It’s not easy being a teenager. . .
Especially when you have a
mask, a secret identity, and
a lot of homework.
The only thing Rachel Hingis hated more than swimming was having to play well with others. Edgar Fern, nerd extraordinaire, couldn’t find anyone to play with. Life would have been just fine if they never crossed paths.
Instead, they collided.
The victims of an accidental experiment deep in the corn fields of Iowa, they and four others—Alex, Celeste, Laura, and Susan—were changed, and not necessarily for the better. As a mysterious and sinister group started to pick off the students, the six of them had a choice to make: become victims, or become heroes.
The bumpy road to being a masked avenger is fraught with conflict, mystery, explosions—and Freezees.
“What?”
He leaned over and unlocked the door, slipping back into the driver’s seat. Laura yanked the door open and jumped in. She looked back at the clock.
It was sitting on a 55-gallon drum, one of eight in the back of the van. Laura turned around and stared into the smoke for half a second, then looked at Alex. “That is one goddamn huge bomb.”
Alex felt around the wheel for the ignition switch. There were no keys in it. He paled a little, then pulled down the visor. Still no keys. He looked down by the gas pedal and didn’t see anything. Laura bent down in the seat and came up with a single key she had half spotted under the floor mat. She handed it to Alex, who slid it into the ignition and turned it. The van roared to life, and Laura slammed the door.
“I’m really glad the starter wasn’t wired to the bomb.” She pulled on her seatbelt.
Alex slammed the shifter into reverse and let the emergency break out. “You’re really going to buckle yourself into a rolling bomb?” he asked as he backed the van down Larch Street.
She lurched forward in the seat as the van barreled backward. “I almost think I’m better off with the bomb than your driving,” she snapped.
He skidded to a halt just at Dillard Street. “Then you probably won’t like this.” He slammed it into drive and stomped on the gas, pushing Laura back into the seat.
“Horn!” she screamed. “Horn!”
Alex leaned on it, steering with that hand for a moment while he ripped off the sunglasses. It was getting dark, and he couldn’t see in the shadows. Laura pulled hers off too, glancing back at the bomb. “Where the hell are we taking this thing?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Alex leaned on the horn again, swerving to miss a few of the onlookers from the fire. “I was thinking a nice leisurely drive, maybe pop over to Johnson’s Farm for some ice cream after we go for a swim…”
“Swim!” Laura pounded a hand on the dash. “River Beach! Head for the river.”
Alex made the next left he could to get to River Beach, but glanced over at her. “What? Being doused by the fire hose wasn’t enough? You need to take a dip?”
“We’re going to drown the bomb,” she said.
“So, when did you get super strength? Because I can’t lift those things and, hey, newsflash, they’re wired together.”
“We’re going to send the whole van in.” Laura laughed.
“I’m all for sacrificing a bit and being altruistic for the good of humankind, but I am not driving this thing into the river.”
“What bass ackwards way are you taking to River Beach?” she asked, as the turn she usually took sped by. “I didn’t think you were serious when you said leisurely drive.”
“I’m going to the boat ramp. Vermillion Road ends at the boat ramp. You were the one who said they wanted to drown it.” Alex pulled the wheel hard to the right to make the turn.
“Grab one of those cinder blocks!” Alex slowed down as they passed a construction site for one of the new houses out by Downing River.
Laura unbuckled herself and popped the door. As soon as the van was slow enough for her to jump out and keep her footing, she did. The cinder block palate was at the curb, and with its built-in handles, Laura was able to scoop it up, run back and throw it on the floor of the van and then grab the handle to haul herself back in.
Before she was all the way in with the door closed, Alex hit the gas again. “There’s some brush cover on either side of the entrance to the boat dock parking area. We’re going to just have to trust that this van is aligned. Get the block over here where I can shove it on the gas.”
Laura maneuvered the brick up and over Alex’s leg and dropped it on the floor. She turned it so he could easily slide the block onto the pedal and jumped back to her seat. She looked out the window and the brush was coming up fast.
Alex popped his door and hung on to the wheel. When they were about twenty feet away from the bushes, he shoved the block all the way onto the gas pedal and the van jerked forward, speeding up. “Jump!” he yelled as he let go of the wheel.
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