Sadie groaned expressively, and Maria smiled.
"None of that," Richard said. "You ran away to another state, young lady. You deserve to be grounded."
"You didn't tell me I had a sister," Sadie retorted. "You deserve to be grounded too."
You tell him, pipsqueak! Maria thought.
"I agree," Richard said. "I'll be grounded for as long as you are. I definitely should have told you about Maria, and I'm sorry I didn't. But I wasn't in touch with her myself, and I didn't know how to explain that to you."
"So explain it now," Sadie said.
Maria bolted upright. She wanted to hear this too. But her father just sighed. "I don't think you'll understand it, sweet pea," he said. "Maybe when you're older."
Maria felt as if he'd stabbed her. 'Sweet pea' had been his pet name for her. It was one of the only things she remembered about him. He just replaced me with another sweet pea, she thought.
"Are you going to leave me and Junior and Mom the way you left Maria and her mother?" Sadie asked.
"No," Richard said firmly. "No, I am not. I would never leave you."
That's because he loves you, Sadie, Maria thought as tears spilled down her face. He just didn't love me that much.
"You still feel spacey?" Kyle asked.
Liz shook her head. She didn't trust herself to talk, because what she actually felt was nauseated. This was the first time she'd tried to walk since she'd gotten sick at the bowling alley. She kept getting so distracted by the feeling of her muscles working… pulling against one another to
propel her forward… that she forgot to actually put one foot in front of the other. And the ground looked really far away. It was hard to balance. I wonder if this is how I felt when I was first learning to walk, she thought.
Kyle slipped his arm around her waist. "Just hang on to me. I'll get us there."
"Aren't you sick too?" she whispered.
"Not like you," he replied. "I still have the thing where noises are loud and lights hurt my eyes. But I'm not hearing my heartbeat or anything like you are."
"I feel my muscles working," she whispered. "I feel the oxygen being pumped into my blood." Even in her hypersensitive state, Liz recognized the fear in Kyle's eyes. "Don't worry about me. I can still think clearly. I just have to concentrate."
"Okay, but I'm getting scared," he said. "I don't know if I want such an intimate knowledge of my body's workings."
Liz smiled and focused on walking. They were almost to Dr. Sosa's lab. Getting out of the quarantine room had been easy; there weren't even guards at the doors. Clearly they weren't expecting anyone to get up and leave. Most of the other people were way too sick. And with the acute hearing she and Kyle now had, they were able to avoid being found. They heard people coming a good minute before they saw them.
In fact, Liz heard something now… the sound of metal scraping against the floor. She glanced at Kyle. He heard it too. "There's a janitor's closet across from Dr. Sosa's lab," he whispered.
Liz nodded. The door to the lab was about ten feet away on the left, and the janitor's closet was maybe six feet
away on the right. "Let's go fast," she whispered back. Kyle pulled her forward, and soon they were safely hidden in the closet. Kyle kept the door open a tiny bit, and through the sliver of space, they had a good view of the door to the lab.
It was opening.
"Looks like we got here just in time," Kyle whispered. Liz nodded silently. She had no idea what would happen if they were found wandering around Meta-chem, and she didn't particularly want to find out.
Two big guys were dragging a large metal dram out into the hallway from the lab.
"Wait! One more thing." To Liz's surprise, Dr. Sosa walked out of the lab. He was carrying a small plastic box. One of the guys opened the top of the metal dram, and Dr. Sosa placed the box inside. "That's everything."
The guys loaded the metal dram onto a hand track that stood in the hallway, and as they pushed it away down the hall, Liz noticed that they wore jackets with CDC printed on the back. Dr. Sosa watched them go. Liz could hear his heavy breathing from here.
Maris Wheeler appeared in the doorway behind him. "I trust the CDC will find exactly what they should find, Alan?"
Dr. Sosa didn't answer. He turned and stormed down the hall in the other direction.
Maris Wheeler shook her head. Then she followed the CDC guys, leaving the lab door wide open.
"These people are weird," Kyle whispered after all the footsteps had died away. He pushed open the closet door and helped Liz across the hall and into Dr. Sosa's lab.
Liz glanced around. The lab was empty. "Everything is gone," she told Kyle.
"That's for sure." He pointed to the back of the room. The door to Dr. Sosa's locked closet hung open, and the shelves inside were bare.
"It's all in that metal drum they took away," Liz said. "Dr. Sosa had to turn over the whole lab to the CDC."
"Why?" Kyle asked.
"I think he's been doing something wrong," Liz guessed. "Some kind of rogue research, maybe with those alien cells I saw. That would explain why he didn't want me in his lab. And then Ms. Wheeler found out about it, and she made him give everything to the CDC."
"Because she thinks he started the epidemic with his chemical spill?" Kyle asked.,
Liz nodded. Kyle thought about it for a minute. "Well, that's good work, Nancy Drew," he said. "But what was the chemical that spilled, and why is it making everyone, sick?"
"I don't know," Liz admitted.
They stood silently for a moment. This trip through Meta-chem hadn't really provided any new leads, but it had taken a lot out of them. "I think my symptoms are starting to change too," Kyle said finally. "I'm starting to feel… never mind."
"What?" Liz asked.
"Well, strong. Like I have superpowers or something… superheating, sharp vision, I can feel all my muscles working. But my body can't handle it."
"I know what you mean," Liz said. "I think our bodies are burning through a lot of energy. Our metabolism is
speeding up. There's only so long we'll be able to take it." "Let's get back to bed while we still can," Kyle said.
"Maria?" Sadie peeked her head around the bedroom door. "I'm going to bed."
Maria jumped. She hadn't heard Sadie coming. She hastily shoved the diary she'd been writing in underneath her pillow. "Um, okay."
"Is it all right if I sleep in your mom's bed?" Sadie asked. "Dad's going to sleep on the couch."
Just the mention of her mother got Maria hyperventilating again. She hadn't heard from Michael, so she didn't know what the pod squad was up to. And she hadn't been able to get anyone at the hospital to tell her what was going on with the quarantined patients. Every hour that passed made her more frantic about her mom. "You know what?" she said. "Why don't you sleep in my bed? I kinda want to stay in my mom's room tonight."
"Really?" Sadie cried happily. "I can stay in your room? Cool!"
Maria laughed. "Let me get my things." She snatched a nightshirt from her top drawer. The she pulled her diary out from under the pillow and stuffed it into the shirt. "Okay, it's all yours."
Sadie launched herself at the bed like an eager puppy. "Your room is so pretty," she said, bouncing up and down.
"G'night," Maria told her, pulling the door closed behind her.
"Good night, Maria!" Sadie sang after her.
Still smiling, Maria padded down the hallway toward her mother's room.
"Change of plans?" Richard asked from the kitchen. Maria froze. She didn't want to talk to him. She hadn't even acknowledged his presence since Michael left. But she couldn't really avoid him now.
She went into the kitchen. "I want to sleep in my mother's room because I miss her and I'm worried about her," she said.
Her dad nodded. "That makes sense. This quarantine is very stressful."
"Well, it would be less stressful if you would leave," Maria said. "I don't want you here, and I think you should respect my wishes."