Home Again

Virus Hunter

"So... Louisa's dead?" Marcus asked. He frowned. "I... don't know how to react to that."

Pain pulled at my heartstrings. I felt partly responsible for Lousia's death. I could've saved her if I tried harder. But no. I cowardered out... just like always. I looked away, spotting Chrissi's gang. Chrissi wasn't with them. They were eating their lunch slowly, like every bite hurt them. They'd been like this the past few days. Well, honestly, everyone in the school was shocked. The news of Lousia's passing had disturbed everyone. It was just so... unexpected.

The lie was that she had a mental disorder, ran away from home and starved herself to death, somehow losing her body in the process. It was a lie, but still sent chills up my spine. Lousia's aunt- who she'd been living with- had mentioned she'd 'disappeared for a week or two', and before that she was 'acting a bit strange'. But now she was gone. Only Marcus, Chrissi, her gang, Mom and me knew the truth. And none of us wanted to tell.

The police still wanted to investigate. They'd asked everyone a few questions, especially me and Chrissi's gang. Chrissi herself had been having therapy. Even though she'd been bullying me for so long, I couldn't help but feel bad for her. I'd had therapy. It's not fun.

"No one does, Marcus," I replied, sighing deeply. "No one does."

Virus Hunter Island doesn't exactly look like the place you'd expect to see a pandemic. It's a typical town, with brick buildings, a video store (well, you don't see those too often these days), a falafel restaurant, a fitness centre, an office called Globochem, and the least suspicious of all (not), the 'Pizza Delivery Company'. They drove past Fierce Fox and I in a grey van.

"This way," I told Fierce Fox. She followed me along the cement path, arriving at the fitness centre. It's called Waist Not Fitness Centre. It's your typical fitness centre: swimming pools, treadmills, so on. Fierce Fox and I approached a light blue resistance band, near this pool. Oh, the gym was having an open day, so anyone could come in. Anyway, Fierce Fox broke the resistance band. We got kicked out, taking the resistance band with us.

My friend followed me up a tree that's next to a brick apartment. We stood on a nest, peering at the roof of the apartment. There's a hook on the side. I slung the resistance band onto the hook; we climbed up. On the roof is this crazy guy who reports for a radio. He was going on about the government- these 'agents' of the 'new world order'- going 'underground' and working on a project of some sort. Thankfully I knew all about such project.

We questioned the guy. After a bit, he told us,

"Maybe we can help each other out. You get me proof that the agents of the new world order have set up shop here, and I'll get you inside. I see a mysterious van parked behind that condo. Check it out." The van belonged to the 'Pizza Delivery Company', which isn't actually called that, notice the quotations. Fierce Fox, with my instruction, checked the van out. She received a bag full of paper scraps. We sorted out the scraps, creating a blueprint for a secret laboratory.

"There we go." I said. I gave the map to the guy.

"So they're using the PDC as a front, eh? That helps us. I've got every phony government credential in the book." the guy said. He handed us two yellow phony IDs for the PDC.

"Thanks," I said. I nodded at Fierce Fox. "Come on." We jumped off the roof and landed on Main Street. We walked right, heading to the video store. I sighed. "So... remember Dr. Harold on Game Show Island? The guy that gave me that plane?"

"Yeah?" Fierce Fox asked. "What about him?"

"Well, he promised me to deliver this to his sister," I said, holding out Dr. Harold's letter. "Who's in the PDC."