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LEO'S RETURN {Old Version}
Chapter 47 - The Return of Mr. Osmond

Chapter 47 - The Return of Mr. Osmond

Chapter 47

The Return of Mr. Osmond

“Hang in there, Jason, we'll think of something!” Leo shouted as Mr. Osmond dragged Leo down the school hallway. He turned to the teacher. “So, Mr. Osmond, what did you think of the fight last week?”

Mr. Osmond dragged Leo into an empty, darkened classroom, closed the door, and turned to face him. “Leo Edwards, I don't say this to many twelve-year-old boys, but you have impressed me. If you want my advice, help with your con game, or whatever this is, I will help you out. You just need to tell me how you did it.”

“Did what?” Leo asked.

“It's obvious you knew the two girls were planning to stage a fight in public to get out of their stupid werewolf movie, not that I blame them. My guess is they're trying to get decent roles in some kind of gritty action thriller to further their careers. What I don't understand is how you could have known, when, as close as I can tell, not a single one of their fan sites even suspected?”

Leo laughed. “No trick. I don't know anything about Maxine and Tomi's careers, and I don't care. I remembered because the last time around, I came home from school and my sister was pissed about some girls and a stupid werewolf. So of course, I took the werewolf's side of the argument, and we had this big fight where I threw a bag of flour at her, messed up the house, and got grounded for a week. That's why I remembered. Thinking back on it, it was pretty funny.”

Mr. Osmond sat on one of the desks and studied Leo like a hungry snake studying a small animal. “You're sticking with your story. What are you trying to accomplish, Leo? Do you want to start a website? Make a bunch of money?”

“I want to save the fucking world!” Leo shouted. “I saw humanity go extinct and I have no idea how to stop it!”

“Easy,” Mr. Osmond said. “Let's use our indoor voice, shall we? Do you remember details about this so-called future? or is it all just a vague, incomprehensible blur?”

“I remember plenty,” Leo responded. “Unfortunately, I don't remember anything that would allow me to prevent the end of the world from happening.”

“Interesting,” Mr. Osmond said with an odd smile. “Plan B it is.” He stood up. “Come this way.”

Nervous, but seeing little choice, Leo followed Mr. Osmond through a couple of hallways and down some stairs. Mr. Osmond unlocked a heavy wooden door, and they entered a dusty storage room with filing cabinets and some old shelves holding books, cardboard boxes, and old electrical appliances. Mr. Osmond mouthed, “cellphone.”

Leo nodded, pulled his cellphone from his pack, and handed it over.

“Any other electronics?” Mr. Osmond mouthed again, pointing at Leo's watch. With a shrug, Leo handed over his cheap electric watch. It was unlikely it could be used to spy on anyone, but no sense in taking chances. Mr. Osmond pulled his own cellphone from a pocket and stuck all the electronic items into an old microwave oven resting on an upper shelf in the back of the storage room. “Anything else?”

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Leo shook his head.

“You're sure?”

Leo nodded.

“Good. It's impossible to be positive we're not overheard, but this is the best I can do on short notice. Could you help me with this?” He pulled out a small folding table leaning against a filing cabinet in back of the storage room. Leo quickly grabbed an end and helped him set it up and then grabbed a folding chair and did the same. Mr. Osmond pulled a plastic box from the cabinet, a little smaller than Leo's pack, and motioned for Leo to sit down.

“Now, if you are telling the truth about seeing the end of the world and wanting my help in preventing it, you should be willing to tell me every detail of this future you claim to remember. Are you willing to do this?”

Leo nodded, “Of course, but maybe you can answer a few of my questions, too, like how did you know my name when we first met?”

“I have a near photographic memory. I memorize all the students' names at the beginning of the year. Makes my job easier. Now, the thing in front of you is an antique cassette recorder that I believe is reasonably hackproof. Speak into this microphone. These four cassette tapes should be good for eight hours, enough time for you to tell me something about this future you claim to have seen.”

Leo nodded. “Yes sir, of course.”

“I'm curious. In the future, do I become one of those zombies?”

Leo shook his head. “Afflicted can't change people into one of them. They just eat you alive and stuff.”

Mr. Osmond chuckled. “If these Afflicted couldn't create more of themselves, they should have been wiped out long before the fifty years you're claiming.”

“I shouldn't have to tell you about the facts of life, Mr. Osmond. They reproduce in a more normal fashion. The females lay these nasty brown egg sacs. In the right light, you can see the developing embryo inside. We destroyed the eggs when we found them, of course, but...”

“So these Afflicted are not sick humans? They're a completely different life form?”

“I knew an honor science teacher would figure it out,” Leo responded. “What do you know about the aliens who created implants, and/or Bio-Blessed?”

Mr. Osmond paused for a few seconds, thinking. “Once you tell me what you know about this future and answer my questions to my satisfaction, I will consider answering some of yours.”

“I'll hold you to that, Mr. Osmond. Don't know if eight hours is enough to tell you everything, but it should be a start.”

“Good. I'll write you a hall pass and make sure nobody calls your parents.” Then, as an afterthought, Mr. Osmond stopped. “Oh yeah, are you convinced that Bio-Blessed imitator, Body Booster Inc. is going to crash? What do you remember?”

“This coming Friday, we were supposed to go out to eat, first time in months, but suddenly Dad started screaming and throwing bricks and stuff through our flat-screen TV. He lost over a hundred thousand dollars in a single evening. It was so bad, me and my sister went into hiding for the next three days. So yeah, I remember the Body Booster Inc. crash just fine.

”Interesting." Mr. Osmond pushed a few buttons on the cassette recorder, and the cassette tape started turning slowly. "Get started. Tell me everything you remember about the future. I'll be back in a bit." He took his cellphone from the microwave and left, shutting the door behind him.

Leo took a deep breath, and sneezed. Dust was everywhere. Nobody had cleaned here for a long time. He coughed and picked up the mic. “When I put on my you know what, the Sunday before last, it was like I lived fifty years in the future. This is what I remember.” He started from the beginning, with what little he remembered from the next few weeks...

"On October 16th, I went to school like any other day, but then things got scary." His hand holding the microphone started shaking. He took a deep breath and then another, and continued...