Kiko was too careful not to divert the people"s attention to him. Bogart was already discovered and he could only pray he was not caught. He heard screams from his direction, including Bogart"s, followed by hurried hustling of feet. The people could be pursuing his friend but he hoped he evaded them. He knew Bogart was too clever to be captured so easy.He walked stealthily forward until he was out of the isolation camp. There were only deserted cla.s.srooms now. Relieved, he let out a big sigh. He pa.s.sed by several buildings, hoping to b.u.mp into Bogart. Being not able to call out his name made the struggle even more challenging. And then, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the silence. Alarmed, he looked around him for a place to hide. There was none except for large trash bin nearby. Left with no other choice, he sprinted and jumped into the bin.
Since school was out, there were no trash bags inside, and yet, he fell into something big and soft. The object moved and groaned upon his landing. To his surprise, it was only Bogart.
"Oh my, that was hurtful," Bogart complained.
"Sorry, but I am glad you are safe."
Kiko instantly hugged his friend. They remained quiet as they heard foosteps and noise outside.
"Where could that boy be?" asked one man.
"He must have escaped the school already," another said.
"Let"s quit. We have something more important to do."
"I hope that boy isn"t sick."
After some discussions, they gave up and left. When the last of their footstep was not heard anymore, the two got out of the bin.
"Do we stink?" Kiko asked.
"Ah, not much," Bogart replied with a grin.
They laughed, finally enjoying their temporary safety.
"Let"s go to the clinic," Kiko suggested. "That is where we are supposed to meet them."
The school clinic was several buildings away and they needed to be more careful this time around. They already had a taste of being discovered. The clinic was actually just near the isolation camp, but then the chase happened. They walked silently through the corridors of the buildings until they finally arrived at the school clinic. There were people going in and out of the clinic so they decided to stay low at the back of the building. Minutes pa.s.sed and the two soon got bored.
"What has taken Jamie and Tonton so long to get here?" Bogart said dully.
"Yeah," Kiko agreed. "They are supposed to be here now."
"We can do some searching while waiting for them."
"That"s a bad idea...." Kiko answered, but after a long thought, he said "I guess we can do that."
"We can search around the clinic."
"Could Dr. Alvarado be here?"
"It"s possible. This could be his hideout."
"Well, come on, let"s go inside."
"But we need to remove our bonnets first. We look weird with this," Bogart said and laughed.
There was a back door nearby and so they went to it. Kiko turned the k.n.o.b and voila, it was open. He smiled at Bogart and they went inside.
Surprisingly, it was quiet. They entered a corridor which led to several rooms. On their left was the stock room for medicines and the next room to it was the school doctor"s office. To their left was another stock room, followed by the ward room. Up ahead was the consultation area where Miss Grace, the school nurse, received patients, though now they were not anymore children. They heard minor movements coming from that area so they decided not to go there.
"Let"s split," Kiko suggested. "You go to the ward room while I take the doctor"s office."
"Then what?"
"We search the rooms for anything that could help us expose Dr. Alvarado. And maybe something about the aliens."
"Alright, let"s meet again after ten minutes."
"Make it five. We can"t stay here for long."
"Can we accomplish something in five minutes?"
"Of course, a lot could happen in five minutes. Remember when our favorite basketball team won the national championship last season? It was only in the last two minutes that they scored higher than the opponent. Eventually, they won the game."
"So see you in five?"
Kiko winked at him and immediately went inside the doctor"s office. Bogart also went inside the room in front of him. He was familiar wiith the room for he had seen it before when he had to be rushed to the clinic for some bandage. There were three beds inside which were all unoccupied.
"Why are these beds here?" Bogart wondered. "They should have used in the isolation camp."
He groped the railings and mattress of the beds but found nothing odd. He dropped on the floor and looked around, but still nothing in there. Meanwhile, Kiko was momentarily amazed by the ambience of the doctor"s office. It was his first time to see the room because it was off-limits to the students and because the doctor was always not around.
"This room is really for the intelligent," Kiko said in awe.
There was a tall bookshelf behind the doctor"s desk and several more around the room. A single potted plant stood in one corner, bringing a breath of green in the dry and dreary office. Kiko looked around him and was overwhelmed. To look for the unknown in that jungle of random objects was a challenging feat.
He scanned the books on the shelves but found nothing intriguing. He studied the objects atop the doctor"s desk; still, there was nothing peculiar about any of them. He tried rummaging the drawers but they were locked, except for one which contained the doctor"s toothbrush, comb, some pills, and loads of papers. He looked at his watch and realized he needed to get out of the office in less than one minute.
"This is hopeless," he whispered.
He was about to leave when he saw something glistening at the base of the potted plant. He did not notice it earlier but now that he was looking at it in another angle, the object shone brightly. He stared at it for a long time, hypnotized by its glow.
Quickly, he went to the plant pot and picked up the object. It was a broken piece of something like a medallion or coin. As a whole object, there should be an image inside. Though the piece he was holding was less than a quarter of what it was, Kiko could make out the image. It looked like a protruding arm and above it, there was something like a curly hair floating, like that of a woman"s. What was more intriguing about it was its color. It was brighter but with lighter shade than gold. He bit the item and it was indeed very hard. It could be real gold.
"What could this thing be?" Kiko whispered.
He knew it was wrong to be taking things he did not own but there was something like a magical force in the object that tied it to him. It seemed it had a life that was begging him to take it along.
"This could be just the doctor"s trash he threw."
Without another thought, he put the object in the side pocket of his backpack. He was about to leave when the door suddenly opened. Startled, he jumped and tried to hide.
"Kiko, it"s just me," Bogart said.
"Oh man, you almost gave me a heart attack."
"That"s not possible. You are too young to have heart attack."
Kiko pranced on his friend and wrestled with him.
"Don"t get too witty with me," he said annoyingly.
"If you could only see your face when you got scared," Bogart said in between laughs.
"Let"s get out of here now," Kiko said after loosening his grasp on Bogart.
They arranged their clothes and left the office. They have just exited the door when they heard voices and footsteps coming from the consultation area.
"Let"s get back inside," Bogart whispered.
"We can"t. What if it is the doctor? He could be coming here."
Bogart nodded. Kiko took his arm and they ran towards the next room. Fortunately, the door was not locked so they immediately went inside. There were several shelves around stocked with different medicines. They looked around for a spot to hide.
"Behind that cabinet!" Bogart said frantically.
They sprinted and hid. Few minutes past and there was only silence.
"Maybe it is safe now," Kiko commented.
Suddenly, the door opened wide. They froze as they heard footsteps going inside the room. Then the women spoke to each other. It was the same voices they heard earlier....