Alskimous

Chapter 4

           

When we got out of the bedroom we saw Matt and Arthur walking out of the boy's bedroom.

"You guys had the same idea huh," Emma laughed.

"What? Oh it's just you guys, yeah we're going to eat. This guy over here wouldn't stop talking about 'grilled cheesus''' Matt rolled his eyes.

"Oh, Arthur," I sighed.

"Who's she?" Matt said motioning to Rebecca.

"Oh that's Rebecca, she's my bunkmate," I said.

"Oh, I'm Matt, and this is Arthur,"

"Let's go eat some grilled cheesus!" Arthur said running down the hall to the cafeteria.

When we got to the cafeteria, there were a lot of people there. Why didn't Alvin want us to come now? Everything seemed perfectly fine to me! We went over to the lunch line.

"I'll have a grilled cheese please!" Arthur said impatiently jumping up and down.

"Aren't you guys first nighters? You can't eat until 8:00, go back to your rooms and rest," Edna said checking the clock. "You have an hour."

"But, people are eating now why can't we?" I questioned. This made Edna uncomfortable.

"Well, umm..." Edna paused. "It's a... Tradition for first nighters not to eat." She was almost out of excuses when Alvin came over.

"Well, children listen to Edna. You wouldn't want to break a tradition!" Alvin grinned. I almost snapped but I figured it was best to keep quiet.

We all went back to our rooms. Dorothy seemed especially disappointed. "There is something up with that guy," she sneered.

"Yeah! I wonder why he wouldn't let us eat! I wonder what's going on," I replied trying to think of any good reason that Alvin would kick us out.

"Well, if you guys wanted to find out, I've been here a while and they would never let me eat with the others," Rebecca whispered shyly "One night I was really tired so I went to bed while everyone else was eating and I heard noises through that vent," She pointed to the air vent above her bed.

Dorothy looked confused "What does that have to do with anything?"

"So, I decided to climb through it to see where the vent leads, and it leads straight to the cafeteria but by the time I got there, everyone was gone,"

"We have to go through there," Emma chimed in desperately "It's the only way to find out what he's hiding."

"I have to warn you though, it's really dusty up there," Rebecca said staring at Dorothy.

"Well, I guess a little dust won't hurt," Dorothy said looking at her dress. That made me giggle.

"Alright let's do this before it's too late," I said already climbing up the ladder to Rebecca's bunk. Everyone followed. The rusted metal bars on the ladder gave me red blisters.

"How do we get it off?" Emma pulled at the vent once we got to the top.

"Like this!" Rebecca smiled, carefully untwisting each screw. We entered the cold, echoey vent. "We have to be quiet or they'll know we're here."

I crawled through the tight space. Mom would be way to claustrophobic for this. I teared up at the thought of my mom. Why'd it have to happen! Sometimes I feel like there's no point in going on. I hadn't noticed that I had stopped crawling and the others we're getting impatient.

"Umm, Angie! Let's keep it moving!" Emma said from behind me.

"Oh...sorry I was just thinking," I whispered and kept going. I after a few feet there was a four way intersect. "Which way do we go?''

"Left!" I heard Rebecca shout. I crawled to the left and saw a grate on the bottom of the tunnel.

"Is that it right there?" I asked. I didn't even wait for Rebecca's reply because just a few seconds after, I heard Alvin's voice.

"ATTENTION OUTLASTERS! IT IS TIME FOR ANOTHER SELECTION OF OUR FINEST MEMBERS OF THE DAY!" Everyone cheered. "TODAY'S SELECTION IS...ANNA STEIN AND PETER HANNEN!" We watched as a girl about our age and a man who looked to be in his 30's rise from their seats and walk towards Alvin. The rest of the people watched them leave and continued eating.

"We have to follow them. This way!" Rebecca yelled taking the lead down the tunnel. It was so dark I could barely see Emma, who was in front of me this time. As we continued left the tunnel widened so it easier to see, but it echoed more. "I think this is it!" she said stopping in front of another grate. We all looked down and saw Alvin strapping Anna and Peter into these big chairs. He took out a big needle and shoved it into their vein just as Matt had described. As he did this their eyes turned gold for a split second as he sucked out their DNA. Then Alvin took them out of the room.

"Oh my goodness," Dorothy was stunned "This has got to stop." We continued in the same direction for just a few feet before coming across another grate, we looked and saw Alvin, Anna and Peter walk into this huge machine which looked like a giant juicer, except where the spout should be was a pipe long pipe that extended out of the room.

"Where does that pipe lead?" I asked Rebecca.

"I don't know, but it must lead somewhere..." We watched as Alvin pushed a button and the machine started vibrating and flashing neon lights. It was what happened next that surprised me most. When Alvin opened the door both people were gone. Nothing left. They had disappeared.

"{\"s�