“Iggy?” I yelled.
“Max!” I heard his strangled cry from the rear of the truck and trotted over.
“You guys ok—,” I began, then I saw Jeb, Ari, and Angel standing on the ground. “Angel!” I cried. “Are you okay? I’m gonna take these guys apa—”
The look in Angel’s polar-ice eyes stopped me.
“I told you I should be the leader, Max,” she said with a chilling flatness. “Now it’s your time to die. The last life-forms from the labs are being exterminated, and you will be too.” She turned to Jeb. “Right?”
Jeb nodded solemnly, and then my world went blank in the wink of an eye.
PART 2
SCHOOL’S
IN —
FOREVER
37
My head was feeling as if had been used as a bowling ball, against solid marble pins.
My heart pounded, my breaths were ragged and shallow, and every muscle I had ached. I didn’t know what was going on, but it was bad.
I opened my eyes.
The word bad was so grossly inadequate to describe the situation that it was like it was from another language—a language of naive idiots.
I was strapped to a metal hospital bed, wrists and ankles bound with thick Velcro.
And I wasn’t alone.
With effort, I raised my head, fighting off the swift wave of nausea that made me gag and swallow convulsively.
To my left, also strapped to a metal bed, the Gasman breathed unevenly, twitching in his sleep.
Next to him, Nudge was starting to move, moaning slightly.
Turning to the right, I saw Iggy. He was lying very still, eyes open, staring up at a ceiling he couldn’t see.
On his other side, Fang was straining silently against his Velcro restraints, his face pale and grimly determined. When he felt me looking at him, I saw relief soften his gaze for a split second.
“You okay?” I mouthed.
He gave a short, quick nod, then inclined his head to gesture to the others. I nodded wearily
, summing up our situation with a universal “this is crap” expression. He tilted his head at a bed across from us. There was Total, looking dead except for the occasional muscle jerk, his small limbs bound like ours. He looked mangy, missing patches of fur around his mouth.
Moving my head carefully so I wouldn’t hurl, I examined our surroundings. We were in a plain white room, which was windowless. I thought I saw a door beyond Nudge’s bed, but I couldn’t be sure.
Iggy, Fang, me, Gazzy, Nudge, Total.
Angel wasn’t here.
I drew in a breath, readying myself to struggle against the straps, and it was then that it hit me: the smell. That chemical, antiseptic smell of alcohol, floor cleaner, plastic tubing. The smell that had filled my nose every day for the first ten years of my life.
Horrified, I stared at Fang. He gave me a questioning look.