Daisy handed Spencer the Ziploc bag of vacuum dust. "Don"t trust anyone from the Academy," Spencer said. "Students, teachers, not even the old members of the brown team. Remember ..." Spencer narrowed his eyes. "Academy equals BEM. They"re one and the same now."
Daisy headed toward the stairs, but Min extended a quick farewell handshake to Spencer. "It"s odd," the Asian boy said. "My experience at New Forest Academy has taken a sudden janitorial turn that was quite unpredictable."
Spencer couldn"t help but grin through the tension of the moment. "I hope that"s your way of saying good luck."
"I hate to break up this lame friendship moment," Dez said. "But Director Gracias is trying to get up."
Spencer whirled around, digging a second pinch of vacuum dust from the baggie. The attack plastered Director Garcia back to the floor. When Spencer turned again, Min and Daisy had vanished down the stairwell.
"So what"s your genius plan to rescue these chumps?" Dez asked.
"Can you break down the door?" Spencer asked.
Dez popped his knuckles. "Sweet." He grinned. "I love breaking things."
"I"ll stay here and keep Garcia pinned with vac dust," Spencer said as Dez headed downstairs. A moment later, Spencer heard the racquetball door shudder once, twice ... He could imagine the big bully throwing his whole weight against it.
"Won"t break!" Dez shouted.
"Hit it harder!" answered Spencer, readying another puff of vac dust for Garcia.
"You trying to make me hurt myself?" shouted Dez. "I said, it won"t break!"
Spencer tossed the vacuum dust onto the director"s chest. With a grunt, the man was down again. Garcia rolled on his side, a ring of keys jingling on his belt. Spencer quickly unhooked them.
"What about these?" Spencer called. He ran down the stairs, dangling the keys victoriously.
"I bet you had those the whole time," Dez said, ma.s.saging his shoulder. "You were just trying to get me to knock myself out."
"That would have been nice." Spencer tried a few keys before he found the right one. They didn"t have much time before the vac dust holding Garcia wore off.
"Ready?" Spencer shoved open the unlocked door.
Most of the students were so influenced by the Toxite breath that they didn"t even look up. But Jenna lifted her chin, and for one brief moment Spencer thought he saw a shred of hope in her eyes. Then the Rubbish opened its mouth, and her eyes clouded over.
Spencer suddenly yawned as Filth breath drifted through the open door. The potent Toxite breath was going to make this harder than he"d thought.
"Look out!" Dez shouted, jerking Spencer away from the open door. They rolled away from the entrance just as an overgrown Rubbish flapped through the doorway. It cut a jagged course through the hallway and disappeared around a corner.
"Thanks." Spencer turned to face Dez. "Did you see the size of that thing?"
"Yeah," said Dez. "It was huge." He held out his hands like a fisherman telling about his prize catch.
Spencer lashed out, suddenly shoving Dez against the wall. "Anything else you want to tell me?"
Dez tried to make a puzzled expression. "What are you talking about?"
Spencer raised his voice to an angry shout. "Since when have you been able to see Toxites, Dez?"
Chapter 38.
"They must have plans for you."
Dez pushed Spencer off and stepped away from the wall.
"You can see them!" Spencer accused.
"So what!" Dez shouted back. "You can too! I"m sick and tired of you and Daisy seeing things and doing stuff behind my back! I"m just as important as you are. I have a right to see the monsters!"
"Who did it to you? Who gave you the soap? Was it Slick?"
"This morning," Dez said. "Slick gave me some while I couldn"t move."
"Why would he do that? Did you make some kind of deal with Slick?"
"No deal. He just gave me the soap for fun."
"The BEM doesn"t do anything for fun," Spencer said. "They must have plans for you."
Suddenly, an alarm blared through the hallway, resonating in the racquetball courts and every gym in the rec center. Spencer turned to see Director Garcia on his hands and knees at the top of the stairs. He had crawled to the end of the hall, fighting the vac dust long enough to pull a security alarm.
"We"ve got to unplug the Toxites," Spencer said. "I"m going in!"
He leapt through the small doorway and into the haze of sapped brain waves that filled the racquetball court. The harsh blare of the security alarm helped keep him anch.o.r.ed, without letting his mind slip into worry-free sleep.
"Come on!" Spencer shouted, but the recruits were too far under the spell of the Toxites" breath to heed him. Spencer staggered across the court until he reached the first extension cord. He bent down and grabbed the cord in both hands.
A huge yawn forced him to his knees. He slumped against the wall and crumpled to the floor. Somewhere in the back of his sleep-muddled mind, Spencer knew he had to unplug the cord. Doing so would frighten the Toxites away and give him a chance to help the students escape. But the temptation to sleep was too strong. Instead of pulling out the cord, Spencer rested his head on the floor, eyelids drooping.
Someone bent over his p.r.o.ne form, grabbing the extension cord from his hands and jerking it out of the wall socket. Spencer squinted to see Dez stepping past him. The big kid was walking along the wall, trying to keep a safe distance from the ever-enlarging Toxites. Dez reached the next outlet. Leaning down, he yanked the plug out of the socket and let it fall to the ground.
The Grime that was attached to the other end scurried up the wall, bulbous fingertips finding easy purchase. The next plug Dez pulled sent a Filth scurrying out of the racquetball court, trailing its extension cord along like a dog on a leash without an owner.
With the Filth gone, Spencer felt revived. He rose to his knees as Dez unplugged another. The bully"s high tolerance for Toxite breath was impressive, but even Dez was starting to show signs. His pace slowed and his att.i.tude became apathetic, like he couldn"t understand why it was important to unplug the Toxites. Finally, he slumped down, only feet away from the last cord. It was attached to that Rubbish, the big one perched behind Jenna.
Spencer dug out a dash of vacuum dust. His Ziploc bag was almost empty now. It was a long shot across the gym. Positioning his hand with the fingers together, he took aim and flung the vac dust. It ripped across the gym with the sound of a revving vacuum and struck the pulsating Rubbish head-on. The creature fell to the court floor and, for a moment, its foul breath caught in its throat.
Dez recovered his senses quickly. Reaching out, he unplugged the final extension cord. The Rubbish shuddered and took flight for the open doorway.
The thirty recruits seemed very confused. Spencer remembered the terrible feeling of trying to piece his brain back together after inhaling too much Toxite breath. But there was no time for a sympathetic recovery.
"Get up!" Spencer shouted. "Everyone"s in danger! We have to go!" The piercing alarm gave his warning validity, and a few of the students seemed to realize what he was saying.
In a moment, Spencer had herded everyone into the hallway and Dez was leading them toward the rec center"s front doors. Spencer scanned the hall for any sign of Garcia, but the director was gone, probably rounding up help to stop the escape.
The last student to leave the racquetball court was Jenna. She stared at Spencer and gave him a smile. The eye contact had a strong effect, and Spencer saw Jenna put the pieces back together.
"What are we doing?" she asked.
"Couple of guys headed this way!" Dez shouted from the front doors of the rec center.
"Everyone out!" Spencer ordered. But how could he and Dez possibly get all the students past the bad guys with only one small shot of vac dust? Spencer took a final glance into the racquetball court, but the only things in there were discarded extension cords used to make Toxites evolve. Spencer s.n.a.t.c.hed a coiled cord and took off running toward the group, Jenna at his side.
They burst into the crisp November air. All the recruits were huddled on the steps of the rec center. Dez stood in front of them like an angry shepherd guarding his flock.
Two men were running toward the rec center, determined to stop the escaping recruits. Spencer recognized one of them as the New Forest Academy math teacher.
"Dez!" Spencer tossed one end of the extension cord to the bully. He caught it with a confused look on his broad face.
"What are we supposed to do with this?"
"Run!"
Holding tight to the ends of the cord, Spencer and Dez sprinted forward. The approaching teachers hesitated as the extension cord went taut between the two boys. There was no chance to turn aside. The cord made an inescapable clothesline, catching the two Academy teachers and flinging them to the ground. The force pulled Spencer and Dez off their feet, the extension cord burning as it slid through their hands and out of their grasp.
The boys were quicker to recover. Before the adults could stand, the thirty Academy rejects sprinted past, following Dez and Spencer to the far side of campus. They ran into the street, Spencer crossing his fingers as the brick wall and gate came into view.
Daisy and Min must have been successful. The gate was wide open. Beyond, idling in the parking lot, Spencer could see the back end of a big yellow school bus. It was there! Just like Meredith had promised in her mashed-potato note.
Spencer fell to the back of the group, quickly scanning over the heads of the recruits to make sure no one had fallen behind. They were moving too quickly for him to do a thorough count, so Spencer could only hope for the best. The group ran through the gateway, making a mad rush to the safety of the bus.
Out of the corner of his eye, Spencer saw a V of flying figures soar over the brick wall. Silhouetted momentarily against the bright blue sky, their trajectory carried them out of sight behind the wall and into the parking lot.
"Go! Go! Go!" Spencer urged, sprinting down the street and through the gate. If those flying BEM workers beat them to the parking lot, the recruits could be cut off from the escape bus.
The first worker touched down with his broom in the parking lot, only feet away. It was Slick, his dirty gla.s.ses slipping down his nose from the rapid flight. Spencer didn"t think twice; he pinched out the last puff of vacuum dust and hurled it at the janitor. Slick"s legs buckled and he dropped to his knees on the asphalt, temporarily rooted in place.
The bus door was open and the recruits started leaping in one at a time. The bottleneck gave another BEM worker time to land. He touched down near the bus door. But before he could fully regain his gravity, Dez tackled him in a flurry of pumping fists.
The Academy rejects were screaming; the bus engine revved. Spencer waited at the end of the group, determined to fight the BEM enemies hand to hand if necessary.
Slick recovered from the vac dust and rallied the other workers. They were racing toward the bus when Spencer leapt onto the vehicle"s bottom step, barely finding s.p.a.ce for his foot among the crowd of kids. There wasn"t even room to close the bus door-Spencer, half dangling outside, clung to the kid in front of him.
"Go!" shouted Spencer.
Through the throng of students, he could see Meredith"s hair, still matted from her hairnet. The lunch lady stepped on the gas and the large yellow bus peeled out as fast as it could.
"Move on back!" Meredith shouted over the din of frightened kids. "Move to the back of the bus and sit down! This could be a wild ride!" Meredith spun the wheel, navigating the giant bus through the cars parked in the lot.
The clog in the doorway began to thin and Spencer leaned into the bus, relieved not to see the asphalt speeding beneath him. But his momentary relief was broken as Daisy shouted something from the back of the bus.
"We forgot someone!"
Chapter 39.
"I"ll be right behind you."
The bus was pulling out of the parking lot, preparing for the steep descent toward the neighborhoods below. The big truck with the snowplow came careening out of the maintenance shed, angry BEM workers jumping into the back, readying for the chase.
Spencer pushed up the bus steps. "Who did we forget?"
"Unable to get a visual," Min called from the bus"s back window. "No, wait ... it"s Dez!"
"He"s running after us!" Daisy called.
How could they have left him? Dez had unplugged those growing Toxites and helped the Academy rejects escape from the rec center. The bully had bought them time in the parking lot, going hand to hand with the BEM worker. But Dez must have rolled out of sight during the fight.
"Stop the bus!" someone shouted. But if Meredith stopped, the BEM would recapture everyone.
"No," said Spencer. "I"m going back for him alone."
"Are you crazy?" shrieked Daisy.
"None of us would have made it through without Dez!" Spencer said. "We can"t leave him behind!" He found the stockpile of Glopified supplies that Daisy and Min had gathered from the stash.
"You can"t ..." Daisy said.
Spencer slipped on a latex glove. He paused long enough to take a deep breath, letting the air work past his adrenaline and calm his thumping heart. "I can do this, Daisy."
They held eye contact, and for a moment they might as well have been standing in Welcher Elementary"s library, trying to stop a single Toxite from hitchhiking in Dez"s backpack. Finally, Daisy nodded. "Don"t get caught."
Spencer picked up a broom with yellow bristles and a toilet plunger. Pushing to the front of the bus, he opened the squeaky door.
"Keep going," he said to Meredith. "I"ll be right behind you."
"Don"t go!" someone shouted, but Spencer raised his broom. "Spencer!" Jenna reached through the crowd of kids and grabbed Spencer"s arm just as he brought the broom bristles slamming against the bottom stair.
The broom wobbled, thrown off balance by the sudden weight of two bodies. Spencer and Jenna were pulled out of the bus door like puppets on a string. The broom dipped, and the tip of the handle struck the road, causing both kids to tumble painfully on the pavement.
Spencer grunted against the pain in his shoulder and sat up. He was lying at the edge of the road, loose gravel digging into his legs. The bus was already far past them, the big BEM truck almost touching the rear b.u.mper as they sped around a corner and out of sight.
Spencer seemed to remember Jenna tumbling out of the bus alongside him. But where was she?