‘It’s time to end this,’ Otto said, pulling the pair of grapplers from his pack, ‘one way or the other.’ He snapped the grapplers to his wrists and moved quickly to the railing at the edge of the walkway. The scene that greeted him as he looked down into the base of the cavern was like a vision of hell. Boiling masses of vines surrounded the monstrous head of the creature which strained towards the walkway, desperate to reach the tantalising morsels that lay just beyond its reach. At the rate that it appeared to be growing they would not remain beyond its reach for long.

Otto forced himself to look away from the creature and picked out the points on the cavern ceiling that he needed to reach. The original idea had been for Raven to carry out this stage of the plan but that, sadly, was no longer going to be possible. He tried not to think about the way in which she had sacrificed herself to save him.

He had to stay focused on what he needed to do next. Not even Wing could help Otto now – with his injured wrist there was no way he could use a grappler. He was going to have to do this alone.

‘Otto, there’s something that I have to tell you about Nero,’ Wing said urgently.

‘You can tell me when I get back,’ Otto said, pointing the grappler on his right arm at the ceiling. Wing stared at him, desperate to tell him what he had seen, but there was no time.

‘Good luck,’ Wing said softly, placing his hand on Otto’s shoulder.

‘I don’t believe in luck,’ Otto said, forcing a smile. He squeezed the trigger, the thin wire shooting upwards and securing itself firmly to the rocky cavern ceiling. He took a long, deep breath and swung out into the cavern.

The creature seemed to sense the sudden movement, its head whipping around towards Otto as he swung through the air. Otto knew that he had to keep the line attaching him to the ceiling a certain length to keep up his momentum. He silently prayed that he would still be beyond the monster’s reach. As the creature’s head rushed towards him he tried to concentrate on the arcs that his brain was plotting in the air ahead of him. He fired the second grappler, releasing the first bolt as soon as he felt the second line go taut. The creature’s bloated head shot after him, only momentarily confused by the slight change in his original trajectory.

Concentrate on where you’re going, Otto told himself, and whatever you do don’t look down. He maintained the rhythm of his swings, heading towards the centre of the cavern. He couldn’t see the creature’s head – he knew that it was somewhere behind him, but he had no idea how far away. He switched lines again, just as the slime-covered jaws of the creature slammed shut on the empty air where he had hung a split second before. He reeled the line in slightly, hoping that it would be enough to keep him beyond the reach of the snapping jaws. Just a couple more swings and he’d reach his target. The monster’s head raced at him again, moving impossibly fast. Otto twisted desperately, altering his course just enough that the gaping jaws snapped shut on empty air once more. The side of the creature’s head hit him hard, setting Otto spinning on the end of the line, momentarily disorienting him. Otto fired blindly towards the centre of the cavern, hoping that the grappler bolt would strike home. He felt the line go taut and swing again, his whole body aching from the glancing blow the monster had dealt him.

Otto fired again and the grappler bolt shot into the forest of hanging stalactites in the centre of the cavern’s roof. He reeled in the line, drawing himself up into the massive natural rock formation, beyond the reach of the creature’s hungry jaws. He twisted on the end of the line as he rose, taking in the shape of the jagged hanging rocks, looking for the best place to plant the surprise he had in store for the monster below. He spotted a small hollow in the rocks, near to what he calculated must be the most vulnerable point of the formation, and thumbed the controls on the grappler to reel him up towards it. As he rose towards the gap in the rock he caught a glimpse of the distant walkway and was horrified to see that the crawling vines had completely overrun the platform, forcing Wing and the guards to fall back through the doorway and along the corridor that Otto had run down just minutes before. Otto felt a chill run down his spine as he realised that there was no way back along that corridor. Wing was trapped between the vines advancing from the cavern and the ones flooding down the corridor. He pressed the button on the grappler harder, willing the line to reel in faster. He felt as if he was rising agonisingly slowly, but after only a couple of seconds he was level with the crack in the rock.