Halifax by Leigh Dunlap Page B

Jon Roberts—slowly advanced on Izzy. They pushed her farther and farther into the bathroom of the locker room and cut her off from the exits. They were a strange bunch and it wasn’t just the fact that they had been infected by an alien virus and had black holes for eyes. Although they appeared to work with one mind, that singular mind appeared to be confused. As if they were awaiting additional orders. They kept looking at each other, one to the next, looking for answers or instructions. Then they would look back at Izzy, at first as if they were seeking answers from her, but then in a more familiar way, reassuring themselves that at the very least Izzy was the enemy and would have to be dealt with.
    Izzy searched around the sink area near the stalls for a weapon, for anything, to use to protect herself. There were a few bottles of deodorant, a well used toothbrush, some scrunchies and old bottles of hair spray. Izzy grabbed the only thing there that looked like a weapon. A hair dryer.
    “Back off!” she yelled at the cheerleaders, pointing the hair dryer at them like a gun. “Back off or I’ll…I’ll mess up your hair!”
    Jon Roberts reached up and touched his perfectly combed head of hair, like he was actually considering the threat for a moment, then turned his attention back to Izzy and began moving in on her. Izzy grabbed the hair dryer by the cord and began swinging it around, a Japanese kung fu master wielding nun chucks, but still they moved closer.
    There was nowhere left to go, no doors she could reach, no windows at all. Izzy was trapped and outnumbered. Suddenly, though, rescue came in the form of a freshman. Rom came running into the locker room, charging ahead, until he saw all the cheerleaders. He came to a dead stop on the other side of the locker room.
    “Where have you been?” Izzy asked, still swinging the hair dryer around by the cord.
    “Detention,” Rom said.
    “That’s a lame excuse.”
    Rom surveyed the situation. “I’m guessing by the look in their eyes—or the lack of it—that they’ve been infected by something. They’re a viral strain.”
    “A Cambian virus,” Izzy told him as she lunged forward, keeping Jon Roberts at bay for the moment.
    “Of course!” Rom said. “That explains everything.”
    “Oh, I know, doesn’t it?” Izzy said. “I really hope we have time to stand here and go over all the clues we missed before they
tear me to shreds
!”
    Rom swung his backpack down off his shoulders and began rifling through it as the cheerleaders exchanged glances again. Half of them then turned their attention to Rom. “Let’s not be rash. We don’t know that they mean us harm.” Rom looked at the Tall Girl, his locker buddy. “That girl is actually a friend of mind. She’s really nice. She’d never hurt you.”
    The Tall Girl suddenly lashed out at Izzy, grabbing for her, forcing Izzy to smash her in the side of the head with the hair dryer. The girl backed away, but Izzy’s actions only agitated them all. They began to whip their heads back and forth, looking at one another, communicating without words, and one by one began to make a nasty moaning sound, almost a growling sound.
    “Rom!” Izzy exclaimed. She was now really getting freaked out.
    “Okay, okay, I’ve got it,” Rom said as he pulled a small toy robot out of his backpack. It looked like it was from an old sci-fi movie and had a square head and accordion arms and a chest full of blinking lights. There was also a wind-up key on its back, which Rom proceeded to turn, causing the robot’s arms to start swinging back and forth and its legs to start moving.
    Rom set the robot down on the ground in front of him and it began to walk towards the cheerleaders. Walk very slowly towards the cheerleaders. They all turned and looked down at the tiny invader as it teetered towards them, beeping and blinking and looking anything other than threatening.
    “Any time, Rom,” Izzy said, the cheerleaders