Chapter 17
Mr. Osmond
Mr. Osmond's look of concern vanished. He grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him into an unoccupied classroom. “Are you insane?” he hissed. “I'm supposed to report anyone with an implant to the federal government! If I saw something, which fortunately for you I didn't, I'd get fifty thousand dollars for reporting you. They'd cut off your left forearm and possibly send you to prison. Do you understand me, Leo?”
“I think you have an implant too,” Leo said, “and that's why you're not taking Bio-Blessed. When I got my implant yesterday, I had a vision. In that vision, I heard you saved a bunch of kids a month from now, after the Change turns most of the Bio-Blessed users into monsters.”
“First, Leo, I'm a law-abiding citizen. Second, while I want to be known for my heroic teaching abilities, I'm no hero. Any zombie apocalypse will find me hiding in a closet. Hence my inclination to consider that vision of yours fake.”
“My vision was real and I'm trying to warn you,” Leo said, trying desperately to think of a way to convince him.
“Please come with me,” Mr. Osmond grabbed Leo and dragged him out of the room and down the hall, not stopping until they arrived at the nurse's office. Mr. Osmond smiled nervously at the nurse. “Found this boy in the hall. He appears to have suffered head trauma and is acting confused. If you don't mind, Leo, I've got a class to teach.” Mr. Osmond pushed Leo into the nurse's office. In a lower voice, he added. “Remember what I told you earlier.”
“Wait.” Leo pulled out a sheet of paper on which he'd written the timeline of everything he could remember about the next month and stuffed it into the man's jacket pocket. Mr. Osmond turned away and left.
***
“Dammit, Leo. Are you fighting again?” Mom spun the car's wheels as she pulled out of the school parking lot.
“I didn't have a choice, Mom. Some kids were picking on my friend. Trying to make him take Green.” Leo had spent the last hour trying to convince the school nurse that he wasn't either suffering from head trauma or using drugs. In the end, they'd called his mom.
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“Green?” Mom asked.
“It's nasty stuff, it... uh, I heard it makes people sick and strung out.” When Leo had tried the so-called herbal performance enhancer last time around, he'd been sick for two days. The only good thing about Green, as far as he could tell, was no actual Bio-Blessed had been mixed with the herbal extracts.
Mom sighed. “We can't keep doing this. First your phone, and now I have to take you to a clinic to make sure you don't have a concussion.”
“I don't need a doctor, Mom. I just need some more ice for my face and to lie down for a bit.”
“Are you sure?” Mom looked worried. “Your sister was telling me you got into a fight with a seven-foot-tall biker who hit you on the head, and now you're dumber than usual. I'm keeping the source in mind, but still.”
“I'm fine, Mom. I promise. I was joking. It's not my fault she's so gullible.”
“Okay, Leo, we're going home, but if you start to feel worse, you wake me up, okay?”
“I will.”
Soon Leo was back in bed, multiple ice packs on his face. His poor twelve-year-old body had had enough. He was too exhausted to move, and everything hurt like hell. School could have gone better.
He decided to use a trick he'd picked up a decade after the Change. He hated using it because it wasted Demon Tears, but his training was more important right now. He certainly wouldn't accomplish anything lying around.
By focusing on his implant, he was able to mentally pull a single red, glowing, Demon Tear from the twenty he'd accumulated. Drawing it into his body and moving it to where he hurt the most and holding it there until it burst, spreading warmth through that part of his body.
His implant's passive healing gift didn't require a cool-down period and he could use this technique to speed up his body's healing as long as his Demon Tears held out. Ten Demon Tears and three hours later, his facial swelling was down, his pain had decreased, and he could move again.
He was haunted by his memory of Trent, the kindhearted man who'd helped him when he needed it. Leo had to warn him, but how? He didn't know the man's last name, where he lived, or much of anything else about the man's life before the Change.
He was hopping on one foot while trying to juggle (to improve his agility) while trying to figure out what a Pythagorean Theorem was. This would hopefully also level him up at multitasking.
There was a loud knocking on his front door.