Lucas Ryan Versus: The Hive (The Lucas Ryan Versus Series) by Madison Daniel Page B

flew down from the ceiling and perched their paper bodies back where they belonged, on the shelves. Spinning shards of glass found their way back into the frames of all the windows and picture frames. Within seconds, they healed themselves, leaving fresh new glass and reflections.
    “Not possible,” Olivia whispered. I rubbed my eyes, trying to make sense of the situation.
     
    ~ Keep moving. Room 99. ~
     
    The voice was back. I was too shocked to argue with it though. I pushed past Olivia, snatching up her hand as I did.
    “Let’s go, the computer lab is just around the corner.”
    “What’s in the computer lab?” Olivia asked, but followed me easily.
    “Hopefully, some answers,” I said. We exited the library and ran into the computer lab that was located just outside. The door slammed behind us and I quickly turned out the lights. There was a computer keyboard and monitor on each desk in the room. All of them powered off and still. I tapped on the nearest computer’s keyboard, trying to wake the machine up. Click, click, click. Nothing. If this one didn’t work, none of them would. I had hoped the voice in my head directed us here to send for help. I didn’t know what to do next. I shook my head in defeat and watched Olivia for a moment. The world fell quiet, for a few seconds, at least.
    “This isn’t happening?” Olivia cried, still holding my hand tightly. It felt wonderful, even with all the apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo going on.
    “We’re okay, for the moment,” I said, with renewed confidence. She looked at me intensely. She was far from believing me. I leaned in to repeat my last statement when something stopped me. Her eyes, they were different. Well, one of them was. She had one bright blue eye, but her other one was a deep brown now. She had lost one of her contacts and her natural color was right in front of me.
    “How do you know that?” she snapped, as if I was crazy. I couldn’t stop staring at her eyes. She filled with anger and insecurity.
    “I promise we’ll be okay,” I said, in a goofy fog. My stare locked on the newly discovered secret. She realized something was wrong.
    “What?” she huffed. “What’s wrong?”
    I blushed a little, “You have a brown eye now.”
    “Oh,” she cringed, and whipped her head away from my prying eyes. Her hands searched her pockets for her contacts case, but she quickly realized, it was gone. She hid behind her falling hair.
    “You okay? Are you hurt?” I asked, softly. She slowly pulled her hair from her face and slid it behind her ears. She looked up at me for a moment and then reached up and removed the other blue contact. She let out a long deep sigh and tears began to well up in her eyes. She was scared and unsure of everything.
    “Those were my favorite pair of contacts,” she said. Her mouth pulled down into a frown. I could see the weight of the day on her face as she became overly shy. With all the horribleness of the morning, she was worried about someone seeing her without her contacts in. We had just survived an impossible explosion, and that’s what she was upset about. Nervously, I let a small laugh escape my mouth.
    She snapped at me, “Is there something funny?”
    “No,” I said.
    “Spill it.” Her paranoia was in full bloom.
    “Brown eyes,” I said, carefully. She stepped closer to me, forcefully wiping away her fresh tears.
    “So!” her voice cracked. I gently took her hand in mine. She tried to pull away from my advance, but I wouldn’t let go.
    “Better,” I smiled.
    Seeing her true eye color made me forget about everything. The futuristic explosion in my locker, the out-of-his-mind General chasing us, the fact that the school was being held hostage, or that I had no idea what to do next. There was only her big, wonderful, brown eyes. She started to calm down as my answer started to sink in. She ran her purple streaked hair behind her ear, and waited for me to say something. But before I could say anything