School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

that’s there. And there are some more cars around too. And those buildings, with the signs, those are shops.”

Ushegg didn’t lead them the direction Jeff expected. Jeff had thought the boy was taking them to the open market they had often seen on the way to school. Ushegg led them instead down the road following the river, the same course Jeff and Suzy had first taken when they fled the school.

Jeff proudly pointed out the place he and Suzy had climbed from the river.

The group continued down to the bridge, then beyond it to where the houses spread out, then ended. They came out of the town, not on a main road, but on a little path that ran along the edge of the forest by the river.

“There isn’t a city wall?” Shen asked in surprise.

“Maybe they don’t have any enemies,” Ramon suggested.

They walked on for a while. Then Suzy said, “I don’t know; for people without enemies, they sure have a lot of soldiers. And fighting practice is one of their classes in school.” They argued the point as they walked, but good-naturedly. It was sunny and warm and deeply satisfying to be out of the school.

Outside the city, the guards started talking with each other and put away their wands, and some tension went out of everyone as the walk became leisurely, relaxing.

Spiny-looking squirrels chattered and scurried in the trees. Shen tried to ask Ushegg why there wasn’t a wall. Peter threw a rock in the river. Jeff threw a bigger rock in the river. Jada or Tanesha whispered something behind him, and they both laughed. Jeff blushed.

After a few minutes, they came to a little stream and Ushegg turned to follow it into the forest. As Jeff followed, he saw a couple of yellow-purple fruits bobbing along at the edge of the stream. He picked one up then threw it down in disgust; it was gooey and full of worm holes.

As they walked, they saw more of the fruits floating in the stream. Paola said something about how the fruit on the tree better not be full of worms. Behind him, Jeff heard the guards laughing about something. It was peaceful in the forest, and the day was perfect. But something… itched at the back of Jeff’s mind.

Something felt wrong.

Jeff kept walking, looking from side to side in the forest. Could there be a tree-man here? He listened. Prithi was whining about how far they had been walking. Maybe it’s the sunlight, he reasoned; it always felt like sunset on this planet or like someone had hung a thin red sheet over your head, and you just wanted to pull it off and get the full light. Maybe it was that.

Jeff’s eyes followed the course of the stream, up toward its source. What was that white thing poking out of the water where the stream curved past the big bush? Peter shouted, “Hey, this is it; look!” Prithi, Jada, and Tanesha rushed to follow.

Ushegg smiled back at the group and waved them on. Jeff took a couple of quick steps, squinting. Were those bones sticking out of the water?

He ran forward, waving his hands and shouting something like “Saa aa!” He didn’t know what he was shouting; the words hadn’t caught up yet.

Peter jumped back in alarm from under the fruit tree, thinking Jeff had seen something wrong with it. It probably saved him.

Because then the rocks came crashing down.

It happened so quickly, it was hard to see, but it looked to Jeff like a string of green, basketball-sized stones had fallen from out of the tree, as if a giant had dropped its jade bracelet.

If Peter had still been next to the trunk, he would have been crushed. As it was, one piece of the rocky string glanced off his forehead as it fell past, knocking him backward to the ground. Tanesha, who had been inspecting some of the windfalls on the ground, dove forward so the line of rocks fell across her left leg. They made a crunch Jeff could hear even from his distance.

A second passed.

Tanesha tried to pull herself forward to get out from under the stones; then she screamed in a way that made Jeff sick to his stomach.

She kept screaming and screaming, and for a few seconds, everyone stood frozen in horror. Then, just as several of them started forward to help, the chain of stones writhed, positioning itself more securely onto Tanesha’s leg, and the connections between the stones contracted.

From the front-most stone, two black fangs appeared and sank themselves into the back of Tanesha’s thigh. Dozens of short, black legs had appeared along the thing’s underside, those in front clamping vise-like to Tanesha’s leg. The girl began thrashing wildly, sobbing, striking it with her hands, fists, and elbows. But it wasn’t budging.

Suzy and Nacho were the first to unfreeze. They charged forward, kicking and hitting and pushing the thing. Nacho grabbed a rock from the pool and brought it down on the monster’s head/first-segment. Nacho’s rock broke.

Jeff ran forward and grabbed one of the many black legs pincered around Tanesha. The inside of the leg was covered in barbs, but Jeff gritted his teeth against the pain and heaved. It was too strong.

And then, finally, the guards were there.

Jeff had forgotten about them, but now they charged in, thin ripples arrowing from their raised wands. He never could have imagined being so relieved to see armed alien warriors.

Spells hit all over the stone caterpillar but didn’t have an immediate effect. The guards seemed to realize this, because they discarded their wands, charged into the stream, and began heaving out the biggest stones they could find. Staggering back to the caterpillar with the stones, they began to pound, slamming their rocks down on the joints between segments.

Tanesha screamed from under the