Summary: Traveling to places that are old yet new.
In the morning, when I was coming into the phase of light sleep, I heard the familiar sound of a door opening and Cheryl’s footsteps. She was going on another morning jog. I never knew she was so health conscious. That’s something I need to do.
Because of Cheryl’s begging and constant pleas for a break, we ended up wasting a whole day at the outdoor mall.
White sidewalks lined the streets, leading up to the many stores. Cars drove up and down the clean streets. Horns honked, and people greeted who they knew. This was a side of Avila I had never seen. People strolled down the sidewalks leisurely without a care. They sported clothes made by famous designers. Even if they didn’t wear brand name clothes, every single one of them could have modeled, regardless of if they were one year old or one hundred. They were different from the people who protested day and night in front of the palace. These people didn’t look hungry or needy.
We walked down the sidewalks with the crowd, looking for a store to catch our eye. Then Cheryl spotted a bookstore. She ran inside, and everyone followed her. I lingered outside the door.
“Lila, aren’t you coming?” asked Linzie.
“I really don’t feel like looking at books. I’ll just go to one of those stores further down.”
“Oh—okay.”
I walked away feeling depressed. With less than five days left to stop a food shortage and save Dr. Sterling’s life, we are at the mall. The mall! We haven’t found a single thing to help us out. Time was so short. We couldn’t afford to waste it, and looking in a bookstore wasn’t going to help.
Ahead was a hat store that caught my eye. I had never seen a store that only sold hats before. I felt my spirits rise as I approached it, but then out of nowhere, a motorcycle pulled up on the sidewalk in front of me, taking me aback.
The motorcycle was painted a sleek and glittery blue and white that changed in the light. Just as stunning as the motorcycle was the driver of it.
He wore a pair of shiny blue motocross style boots and a motorcycle suit that matched the blue and white of his vehicle. The material of the suit looked similar to the silks of a horse jockey. Bright white gloves covered his hands and a polished light blue helmet covered his head. His face was mostly hidden underneath the dark visor of his helmet, leaving only a pair of firm lips visible.
Out of one of the zip up pockets on the suit, he pulled out a clear blue disk. With one quick motion he threw it at my feet. I looked down. It rested on my foot. I looked back at the figure on the motorcycle. He sat there looking at me like a knight on a steed. The disk was meant for me.
I stooped down and picked up the blue disk in my hands. When I stood back up, I expected to see him still sitting there smile-less, but he was gone. I could see the motorcycle going quietly down the street and take a curve out of my sight. I slipped the disk in my pocket.
“It says ‘Life at AGL at 11 P.M’”
“Sounds kind of cryptic to me.”
“It’s not,” said Linzie, lying on my bed looking up at the ceiling. “It says that there is life at the AGL at eleven tonight.”
“We already know that,” said Bridgett smartly. “The question is, what does it mean by life at AGL?”
I took the disk out of my laptop. “What is AGL?”
We stood there in my room, quietly thinking everything over.
“Like I said, it sounds cryptic to me,” said Cheryl with a familiar vengeance. “I say this message was meant to throw us off, and we should ignore it.”
“Throw us off of what? This is the most interesting thing we’ve found so far,” I said, turning to her.
“Do what you want with it, Lila,” she gave up. “But you’ll find out how foolish you really are when you find that it’s nothing but a set-up. This might not even have anything to do with the food shortage.”
That night I laid in bed thinking about the message on the disk.
Life at AGL at 11 P.M.
AGL had to be an abbreviation for something since it was in all capital letters, but an abbreviation for what? It had to be something in Avila. I was too tired to think about it.
I thought about what we had not found. I still couldn’t understand how every one of the Avila Greenhouse Laboratories didn’t have a single page of ideas on how to stop the infestation. Avila Greenhouse Laboratories. AGL.
I sat up in bed. I fumbled in the darkness for my laptop. I turned it on and reinserted the disk. I read the message without the abbreviation.
Life at Avila Greenhouse Laboratories at 11 P.M.
It all fit, but I still wasn’t sure what it meant by “life.” I looked at my watch. Ten o’clock. I still had time.
I sneaked downstairs through the hallways of the palace. Silvery spotlights lighted the marble floors, since the moon couldn’t shine its face on the underwater world of Avila. The fountains bubbled, and the tall trees made strange shadows. Everyone was asleep. My black dress shoes tapped quietly on the marble, reflecting the color of my blue and white socks, as I went down to the garage.
The keys were left in the car like they always are to ensure that in the case of an emergency we could leave quickly. I unplugged the car from the charger and jumped into the driver’s seat. I hesitated as I reached for the keys. I do have a driver’s permit, but I haven’t practiced driving for a while, and I’ve never driven an electric car before.
I ignited the engine, put the car in reverse, and backed out of the parking spot. Then I slammed my foot on the brake, threw the gear into drive, and sped out of the garage.
Did I just say I couldn’t drive?
As I pushed the accelerator down to the floor, I wondered why I questioned my ability. Of course, I can drive.
As I sped through the streets leading away from the palace and through the tunnel at 120 MPH, I began to have reflections. As the blue lights flew past my window, I saw people who were hungry. In the corner of my windshield, I saw the little girl with her face pressed up against the window. In the side view mirror, I saw Bridgett’s parents with tears running down their cheeks at the sight of their daughter. I saw my parents.
I eventually arrived at that fork in the road. I wanted to go the way we usually did, but I couldn’t because the scanner would only recognize Cheryl’s fingerprints, not mine. I was stuck going down the long dark road that led to the heart of The Twisted Forest. I figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Both roads did lead to the labs anyways.
I parked the car at the fork and stepped out. The left road loomed in front of me. Lights lined the side of the lonely road. It couldn’t be that bad. There were lights to show me the way.
As I walked down the narrow paved road, I heard crickets play a sad symphony of the arrival of night. The light cast shadows of my feet on the white pavement. At first the shadows were light, but as I went on they became longer and pale yellow in color. Many bare branches of trees hung over me, making illusions of old crooked haggard hands with long fingernails. I heard a crunch and a snap among them. I paused abruptly.
My heartbeat began to resound in my ears. My imagination is getting to me, I thought. I heard nothing in the trees. My feet continued walking, but not with as much confidence as they did before. My hearing was sharper than ever, twitching at every chirp of a cricket or ominous bellow of a frog. Soon the pavement began to become rocky, and the lights went out with a click.
I was now wrapped in complete and total blackness without the light of the moon that is so often taken for granted on the surface. I couldn’t see my hands. My feet didn’t have a clue of where they were going as they stumbled over rocks, causing my feet to buckle. I fell to the ground, feeling a sharp rock pierce through the skin of one of my hands. I lied there, not sure if I should go on. I had to. I had to get to the Greenhouse Labs, even if I didn’t know what was waiting for me or exactly why.
While laying on the ground I heard scattering of leaves and branches hitting each other. I turned to the direction I heard the noise coming from.
I looked up to the left and to the right, but all I could see was darkness. I heard the clacking sound again. It was definitely coming from the branches over my head. I looked into the darkness above me. At first I didn’t see anything and credited the sounds to my paranoid mind, but then in the dark, one blood colored eye appeared. Then another lit up next to it.
The eyes had black slits like the eyes of a wild cat. Underneath the eyes was a pair of glistening white fangs. The creature made a shriek that was a cross between a sharp clash of thunder and a human scream. At that, it bounded from its roost among the trees. Its glistening red eyes fell in my direction. My legs shook, paralyzed from shock. Then my mind reminded me to get up and run.
My bruised hands quickly picked me up to my feet. I dashed through the darkness, often losing my balance over the rocks. The night cat was at my heels. I felt one of its sharp claws cut the back of my right leg. I picked up the pace.
The rocks gave way to sand. Even though it was slippery, I was able to run a little faster. The cat never stayed more than five feet behind me. I desperately pushed the bushes out of my way and tried my best not to run into low branches. Meanwhile, the cat screamed wildly at me.
The more I went on, the more my feet began to sink into the sand. When I lifted them up, I heard the sound of water. I could feel the water soaking through my socks and squishing between my toes. The water was still, and the smell was heavy. The mud was no problem for the cat. It caught up with me quicker. I picked up my legs higher, leaping through the mud and keeping out of the reach of its claws. I ran blindly, keeping my hands in front of me using them to push back bushes and limbs.
I pushed my way through a barrier of prickly bushes, coming to the shore of a small lake. I was able to see it because it was covered with bright fireflies. They flew, lighting up the shore and a track of grass on a narrow sandbar that went from one side of the lake to the other. I heard the cat rustling in the bushes behind me.
I ran to the lake and began to walk the path of grass. At the sound of my approach, the fireflies went out, and all I could hear were my feet sloshing in the water-saturated grass and the crickets. My feet were cold inside of my shoes. The water surged up to my knees. Then I heard a familiar quick pit-pat coming over the water.
I turned to see a pair of red glazed eyes and sharp teeth. Not even water seemed to bother that stupid cat. I tried to run in the knee-deep water, but its nasty smell stung my eyes and burned in my nose. I struggled tiredly through the water. The cat was getting closer. The fireflies lit up the opposite shore. If only I could get there.
I was about ten feet away from the shore when something slimy wrapped around my leg. Thinking that it was only a long piece of grass or seaweed, I tried to pull away from it, but it pulled back, causing me to fall in the water. I was in a skirt too—ugh, so gross.
I noticed that the water shimmered weirdly. Something *living* was in that water. I didn’t know what it was or what it was trying to do, but I had to get out of that lake.
I tried to stand up, but the arm pulled at me, hard. The cat with the blood red eyes sauntered closer and at the same time, the slimy arm was doing its best to pull me under. I could already imagine the feeling of water rushing into my lungs, the crushing pressure—That so wasn’t going to happen!
I fought to keep my head above the cold water as it lapped against my neck. The cat paused in the grass a little ways from me. I tried to pull away from the slimy thing that was trying to drown me, but the more I pulled, the more it pulled back. I dug my fingernails into whatever I could grab of the sandbar, anchoring myself. The night cat got into a stalking position. The arm tugged harder at my leg. The cat leaped at me with its red eyes wide, and its sharp teeth glistening. I gathered my strength and gave one strong, final pull.
The cat landed in the water, missing me by a few inches. Once landing in the water, it flew up, making an angry screech. The lake began to tremor and bubble. The arm released my leg. I pulled myself up and ran to shore, leaving the cat to recover its composure. The lights of the fireflies went out once I stepped onto the sandy beach. Everything from my hair to my striped socks were soaking wet. I broke into a steady jog, not sure of where I was. I was not getting to the Avila Green House Labs at eleven.
Soon I found myself jogging through a jungle. I wanted to sit down and rest so bad, or at least walk, but I couldn’t. Adrenalin was pumping through my veins by the quart, and there was no way I was going to stop. Then I heard footsteps behind me. They were in a familiar, constant rhythm. Please. Say it isn’t so. I turned around. Those eyes glowed behind me.
My exhausted legs were forced to run again. I ran through the jungle without pushing back the limbs, letting them slap me for my stupidity.
Cheryl was right. This was a set-up—some kind of a trap to throw us off. I came to a huge wall of rock. I was cornered. There was no place else to go. The cat slinked up to me, getting ready for the kill, and I couldn’t run anymore. The cat’s eyes glowed happily in the darkness. Its teeth grinned at me. In one yowl, it flew up in my direction, with its claws aiming for my face, and its red eyes traveling closer through the air. I closed my eyes, waiting to feel the pain of its long, razor claws ripping into me, but instead I heard a heart stopping scream and a thud. My eyes flew open. The red, terrorizing eyes were gone. The nightmare was over.
Nothing but darkness and a freaky silence remained.
I didn’t know what happened to the creature that was after me, and I wasn’t about to find out. Most likely, whatever stopped it was something even worse. I started to run, but a hand grabbed my arm. I started to scream, but another white-gloved hand covered my mouth. I kicked and wiggled, trying to get free, but I was too tired, and the grip was too strong. I was pulled into the bushes.
“Stop struggling!” someone whispered. “I won’t hurt you.”
I stopped. They removed their hand from my mouth, but they still held my arms.
“Who are you?” I asked, trying to look into the darkness. Then a bright light hit my eyes, causing me to jump.
“Sorry.”
The other hand left me, and the flashlight was moved away from my eyes to the face of the motorcyclist who gave me the disk in the first place. That is, as much of his face that could be seen from under the helmet.
“Who are—”
“Here, take this,” he said before I could finish. He handed me a DVD. “I think you may find something interesting on it.”
I looked down at the DVD in my hands. It was in a blue case.
“Where did you get it?” I asked. I got no answer. I looked up. He was gone. Instead there was a concrete path lined with lights. It took me back to the fork in the road where I had parked the car.
When I gave my laundry to Annie the next morning, I told her not to ask me anything. I missed my blue and white socks, but they were too muddy to wear. As for the DVD, I called everyone into my room to watch it with me. It was a surveillance video of Greenhouse Laboratory One. Room Ten, to be exact.
While watching it, I sensed something was different about the room, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. I was hoping that the others knew.
“Do you guys see anything strange?”
“No,” said Linzie.
Bridgett and Lydia were silent.
“I can’t believe you actually wasted your time last night getting that worthless DVD,” said Cheryl.
“I was only doing what I thought was right,” I tried to explain.
“Well, whoever is giving us these disks and DVDs should just butt out!”
She walked out the door. Linzie and Bridgett watched the screen for a second longer, and then followed her. Lydia still sat there, looking fixedly at the computer screen. We both sat there quietly looking at the images.
“Lila, I see something,” she whispered to me.
“What?”
She pointed to the screen. “That door wasn’t there when we visited.”
“You’re right,” I whispered back. “A shelf of plant samples was there.”
We exchanged glances.
Everyone gladly went back to the laboratories—everyone except Cheryl. Her excuse was that she didn’t sleep well and was too tired. I was running through lakes all night while being chased by a rabid cat, and she thought she was tired.
We were welcomed back to the Avila Greenhouse Lab One by Dr. Roberts and his unfailing smile.
“Nice to see you again,” he sang.
“Mmm-hmm,” I said like my mom does whenever I try to talk myself out of trouble.
I walked over to the shelf of plant samples and catalogs and tried to look behind it.
“What are you doing?” he asked edgily, but still not taking that stupid smile off his face.
I didn’t say anything, but kept trying to look behind the shelf. The crack between the shelf and the wall was too small.
“Now stop that!” he said, pushing me away from it.
I gave him a sharp glare. “Are we trying to hide something, Dr. Roberts?”
“N-no. Of course not! You can go back and look—if you want.” He flashed his teeth at me.
“No, thanks. Are you sure none of your labs have been testing on insects?”
“Yes. And we haven’t been for twenty years. May I be struck dead if I’m lying.”
“Dr. Roberts.”
“What?”
“I would be careful about what I say if I were you.”
I turned to the others. “Let’s go. There’s nothing here.”
Once out in the hallway and away from Dr. Roberts, I said, “Let’s find the floor plans. I think if we could find the plans of this laboratory, we would find what that door leads to.”
“Great idea,” said Bridgett. “I’ll see if they’re posted on the Internet.”
“I’ll run to city hall,” Linzie volunteered.
“And I’ll go to the library,” added Lydia.
“I’ll come with you.”
We searched for those plans all day, but there was no sign of them anywhere.
Note to my 14-year-old self: Dear mini-me, not too long ago I returned to the heart of the Twisted Forest. Although it’s still strange, I want you to know that he never stopped waiting for you among the fireflies.