The Hybrid Girl (Andromeda Book 1)

Chapter 6

A loud explosion rattles the windows and causes the ground to shake. The fire alarm blares loudly and the students in the building run towards the fire escape, screaming at the top of their lungs. I hurry over to someone as they stuff their books in their bag and ask what's going on. He doesn't even acknowledge me and runs away. Shaking my head in surprise, I scurry over to a pair of girls as they head to the fire escape and ask them instead. They walk straight through me and don't even glance back!

My breaths come out short and panicked. I look around in angst and realise that not a single person even spares me a glance. Despite the fire alarm, I start to walk deeper into the building looking for a clock or anything that might tell me the time or the date. Danielle once told me she read somewhere that sometimes people struggle to know the difference between reality and dreams. There are a number of small tells that differentiate the two. In dreams, you never see the time. So I start to look. I enter three different classrooms. Nothing.

I'm not really here. This isn't real.

I notice a ginger-haired girl wearing a lab coat running in the wrong direction. Curiosity gets the better of me and I follow her down the hall into a corridor and through a set of double doors, leading to a large laboratory. Smoke fills the air as the girl and another man cough violently and open the windows wide. The smoke is originating from a fume cupboard on the other side of the room. I pad towards it as both the man and the woman struggle with the windows. When the smoke rises, my eyes pop out of my head as they finally land on the cause of the commotion.

The green liquid - or chemical - or whatever it is.

This must be when it was created. Leigh-Anne said something about it being created at the university by accident. But I don't understand how, or why, I am seeing this?

The fire alarm stops blaring and the smoke starts to clear away. Both the man and the girl are stood still, breathing heavily like they can't quite believe what's happened. The man, whose blue lanyard leads me to assume he's a teacher, sits down slowly and wipes sweat from his forehead. After a few moments of silence, the man finally speaks,
"Tell me exactly what you put in those beakers!"

The girl starts stammering the names of various liquids and chemicals and as she lists the amount and concentration of each one, the professor's eyes get wider and wider in dread. Once she's finished speaking, the man leans back on the wall and bring his hand up to his head in despair.

"Mixing just a few of these together can create a dangerous chemical, but you mixed all of these... I'm going to have to contact the authorities because even I don't know a safe way to get rid of this... this... thing."

He removes his glasses and trudges out of the room. The girl remains suspended in her place for a few seconds as she stares at the beaker filled with the chemical. Her conflicted eyes suddenly become determined as she looks around and grabs a test tube. Replacing her mask, safety goggles and gloves, she pours a bit of the liquid in and firmly pushes a stopper at the top. Then she runs towards one of the cupboards at the back of the lab and hides it. As she strips her protective gear off again, the man opens the classroom door and calls,

"They're sending a team to take it away, but they advise we should have it moved to the building that they will be able to access easiest from their vehicles." The girl nods and follows him out and they lock the door behind them. "Not the best start to the year, is it Jesy?"

"No, Professor."

*

Light seeps into my room through the gaps in the blinds and I rub my eyes. My usually very neat and tidy room is a dump. Papers and books are scattered everywhere, and my clothes are all over the floor.  Sitting up, I take a few gulps of water and rub my temples. What a crazy dream!