Case File 13 #2 by J. Scott Savage

them.
    â€œWe have visitors!” The mad scientist cackled. “Give them a special welcome.”
    Angelo grabbed Nick’s arm. “We have to go.”
    Nick didn’t need a second warning. “Out the door!” he yelled, pelting down the hall. In the dark it was hard to tell who was where. Bodies jostled against one another. People screamed. Nick felt a hand on his elbow and jerked away.
    Something rammed into Angelo and his glasses flew from his face. He started to fall, but Nick grabbed his arms and pulled him forward. Then Nick was at the door, pushing, screaming, racing into the street as he felt the cold rain hit his face. He looked back to see Angelo and Dana rush out the door. Angie was a few feet to their right. Carter sprinted past, catching up with Tiffany, who was in front of them all.
    Because they didn’t dare to look back for fear the football players were right behind them, it wasn’t until they reached the train station at the bottom of the hill that they all stopped to catch their breath.
    â€œI didn’t see that,” Carter repeated over and over. “I did not see that.”
    â€œIt’s not scientifically possible,” Angelo muttered, squeezing his monster notebook until his fingers turned white.
    â€œIt has to be some kind of trick,” Dana agreed. “Like in those haunted houses you see at Halloween. Or a movie effect of some kind.”
    Angie was standing with her hands on her knees, panting. “Whatever it was, at least we got away. We’re all safe.”
    Nick looked around, taking a quick count, and his gut clenched in a hot ball of fear. “Not all of us,” he whispered. “Cody’s gone.”

“We have to go back,” Nick said. Although the idea of going anywhere near the crazed man in the white lab coat made him want to puke his guts out, they couldn’t leave Cody behind. Who knew what those freakazoids might do to him?
    But Carter grabbed Nick’s elbow as he turned to head up the hill. “Did you fry some brain cells in there? Going back to that school again is insane.”
    â€œFor once, the mouth that eats all is right,” Tiffany said.
    Dana rubbed a bruise on her left arm she’d somehow gotten in their escape and chewed her lower lip. “We don’t know for sure that he’s still in the school. Things were crazy. For all we know he turned a different direction than the rest of us. He might be heading for another train station right now. Or calling someone to get a ride.”
    The rain that had been falling all evening was finally coming to a stop, but the parking lot was filled with puddles. Nick stomped his foot in one, sending a spray of water onto a nearby car. “You’re saying we leave him there? Am I the only one who saw what that crazy dude was doing in his lab?”
    Angelo rubbed his eyes. He looked like a completely different person without his glasses. “If you want to go, I’ve got your back,” he said to a parking meter.
    â€œOver here.” Nick sighed.
    Angelo turned and squinted. “Oh, sorry.”
    Nick pressed his hands to his face. Of course they were right. Sneaking into the school had been crazy enough when no one was expecting them. If they tried it again now, they might as well be handing themselves over to the crazy dude with the pink eyes.
    Cody might have forced his way into the group, and he might not be as close a friend as Carter, Angelo, or even the girls, but it still felt wrong to leave him there. “We could call the police,” Angie suggested.
    Nick took his hands from his eyes. “What would we say? We broke into a school and saw some crazy guy doing experiments on random body parts? They’d either throw us in jail or an insane asylum.”
    â€œWe have proof,” Angie said. “Tiffany’s got pictures.”
    Tiffany fished around in her purse. “Oh, no,” she moaned after several