Apex Read Free Page A

something. He was like a dog with a bone when it came to the usually petty crimes that occurred in Ault.
    Jack closed the door quietly and crept down the hallway. He heard his mom talking to the sheriff in the kitchen.
    She said, “That was Scott’s mom on the phone. She said he just walked in. Jack should be home soon. I’m so sorry for wasting your time, Bob.”
    No problem Jenny. I don’t blame you for worrying. Let me know when he gets in, ok?”
    “I will. Right after I beat the stuffing out of him.”
    “Go easy girl. He’s a teenager. They make mistakes. I’m sure you stayed out all night a few times in your younger days too.”
    She said jovially, “Hey, what do you mean by that? I’m not that old.”
    Jack had heard enough. Rather than going in and facing both of them, he crept upstairs and waited for the sheriff to leave.
    He’d have no choice but to tell his mom the truth. But apparently she already knew enough. He could always leave out the part about the alcohol, pot, and alien artifact, but he’d have to fess up about staying out all night with his friends. She already knew that part anyway.
    He slowly closed his bedroom door and sat down on his bed. Despite the fact that his heart was pounding holes in his chest, fat igue crept into his limbs and took over. Before he knew it, he was pulling his covers over his legs. He slipped into a comatose sleep.

    In and Out
     
    His eyes opened lazily. His mom was screaming. He couldn’t focus on anything. He closed his eyes and blocked out the screams.
    His eyes opened again but the bright light bulbs caused him physical pain so he reflexively slammed them shut again. He heard weeping beside him. He turned his head towards the noise and saw his mom’s silhouette stand up and rush over to him. Her features sharpened before his fogged up eyes.
    She was staring into his face; the look on hers was hard to decipher. He’d never seen her look at him that way before. It was a pleading look full of fear.
    He shut his eyes and his mind slid away.
    He opened them again. I was dark now. The air smelled funny and it was silent.
    A male voice said, “I’m Doctor Henshaw, Jack. Take your time. Don’t rush this.”
    Jack shuffled his butt backwards on the bed and sat up as the lights came on.
    The doctor was around fifty with receding silver hair and big black caterpillar eyebrows. He had a kindly look to him that should have instantly put Jack at ease, had the situation been ordinary.
    Jack said, “Where the hell am I? Where’s my mom?”
    “She can’t come here just yet. This is a restricted area. We’ll get to that later. How do you feel?”
    “Sleepy, I guess.”
    The doctor laughed. “You’ve been sleeping fitfully for five days. We thought we’d lost you a coup le of times. Try and stay awake for a spell before you go back to sleep, ok?”
    Jack said incredulously, “I slept for five days straight? Am I sick?”
    “We don’t know. But strange things have happened all around you ever since you fell asleep. Your muscle mass has increased on its own. Your heart rate was clocked at over seven hundred beats a minute. Your arm twitched and you punched a hole through a solid oak dresser without sustaining injury.”
    “Huh?”
    “It’s all true. Something is happening to you and it has us all stumped.”
    Jack asked, “Have you run tests?”
    “There are some tests that we’d love to run but we can’t. We tried to draw blood. Your skin is pliable but it doesn’t give. We couldn’t get a syringe in you, no matter how hard we tried or where on your body we tried it. X-rays haven’t worked either and an MRI is out of the question because we can’t inject you. So we’re forced to observe and hope for the best.”
    Jack cracked his neck and rubbed his dry eyes. This was all so surreal that he barely believed it. “So where am I?”
    “You’re in Denver. We have you and your friends quarantined in a small building designed for things of this