A Warp in Time by Jude Watson

Author:Jude Watson [Watson, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

Molly spied Hank across the compound, stacking blue cubes for the fire. She crossed the compound and began to help him without saying a word.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“It’s funny, how you all talk,” he said. “ ‘No problem.’ ‘Thanks, dude.’ ‘LOL.’ ‘Be chill.’ Is that a New York thing?”

“I guess so. Hank … what do you think happened to Cal?”

Hank paused for the briefest of seconds. “I think the pressure of this place got to him. It broke his mind.”

“But what about the attack from the creature?”

“It was awful. Ferocious. Terrifying. The wound healed, but his mind didn’t.”

“Are you sure it healed? What about the green … rashy thing?”

“It doesn’t cause him pain. It’s like a scar.”

Molly picked up a gel cube. “If he can’t help it, why are you so angry at him?”

Hank sighed. “I’m not angry now. I was. He tried to break his clarinet. He would have smashed my oboe, too, if I hadn’t gotten away. He went for Dana’s flute. I was playing Mozart, his favorite piece, the adagio movement, Clarinet Concerto in A Major. I mean, we worked together on it, we played it. We were the music guys, total squares, in band and orchestra. Best friends. And then he tried to smash it. Destroy it.”

“But you say he was out of his mind, so—”

“No.” Hank turned and looked at her. His gray eyes blazed with sorrow and anger. “It was before he lost his mind. He was still my friend then. And he knew what music meant to me. To all of us. But he couldn’t play anymore, so he tried to take it all away from all of us.”

“When you were playing before, it bothered him. Why is that?”

“Music agitates him sometimes. We don’t know why.”

“Does he ever make sense? I mean, how does he communicate?”

“Communicate what? That he’s crazy?” Hank tossed a cube. “Look, I know you’re trying to help. But you have to believe me. I tried to reach him. Over and over and over again. The only time he’s calm is when he’s with Dana.”

Molly hesitated. “I need to tell you something,” she said.

“Okay,” he said cautiously.

“I really think you all need to come with us,” she said.

Hank was already shaking his head. “Abandon the compound? We worked hard on it. It’s survival.”

“We were told that there could be help out there for someone like Cal.”

“Someone like Cal? What do you mean?”

“Our friend Oliver. He … it’s hard to explain, but we think whoever built this place spoke to us through him. He said that the building could help me.”

“But you aren’t like Cal.”

“Not yet,” Molly said. She took a deep breath. “I was bitten by a dreadful duck, too.”

Hank sat back on his heels. “Whoa. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not that bad yet,” Molly said, which wasn’t quite the truth. “Would you … look at it and tell me if it’s like what Cal had?”

Hank nodded. She pulled the neck of her T-shirt to show him the green scar. She saw him swallow.

“It’s just like his, isn’t it?”

Hank nodded.

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