Chapter 20

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Charles began to have a premonition when he, Cary, Martin, and Mr. Woodward (well, Mr. Woodward’s brother) stepped out of the hospital. He figured that it was because he had dealt with so much betrayal—Cassandra dying, and Martina turning out to be a psychopath, just to name a few. It turned out he had reason to feel this way, because Mr. Woodward promptly pushed Cary down on his good leg and pointed a gun at him.

“That,” Cary yelled, “is my WALKIN’ LEG!” He groaned. “And I think you just broke it.”

“Not again,” Charles groaned. “Okay, what do you want?”

“Boys,” Mr. Woodward threatened, “you’re going to do exactly as I say or—”

“Or you’re going to pop a cap in Cary’s ass. We get it,” Martin interrupted.

“Glad to know you’re so calm about this, guys!” Cary shouted, grasping his leg in pain.

No one noticed that Preston was freaking out in the vestibule, just behind the hospital door.

Alice walked to the cart with all the medical supplies, picked up the disinfectant, but hesitated to return to Joe. He had been really mean to her recently. Why should she give him disinfectant? He could go get it himself. And what was with his obsession with Cassandra? Alice’s anger grew. In a fit of jealous fury, Alice hurled the disinfectant Joe’s way. He couldn’t hear the clanking noises when it hit the tunnel floor, though, because he was so far away. This only further aggravated Alice. Extremely frustrated, Alice stamped her foot and made a rather rash decision. If Joe didn’t want her, fine. She’d be perfectly okay without him. To prove her point, Alice wordlessly fled back up to the entrance of the tunnel, and she abandoned him there, alone with his precious injured alien.

She opened the door and saw Preston—holding? shaking?—hands with Mr. Woodward, who was lying, for some reason, on the operating table.

“Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head. “I am done with this.”

“Alice? Oh, thank goodness! I—” Preston started.

“Stop! Did you hear me? I’m done. Done, done, done with allof this. And all of you!”

“Alice, you don’t understand. Mr. Woodward—”

Alice covered her ears and sang, “La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!”

Preston cocked his head to the side. He’d never seen this side of Alice before.

“Alice, you have to listen to me—”

“Leave me alone!” She ran out of the operating room and out of sight.

Preston didn’t know what had just happened or what he should do about it.

“My…My clone?” Mr. Woodward suddenly asked with great difficulty. He blinked for a long time, and then said, “That’s not my clone. That’s an—”

“AN ALIEN?!” Preston interrupted, his eyes wide.

“No, no. An agent,” Mr. Woodward said, gaining some volume. This time he was audible.

“What? But then how is he—”

“It’s plastic surgery,” Mr. Woodward said, trying to sit upright.

“It… It was very thoroughly done,” Preston remarked, shell-shocked. “What is he going to do to them?”

“I don’t know. I have a guess though.”

“And what’s that?”

“Get me some medicine, and then we’ll talk,” Mr. Woodward replied, groaning in pain.

Alice found the group about a block away from the hospital. Mr. Robinson had said that he would come to get them at six o’clock to give them food so that they didn’t have to eat at the hospital. They came a little early. That’s weird, Alice thought.

“Mr. Robinson!” Alice shouted, waving and running to join the group.

“Alice!” Mr. Robinson replied, coming closer to the hospital. “Are the rest of your friends staying at the hospital?”

Joe and Preston? “Yeah,” Alice said, rolling her eyes.

Mr. Robinson, completely oblivious, clapped his hands together and said, “Okay then! Let’s go.”

Alice joined the group and looked for Cary, Martin, and Charles. She couldn’t find them anywhere. She hmm-ed and approached someone.

“Where are Cary, Martin, and Charles?” she asked.

“You said they were in the hospital,” the person replied.

“No, that’s Joe and Preston. The rest are supposed to be here,” Alice said, confused.

“Well, they aren’t here.” Her classmate shrugged.

Alice stopped and grabbed the person’s arm. “What do you mean they aren’t here?”

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