The Doomsday Device by Darrell Pitt

mine.
    “I don’t think so,” Becker said. “Anyway, you won’t be needing shoes.”
    “And why is that?” I asked.
    “Why would someone with no feet need shoes?” he asked.
    Suddenly I realized I was looking up at Becker from the ground. What was going on? Then I looked back towards my legs and a scream caught in my throat. Both Chad and I were on the dirty ground. Our legs were gone. Just below our pelvises, our legs had been removed and the wounds neatly cauterized and expertly treated. All we had left, where our legs used to be, were stumps.
    I looked up at Becker in horror. He had both our pairs of shoes in his hands.
    “Thanks boys,” he said. “Welcome to Yodak.”
     

 
    Chapter Twenty
    Ethan Craddock was as good as his word. When Brodie and Ebony turned up to meet the FBI agent, he appeared from behind a clump of trees and drew them to one side away from the rubbish area.
    He spent the next twenty minutes explaining to them about the Doomsday virus and Jeremiah Stead’s intention to release the weapon into the atmosphere. By the time he finished speaking, both girls were stunned into silence.
    Finally Brodie said, “But surely he’s going to kill everyone inside the compound as well. After the virus spreads -.”
    “The virus has a very short life,” Ethan said. “It dies quite quickly. Once it wipes the planet bare it will extinguish itself. Jeremiah and his people will leave the compound and repopulate the earth.”
    Brodie felt sick. “We have to stop him.”
    “We have to stop Ferdy,” Ebony said. “The virus is safe as long as the canister remains closed. If Ferdy opens it -.”
    “How likely is that?” Ethan asked. “I’ve been told you teenagers have some special sorts of powers.”
    Brodie turned to Ebony. “You know Ferdy better than me. What do you think?”
    “He’s smart,” Ebony said thoughtfully. “Very smart. And not just in a memory retention type of way. I found one of those Rubik’s Cubes at a market and gave it to Ferdy to solve.”
    “Anyone can solve those,” Ethan said. “The instructions are on the net.”
    “He had never seen one before,” Ebony said. “And he did it without looking at the net. It took him about a minute.”
    One minute, Brodie thought. If he could do that in one minute then in a few hours or days…
    “We need to stop your friend,” Ethan said. “But I need to get out of here.”
    “Why haven’t you left already?” Brodie asked, looking around. “It looks like the security is pretty lax.”
    “It looks that way,” Ethan said. “But there are cameras in all the trees. They monitor all the foot traffic for miles around. If I tried to leave here without a good reason they would kill me.”
    “Just for trying to leave?” Ebony asked in amazement.
    He shook his head in dismay. “I’ve seen people killed for not cleaning their weapons properly. I’ve seen them killed for playing inappropriate music inside the compound. Stead rules with an iron fist. He allows no dissent. These people are completely brainwashed. They see him as some kind of God.”
    “That’s terrible,” Ebony said. “Does the FBI know where you are?”
    “No. I joined the Sanctuary group in Ohio and was brought here before I could get a message out.”
    “I wish we had phones,” Brodie said. “It would be so easy to simply ring someone.”
    “There are no phones,” Ethan said. “Likewise, there is no news from outside allowed into the complex.” He hesitated. “I assume, for example, that Canada has not been invaded by the UN?”
    “Huh?” Brodie said.
    “I thought as much,” Ethan said sadly. “Jeremiah gave a lecture the other day telling everyone the UN had invaded Canada. Toronto and other major cities had been bombed with nuclear devices.”
    “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Brodie said.
    “You’ll hear some pretty ridiculous things here,” Ethan said. “Whatever you do, don’t contradict Jeremiah.”
    Ebony