Under the laser web on Miss Scrimmage's front property crawled Elmer and Edward. Both boys were soaked to the skin. The sprinklers had wet down the lawn, and there was mud everywhere. Covered in slime, they inhaled dead leaves, and exhaled clumps of grass.
"How much further?" gurgled Edward miserably.
Elmer looked up, but all he could see was the mist of the sprinklers and the criss-crossing red lasers. He dared not raise his head above the spray for fear of breaking one of the beams, and setting off the alarm.
"We're close! Extremely close!" he lied. Inside, he thought, We'll never make it. We'll trip the alarm, and be caught, and expelled. He might never get his chance with Marylou.
He forced the spray, the mud, and the danger to the back of his mind. His muscles were screaming
with exhaustion. Behind him he could make out Edward — a squirming mass of muck.
Bump! His head came up against something hard. He rolled over onto his back, and opened his eyes. He was at the foot of the wrought-iron fence! Outside the laser web! He was free!
He grabbed Edward and pulled him up to the fence. "We made it!" he exulted, ripping off his muddy stocking cap and throwing it high in the air. A gust of chill November wind caught the hat, and blew it back toward the school.
Elmer and Edward watched in helpless agony as the knit cap descended into the laser web, cutting its way through the beams like a hot knife through butter.
The SectorWatch Fortress Ultra-Deluxe Banshee II alarm detonated the night in a supernova of pure noise. Sixty-seven loudspeakers roared to life, blaring a combination of sirens, horns, bells, buzzers, and Klaxons. Every window at Miss Scrimmage's school instantly shattered, the glass shooting twenty feet from the building. Red emergency beacons flashed all over, and the giant searchlight on the roof began sweeping the yard.
Elmer and Edward stood at the foot of the fence, bellowing at each other. But even a shriek directly into an ear could not be heard over the Banshee II.
Girls in pink nighties began to appear in what was left of their windows, hands over their ears, faces contorted. At Macdonald Hall, pajama-clad boys streamed out of the dormitories to investigate the disturbance. Even there, three football fields away, the noise of the alarm was unbearable.
Bruno and Boots were halfway back to their room when the alarm went off. In the crowd of boys pouring out onto the campus, Bruno pounced on the first familiar face. It was Pete Anderson.
"What's going on?" he bellowed.
"Yeah, it's pretty loud!" replied Pete.
Larry Wilson ran up to them, shivering in shorts and a T-shirt. " It's Scrimmage's alarm!" he shouted. "And I hate to tell you, Boots — I just checked. Your brother's missing !"
Boots looked at Bruno. " What are we going to do ?"
"Let him rot?" suggested Bruno hopefully. But even as he said it, he knew they had to rescue Edward. "Let's go!"
***
Cathy Burton barreled into her room, still carrying the salami she had been slicing.
Desperately, she yanked apart the wire Elmer had reconnected, but this had no effect. She screamed urgently at Diane, who screamed urgently back. Neither could make out a single word. Inside Scrimmage's, the Banshee II was an earsplitting, teeth-rattling, gut-shaking, brain- melting roar. It was almost like the total silence of outer space, because the horrible din blocked out all other sound.
YOU ARE READING
Macdonald Hall #7: The Joke's on us
Fiksi RemajaBoots' little brother, Edward, has arrived to start his first year at Macdonald Hall. Bruno can't wait to teach him all he knows, but Edward thinks they are "over the hill" and "old men". At the same time, Mr. Sturgeon is thinking about retirement...
