The Academy: Book 2 (6 page)

             
I’m not scared of him,
Asa said to himself, but still, he was tempted to slip out quietly; Asa was just starting to realize that something was not right with his friend.

             
“Teddy?”

             
“WHAA!” Teddy jumped: the cutting board he had been working on flew into the air, sending onions, red and green peppers, and jalapeños scattering all over the ground. Teddy was crouched in front of the stove, knife held out in front of him in a defensive position.

             
Teddy’s reaction made Asa jump too: he was leaning up against the wall, hand pressed up over his chest in surprise.

             
Teddy straightened up, and held the knife down. “Jesus, Asa, you scared me! Why’d you do that?”

             
“I wasn’t trying to,” Asa said back.

             
A cold smile broke onto Teddy’s lips, and then he burst into a high-pitched cackle: the transition seemed odd and unnatural. “Well come help me pick this up, then. No harm done.”

             
Asa smiled for a split second, and then began to walk towards the stove to help: he felt very aware of his legs while walking: it was as though the motion that was typically unconscious was requiring all of his mental efforts.

             
There’s nothing to be scared of. I mean, this is Teddy: He’s my friend, I trust him.

             
As they cleaned the mess on the floor, Teddy said, “I made us dinner. I know how you said that you missed the Mexican food in Texas, so I thought that I’d make you fajitas. I found a recipe in the library.”

             
Asa stood up, putting the chopping block with the assorted vegetables he had picked up back on the counter. He looked into Teddy’s face, and was shocked by his friend’s appearance. Teddy was loosing weight: the suit that he had been so delicately measured for last semester was now hanging on him. Both his eyes and his skin were a sick yellow color, as though his kidneys and liver weren’t functioning properly. Asa thought about telling Teddy that he needed sleep, but then reminded himself of how mad he got when Asa tried to assert that anything was wrong.
He just wants to let it fester.
Instead, Asa said: “The fajitas smell great.”

             
Teddy gave an enormous smile. “I don’t think the peppers are ruined; you keep this floor pretty clean.”

             
Something about the staggered way Teddy was speaking made the hair on the back Asa’s neck stand up. Before he entered, he was sure that he wanted to confide in his friend about all the things he had just witnessed in the woods. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

             
This is crazy! He’s my friend! I can tell him!

             
“I’m not worried about the peppers,” Asa said.

             
Teddy stared at Asa for a moment, measuring him. “I feel as though there’s something that you’re not telling me.”

Asa’s palms grew sweaty and he rubbed them on his suit.
It’s normal that he’s a bit disturbed after last semester. Remember the half dead students chasing after us? I don’t think there’s anything particularly dangerous about Teddy. I just think this awful place has changed him.
“Listen, umm, on my walk today I saw some things. I wanted to talk to you about them.”

Why am I talking so formally? He’s going to notice!

              Teddy picked up the knife and held it firmly in his right fist. “Some things, eh?” He lifted the cutting board and slid the vegetables into the pan of meat with the blade.

Asa didn’t like jalapenos, but he did not tell Teddy.
He did go all the way to the market in the middle of Town to get this food. I can eat it, even if I don’t like it.

“I have some things to tell you too, Asa.” Teddy said. “I’ve discovered something that I think is going to be very important. Here, grab a plate.”

Asa obeyed and the two of them fixed their meals. “You’ve discovered something?” Asa said.

Teddy waved the knife in front of Asa’s face. “Not here,” he whispered. “I have to tell you in the secret compartment. Let’s eat down here. You tell me your story while we eat, then we’ll go,” Teddy pointed his knife above the bathtub, and raised his eyebrows to say ‘up there.’

Unsure why Teddy was whispering, Asa asked, “why up there?”

“You’ll see. It needs to be up there.”

Asa couldn’t help but think that no one could hear his cries from the deep cave they had dug into the mountain. He brushed the thought away, and tried not to worry. Again he thought:
Teddy wouldn’t hurt me.

The two of them sat down, and Asa told Teddy the entire story of what had happened in the woods. He talked about finding the two dead monkeys, following Joney to the Multipliers
’ campsite, and of helping Jen get out of the trap (At this point, Asa couldn’t help but wonder if Jen had gotten back to her mountain alive).
As always, Teddy was a good listener: he remained attentive and asked questions to clarify things when appropriate. As Asa told the story, he remembered why he liked Teddy.
He’s polite, and he takes what I say seriously. He’s still the old Teddy, just a little…exhausted.

After eating a full meal and hearing what Asa had to say, Teddy looked much healthier.
He’s at his best when he’s working on a problem,
Asa thought.
It’s what he loves the most
. They sat in silence for a moment, Teddy considering what he just heard.

“And you’re sure that these Multipliers aren’t from the Academy?” Teddy asked.

“Well, I’m not
sure
, but I really don’t think those guys came from here. Teddy, you should have heard the way they were talking—they had weird accents. And I’ve definitely never seen anyone from the Academy look as grungy as they did.”

Teddy sat his plate down on the stone coffee table, and rocked in his wicker chair for a moment. “I don’t know what they could be doing,” he said. “And you said that they were on a mission…
hmmmm. Maybe they’re out there and supposed to be setting traps for crows. There aren’t as many of them around these mountains as there used to be.”

So Teddy had noticed the crows disappearing too.
“But they said they were waiting to get some sort of orders,” Asa said.

Teddy shrugged. He rocked in his chair with his fingers interlocked over his gaunt abdomen. “I’m thinking that what I have to show you might help clarify things. You think the presence of the Multipliers has to do with you?”

“I guess so. Whenever Multipliers are doing anything, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of me. After all that happened last semester, it’s hard to think it’s a coincidence that they’ve set up camp so close to my dwelling.”

Teddy looked over Asa, his jaundiced eyes were firm and unmoving, as though trying to communicate something unspoken. “I agree with you
, Asa. I think that you’re the reason they’re here.”

Teddy rocked some more, and stared at Asa while the wood creaked beneath him.

Asa looked away, pretending to not be disturbed by his friend’s intent look. He couldn’t help but wonder what Teddy was thinking.

“C’mon,” said Teddy, rising. “I want to show you that thing now.” Without looking behind to see if Asa was following, Teddy climbed up into the tunnel over the bathtub. Asa heard a splash as Teddy dove in and began to swim up towards the safe room.

All of a sudden, Asa felt as though he wanted to vomit. With Teddy gone, he let the misery he felt flood his face. “I don’t want to follow him, I don’t want to follow him,” Asa whispered. He hadn’t moved an inch from the stool on which he sat.

The tunnels leading up to the secret compartment were narrow and dark. And Asa hadn’t been up there in weeks: Teddy could have added some trap for him.

He doesn’t need a trap. He’s undergone such intense mutations that I’m no match for him.

Suddenly, an image of Teddy laughing two weeks ago bombarded Asa—his teeth barred, his face red
from cackles as he spoke:

…
just to drill you and Charlotte’s…HAHAHA!...heads off. And kill you, you know? Just take my drill and…WHAHAAHA!...over with…

And then today, those jaundiced and unfeeling eyes staring at Asa as he said:

I agree with you Asa. I think that you’re the reason they’re here.

Asa was breathing very rapidly, and he was beginning to sweat. “And if he gets rid of me, Teddy won’t be the freak who’s friends with the murderer anymore.”

The reasons to leave, to walk out the door and not follow Teddy up into the compartment (
it’s like following a lion into a den
) were almost overwhelming. But then, a calm voice of reason rose from the back of Asa’s mind:

I’ve been going through a hard time. The things that I saw on the back of
King Mountain have hurt me. They’ve scarred me. I can’t let this make me paranoid. I can’t allow this to jeopardize my only friendship.

Reluctantly, Asa stood and walked over towards the bathtub. Though he was still benefitting from the strength boosts he received after climbing the back of King Mountain, his legs were shaky beneath him.

Asa stepped onto the lip of the bathtub and looked straight up. Where ceiling should have been, there was a tunnel carved into the stone. Asa paused, took a deep breath, and then began to climb up. The stone was cold against his hands, and when he reached the top, he was looking straight ahead into a connected tunnel that dipped down and was full of cold water. Asa thought about how when they created the secret compartment they decided to have the initial entrance be through a water tunnel above the bathtub. This was so that someone investigating the dwelling would think that it was nothing more than a water storage: it wasn’t uncommon for the students to carve out a high place in their dwelling so that they could fill it with snow that would become usable water when it melted. Asa thought his secret compartment was well concealed: The tunnel grew black and dark before sloping upwards to the safe room.

WHAHAAHA
!...over with…

Asa shook his head and tried not to meditate on his fears concerning Teddy. He lifted his body, legs still shaking, up above the water tunnel. After taking a deep breath, he pierced through the water and began to pull himself forward.

Completely submerged, Asa army-crawled forward, his eyes open wide. Because the tunnel was so small, a proper stroke was impossible. Once Asa had entered the tunnel with his hands above his head, he did not have enough room to bring them down by his side while in the tunnel. Kicking softly, he slowly crawled forward in the confined space. Though his eyes were open, he soon was not able to see; each step he crawled forward with his numb hands brought him deeper into darkness.

He moved on and on, until his surroundings were pitch dark. He supposed that Teddy might not have yet lit a candle in the secret compartment, and there was only one small lantern lighting the dwelling:
it makes sense that it’s this dark. It’s not a trap.

Unsure if it would even be possible to back up if he had to, Asa continued on in the dark. His lungs were beginning to feel tight, but he wasn’t yet ready to exhale his air supply.

Teddy’s spent the last two weeks up here. Alone.

Crawling onward, Asa saw a dim, yellow light coming from an opening on the top of the tunnel in front of him. Scolding himself for worrying about nothing, Asa crawled until his head was sitting under the small opening the light was coming from. His chest felt strongly constricted at this point, and he was glad to look up into the opening and see that the surface was only ten feet above him. As the tunnel moved upward, it became brighter.