The Academy: Book 1 by Leito Chad

Author:Leito, Chad [Leito, Chad]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-03-11T18:30:00+00:00

8

Tiger Tails and Bad Omens

Asa and Teddy walked together amidst a long line of males as they snaked through tunnels of long underground hallways and up and down spiral staircases. The corridors were dark, and damp, and cold. Nearly everyone pulled their parkas back on. They could hear the sound of monotonous, dripping water, but could not tell where it was coming from. A few people spoke, but not many, and when they did it was in hushed voices. Lanterns were sparse. Spiders spun webs in corners. Every so often a rat would screech from the shadows.

As they were walking, Teddy whispered a question to Asa—“Isn’t it odd that no one here has the Wolf Flu? No one even looks sick.”

Asa hadn’t thought of that. He had been too preoccupied thinking of other things to remember the pandemic that was sweeping the outside world. “Yeah,” he said. “Very odd.”

Teddy’s face looked grave and serious with long shadows cast from the sparse light. Asa recalled the last few hours in his head; ever since the train station, he had not seen anyone that even looked as though they had come down with a cold. Dr. Varbas had the Wolf Flu, but he was outside of this compound. Everyone here looked perfectly healthy while the world outside was dying.

McCoy came up behind Asa and patted him on the shoulder. “Havin’ fun, mate?” he asked. “Who’s your friend?” McCoy, unlike everyone else, seemed to not be phased by the dark, grim length of corridors that surrounded. He smiled like it was a summer’s day.

“This is Teddy June. And I’d be having more fun if I knew where I was.”

McCoy smiled again. Asa looked at McCoy’s shoulders and again noted how massive his muscles were; they affected the way that he walked, so that he was perpetually puffing out his chest. “Nice to meet you, Teddy June. And don’t worry about it, Asa. You’re fine here, I promise. The assembly will clear things up.”

Asa looked around him at the dingy corridor.

“This place isn’t the prettiest,” McCoy said. “But people don’t use it much. You’ll use this corridor for the first month and a half or so, and then it will go unused until the next bunch of Fishies gets here.”

“Why will we stop using it?” Teddy asked.

“You’ll have your wings by then. You probably won’t be strong enough to fly, but you’ll be able to glide to wherever you need to go from the towers. And once you can glide, you’ll be allowed to climb up the ladders on the side of your dormitory tower. That will save you loads of time. This path isn’t exactly a straight line to our destination. We’ve been walking for fifteen minutes and we may not even be halfway there. It’s impossible to tell. Anyways, I’ll see you two around. I’m supposed to be up at the front. Excuse me. Pardon. Excuse me.”

They heard his voice trail off as he walked ahead of them.

“Who do we talk to if we don’t want to do this?” Teddy rhetorically asked Asa.

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