School Nathaniel Hardman (the best ebook reader for android txt) 📖

they heard a splash. Jeff grabbed Suzy around the waist, she threw an arm over his shoulder, and they set off at an awkward, lopsided run.

Suzy felt her leg beginning to tingle and found she could move it a bit. A few more long moments hopping along with Jeff, and then she let him go and began hobbling as best as she could on her own.

The streets were dark and empty, and Suzy hadn’t heard anyone since they turned down the little corridor between two shops. It had taken them the wrong direction, but it seemed to have lost the guard.

“Do you know where we are?” she whispered to Jeff.

“Griggiax!” someone yelled from behind, and Suzy dove around a corner.

“I hope so!” Jeff yelled as he took off at a dead sprint. Suzy followed him through dark, cobbled steets, the sounds of the guard’s footfalls and spells echoing behind them.

“Over here!” she heard someone yell, followed by the sound of answering yells and more footfalls. She pointed her wand behind her and shouted paralyzing spells as she ran. She hoped it would at least slow them down.

At last, they rounded the corner of the street with the empty house. The broken shutter was still hanging open. Jeff barely slowed as he ran straight for it and dove through. Suzy gritted her teeth and followed.

She rolled over the windowsill into the black of the house. She could hear Jeff panting ahead of her, but she couldn’t see anything. Something brushed by her foot, and she kicked reflexively.

She took a step forward and bumped into Jeff. “Go!” she hissed, and she heard his quick shuffling footsteps moving deeper into the house, which to her unadjusted eyes was pure black. Behind her, the shutters clattered open.

Suzy ran, arms outstretched. A half-dozen footsteps, and then she slammed into a wall. She felt something electric sizzle right over her head as she fell back.

Things scurried away from her as she fell; then she felt the sting of tiny fangs sinking into the hand she used to catch herself. The shock of the bite arced up her arm, and she had to choke back a howl of pain. She whipped her hand out as she jumped to her feet, flinging the lizard through the air, back toward the window.

Suzy scrambled, half crouched, to the doorway of the kitchen, kicking at little forms that were beginning to swarm, scurrying onto her shoes, up her legs, some burrowing up under the cuffs of her jeans.

Behind her, a guard grunted as he heaved himself through the open window. Suzy stumbled around the corner of the kitchen and could just make out the dim silhouette of the open door. She ran for it.

Suzy burst out, gasping and shuddering into the cool night and kicked furiously at the lizards still clinging to her feet. One had gotten its head under the tongue of her shoe, and it bit her twice before she ripped it off with a snarl and hurled it over the wall of the garden.

Finally, she registered that Jeff was dragging a big crate of fertilizer toward the door. Suzy jumped forward to help him, and her leg almost buckled; those bites on her ankle HURT.

They got the bin in front of the door seconds before something pounded against it from the inside. The bin didn’t budge, and Jeff ran for the root he had stowed in the car. Suzy heard a shout, more pounding, and then, horribly, a scream.

She winced. She wasn’t feeling particularly loving toward the guards right now, but still, she hoped he didn’t get eaten alive by stinging lizards.

There was another muffled shout from inside, a thud on the door, and this time, the crate lurched forward a fraction of an inch. “Jeff, how are we going to get out of here?!”

Suzy spun, and the question died on her lips. Jeff wasn’t getting the root. He was squeezing his way into the driver’s seat of Mom’s car.

An absurd, giddy grin split his face when Suzy met his eyes. “Hey, see if you can open the gate!” He called.

“Jeff! You don’t even know how to drive!” It came out almost as a scream, a note of panic sharpening her voice.

“How hard can it be?” he called back, almost laughing as he put the key in the ignition. “Hey! Open the gate!”

Jeff edged the car forward until the bumper was touching the tall wooden gate in the wall. Suzy had opened the latch but left the gate closed. They were pretty sure at least one guard was out there, waiting for them. “Ooookay,” said Jeff. He looked down to make sure he had his foot over the right pedal.

“Hurry up!”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t put it in ‘4’?” Jeff asked. “Doesn’t that have more power?”

In his periphery, Jeff saw the door to the house burst open. A form staggered out, and for one crazy second, Jeff thought it was some sort of tentacle-covered swamp monster. Then he grimaced in revulsion as he recognized the forms of dozens, hundreds, of lizards swarming over the guard, who turned drunkenly and took a step toward them.

Jeff slammed his foot down on the gas.

The solid wooden door banged out of their way as the car shot out into the street. Suzy screamed and Jeff jerked on the wheel, but too late; they crashed into the garden wall on the other side of the street. Jeff shook his head to clear it and saw two guards looking very startled standing only a dozen feet away. One of them raised his wand.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” Jeff muttered as he reached for the gear shifter. He shoved it up to “R” and something under the hood clunked. They didn’t move. Jeff could see the guard’s mouth moving, and beside him, Suzy started yelling something.

Jeff slammed