Pandemic Spy School

Chapter Twenty Three

Hey again! Sorry, I know it's been a while, I've been pretty busy recently. I actually meant to post last Sunday, but something came up. I'll explain: Sunday was the 6th of March, which was the 1 year anniversary of posting this book on fanfiction.net. I wanted to post that day to like, I guess "celebrate" for lack of a better term. I wasn't at home on Saturday, and when I got home on Sunday, my parents had actually surprised my sister and I, and had adopted a dog! So I spent the day with him, and didn't end up posting. Anyways, here is chapter twenty three! Have a great march break, I hope you enjoy :)

Chapter Twenty Three

Decisions

Helicopter

Wuhan China 

January 16

0200 hours

"They're gone," Erica says, the corner of her mouth twitching as if she's holding back a smile.

Catherine walks around the island countertop to embrace her, but Erica keeps her eyes locked on mine. I don't break her gaze, despite feeling pressured beneath it.

"Erica," Jack cries, running into the kitchen.

Erica doesn't look at him, only starts talking.

"We aren't safe."

"Whatever could you mean?" Catherine demands, leaning against the island.

"CROATOAN. I was stupid. It doesn't matter. We have to go."

"But we just got here!" Jack whines, his younger self showing clearly.

Catherine only holds up her hand towards him, and he stops.

"Where?" I ask.

"Anywhere but here," Erica reponds. "We take the copter, and go back to Langley. We could even head to England for a bit."

"You do technically have to go back to school," Catherine offers. "But if you want to head off this virus more, I won't stop you."

"We don't have time to decide. We tell everyone else, and then we go get the helicopter. Once we're in it, we decide as a group."

"What if we just—" Erica glares at me, and then interrupts me.

"No. No debates."

So we spread the news, and five minutes later we were leaving the house in groups of 2, only our most precious belongings from Li Ming's house stuffed into our pockets.

***

Li Ming decided to take a long winded path to get back to the apartment we had first sleeped in. Since I was grouped with her, I followed, silent. She paused at the edge of buildings, pressing herself up against the wall, keeping to the shadows. It took a while to work our way back to the apartment, but it turns out we got there first.

"We head straight to the roof," she said, and pulled a conveniently hidden grappling hook from her jeans pocket.

"What's that for?" I ask, not understanding how a grappling hook would help walk up stairs.

Her answer comes a few seconds later as she launches into the air with perfect control. It hooks onto the railing of a first floor balcony.

My eyes widened "We aren't... scaling this... are we?"

"Oh yes we are." Then she started climbing.

We had 10 floors to climb. I didn't think I could manage one.

Li Ming reached the balcony, and dropped down to the ground. At least she wouldn;t see me. I grabbed onto the wire, and pulled myself up. At least it was a wider wire; a skinny wire would have been literal torture.