Up to No Goode

Chapter Eighteen

Cammie ditched me. I watched her wrap her arm into DeeDee's and knew instinctively that she wasn't coming back my way. I gave Josh a look. "Girls what can you do right?" He said with a dimpled grin. "So you and Cammie?"

There were many things I could have told Josh, but the truth was I didn't know how things were with Cammie. I stared at the ground until finally saying "We're good."

"I'm glad," says Josh, and there's no doubt in my mind he means it. But there's an extra pain and tenderness in his voice when he said "Treat her well, that girl is something special."

And well, she was something special. no doubt about it. The thing was, Josh didn't know exactly how special. Yet, he saw through Cammie without clearance or special training. I look at the boy in front of me with new found interest, and find myself nodding in agreement with him.

"Listen man, I've got to get back at school." I lie. "It was nice meeting you." (Not a total lie, but I'm never admitting that to anyone.)

"You too Zach" he said, "She might be crazy, but she's worth it."

I spun around on my feet and made my way across the crowded square, running head to head with Jonas. I don't bother with a greeting.

"Cammie ditched me" I said "and I haven't seen one of the girls in a while now, have you?"

The look on his face told me he hadn't.

"Remember how the girls bugged our rooms..." I began, but as usual Jonas was one step ahead of me. He pointed to his watch.

"We've got trackers" He said with a smile.

It took Jonas only 97 seconds to tweak the signal to follow Liz Suttons. The girls were back at the school.

"Come on," I said to Jonas "We've got to find Grant."

"Find me what?" Says Grant, emerging from the shadows holding a cotton candy.

"Girl's are missing." I said simply. Surprise registered on his face as he swerved around wildly attempting to catch sight of everyone, anyone. But he realized what we already knew, that there was no one.

"Do you think..." Grant began, but I cut him off.

"No."

"But your mom... the circle..." He made out.

"I SAID NO GRANT." I slam my hand down on a nearby trashcan. "I promised I wouldn't ever let anything bad happen to Cammie." I said "And I let her go out today, on her own, without protection. I should have followed her."

Jonas and Grant give each other looks but I don't wait any longer.

I'm running.

We make it to the Gallagher Academy in twelve minutes. (Which was a feat considering it was two miles and we did have Jonas with us.) Only the girls weren't there.

"Zach" Said Jonas but I didn't hear.

It would be hard to hear anything over the Code Black.

Jonas grabs my shoulders and points me towards the watch. "They're no longer at the school. Come on" He says and despite the two mile run he still finds it him him to continue on another mile.

We make it to this abandoned building in record time, but the thing is, it wasn't abandoned.

Between metal structures and piles of lumber invisible trip wires lace the ground, cameras did a 360 sweep, and arm guards patrolled the shadows.

"I'm going up" I say "You guys, patrol the perimeter, make sure the girls are okay."

They both nod and disappear from sight. I climb up onto the roof, and I'm momentarily transfixed by the stillness of the night when below I see Cammie, sulking through the dark. I attached a piece of rappel-a-chord to myself and jumped into the darkness behind her. I slid one hand over her mouth, the other around her waist, and brought her up to the roof.