All the comforts we’d enjoy would come at the expense of our lives, our freedoms. Shackles might as well have clanked with every step we took.
How long till one of us was forced to die again? Till the rest of us were forced to watch?
Bile crept up my throat; I had to swallow it forcefully down.
Welcome to the Institute for the Advancement of Immortals, where dying is part of your coursework.
Welcome to hell on earth.
18
The Correct Response Is to Be Freaked Out
If this was just their assessment of us …” Brady said, eyeing Hunt in the passenger seat then the rest of us in Bonnie’s rearview mirror before shaking his head. “Then,shit, I can’t decide whether to be freaked out or excited, ’cause there isn’t a single doubt they’re going to hand us our asses.”
Again in the middle seat in the back, since Griffin had taken to leaving shotgun to Hunt so he could sit beside me, I let my head plunk heavily onto the seat, trying to carve out some space between my chest and Bobo’s body, which was a freaking furnace. I’d shucked my drenched workout clothes and once again wore my jeans and snug quarter-sleeve shirt, but the fabric was sticking to my sheen of sweat.
The note I’d tucked under my boobs was soggy and damp. I’d been well on my way to kicking my own ass for deciding it was safer with me than in the locker room until I realized the clothing I left behind had definitely been rifled through. I’d paid close attention to how I’d left my pile of belongings, and my jeans and the sleeves of my shirt were at slightly different angles than I’d left them. Whoever had gone through our stuff was good, but not perfect. Had I not anticipated how very complete our lack of privacy was, I might not have even noticed.
I could only hope I’d still be able to read whatever Jude had written on the paper. I hadn’t yet had the chance to properly examine it, sneaking it from one place to the other without unfolding it because of the surveillance of hidden cameras. Even with the risk that the text might now be a challenge to decipher, at least Magnum wouldn’t be privy to Jude’s secrets. With the odds stacked against us as they were, it barely seemed like a win. But we’d had so few, I was going to count it as one anyway.
When the others hadn’t yet answered Brady, I told him, “The correct response is to befreaked out, def to be freaked out. Now that they know we’re all in shape and that we know what we’re doing at least a little, they’re not going to hold back. And when they hand us our asses, I’m afraid it’s gonna be in thedeadway.”
Homer, Yolanda, and Armando had made us sprint till our leg muscles burned, climb up and down ropes tied to the very top of the maybe fifty-foot ceiling, spar and grapple with each other, kick and punch and strike every which way. They’d even made us break slabs of wood with both our hands and bare feet. They’d shoved us to see how well we’d catch ourselves or if we’d fall, and they’d swept our feet out from under us any time we weren’t paying attention.
My mind was as exhausted as my body—and there was no way we could let down our guard. Not as long as we were stuck on this campus.
“At least we know we’ll learn cool stuff though, right?” Brady said. “I can’t wait to see what they can do. The three of them look like total badasses.”
“Again, not necessarily the best thing when their job descriptions literally include killing their pupils.”
Brady slowed as the admin building loomed up ahead.
“Whatcha doin’?” Layla asked.
“Looking,” he said.
“For what?”
“Something sus.”
Griffin huffed. “Well, I don’t think you have to look far to find that. It’d be harder to find somethingnotsus around here.”
“No kidding,” I said on a heavy sigh, leaning my head against Griffin’s shoulder as Bobo tried to circle around my lap to get comfy. I patted his rump and guided him to sit before his foot could press against my full bladder.
When Homer had finally dismissed us, he informed us we had exactly an hour and a half before our academic teachers expected us over in the academic building. It wasn’t all that much time for the showers we all desperately needed, plus a quick lunch for us and Bobo, but we’d decided the relative privacy of our own house was better than exposing ourselves to the locker room showers and figuring out the dining hall.
Brady slowed nearly to a crawl as we passed the office building, leaning forward to peer at it through the windshield.
Griffin rubbed Bobo’s ears. “It’s time to get Clyde back up and purring. I’m thinking tonight would be a good time to grab some cold ones and start working on him. You guys down? It’d be good not to have to all pile into Bonnie every time.”
We were in the midst of agreeing to the plan for the evening when Brady brought Bonnie to a complete stop.
“OhmyfuckingGod, Brade!” said Layla, throwing her hands up into the air. “Get us home already before we get any riper in here. We stink like a pile of sweaty jockstraps. I can literally smell your ass crack.”
I was prepared for Brady to give her shit in return when he muttered, “I’ve got a bad feeling.”
Three seconds later, Hunt snapped, “Guys,look!”
