Early the next morning, Michael found himself standing outside the entrance to the middle school. He was only half awake, having received Asante’s message an hour ago. He yawned loudly, furiously rubbing his eyes to wake himself. A strong gust of wind whipped across his face, nearly knocking him back. He squinted against the cold, buried his face deeper into his jacket, and shoved his hands in his pockets. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
“Who calls for a meeting at 6:30 AM?” he asked.
“Not a morning person, huh?” David teased. “You look like you got hit by a bus.”
“Yeah, well, early mornings are supposed to be for birds. And even they’re still snuggled up in bed.”
LaNiya smiled, seemingly entertained by their interaction. She and David had already been waiting for him to arrive. He was glad not to have been the last one. But how could they both look so put together at this time of day? His stomach growled from having skipped breakfast. After getting the group text, he had dashed off so quickly that he didn’t even get to alert his foster parents. He thought about sending them a quick text but decided against it.
“Are you both used to waking up this early?” he asked.
“Practices are sometimes this early. Guess I formed a habit,” David said.
“I’m usually up this early anyway,” LaNiya shrugged.
“Do you go to sleep early?” David asked her.
“Uh, not really. Just not a heavy sleeper, I guess.”
Silence falls back over the group. Another gust breezed through. Michael wondered where Asante was. He should’ve been the first one to arrive, shouldn’t he? He tells them all to meet up at the break of dawn but fails to show up himself?
“Did he text either of you back yet?” David asked.
“I’ve got nothing,” LaNiya said, checking her phone.
“Nope,” Michael replied.
“You didn’t even check,” David retorted.
“It didn’t vibrate,” Michael said.
He could see the look on David’s face. He was getting agitated again. But Michael was trying to avoid any loud displays, at least while in front of LaNiya. He remembered how she seemed to act when they would go at it. She finally seemed relaxed, and he didn’t want to upset her again.
Michael shivered from another breeze. He cursed under his breath. Where was Zuriya and Asante? His hands were going to fall off from frostbite if they didn’t show up soon. He scanned the streets up and down, looking for any sign of their missing classmates.
“You think Zuriya is even going to show?” he asked.
He didn’t dare look at David, sure that he was giving him a warning look not to start another disagreement. But Michael wondered if she had already snitched on their plan. What if she had told her parents? The principal? The police? She was so worried about getting into trouble. How could they be sure she wouldn’t mess everything up by going to the adults?
“Don’t know,” LaNiya answered, “her parents are pretty wealthy and influential. They could’ve gotten her out of this.”
“She said she was coming,” David said.
“What if she told someone?” Michael asked.
“What if you just trusted her words?” David asked, frustration rising in his voice.
Michael had to fight the urge to snap back. He saw LaNiya slowly step away from them, leaning against the school’s brick walls. He gritted his teeth, trying to stifle any attempt to quarrel again. He dug his hands further into his pockets.
“She’s just scared, Michael. It’s not like she wants to make trouble,” LaNiya said, “She just doesn’t trust this whole thing, you know? Can you really blame her for that?”
“Well,” Michael said, “then she better get over it. We don’t have time for second-guessing.”
“We’ll have an answer when Asante figures out the GPS,” David said.
Before Michael could say anything more, a black sedan arrived at the school. It was a luxury BMW with dark-tinted windows. It hardly made a noise when it drove up. Its pitch-black paint nearly made it disappear in the darkness. They wouldn’t have even noticed it if not for the headlights and the few streetlights.
All three kids watched as the door opened, and Zuriya stepped out of the back. She looked tense. The passenger’s side window rolled down, and a woman called from the driver seat.
“Remember, young lady,” she yelled, “I’ll be here at 4 o’clock exactly to pick you up. You had better be right here when I arrive. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Zuriya said, closing the door behind her.
“After the embarrassment you caused me yesterday, you’ll be coming straight home. Honestly, Zuriya, a fight? And now you’ve been assigned to some bogus after-school program, like some kind of delinquent. I’ll have a word with that principal later today. There’s no way you’re wasting your time there every afternoon.”
Zuriya was often open and confident towards others. But watching her now, Michael noticed that she shrank in her mother’s presence. If his foster parents started yelling at him like that, he would have just walked away. But Zuriya didn’t leave. She stood there, listening to everything her mother had to say.
“It’s fine, Mom. I’ll see you after school,” Zuriya said.
“You’d better not embarrass us again, Zuriya. Your father and I have worked too hard to get to where we are now. I don’t want another incident like yesterday again—do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Afterward, her mother rolled back up the window and drove off. Zuriya walked over to the group, eyes cast down towards the ground. Should he just pretend that he hadn’t heard any of their conversation? It was kinda hard to miss. When she reached them, the group remained silent. LaNiya was the one to break it.
“Your mom seems…fun,” she said.
“She’s just worried about me getting into trouble. It’s not a big deal,” Zuriya said.
“Must be nice having parents rich enough to buy your way out of all your problems,” Michael muttered under his breath.
Zuriya snapped her head up, clearly hurt by his comment. Her eyes narrowed as she shot a glare towards him.
“I’m not letting my parents buy my way out of anything. I’m here, aren’t I?” Zuriya said.
“Come on, we don’t have time for this. We’re here to figure out the GPS system, remember?” David said.
“As soon as he arrives,” LaNiya added.
Michael looked at the time on his phone. They’d been waiting for over thirty minutes. But just as he was about to put his phone away, a text appeared from the group chat.
Asante: Hurry. Come straight to the lab.
Michael read the message aloud for the group. The front doors make a loud sound like doors unlocking. David attempts to push on the doors, and they opened. They all step inside. The school lights hadn’t been turned on yet. There was just darkness and shadows.
“Wait,” LaNiya said, “Did you hear that?”
Michael put a hand to his ear, trying to listen for the faintest sound. But all he could hear was a soft shuffling sound in the distance.
“That might be the janitors,” he said.
“Oh, yeah,” LaNiya quickly agreed.
The group took off towards the lab. LaNiya led the way. After reaching the tech lab doors, they knocked. Asante peeked his head out the window. He smiled at seeing them and opened the door.
“Great, you’re all here,” he said.
“Is there a specific reason that this couldn’t wait until later on today?” Michael asked.
The group entered the classroom, and Asante immediately shut the door behind them, locked the door, and fastened the chain. Michael looked confused by his behavior, and Asante seemed a bit more jittery than usual.
“Sorry about that. But I got it. The GPS tracker is active,” Asante said.
“Really?” David asked.
“So, we can find Dr. Reed now? That’s great!” Zuriya added.
Asante nodded and proceeded to one of the classroom desks. On it was his tablet, which was plugged into the suit lying on the pushcart. The tablet’s screen showed a map of their town. Asante pushed something on the suit, and a dot pinged on the map.
“The prototype is sending out a signal,” he said.
“Where is the signal coming from?” David asked.
“Potomac Mills,” Asante answered.
“The outskirts?” Zuriya asked.
Potomac Mills was on the far outskirts of their town. It was once the site of a power plant, at least until the explosion a few years ago. What would their teacher be doing out there?
“Are you sure that’s where the signal is coming from?” LaNiya asked.
“Positive. I’ve been monitoring it for two hours. I finally got it to stabilize.”
“But…it’s moving,” LaNiya pointed out.
Asante stopped and checked the tablet. Michael and the others also took a look. Sure enough, the bleeping dot was slowly moving. It would slightly sway as if hovering around the area of the location. Asante picked up the tablet, tapping away at something.
“It’s also been glitching all morning. The wifi has a hard time reaching down here. Let me reset it.”
After resetting the connection, Asante set the tablet back down on the desk. The group watched as the map slowly reformed. They waited for the dot to bleep back on. And it did. But suddenly, it zoomed across the screen and froze in a new location.
“That can’t be right,” Asante said.
He was about to attempt to reset the connection for the second time when it happened again. The dot zoomed across the map, stopping in another location.
“Either the system is broken, or—” LaNiya said.
“The suit is moving,” Asante finished.
Before the group could make more sense of the rapidly moving dot, a notification appeared at the top of the tablet. The message read: Get out of there, NOW! The tablet glitched, and the screen looked like they’d dropped it on the tile floor. It looked corrupted. Then, it suddenly turned blue, with white text flashing across the screen: “Unauthorized Access Detected. Security Lockdown Initiated.”
The lights in the room flickered before finally shutting off. There was a mechanical sound as metal shutters covered the small windows, plunging the room into semi-darkness. Metal bars sprung from the door frame, blocking the exit. The group was so shocked that they had no time to react. They’re trapped in the classroom. Asante rushed to the office door. He tried typing in the passcode but soon turned back to face his classmates.
“The power to the doors has been shut off,” he said.
“What’s going on?” Zuriya shouted.
“We triggered some kind of alarm, I think,” LaNiya answered.
“But why did it trigger the school’s lockdown system?” Asante asked.
“No time to figure that out. We need to get out of here,” David said.
“But how?” Zuriya asked.
Michael looked up at the ceiling, remembering the first time they had snuck into this room. They could just use the ceiling ducks to crawl into another classroom. Then, they could get out and figure out what happened. LaNiya seemed to share his idea as they both began working on reaching the ceiling. They didn’t have a ladder like last time. And the ceiling was too high to just climb up there. They had to drop down.
But as Michael continued to think, there was a loud banging sound. He couldn’t tell where it came from, but the suddenness seemed to shock the others as well. The room became silent. Michael took a deep breath, trying to reduce any sounds being made. Did something fall upstairs? Was someone here in the school with them? Did they hear everything they had talked about?
The sounds became louder and closer. Someone was walking towards the tech lab.