Ugh. Horrible cough and I don't know why the heck I have it. But on the bright side, I'm on page sixty of my novel!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Spectrobes.

Spectrobes Legends

Chapter 14

Deep breaths, Mari, deep breaths.

"Just stay calm." Keith said.

Lily came up behind me. "They can smell your fear!" She hissed.

"Not helping!" Keith fired back.

Physical examinations were being done in the band room. The chairs were moved into the closet and the room had been divided by a large hospital curtain. Everyone had been given numbers and were being called into the room regularly. Only people that were called in could go in, save for parents that had to watch their kids.

"Boys on the left, girls on the right!" A nurse shouted.

According to what I heard, they were giving everyone every examination that they could give without signed consent. The government was subjecting the citizens of Central City to everything from blood tests, to psychological screenings, to any "strange" systems, and every doctor in the building was helping out. Even Mr. Tanner, being a licensed male nurse, was recruited to help out.

"So where did you hide…you know who?" Keith hissed.

"You're not really whispering—a lot of people probably just heard that." Lily jeered. "I'm just kidding—I only heard that because I'm right behind you."

"Can we just focus on the situation at hand?" Keith exclaimed.

I laughed as we stepped up to the curtain.

"Hold on there, Casanova."

The person directing all the people that needed to be examined grabbed Keith by the arm and pushed him into the guys' side. Lily and I laughed as he blushed. We went through the curtains. There were even more little rooms made out of curtains all over. A volunteer worker told us which rooms to go to.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the person that would be giving me a physical was a woman standing by a cot. She was in a white lab coat, wore glasses, and had pretty Asian features.

"Thankful it wasn't a guy?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Nervous huh. And with a body like yours. The world sure has changed."

I chuckled nervously. "It's not so much that as the fact that I sort of come from a conservative family."

"Parents don't let you date?"

"I don't want to date."

She took out a syringe. "Hope you're not afraid of needles. You can call me Doctor Terra, by the way."

She took a blood sample and I tried to make small talk.

"So. Volunteer, recruit, or government worker."

"Recruit." She said. "I'm fresh out of medical school and have yet to get a good job. Hopefully, this'll look good on my resume. Shirt off."

I thought I misheard her. "Excuse me?"

"We have to do everything we can do without a parent's consent."

I did what she said. She pressed on the small of my back and I stifled a gasp. It almost felt like she stabbed me.

"You have some serious bruising."

"I…uh…fell down some stairs."

It was honestly the first thing that came to mind. Stupid pop-star hating Krawl. I was surprised that I still had marks from that.

"Have you had this checked out? It looks serious."

Oh crap.

"I think I should get one of the government—"

Government. The last word I wanted to hear. She was about to lean out of the curtain and call for someone!

"Excuse—"

Crap. Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap-crap-crap-crap!

"I ALREADY HAD IT CHECKED OUT!" I bellowed as I grabbed her white lab coat.

She stared at me for a moment.

"By whom, might I ask?"

"By…uh…" Someone that I can trust to tell a lie for me. Parents are out of the question. "My biology teacher!"

She asked incredulously, "Your…biology teacher?"

"Yeah! H-he's also licensed in first-aid! He's over on the guys' side right now!"

Well, he was.

In response to this, Dr. Terra grabbed my arm and marched me over to the other side of the curtains. Where the guys were being examined.

I'll leave out most of the details. All you need to know is that I stared at the floor, my face flushed.

Dr. Terra tore through one last curtain and I heard a man gasp and a boy yelp.

"I believe this was the man you were talking about?" She asked.

Mr. Tanner was gawking at us while Alex frantically searched for his shirt.

"What are you—?" Mr. Tanner stammered.

"Did you give this girl a checkup earlier?" Dr. Terra asked.

Behind her, I pointed at the Prismod, praying that it was a big enough THIS INVOLVES THE SPECTROBE SECRET signal.

"Ah—uh—yes. Yes I did."

"And you dismissed the bruising as nothing, am I right?"

Mr. Tanner seemed confused. Alex wasn't looking so I—God forgive me—lifted up my shirt and gave Mr. Tanner a quick glimpse of what the good doctor was talking about. Dr. Terra started to turn, so I pulled my shirt down and flashed a nervous smile at her.

"It…happened before all of this madness."

I gave Mr. Tanner a thumbs up sign as Alex finally got his shirt on.

"Sorry I had to put you through that," said Dr. Terra. "We can go back now."

And lo, let the floor-staring begin! Again!

(…)

"Do we really have to do this?"

"Yes."

"Even if it kills us?"

"Oh yeah."

"We can't even back track to the city and look for some weapons or something?"

"I have mace."

"What good is mace against an alien?"

Jessica slapped her hand over her cameraman's mouth. He whimpered. She scowled at him.

The poor man had been complaining since they left the school to go into the city. He was terrified—and she didn't blame him—but they were too deep into the city now; going back (alone) was the last thing anyone who's seen a single horror movie reference in their entire lifetime would be dumb enough to do. Most people would agree; they'd rather head into the belly of the beast with a friend than make the tread back to safety alone.

"So where are we going to do the broadcast from?" he asked.

"The military has been getting into skirmishes with these things all day. I want to find the site of a fight and broadcast in front one of those things' corpses." She answered.

"But how are we supposed to do that without getting caught in one of the fights?" Cody asked.

Jessica groaned. Her longtime friend had the looks of a male model, but the creativity and ambition of an accountant.

"Listen! This isn't the end of the world! Mobile internet still works! I've been checking the blogs and all the satellite feeds. A few blocks ahead we'll be at the site of one of the skirmishes. Even if we can't find a monster corpse, it'll still be pretty surreal."

Cody gawked at her. "Why are you so serious about this?"

"Because this is our big break!" She beamed. "No one else was in the area, we were the first on scene, and we managed to get some great footage! The station is freaking out and they want more. If we get just a little bit more nominee-worthy footage and the network will have us doing the nightly news for the next ten years! We might even land a job at one of the big-time corporations! Think about it. CNN! ABC! NBC! They'll all want us!"

She looked back at Cody, expecting to see inspiration and newfound strength in his face, but he was pale. His eyes were as wide as saucer plates. He was overcome with fear. She was so taken aback that it took her a moment to realize what it meant.

She shot around. The moment that she caught a glimpse of the many creatures, a hand clamped around her neck. The dark figure lifted her off of her feet. She couldn't scream. She couldn't breathe. All she could do was squirm and frantically think as the adrenaline in her bloodstream caused every system in her body to go into overdrive.

"PUT HER DOWN!"

She caught a glimpse of Cody, holding a discarded baseball bat, getting lifted off of his feet and pinned down by more of those monsters. He screamed and thrashed frantically.

This man was in control of them—he was commanding them. She didn't know how or why, but she just knew it!

And now they were at his mercy. The mercy of a man that had nearly decimated an entire city full of innocent civilians without provocation.

(…)

The sun had just set and everyone was setting up their beds. It reminded me of the episode of Rocket Power that I had seen when I was a little kid. A hurricane had run through the town where the characters lived and everyone had to take refuge in the high school gym, praying that their homes were alright. Most sane people would agree that they wished they were only waiting out a storm.

The students—a good portion of them not from this school—all sat in clusters, the same as their cliques at school. Some that I knew clearly had lost members and gained new ones. Students that I never thought would speak to each other were consoling one another. This incident must have been a real wakeup call for a lot of people up, gotten them to forget petty teen drama and focus on what was really important.

The faculty had been kind enough to agree to bring in some of the TVs the school used to play movies and hook them up so people could watch the news. There must have been five or six around the room; no more than one of them ever showed something besides what was going on in town at a time.

I was sitting with my mom and dad when I noticed Dr. Terra running around with a little girl on her hip. The girl's eyes were red and puffy, and it looked like she was barely old enough to be in Pre-K. She must have been crying a lot today. I didn't blame her.

I went over to her and asked "Is everything alright?"

"M-Mari?" she stammered. "Thank God! Could you give me a hand for a moment?"

"Sure."

She led me by the arm to a group of little kids, several of them sobbing. There wasn't a parent in sight.

"Their parents are all either out of town or MIA. Could you try and keep them busy while I go call up a social worker I know?"

I nodded. Dr. Terra left. Things got awkward.

I had four kids bouncing on my legs at once. I tried to calm the others down by telling them what middle and high school would be like. They kept on asking me when this would all be over and when they could see their parents again. It honestly made me feel sick to have to say that I didn't know. I was at the end of my wits when Lily, Keith, and Alex all came to my rescue.

Keith and Lily helped out with the knee-horse ride things while Alex brought out a guitar and started to sing for the kids. He started teaching them about music and even let a few of them try to play a few chords.

Then the little girl that had been with Dr. Terra pulled out a little plastic box. It was covered in glitter and stickers and had a little plastic bow with a keyhole on it. The lock was clearly fake because she opened it just by pulling it up. Inside were like a dozen rings—Bond Rings. She started to hand them out.

"Do you really want to do that?" Lily asked.

"It must have taken a while to get all of these." Alex added.

She shook her head. "I was gonna gib them away at my birday pardy." (Aw…) "But den da monsders came, so, so now, I gib dem do you guys, 'cause, 'cause you guys are my friends."

SO CUTE!

Lily and I gave her a hug and we each took a ring. Keith had trouble biting back a smile and Alex snapped a quick picture.

"LILY!"

We all looked up as one of Lily's friends flailed his arms at the nearest TV like a maniac. Everyone in the room was staring at a TV, and all the TVs were showing the exact same thing; some kind of dark room.

The boy came up to Lily and showed him his iPhone.

"Every phone that can do video feed's showing it too!"

He was right!

"Turn up the volume!" Alex hissed.

The kid obeyed.

I expected to see something—someone—like Maja cackling on the screen, announcing their intentions to wipe out humanity and suck our planet dry, but no one spoke. The site was still unbelievably unsettling. The screen was filled with dozens of monsters—Krawl. They were bigger and uglier than the ones that attacked the city. They could only be described as grotesque abominations. People began to debate, argue, and shout.

The camera began to shake. The deafening wave of human voices fell silent.

A shadowy figure in a glowing mask was shown, and then the signal blacked out.