"13 - Alien Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

'Thank you for mentioning that,' Adam muttered. 'I feel a whole lot better now.'
Cindy sighed. 'He was so young.'
'Like we are ready to retire,' Sally said. 'Hurry up you guys. I don't like standing here and yapping in the dark.'
'You could sit quietly in prayer,' Watch suggested.
They lifted Adam up higher, and he was able to knock aside the vent cover and grab the edges of the metal passageway. Bryce and Watch gave him one last shove, and then he was inside the vent and crawling. But he paused to speak over his shoulder.
'When I get outside, I will come around and open the door,' he said.
'Just don't get killed,' Sally said.
'That is sound advice under any circumstances,' Watch said.
'But do keep an eye out for this weird teacher,' Bryce said. 'He can't have gone far.'
'I will return as quickly as I can,' Adam promised.
He ploughed forward. The vent was a tight squeeze, a square aluminium tunnel. His movements were far from quiet. His hands and elbows and knees were constantly banging the sides. If Mr Snakol was still in the building, he must know what they were up to. Adam remembered what Watch had said, that it was probably better to try to take the vent to the roof. But Adam had to wonder what danger he would face as soon as he was free. Also, thanks to Sally, he couldn't be free of the idea of bumping into George's dead body. After a summer in Spooksville, he was used to dangerous adventures, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep from screaming if he ran into George. His guilt over what had happened to the poor kid continued to plague him.
After a minute of crawling he noticed a faint glow up ahead. It came from the roof of the tunnel, but it was not exactly a way out to the roof. As he drew closer he saw that there was a fan between him and the roof. It was bolted down; he wasn't sure how he was going to remove it. But the thought of crawling further through the duct did not appeal to him. Suddenly he just wanted to get outside into the fresh air. Rolling over on his back, he shoved at the fan with the bottoms of both his feet. In such a position, he was able to use the full strength of his legs. And after riding his bike all summer all over Spooksville, he was surprisingly strong. Plus the motor and fan sounded like old pieces of equipment. A few seconds of shoving on the equipment and there was a loud scraping sound as the fan was pushed out and away.
Fresh air poured into the duct and Adam was relieved.
He quickly crawled out and on to the roof.
The night was quiet. There was no one around.
No one that he could see. But as Adam hurried to the side of the roof, searching for a way down, he realised that it was unlikely that Mr Snakol had simply locked them in and gone off. For that reason Adam was not entirely surprised to see Mr Snakol below him when he peered over the side of the roof.
His science teacher was sitting in front of a small cage filled with two hamsters. As Adam watched in horror, Mr Snakol opened the cage and reached in and withdrew one of the hamsters and held it by its tail above his open mouth. But Mr Snakol had not simply opened his mouth wide. It was as if he had allowed his mouth to expand, until the opening took up over half his face. All Adam could see was a long darting tongue and rows and rows of teeth. As the hamster twisted and turned in fright, Mr Snakol slowly lowered the creature. Adam had to turn away; he could not bear to see any creature killed. But closing his eyes did not prevent him from hearing the faint crushing sound of the hamster's bones and muscles.
And the satisfied slurping sound of Mr Snakol's lips.
Adam forced himself to look again.
The science teacher reached for the next hamster.
Adam realised that this was his chance. While Mr Snakol was feeding, he should be able to circle around and re-enter the classroom and get his friends out of the back room. Fortunately for Adam, leaning on the other side of the building was a tall tree that was as useful as a ladder when it came to climbing down to the ground. Less than a minute after leaving Mr Snakol, Adam was back at the front door of the classroom. It lay open, and he scampered inside and was able to unlock the back room. But as his friends flooded out, he cautioned them to keep their voices down.
'He's out there in the hallway,' Adam whispered. 'He's eating living hamsters.'
'Gross,' Cindy said, disgusted.
'I told you he was a snake,' Sally said.
'Should we confront him now?' Bryce said. 'It's five of us against one of him.'
'But what are we going to do if we do confront him?' Watch said. 'Taking him to the town police would be useless. They would be more likely to arrest us for breaking and entering than arrest him for the disappearance of George.'
'But we have evidence,' Cindy said. 'We have George's bloody clothes.'
'The police are useless,' Sally said with certainty. 'If the past has taught us anything, we know we have to deal with this by ourselves.'
'We could go to the school administration tomorrow,' Adam suggested. 'With the bloody clothes in hand, we might be able to make a strong case for them to remove Mr Snakol from the school. That won't bring back George but it will keep more kids from being killed.'
But Sally was not encouraging. 'The administration is as useless as the police. They're the ones who hired him in the first place.'
'We can't stand here and argue all night,' Bryce said. 'Let's take the bloody clothes and try to think of something overnight.'
'But what about George?' Cindy asked.
'I think George is beyond our help,' Sally said.


Five

The next morning, before school began, Adam and Cindy sat in the principal's office and tried to convince her that one of their teachers might be an alien monster. Adam and Cindy were alone because Ч except for Sally Ч they were the only ones who had followed the course of events from the word go. But Sally had refused to come because she thought the principal was in on Mr Snakol's evil doings.
Mrs Strawberry, Horror Hall's principal, was a curious enough woman. She had a red face, and looked sweet and healthy, especially when she smiled. The only trouble is she never really stopped smiling, even when they were telling her about George's bloody clothes. It was as if she had listened to complaining teachers and students all of her forty or so years and had made the decision to believe everything was either a lie or else funny. At least that's what Adam thought, but he was no mind reader when it came to such people. She almost burst out laughing when they got the part where Mr Snakol ate the hamsters. Adam had to pause to get his bearings.
'I don't understand your reaction,' Adam said. 'We are talking about a missing student. Surely George's mother has called you and explained how her son never came home from school?'
Mrs Strawberry batted her orange eyelashes. 'Yes, she called. She was worried about George.'
'And what did you tell her?' Cindy asked.
'I told her that there was nothing Co worry about She is a young woman. She can have another child.'
'But what about George?' Adam said, exasperated.
'What about him?' Mrs Strawberry asked innocently.
'We told you,' Cindy complained. 'We think Mr Snakol killed him. We've shown you the evidence.'
'But I would not worry about Mr Snakol,' Mrs Strawberry said.
'But we are worried about him,' Adam said. 'For all we know he might try to kill us. I just don't understand how you can sit there and say these things.'
'It is easy for me,' Mrs Strawberry said in a pleasant voice. 'I keep a positive attitude. When bad things happen, I pretend that they have not really happened. I suggest you two do the same.'
'But you're not facing reality,' Cindy said. 'Bad things are going on in your school and you're letting them.'