Chapter 18
More Trouble
“The meatloaf smells good,” Leo said, trying to change the subject.
“A girl dragged you away from school?” Mom said, looking understandably skeptical. “That's why we got a call saying you weren't in school today? Because a girl dragged you away, and that's also why you come home an hour late?”
“I swear that's what happened,” Leo said. “I met this girl in front of the school. At first, I thought she was going to kill me, but then she dragged me off and we talked. She's going through rough times.”
“What would a girl want with you?” Lydia shouted from her bedroom. “And we had meatloaf last night!”
“Leo, you're already grounded,” Mom said. “Making up stories is not going to help. Just tell me you were with your worthless friends doing drugs and we can move forward.”
“I swear that's what happened,” Leo said. “I didn't want to run off, but I was afraid this girl would kill herself or something. Her name is Angie, and she's some kind of martial artist who lost her left arm and she's really messed up about it.”
Mom sighed and put her head in her hands. “I need to go to work, but we are not done here. Just tell me you'll look after your sister and not do anything crazy between this evening and tomorrow morning.”
“I promise,” Leo said.
***
“There's more loaf in this meatloaf than meat,” Lydia grumbled.
“It's fine. Just put some more ketchup on it,” Leo said.
On TV, a man with a large chainsaw chased a tentacled monster through a school gym.
“Do we have to watch this?” Lydia asked.
“My turn to choose,” Leo said, “and if you don't watch it, I'll spend the evening going 'chicken, chicken'.” Leo flapped his arms in imitation of a chicken. He had chosen the show to distract Lydia from her ongoing questions, rather than any interest on his part.
On TV, the man, Leo had forgotten his name, Burke Griswold or something, chopped off one of the monster's tentacles, causing gallons of fake blood to spew everywhere.
Lydia stuffed her mouth with red, ketchup-covered meatloaf. “Was the girl who dragged you off an implant wearer?” Lydia asked through a mouthful of food.
Leo choked on his meatloaf.
Dammit. Lydia was smart, and he worried about what she'd do if she figured out the truth.
“The girl is part of what we discussed in the garage last Sunday,” Leo said. “I can't tell you, but I'll explain everything when it's time, I promise.”
“If she's an implant wearer, you're lucky she didn't bite your face off. They let implant wearers back on the street after cutting their left arms off. My friend was talking about that. She's taking part in this big demonstration to institutionalize them permanently.”
“Angie is okay,” Leo said. “You might even like her.”
“Maybe,” Lydia sounded doubtful. “Oh. Some guy dropped by, asking about you. He said his name was Tim. No...”
“Trent?”
“Yeah. Trent.”
“What did he want?”
“He wouldn't say. I figured it was about you know what, so I gave him your number.”
“Oh crap,” Leo said. “Could you set up my phone?”
“You can't set up your phone?”
“Just do it.”
“Ten dollars.”
There was a loud growling noise from the TV
“Hello Monster, I'm Burke, and I'd like you to meet Mr. Chainsaw.”
Lydia let out a frightened squeak as Burke used his giant chainsaw to cut the monster in half. Fake blood sprayed everywhere, covering the entire school gym with what looked like red paint and monster parts.
Good grief, Leo thought, repressing a yawn. This show was so stupid.
“Five dollars,” Leo said.
“Fine.”
Leo took the phone from his pack and gave her the phone and sim card.
***
The first text message that appeared on his new phone was,
Leo, this is Trent. We need to talk. In person.
Below it were a bunch of texts from Jason, wondering where he was. And telling him repeatedly to get a new cellphone. Jason wanted to talk, but these were all things Leo could deal with in the morning.
He held his bottle of red capsules he'd gotten from the crazy alchemist in his hand. Did he really want to do this? Was this the best option? He knew Angie was right—the Demon Tears he'd put into his physical development would help, but after the initial improvements to his stats, the effort he'd have to expend to raise them further would escalate. He needed all the help he could get right now. Hope these don't mess me up or kill me, he thought. He popped one in his mouth, swallowed, and went to get Dad's weight set.
***
Tuesday, September 23, 2059
23 days to the apocalypse
The pill did very little, as far as Leo could tell. He wondered if the crazy alchemist had ripped him off. For all Leo knew, the guy had sold him sugar pills.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Fortunately for Leo, Dad had stuff to do that morning and Mom was sleeping. So after a breakfast of cereal while listening to Lydia complain, he headed for school.
Angie wasn't at the entrance this time. With some difficulty, Leo added her number to his cellphone, and responded to Trent's text. Meet you in front of the school at 3:30.
Entering the school, he saw Jason with Brick's two cronies. He sighed. This again.
“Guys,” Leo said. “I thought we had an agreement.”
Right Crony snorted. “We're trying to help this guy out 'cause he was crying all day yesterday and we feel sorry for him. You're the one who messed up his life.”
“Really?” Leo asked.
Jason nodded. “Yeah. It's okay.”
“So you see,” Right Crony continued, “you can trade in your Divine Ultimate Destiny, or D.U.D dog or cat, and a D.U.D fire gem from the monster mine, for a pet cheerleader who follows you around.”
Left Crony poked his cellphone. An image of an insanely peppy, pompom-waving cheerleader appeared on Left Crony's cellphone screen. “Bad Dog 84, Bad Dog 84, he's our man. If he can't do it no one can!” The cheerleader ended the cheer by doing the splits while waving her pompoms with manic intensity.
“Bad Dog 84?” Leo said.
“Shut up.”
“So you can have pet cheerleaders?” Jason asked.
“Of course,” Left Crony said. “In D.U.D the cheerleaders are non-sentient lifeforms, so you can buy them, sell them, trade them...”
“Come on, Jason. This is stupid,” Leo said, grabbing Jason and dragging him away.
“And if you're a gaywad like Leo, they have guy and gender-neutral cheerleaders too,” Left Crony shouted after them.
“What happened?” Leo asked.
“My brother went crazy,” Jason said, eyes tearing up. “He took all my gaming equipment, all my games. He erased my online gaming progress from the game cloud, and even cleared out my cellphone.”
“Crap.” Leo said, putting his arm around Jason. “I'm sorry.”
Footsteps sounded as Mr. Osmond walked up to them.
“Leo! The guy I've been looking for,” Mr. Osmond grabbed Leo and dragged him away. “Come with me.”
***
“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?”
He 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. 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. The teacher 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, he handed over his cheap electric watch. It was unlikely that it could be used to spy on anyone, but there was 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?”
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 from between a filing cabinet and a wall. 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 want 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 these zombies?”
Leo shook his head. “The 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 honors science teacher would figure it out,” Leo responded. “What do you know about the aliens who created the 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 in 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...