Fathom L. Standage (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

back to the janitor’s closet and hid, waiting until his shouting passed.

After several deep breaths, and all quiet outside the door, I walked out… right in front of another Oceana park employee.

“Umm,” I said stupidly, my voice shaking. “I’m sorry. I think I’m lost.” I scurried away. The employee just watched, looking surprised and a little amused. For a wild second, I thought I’d gotten away with it, until someone in a suit emerged from around the corner.

“Hey, you, wait! Stop right there!” Linnaeus shouted. I plowed through the door and took off running.

“Stop her!”

I sprinted down the sidewalk, heading away from where Samantha waited. I didn’t want them to find her. I looked back at my pursuers. They had multiplied. One of them included the man with the missing pinky whose name I now knew to be Marinus.

People stared as I tore through the park. Gasping and clutching my purse like a priceless treasure, I squeezed through a crowd where strollers pulled out of my path and a man dropped his lunch. I wanted to shout back my apologies, but Linnaeus’ men remained hot on my heels.

My lungs ached, my legs burned, and the exit was nowhere in sight. Sooner or later I would come to a dead end and they would find me. I wanted to throw up, half from exertion and half from despair. I couldn’t run anymore.

But as I stumbled around a hedge, someone jerked me into the bushes. A hand clamped over my mouth, cutting short my scream. I struggled, brambles scratching my arms and face. My stifled screams continued as I tried to claw away the arms holding me from behind.

“Shut up. It’s Calder Brydon. I’m helping you,” came a hoarse, Scottish whisper in my ear. Calder Brydon. The Hottie McScottie. I stopped screaming. He didn’t take his hand away from my mouth. My body went limp but my mind buzzed, still going a hundred miles an hour. My pulse throbbed through my whole body.

“I’m going to take my hand away now,” he said. “Don’t scream.”

I nodded. He freed my face. I coughed, gulping air through the sharp cramps in my side.

“Quiet.”

I quieted. We stood there in the hedge, his arms still wrapped around me. Bleeding scrapes striped his forearms, matching the ones I had on my own. Behind me, I could feel his body against mine. His chest rose and fell with each steady breath he took. I watched my pursuers through the gaps in the bushes as they passed.

After a few more seconds, he let me go.

“Follow me. Be quick,” he whispered, pulling me by the wrist. The bushes raked us a second time as we emerged. Exhausted and trembling, I had a hard time keeping up. I wanted to curl up on the pavement and never move again, but Calder wouldn’t let up his pace.

We drew a few more stares from people in the park, but Linnaeus’s men had either gone away or Calder scouted our path well. We soon found the exit and hurried into the parking lot.

“Wait. Samantha’s still here.” I said. “I can’t go without her.”

He stopped. He let go of my wrist and turned to look toward the entrance of the park. The muscles in his face clenched and unclenched. “Does she have a cell phone?” he asked.

I nodded and he thrust an old flip phone at me. It took several tries because of my unsteady fingers, but finally I found the right buttons to dial Sam’s number—one of the few I actually had memorized. She answered before the end of the first ring.

I sighed in relief. “It’s me. Meet me at the exit. Now. Hurry.” I hung up the phone. He took it back and paced as we waited. I watched the entrance to the theme park, my stomach twisting in knots, my hands gripping one another. He paced in front of me.

“How’d you know I needed help?” I asked.

“I came to retrieve the vessel,” he replied. “Saw you running with it.”

“That Linnaeus guy is neglecting the animals in this place,” I said with a scowl. “I couldn’t let him—”

“Not here,” he cut me off. He paced for another minute. “There’s your friend. Let’s go.” I whirled around and saw Samantha jogging out of the entrance, wide-eyed and anxious.

“Samantha.” I wanted to talk to her, to tell her what had happened, but Calder grasped my arm.

“We need to go.”

I followed him while Sam caught up.

“I heard some security guards talking about you,” she said as we trotted behind Calder. “What happened?”

“Later,” Calder said over his shoulder.

I opened my purse and showed her the clam inside. She looked from me, to the scratches on my arms and face, and to Calder up ahead. The worry in her eyes grew. Calder led us to a car parked on the far side of the lot, a nondescript beige sedan. He unlocked it with a remote on his key chain.

“What about our car?” Sam asked, hanging behind. He looked back.

“Yes, I suppose you’d better bring it. I’ll wait.” He turned to me. “You stay.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I’m taking you to Eamon,” he replied without looking at me. He climbed into the car without looking at us. Mystified, I handed the keys off to Sam. She took them and walked to where we had the car parked. I hesitated before getting into the car. The last time I’d gotten into the car with strangers, my life turned upside down—and nearly ended. Calder rolled the passenger window down.

“Come on,” he said, authority lowering his voice. “We can’t wait around for Linnaeus to find us.”

I got into the car.

We came to a neighborhood south of San Diego, with houses sitting close to the shore. Calder turned onto a street where only weathered decks and porches separated the houses from the ocean. He parked in the driveway of a sand-colored, weather-beaten two story with blank windows. It had peeling paint and a neglected front yard, cracked pavement, and an ocean in the