Sarah and the Steam Dragon
Chapter 11

The group of friends listened to Sarah’s plan, adding suggestions as they came to the parts they would handle.

First off they needed to get the security doors open. These were built into all schools as defence against attacks inside the school, being triggered zone by zone from the Principal’s office or from the main computer stacks. Somehow all of the internal and external doors had been activated at once.

Parents and teachers stuck in other parts of the school had phoned friends in the main auditorium to report this. A few lucky enough to be outside the buildings reported that all the windows and external doors had been locked up tight with armoured covers and panels too.

Achmed had checked the Emergency doors that led to the outside first. As the sole Scanner in the Year Sevens, in fact the only one in the building right now, he was their best chance to override the electronic controls on the doors.

It took Eric’s strength and commanding voice to get them close enough to one of the doors, pushing panicked parents and students aside. As they were jostled from side to side, Achmed reached out with his ability, feeling for the electric currents and programs that held the door shut fast.

It took only two anxious minutes, then the door locks disengaged and the heavy weight moved to open. There was a rush of frightened people surging towards the opening and it was only Eric’s surprising strength that enabled the two boys to get to one side.

Barely a dozen people had pushed themselves through when with a whine of electric motors the door slid inexorably closed once more. Trapped adults and children banged and wailed on the unmoving barrier as Eric pulled Achmed clear of the press of bodies.

“It’s no good” the Scanner gasped. “Each time I override the computer program, it resets itself and closes the door again”

Eric looked at the mass of people still thumping their hands and feet in futility against the heavy door.

“Even if we keep opening it, more people will probably be injured in the stampede” Eric said calmly. “We were fortunate no one was crushed when the door closed again”

The two boys made their way back to the waiting girls.

“No luck” said Achmed “The doors are resetting faster than I can open them. I need to get to the main computer stacks in the basement and try from there”

“Won’t there be closed doors between here and the basement?” asked Carmody.

“Yep” agreed Achmed. “But the internal doors should be easier for me to override. Plus we will only be a small group, so I can keep them open long enough to get us through”

“Sounds good” Sarah said. She looked at Eric. “How is it going with your Guardian?”

“He had not arrived before the doors locked, so he is still outside the building. He has summoned more Guards and cutting equipment so they expect to breach the doors in thirty minutes or less”

The wailing of the building alarms cut off abruptly, causing everyone to cease talking and look about themselves in apprehension. A low tremor could be felt through the floor, like heavy machinery somewhere below had begun operation.

“I am hoping that is your Guardian cutting through the doors” Carmody muttered.

“No, the required tools are still being collected” Eric replied in his matter of fact tone. “That is beneath us, in the basement somewhere”

Small, fat blue sparks started arcing from chairs and benches, making people squeal in pain and alarm. A strange odour, akin to ozone, filled the air after each wave of sparks. They came in sudden peaks of activity, mimicking the vibrations being felt from beneath their feet.

“Albright has started it, whatever it is” Sarah told them. “We need to get to him now”

The young students each looked at their small group and together they nodded to her.

“Let’s go get into some trouble!” Sarah said and her friends chorused in agreement.

=====

They were nearly at the door the lead to the rest of the school when Sarah’s mom caught up to her.

“Just where are you going Sarah!” she demanded, her own fright making her angry. She snatched her daughter’s arm and tried to drag her towards the rest of the family.

“Mom, stop it!” Sarah cried out angrily. “I have to rescue my friend Stanley. He’s the only one who can save us!”

Her mother paused and looked down at her eldest daughter. Sarah was angry, like she always seemed to be these days. Yet her mother saw something new that made her stop and release her arm. There was determination in her eyes, not the wilful tantrum throwing kind she had seen all too often from her middle child. This was the determination of an adult trying to save someone she cared about.

“I believe you, Sarah” she said and dropped her arms to her side. “Please do what you have to and come back safe”

“Thanks Mom!” Sarah said and gave her a quick hug.

“You’re still grounded after all this is over” her mom reminded her and let her go. Sarah nodded and ran back to her waiting friends and headed to the door.

When her mom got back to her family, waiting in a small huddle on the seats, she clasped them all in her arms, trying to keep them safe.

“Where’s Sarah?” asked her husband, concern for his daughter making his voice catch.

“She has to help her friends with something” she answered. It sounded banal, like she was helping with some homework or a class project. In her heart she knew her daughter was in danger, but Sarah was always in some kind of trouble. She lived and breathed it like a fish in water and her mother was certain she could deal with it.

Besides, she thought to herself, if Sarah got into really big trouble, they could just add some more weeks of being grounded.

=====

Achmed got the first door open and his friends quickly slipped through to the hallway beyond. A few others saw them and tried to follow, but the doors slid shut without remorse, nearly trapping one man’s arm before he hurriedly dragged it back.

The hallway beyond seemed unfamiliar to them all with the dim emergency lighting being the only illumination. They could still feel the vibration from below and blue sparks flickered across the doors and walls that surrounded them.

Lilly seemed distracted, almost carefree, wandering about the hallway as they went, touching things at random. Sarah nudged her and gave her a questioning look, but Eric reminded them they needed to move fast so they moved on before she got a response.

They rushed to the next security barrier and Achmed used his ability once more. By the time they reached the access door to the basement, the Scanner was opening them in half the time. Each door was identical inside so he was able to use the same process on them, yet it was taking its toll.

Mental exhaustion was a common problem for all Awakened and Achmed might be a Grade One Scanner but he was still only twelve years old.

“Before you open the door, let us think about what we need to achieve” Eric said to them all, meeting their eyes one by one.

“There won’t be any security doors to bypass down in the basement, other than the one protecting the computer stacks. So I think we should send Achmed and someone to support him in that direction. The rest of us need to go with Sarah to replace her friend, the ah...dragon...named Stanley”

“Sounds good, but what about if we encounter Mr Albright and Creepy Bob?” asked Sarah. “How do we fight them?”

Eric looked at his friends for a moment then reached beneath his school jacket. A slim, black plastic pistol of some sort was drawn out, glinting dully in the emergency lights. It was thin and small, designed to be easily concealed, tiny even in Eric’s young hands.

“Is that a gun?” said Achmed, crowding closer for a look. Sarah could see he wanted to reach out and touch it, a typical boy after all.

“It is a Five Millimetre Caseless Automatic, loaded with fifteen Armour Piercing rounds” Eric explained. “It was issued to me by my guardian in case the situation at the school turned nasty. I think an invasion from an alien dimension by man-eating creatures would qualify”

“Okay, does that mean you will shoot them?” Carmody asked Eric, her eyes wide as saucers.

Eric nodded grimly. “It is what I am trained for” he said without emotion. The young boys and girls looked at him with sudden understanding.

“You are some kind of secret agent, aren’t you?” Achmed demanded. “Sent to spy on this school, to replace out what Not-So-Bright was up to”

“Yes and No” Eric said truthfully if a little confusingly. “Those events are related but it was not why I was assigned here. I was actually sent here to replace Sarah’s friend, Stanley” He gave Sarah an apologetic look. “Your friend is not supposed to exist in our world. He is what we call an Anomaly. Archimedes needed to know more about him and if he posed a danger to Pan City”

Sarah felt her insides turn cold with a sense of betrayal.

“You only came to our school, to my classroom, to replace Stanley” she said miserably. “Spending time with me was just to replace out what Stanley was, to try and capture him”

“It was more than that!” Eric insisted. “I am not a real person, I never have been! I was grown in a laboratory, like the Guard clones. But being here, meeting your friends, it has meant so much to me! For the first time I feel like I belong somewhere”

Sarah eyed him coldly, barely containing the hurt inside of her.

“We need your help to fix this” she said, “And after that I never want to see you at this school again”

Carmody looked stricken, her face shifting from Sarah to Eric and back. Lilly and Achmed shared their own glances, knowing how much Sarah had changed this week. All of that seemed to be coming undone.

“Please, let’s work together for now” Carmody begged them all. “Once it is over, we can talk about staying or leaving” She was so earnest, so heartfelt, that they all nodded in agreement.

Sarah gave her friend a quick hug, then asked Achmed to open the basement access door. He tuned himself to the electromagnetic signature of the door and it yielded to his power. With a satisfying click the lock opened.

“Let’s go” Sarah said and led the way through the door and down the stairs beyond.

=====

The stairs were even more dimly lit than usual, tiny emergency lights shedding little illumination over the steps. Sarah descended them with easy familiarity, reaching the basement floor ahead of the others.

She glanced up and down the three branching corridors, unable to see much due to the same poor lighting here as on the stairs. Eric joined her, his pistol held ready, scanning left and right with the appearance of a professional.

“So, your instructors taught you how to shoot that thing?” she muttered as he checked in all directions.

“I am trained to use over twenty different firearms including portable missile launchers and Linear Accelerator Rifles” he said without any hint of smugness. “I am accurate with this particular weapon to its operational limit of one hundred meters”

“Oh” was all Sarah could manage in reply. She was barely able to set the alarm function on her phone so she had to give him some grudging respect if what he said was true.

The rest of her friends joined them so she prepared to split them off down the relevant corridors. Just then a strange groaning noise could be heard from down the left corridor, the one that led to the waste recycling area and the janitor’s storage areas.

“Guys, what was that?” asked Lilly, clutching onto the nearest person in fright. This turned out to be Eric, which earned jealous glances from Carmody and Achmed, though for slightly different reasons.

They all looked down the same long corridor, straining their eyes against the dim light.

“Eric, what can you see?” demanded Sarah.

“Same as you guys” he said curtly. “I have regular eyes like you do” He squinted and saw movement. “There is something coming towards us” he added, as more deep throated groans reached their ears. A shuffling noise was becoming clearer now, adding to the groans.

As the noises approached, the emergency lights above their heads started to wink out, one by one, from the same direction. It was like a surging wall of blackness was coming towards them.

Eric shrugged off Lilly’s arm and stood in front of them all, aiming his small pistol at the oncoming darkness. “Get moving” he said, as calm as ever and started firing.

The flashing of his pistol and the soft bang each time he fired galvanised the others into motion. Unfortunately they panicked and ran in different directions, with Carmody and Achmed heading down one corridor and Sarah and Lilly down the other.

Eric fired at least a dozen times, yet the tide of darkness rolled unstoppably forwards. With a sworn curse his old tutor would have been dismayed to hear, he lowered his weapon and dashed after Sarah and Lilly.

He caught up to them near the Lost and Found room, as Sarah was guiding the other girl through the torn mesh barrier that used to be a wall.

“What was that?” Sarah asked breathlessly to Eric. He shrugged and admitted he had no idea. He didn’t even get a clear sight of what the creatures were. All three of them could hear the groaning getting closer as the corridor lights started to fail.

“Do you think Achmed and Carmody are safe?” wondered Lilly, her voice trembling.

“They went down the other corridor, the one that leads to the computer stacks” Eric replied, his calm voice helping to quiet the fear in the girls. “If they are lucky, they can seal the computer room door behind them”

“For now, we need to keep moving and replace Albright and your friend Stanley” he added. “Where do you think they will be?”

“In that new tunnel” Sarah said and pointed to the freshly carved hole in the wall at the back of the Lost and Found room.

“What tunnel?” said Eric and Lilly in unison.