Monster Factory

Chapter 7

We left the armoury at a dead run. At least, I was running, when I got to the elevator door Ruby was already there waiting for me.

Ding!

The elevator doors parted, and I pushed up stream against the flow of kids exiting the elevator on their way to class. When the last kid left, I pressed my hand to the scanner beside the keypad. My fingerprints were accepted, and a new button materialized on the digital keypad: TRANSIT. I hit it, and the elevator dropped like a stone.

Dr. Bodkin had synced up my watch to show me the GPS locations of the three remaining Cripple Creek buses. Make that two. Two remaining buses.

"Only two left," I told Ruby.

She was getting nervous, and it was more than that scrunched up look she gets on her face. Whenever Ruby got nervous or scared, the air temperature around her dropped. By the time the elevator reached the basement subway system platform, frost covered the elevator walls, and I was shivering.

The subway transit system for Wychwood was unique. Unlike normal subway train cars, the MOM. system used smaller, faster egg-shaped pods. These pods were solely powered by electricity and went crazy fast. The system was designed to take MOM agents from Wychwood to any cemetery in North America in a fraction of the time through a system of underground tunnels.

I followed Ruby to our pod, which looked like an egg set on its side. As I approached, the hatch door hissed open. Two people could fit inside, facing each other. I climbed in, strapped myself into the required five point harness and typed in Cripple Creek as our destination on the control panel. The town was small and had only one cemetery, but it was on the north side of town and both remaining buses were in the south.

This was bad.

Ruby still looked nervous, and as soon as she sat down inside the pod, the digital control panel began to develop a thin layer of frost.

"Ruby, you gotta relax," I told her. "You're killing me."

"But those kids," she said. "We're running out of time."

I hit GO and the door to the egg car closed and locked.

I was thrown backward in my seat as the egg rocketed down the tunnel, twisting left and right. We whipped along so fast I could barely see. I loved it.

Ruby said something, but I was only half listening. I just nodded my head as I watched the tunnels whip by the pod window. Riding in these pods was one of my favourite parts of this job. It felt like being shot out of a cannon.

"Are you listening to me?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah," I told her. "Darius Radish. I had actually heard of him, in case you were wondering."

"Well, whatever he's selling, the word is that it's something very big." Ruby checked the time on the control tablet. "Where are the last two buses now?"

We continued to rocket down the tunnel, going faster and faster. I checked the status again and saw that only one bus remained on the GPS screen.

One chance.

"There's only one left."

My GPS unit found me the quickest route, but it was still too long.

I wasn't going to make it.

Our pod slowed to a stop and the door hissed open.

"Cripple Creek Municipal Cemetery" was stencilled across the wall in two foot tall faded white letters.

"You have nine minutes before the last kid is picked up, Milo." Ruby told me. "You have to be there before that or they are gone. Doomed."

"I got it, Ruby." I said. "Thanks for the pep talk."

My watch beeped as the countdown started: 00:08:59 ... 00:08:58 ... 00:08:57 ...