The Academy: Book 2 (4 page)

             
The run reminded him of the jogs he had taken behind his house when he was younger. His mother had come down with the Wolf Flu, and it was painful to be in the house. There were times when Asa would go out and jog for hours. He had learned that there was a point, about two hours in, when the pain and muscle aches actually began to subside a bit, and the rhythm of his feet underneath grew easier. The exercise offered him a way out of reality, so that he didn’t have to think of his mother lying sick on the couch.

             
Asa picked up his speed: he was now bolting along the mountainside, taking enormous leaps over bushes and rocks. He pushed himself harder and harder until his thighs and calves began to burn and he was gasping for air. Subconsciously, he was doing the same thing he had done when he was younger: he was trying to hide from reality in a wall of pain. He didn’t want to think about the Multipliers he had just encountered or what it could mean that they secretly inhabited the mountains around the Academy, apparently on some sort of mission…

             
Asa dug into the ground, trying not to think.

             
I think I have a pretty good idea of what they want…

             
His feet moved even faster, and he began to hiss in and out of his teeth, feeling the consuming pain of lactic acid building in his muscles. He smiled, unable to think, and didn’t let up.

             
Throughout the course of the next few minutes, he covered two miles, leaving behind a track of kicked up dirt and snow behind him. He was just starting to slow down when he heard a scream break through the forest.

             
Instinctively, Asa hit the floor, sliding along the snow with momentum. Though his brain was low on oxygen, and the ache in his muscles had been consuming him, the cry brought him back to reality, and he began to think again. The scream sounded as though it had come from a young person in distress. He army crawled over to the nearest bush, and tried to let out an echolocation cry.

             
Panting hard, the cry was unsuccessful. Asa’s lungs hadn’t been able to produce enough force. He stayed quiet, trying to catch his breath, and listened.

             
Close by, he heard grunting. There was a familiar creaking sound that he associated with the white monkeys, strung up by their feet and dead. A female’s voice cursed softly, and Asa believed that he was in the vicinity of someone that he hadn’t yet encountered.

             
He looked behind him to make sure that Joney or Edna hadn’t followed the path he made through the woods. All was clear and quiet. Asa tried again to let out an echolocation cry, but was still too winded to do so. He slithered on his belly around the bush, and saw the female who had made the cry.

             
As Asa had anticipated, this person had stepped into the same trap as the monkeys had. She was wearing dirty blue jeans, and a muddy, white t-shirt. Though she was dirty, she wasn’t as unkempt as the three Multipliers around the campfire had been. This female appeared to have had her hair groomed recently; she had neat, shoulder-length dirty-blond hair (that was hanging towards the ground at the moment), and although her clothes were dirty, they weren’t tattered or ripped.

             
Asa felt the old anxiety begin to build inside of him: there was that awful feeling that everywhere he went, something bad was about to happen. He was miserably alert as he observed the girl.

             
She was twisting and jerking, trying to get herself loose from the rope trap. Unlike the monkeys Asa had seen, this girl was only held up by her right ankle. A soft trickle of blood was beginning to run up her calf muscle from the point of restriction on the rope. The girl swung her body upward, clutched onto her ankle, and began trying to pull. Even with her best efforts, she was not able to get herself free.

             
She’s athletic, but not super-human.

             
Upset and frustrated, the girl relaxed and let her body fall to a hanging position. The rope constricted harder with the added weight, and the girl screamed. Quickly, regretting her decision, the girl covered her mouth with her hands and fell silent. She looked around the forest, as to make sure that she hadn’t been heard.

             
Asa froze. Having lived in the Academy for a little over half a year now, he knew the dangers of attracting attention in the woods. He had a strong urge to run out into the clearing and tell the stranger to “hush,” but wasn’t yet sure that he intended to help.

             
I don’t know what she is: I thought that the person who killed the monkeys was harmless, too.

             
Asa stayed in his position, wondering if he should get up and start running. His heart was pounding fast. The girl’s cries could have carried all the way to the Multipliers: if this was the case, they were probably already rushing through the forest after the source.

             
The girl spun around in a circle once more, and this time she was facing Asa. Her teeth were chattering, and her arms were crossed tightly against herself. On the ground, directly below her was a black parka. Stitched on the back was a large, yellow goldfish.

             
Oh, she’s a Fishie! How could I have forgotten? They were supposed to be arriving today, so that they could participate in classes tomorrow.

             
“Don’t scream,” Asa said. He stepped out from hiding and revealed himself. “Be still so that I can get you down.”

             
Asa stepped toward her, and she pointed her finger at him; her eyes were red and angry. “Get back!”

             
Asa was relieved to see that her tongue and gums were pink. He put up his hands to show that he had no ill intentions: “I’m here to help.”

             
She ran a hand over her forehead, streaking dirt on her skin and said: “I don’t need help. I just need a knife or something.” Again, she pulled her body up so that her torso was upright, and she was able to hold onto the rope. She turned to Asa: “Well?”

             
“Well what?”

             
“Do you have a knife?” she asked.

             
“Uhh, no.”

             
She turned, looking at Asa as she was suspended in the air, holding onto the rope. Asa thought of how scared he would be if he were a normal human and encountered a mutated person in a stark white suit on a mountainside.

             
“I can get you down, just be still.” Asa’s wings shot out onto either side of him, and he leapt above the girl and grasped the rope with his right hand. He brought his left wrist up to his mouth and using his teeth to pull the fabric over his thumb, he was able to activate the drill function of his wristband. He momentarily squeezed the drill to life, cut the rope, caught it, and used his wings to help the two of them glide softly to the floor.

             
The girl lowered herself to the earth using her hands, and then rolled over onto her back where she sat up, examining the rope on her ankle. She blew some hair out of her face. “I didn’t need your help,” she said. She worked on her ankle for a moment, and when Asa didn’t answer she added: “But thank you.”

             
“You’re welcome.” Asa was keenly aware that if the Multipliers had heard the initial scream that they would arrive behind them in a few moments. He got down on his hands and knees and examined the rope on the girl’s ankle.

             
“No wonder it’s bleeding,” she said, looking at it.

             
“No kidding.” The rope was wrapped with sharp, thorny vines all the way around.

             
“I’m Jen,” the girl said. Her face was closer to Asa’s than was necessary.

             
Asa let out an echolocation cry to check their surroundings. The Multipliers weren’t in the vicinity.
Not yet, at least.

             
“Hello?” Jen asked. “I said my name. This is the part where you say yours.”

             
Asa looked at her. At times it was still hard to believe that others couldn’t hear the high-pitched noises that he was able to produce. “Asa Palmer.”

             
“I’ve got something for you, Asa Palmer,” she said, and reached into the pocket of her parka. She pulled out gold-rimmed, thick goggles. These were much nicer than the ones that the Fishies had been given last year to climb King Mountain with. Asa had seen a pair like this before, but couldn’t remember where. “They’re a gift.”

             
Distracted, thinking about the Multipliers in the woods, Asa put the pair of gold goggles onto the ground. He had not carefully examined the goggles he before placed them down.

             
“We need to move,” Asa said.

             
“You look worried, Palmer.” Jen was smiling.

             
“I am worried. We need to run. Can I pick you up?”

             
“I can run by myself, I’m not
that
hurt,” Jen said. “Do you think we can just pull this off my ankle? Some of the thorns are in pretty deep.”

             
Asa let out another cry of echolocation, and saw Joney and Edna moving toward them in the brush. They were talking amongst each other, taking their time.
Have we already been spotted?

             
“Why do you keep on opening your mouth like…” Jen started.

             
Asa put a stern finger on Jen’s lips to quiet her. She must have read something alarming on his face because her expression went from playful to concerned. “Be completely silent,” Asa whispered hoarsely to her. With his wings still out, he wrapped his arms around Jen’s torso and began to softly flap so that they floated straight up into the canopy. They landed on a pliable, thin branch high above the forest floor. The wood bounced with their weight, moving the shadows beneath. Asa didn’t dare breath as the Multipliers approached beneath them.

             
“Ehhh! Something musta’ set this un off, eh, Edna?”

             
“Seems as such. But—Ah! Lookey here!” Edna said, picking up the end of rope that had just trapped Jen. “A bit o’ blood on it. An’ look at that end! Somethin’ strong had to ‘ave ripped right through it, don’t you suspect?”

             
Asa was holding his breath as he watched. Jen didn’t appear as frightened as Asa, but was still following his lead of being silent. She seemed surprisingly comfortable with being fifty feet above the earth on an unstable branch.

             
The wind stirred the branches above, moving the shadows below. The outline of the two in the tree seemed painfully obvious from above, but the Multipliers still didn’t seem suspicious. They were so concentrated on what was on the ground that they weren’t looking above them.

             
“Wha’s tha’?” Joney asked.

             
Asa’s stomach went cold. Joney was pointing at a gold object in the dirt.

             
The goggles, how could I have forgotten?

             
Asa and Jen shared a look of uncertainty.

             
Edna picked up the goggles and looked at them. “Ye Gods, Joney! Does this say what I think it does?”

             
Joney looked at the inscription that Edna was pointing at. He sounded the words out very slowly. “J…Uh…Jul. Jul Conway.
Jul Conway?
”