Return of the Ancients

Chapter 2 Fire in the Hole!

Arn was jolted from his dozing by the bus driving over speed humps. They were passing a roadblock on a side road outside of North Aurora. He yawned and craned his neck to get a better look at a group of squat, grey, fortified buildings in the distance.

Men in green fatigues stood out front in pairs — military for sure. He could just make out one of the buildings, built like a concrete-and-steel blister with a flat iron door — not a roller door, but more like a solid heavy plate and marked with a lightning bolt held in a gauntleted fist.

He nudged Edward. ‘Fire in the hole!’

Edward looked up and blinked several times like a mole coming to the surface of its burrow, and then focused on what Arn was nodding his head at. He snorted. ‘It’s an armoury. Rumour even has it they have experimental mini-nukes down there — shoulder mounted — like an RPG, but could flatten a mountain range. That structure is just a cap; it’s supposed to drop down twenty storeys below the ground to a command centre. If the big one drops, the brass can keep belting out the orders from down there.’ He sat back again.

Arn scoffed. ‘You’re making that up.’

Edward shook his head without looking up from his comic, and did his best Yoda voice: ‘Internet a wonderful place is. Try you must, travelling there some day, young Master Singer.’

Arn laughed, looked back one last time, then relaxed back into his seat. Mini-nukes, he thought. Cool.

About an hour later, and now late morning, the school bus turned into Pine Road and motored towards an enormous three-legged iron sculpture that reminded Arn of one of the Martian ships from War of the Worlds.

‘Quick, look up.’ Edward pushed Arn’s head closer to the window so he could watch as they passed below the weird sculpture. He then said, ‘It’s called Broken Symmetry; it’s sort of an illusion. From below, all three legs look exactly the same, but…’ He held up his finger as they continued under, and then past the sculpture. They looked back at it. ‘… But when you see it from the side, you can see that all three legs are different sizes.’

‘Hey yeah, you’re right — spooky.’ Arn watched the sculpture recede for a moment and then sat back.

Edward also sat back and reopened his comic book. ‘It’s actually made of the deck plates from the USS Princeton.’

‘Well, you’re a mine of information, aren’t you?’ Arn didn’t doubt for a minute that it was true.

‘I don’t always read comic books, you know.’ Edward raised his middle finger.

Arn laughed and looked forward through the window towards their destination. Mr. Beescomb had told them in their briefing that it was Fermilab’s main auditorium, and Arn could see a tall building looming up in front of them that looked a little like two bits of sagging white bread stacked together. He grunted and nudged Edward. ‘And what’s the story with the weird building?’

Edward looked up at the structure for a second or two, then shrugged. ‘Dunno — wino architect maybe.’

They passed various personnel on the ground, walking large dogs. Some looked to be security personnel, but others wore white smock laboratory uniforms, and carried electronic notepads as though they were testing the animals. Arn counted at least two dozen huge beasts before the bus pulled away from them. One of the wolf-like creatures paused to stare, its eyes creepily intelligent as it watched the vehicle pass by.

The old wheezing bus squealed to a halt, and no sooner had it stopped than the entire group of students erupted from their seats.

‘Okay everyone, we have landed. Thank you for flying with us today.’ It was Jefferson the driver. His eyes in the rear view mirror stared back at them.

Edward went to stand up, but Arn stopped him. ‘Let’s give it a minute, okay?’

His friend looked at him for another second, and then over his shoulder, his eyes going from Steve Barkin to Becky and her friends. He shook his head. ‘Please don’t try and say anything to her — at least not while Barkin is with her.’

Arn shrugged. ‘Don’t worry.’

Arn had turned in his seat to watch her begin to come down the centre aisle, while Steve Barkin, still seated, kept up a constant stream of bad jokes and Neanderthal babble from behind. He saw Arn looking towards her, and he leaned forward in his chair to stage whisper something to her, causing her eyes to flick towards Arn for a moment.

Arn fumbled in his bag as she drew near. She slowed and smiled, raising her eyebrows. Arn gave her some folded pages, and she quickly looked at them, smiled again and winked, before turning away to the front of the bus.

Arn quickly added, ‘I’ll see you on the field trip. I can do up the other notes as we go.’ She might have sort of half nodded — at least his ego hoped she did.

Beside him, Edward groaned. ‘Please tell me you’re not still doing her assignments for her.’

‘No way… just a few tips and things, that’s all.’ Arn got to his feet, not wanting to look his friend in the eye.

Edward dragged his pack over one of his shoulders. ‘I don’t know why you chase her. She obviously only knows you exist cause you’re her personal homework slave. Besides, I don’t think she’d ever date a…’

Arn spun at him. ‘A what?’

Edward shook his head furiously. ‘No, no, I meant that she used to date Barkin — doesn’t that tell you something? Even if it’s only about her taste in cavemen.’

‘Used to date, buddy… used to date.’

Edward surveyed the damage to his comic. ‘Anyway, thanks for going in to bat for me.’

Arn shrugged. ‘You’d do the same for me.’

Edward looked at him for a moment, and then looked away. ‘Sure.’

As they neared the doorway, Mr. Jefferson cleared his throat. ‘Putting yourself in harm’s way for a friend is a noble thing. Some might say courageous.’

Arn turned and shook his head, feeling his face redden once again. ‘Ahh, it was nothing. Not really courage… more stupidity, I think. I’m sure I’ll get some payback later.’

Jefferson cocked one eyebrow. ‘You know, courage is about being scared, but acting anyway.’ He chuckled. ‘Or you can think of courage as fear that never stopped to think.’ He laughed and reached out to slap Arn on the shoulder.

Arn chuckled. ‘Okay, thanks.’

Jefferson winked and turned back to his steering wheel, glancing in the rear side mirror in preparation for pulling away from the kerb.

He stepped down and walked a few paces from the doorway. Edward was immediately at his side and was looking over his shoulder as Barkin and Otis jumped from the last step onto the grass. ‘That guy sure knows how to hold a grudge, doesn’t he?’

Arn grunted, but didn’t look back. ‘Maybe if we just let him give us one each in the breadbasket, he’ll get it out of his system.’

Edward snorted. ‘We? Hey, you first, and we’ll see how it works out.’

Arn laughed and then spoke out of the corner of his mouth while looking up over the heads of the other students. ‘Gimme a minute.’ He threaded his way through the milling students as Beescomb leafed through some paperwork.

Arn walked towards Becky and her friends, racking his brain for something cool or funny to say to her. He gulped. By herself, she intimidated him, but her friends… now they had cutting sarcasm down to an art form.

He stopped behind her, his lips moving in rehearsal. Monica Struan, standing at Becky’s shoulder, saw him first. ‘Oh God, no.’ She smirked and nudged Becky, who turned, smiling. Her face dropped slightly when she saw who it was.

Seconds passed as his mind refused to give up any pearls of wisdom, or even humour. His face grew hot. Becky’s friends started to snigger. At last he managed to stammer something.

‘That metal sculpture was an optical illusion.’

She frowned. ‘What?’

‘I mean, if you look at it from one angle it looks symmetrical, and from another angle it… doesn’t.’

The frown stayed in place, and she quickly looked over her shoulder at her friends, perhaps to see if they were still watching — they were, intently, as though something amusing, embarrassing, or hopefully both, was about to take place.

Becky turned back to him, her expression morphing from a frown to a look of haughtiness. She took a half step back as though his mere presence was dragging down her street cred, and allowing him to be in her space would mean his nerdiness would somehow rub off on her. She folded her arms and raised her eyebrows questioningly.

He nodded quickly. ‘It was made from the deck plates of…’ Arn shut his mouth and just grinned, or tried to. He guessed it looked more like one of those faces that chimpanzees pulled when they were scared.

Then she sort of came to his rescue.

‘So, the notes?’ she asked, with a small shrug.

‘Yeah, ahh yeah, that’s what I was trying to tell you. I was going to include the sculpture in my notes for you. Make a good starting point.’

She tilted her head, and her expression softened. ‘Thank you for doing the notes for me, Arnold.’ She smiled as she looked over her shoulder, perhaps this time feeling her cred was moving back up the cool scale by having someone do her work for her.

Now, ask her, he thought. ‘Any time. Hey, I was wondering if afterwards, we…’

Beescomb began calling them to order. Becky mouthed, gotta go, and turned her back on him to move into a huddle with her friends.

‘Okay, well maybe later,’ Arn said to her departing back, and then shrugged, knowing she probably either didn’t hear him, or had already blanked him from her consciousness.

‘Ahh, unrequited love — the toughest love of all — especially when you’re the unrequitee.’ Edward watched as Becky and her friends giggled and pranced away like a small herd of colourful, long-legged deer.

Arn sucked in one cheek and then exhaled.

‘Be even better if she liked you, and not just your note-taking skills.’ Obviously, Edward wasn’t ready to give up salting the wound.

‘Sooner or later she’ll see me — see the real me — and see how I feel about her.’ Arn kept watching her as she flicked hair that shone in the sunlight.

Edward slapped his friend on the shoulder. ‘Ha, you’re dreaming. Maybe someone will, one day, but I’m not so sure it’ll be Becky Matthews. I think you’re just too… different for her.’

‘Hmm, different? Real feelings are blind to differences.’ Arn shrugged. ‘Besides, got to start somewhere.’

Steve Barkin was one of the last on the bus. He sat next to Otis Renshaw and watched tight-lipped as Arn laughed and joked with Becky as they stood among the other milling students.

Otis followed his friend’s gaze outside the bus, and spoke out of the side of his mouth. ‘You used to date her, didn’t you?’

‘Ages ago.’ Barkin kept watching.

Otis nudged him. ‘Well, better watch out; Sitting Bull’s going for it.’

‘Never happen. She’d never go out with an Injun charity case. Anyway, so what? I dumped her. She was high maintenance, kept hassling me.’

Otis nodded. ‘Well, she’s certainly over you now.’ He laughed and sat back.

Barkin shrugged and blew air from his lips in an I don’t give a crap type of way. Then when he noticed his friend had turned to stare out of the opposite window, his eyes narrowed and drifted back to where Arn and Becky stood.

You just wait, he mouthed, and sprung up, heading for the door.

Arn and Edward turned away from Becky and looked straight into the dead-eyed faces of Steve Barkin and Otis.

Barkin put his hand on Arn’s chest and pushed him. ‘You should leave her alone.’

Arn pulled an incredulous face. ‘Leave her alone? Why? Your property is she, Barkin, huh?’

Barkin shrugged. ‘Listen Pawnee: stay away for your own good. Besides, she thinks you’re weird. We all think you’re weird… and don’t belong here. Just piss off back to the reservation…’ He looked at Edward. ‘… And take your boyfriend with you.’

Edward seemed to shrink at being included in Barkin’s spray. Arn felt his face get hot again. ‘Really?’ Arn turned to Becky and her friends. ‘Becky!’

She turned. He made writing motions in the air and yelled, ‘Catch up later!’

She nodded and turned back to her friends, and they started to head to where Beescomb was gathering all the students.

Arn turned back to Barkin. ‘We write to each other all the time… and you?’ Barkin opened his mouth, but Arn cut in. ‘And it’s Shawnee, not Pawnee. We’ve been here nearly four hundred years — I think it’s you who doesn’t belong.’ He pushed past him, and he and Edward walked towards the class group.

Edward waved his arms in front of them to clear a path. ‘Comin’ through, dead men walkin’.’ Edward looked up at his taller friend. ‘He is so gonna kick your ass.’

Arn shrugged. ‘Probably, but it was worth it to see that look on his face.’

‘The I’m gonna kill you one?’ Edward laughed. ‘You know, it’d be worth it if she liked you as much as you liked her.’

Arn just sighed.