The Vault of Dreamers (30 page)

I fit the penlight back in my teeth, and kept descending, rung by rung. A rustling
noise made me flinch.
Mice
, I thought, listening hard. Or maybe bats. Just as long as it wasn’t big black spiders,
I would be okay. Those I couldn’t stand. I took another step and abruptly touched
down against something solid and flat.

At last. With shaking fingers, I took my penlight from my teeth and cast its beam
around the bottom of the pit. Through a layer of thick dust, the walls had the perfect
flatness of glass. I stroked a finger down one, and found it was a window.

At the bottom of a pit, where even by daylight only a hint of sunlight could reach,
I’d found windows. One of them had a small, round, metal knob.

It was a door.

*   *   *

I looked above me one last time, up into the darkness where I knew I had an exit,
and then I turned the knob. The door pulled toward me on squeaky hinges, and as I
stepped through, I found myself in an old, deep tunnel that surrounded the windows
of the pit and extended off in two directions. A few dry leaves were scattered along
the corners. I scanned my light up the brick wall to where a broken light fixture
dangled by its wires.

A low, mechanical hum came from one end of the tunnel, so I chose that direction,
and not long after, a line of light shone from under a door. I pocketed my penlight,
listened carefully for a long moment, and turned the knob.

I blinked at the sudden light of a tidy, bright lobby, with an elevator on my left
and a fragrant bouquet of flowers on a stand to my right. A door was marked STAIRS.
The air smelled vaguely of burned popcorn, and I saw a small kitchenette counter with
a microwave, a coffee machine, and a minifridge. Easing farther in, I scanned quickly
for cameras. There were none.

Then I looked past the flowers through a large, plateglass window, and my heart went
still.

Rows of sleep shells lined an underground vault, making the spacious room glow with
the soft light of their lids.

“What is this?” I whispered.

It couldn’t be storage because the sleep shells were on. With a prickling sense of
apprehension, I pushed through the door and looked into the closest one. Beneath the
curved, glass lid, a young woman lay in a gray gown with a blanket covering her from
waist to toes. Soft blond hair spread out around her face onto a white pillow, and
her expression was a mask of calm. Her eyes were covered with a thick, transparent
gel, and two small tabs were attached at her temples.

Her chest rose and fell in soft breaths, proving she was alive, but she was completely,
perfectly asleep. I turned to the next sleep shell. A teenage boy lay in a similar
state. The wispy fuzz of a first beard showed on his jaw, and his cheekbones were
prominent, as if he’d been subsisting on an insufficient diet.

“Can you hear me?” I whispered.

He didn’t stir. With expanding horror, I looked into the next sleep shell at a child.
A kid no more than five or six. He was asleep like all the others, and so small he
was dwarfed by his roomy sleep shell. Stunned, I stared at the bleak rows of sleep
shells. Over two dozen people were sleeping in the vault. What were they doing here?

A network of tubes and cords crisscrossed an overhead framework and dropped lines
down to each sleep shell. Along the far right-hand wall was another plateglass window
and another door. I moved nearer, careful not to bump any of the sleep shells, and
peered in at a dark room with a white table. The door opened soundlessly at my touch,
and as I reached along the wall for a light switch, I inhaled a familiar scent of
vinegar.

I flipped the light. Three empty surgical tables occupied the center of a complete
operating room. Trays of instruments were arranged within easy reach, while lights,
monitors, and touch screens bulged on retractable arms from the walls and ceiling.
This, I realized, was where Dr. Ash had been operating that night I’d watched Dean
Berg advise her from the sixth floor of the dean’s tower.

As I switched off the light and backed out, the impact of the two rooms hit me. The
doctor could operate on everyone here. So could the dean. These people were being
stored here on purpose, like living carrion, for the doctor and Dean Berg to mine
and seed. What was to stop them from doing the same surgeries to Forge students? To
me?

Jerking my video camera around on its strap, I lifted it quickly and turned it on.

“I’m under the Forge School,” I narrated in a frantic whisper. I panned the vault,
including the entrance to the operating room. “There’s an operating room through there,”
I said. I started quickly back the way I’d come, toward the lobby, and I zoomed in
on the faces as I passed. One was a young girl with a scar across her forehead. In
fact, at least half of them were children.

I wanted to scream. Stumbling, I knocked into one of the sleep shells, and let out
a gasp. The tube connecting to the ceiling swayed, but the boy inside didn’t move.

You need to go
, said my inner voice.

She was right. I couldn’t get caught down here.

Even if the dean hadn’t figured out yet where I was, he must have noticed by now that
I wasn’t in my dorm. He would be looking for me. I did one last, wide sweep with my
video camera, and then I rushed out to the lobby. The elevator and the stairs were
no good. I didn’t know where they would lead. Instead, I pushed through the door to
the dark tunnel again and used my penlight to guide me back to the pit.

I slung my camera strap across my shoulder and pushed open the glass door.

Above me, the cylinder of the pit rose as black as ever. I gripped the light with
my teeth again, and started climbing. In my hurry, I forgot to count the rungs. Pulling
myself up was ten times harder than coming down. My bad right arm was only strong
enough to hold on for a moment while I used my left to draw myself up, and I had to
keep testing each rung, fearful of depending on the one that was loose.

Finally, my hand met the open space at the top of the pit. My heart nearly burst with
relief. Grabbing the railing, I heaved myself over onto firm ground. Every one of
my muscles was trembling. I took the penlight from my clenched teeth and flicked it
off. I licked my dry lips and tried to calm my breathing, but my fear wouldn’t fade.

Dean Berg had a vault full of living bodies hidden under the Forge School.

I had just crawled, hand over hand, out of a nightmare.

27

TRYST

I STEPPED TO
the door of the clock tower and listened for any noise outside. Parker, Otis, and
Linus must be long gone, but I didn’t know where Dean Berg or the security guard was.
That guard was an unknown factor. Once before, when I was out of my dorm, the dean
hadn’t wanted to get security involved. That could be an advantage for me.

I knew what would be smartest: taking my footage public. The best way would be to
reveal it during the day, on
The Forge Show
, when hundreds of thousands of viewers were watching. There’d be no way for the dean
to undo the exposure, and authorities would have to investigate. All I had to do was
make it safely to six o’clock the next morning. Then I could hook up my video camera
to one of the big monitors in Media Convergence, and the rest would be cake.

The only question now was where to hide my video camera so the dean couldn’t find
it before morning and erase my footage. I didn’t dare leave it here in the clock tower.
Maybe the laundry room would work again. I’d been lucky there before.

I pushed the door open a crack, and when I saw no one, I crouched low and ran for
the rosebushes. I crawled between them on the sandy gravel to where the garden met
the quad, and stopped to watch again. The crickets were softer now. The first floor
office of the dean’s tower had gone dark, but the penthouse was lit. When the quad
stayed clear and quiet, I bolted for the side of the film building.

Keeping low, I hurried behind the hedge, along the length of the building, and around
the corner. I crept into the shadow behind the dumpster. From there, I peeked out.
The girls’ dorm was next, across one last open space. I hesitated, watching the shadowed
area around the back door, and just as I decided to go for it, a dense shape in the
bushes moved slightly. I held still. Someone was hiding across from me.

I backed up and pulled my walkie-ham out of my pocket. I could barely see the numbers
as I dialed to channel four. “Linus?” I whispered, and lifted the speaker to my ear.

“Hey,” he said. “You’re awake.”

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Right outside your dorm, but don’t come down. It’s been a crazy night.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m already out. I’m right around the corner from you.”

“Where?”

“To your left as you face the door. Behind the dumpster.” I peeked around the corner
again, and the dark shape shifted in the bushes.

“Don’t move,” he said, and disconnected.

I shifted back on my heels and braced a hand on the wall, watching the shadows. A
minute later, Linus slid in beside me, behind the dumpster, and I cradled my sore
arm close so he wouldn’t bump it.

“What are you doing out here?” he whispered.

“You’re not going to believe what I found,” I said. “There’s a vault full of bodies
under the school. They’re alive. I don’t know if they’re in comas or what, but there
are a couple dozen of them at least, and some of them are kids.”

“Are you serious?”

“I found them down the pit in the clock tower. I have it all here, on tape.”

“Let me see,” Linus said.

“We don’t have time,” I said. “I don’t want to get caught here. We need to get this
out to the authorities.”

“Do you want me to take it?” he asked.

I weighed the idea, uncertain. My video camera might be safer with him. He might be
able to give it to the police better than I could.

“Don’t you trust me?” he asked.

The question made me doubt. Linus worked for Dean Berg. I’d even seen him in the dean’s
penthouse.

“What would you do with it?” I asked.

“Whatever you want,” he said. “Better yet, you should come with me.”

“To Forgetown?” I asked.

His features were barely discernible in the darkness. “Rosie, if what you say is true,
what do you think is going to happen once you show people?” he asked.

I didn’t have any fear for myself. “Berg is the problem,” I said. But even as I spoke,
I knew my evidence was going to bring chaos. The entire school was going to be ripped
apart.

A flashlight beam scanned across the pavement by the dumpster, and I instinctively
crouched down farther.

“Hold still,” Linus whispered.

But it was already too late.

“Who’s there?” a man called. His beam slowly scanned the steps to the girls’ dorm,
then the bushes, and then returned to outline the dumpster. I didn’t dare breathe.
“This is security. Come on out now, before you get hurt.” Footsteps came slowly nearer.
“Sandy? You with me? We’ve got a disturbance down here. I think one of your students
is out.”

I felt Linus’s fingers grip mine.

“I know you’re behind the dumpster,” the guard said. “Come on out of there. There’s
no use hiding.”

My gut instinct was to bolt, but even if I could outrun the guard, the cameras would
identify who I was and where I went. I would be caught soon enough. It was smarter
to try to talk my way out of this. I started to rise. Linus gripped my hand, keeping
me down.

“Give me the camera,” he whispered.

Torn, I vacillated. I could leave my footage with Linus and hope he didn’t get caught,
or I could keep it with me and take my chances with the guard. A flashlight beam shone
in my eyes, and I lifted a hand against the glare.

“Rosie?” the guard said. “Who else is there?”

“Nobody,” I said, moving more fully into the open.

“Linus? What is this?” asked the guard.

I looked back to see he had stepped out, too.

“What’s it look like?” Linus said. “Give me a break.”

The guard was a big, strapping guy in a beige uniform with handcuffs and a billy club
at his belt. He was shaking his head. “Why am I not surprised?”

A second man came around the corner, a tall, thin guy with a hatchet face and a gray
beard. My heart stopped. I knew him. He was the one who had helped Dr. Ash that first
night, with Janice. He touched a hand to his earphone, and nodded. “Got that. Sandy
wants us to hold them here. He’ll be out in a minute.”

“Who would you be?” the security guard asked him.

“Jerry Snellings,” said the bearded man. “I’m covering for Dr. Ash. We met a couple
months ago, remember?”

“Right. The nurse practitioner,” the guard said. “Can you believe these two? We’ll
have drama on the show tomorrow, and that’s a fact.”

The men didn’t normally work together. I made a flash decision.

“Listen,” I said to the guard. “We need your help. Something’s wrong here at the school.
Dean Berg is doing experiments on people.”

Jerry laughed. “Not another one of these,” he said. “If you want my advice, just stick
to the romantic tryst.”

The security guard rested a hand on his hip and began to smile.

I spoke directly to him. “You don’t believe me. But I can prove it,” I said. “I took
footage that proves it.”

“Let’s see that,” the guard said.

I hesitated, looking again toward Jerry. “I just want to keep it until morning,” I
said. “I’ll show it then.”

The guard reached out his hand. “Nice try. Hand it over.”

I backed up, but the guard moved in. When he grabbed my sore arm, I shrieked in pain
and dropped my camera.

“Leave her alone!” Linus said, and he dove at the guard.

The guard spun to block him and I was thrown off balance. Linus and the guard wrestled
in a tangle of blows. They banged up against the dumpster, but then the big guard
pinned Linus facedown to the ground.