Testing Zero: a dystopian post-apocalyptic young adult novella series (Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles Book 1) Read Free Page A

down on its jaws. “I’d be happy to let you hold him while I go look.”
    “Fine.” Zero grunted and peeked around the corner. “It’s just three kids. They’re about six or seven years old.”
    “Are they hanging out by the back door?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Oh well. They’ll be no trouble.” Lefty walked around the corner into plain sight of the younger kids. They stared at him, mouths open. He held up the crocodile for them to see. “You’re probably thinking about running to tell on me right now, aren’t you? Do you think it’s smart to tell on a guy who’s holding a crocodile?”
    The three kids shook their heads in unison.
    Lefty brushed past them. “Good choice.”
    He crouched down in the last set of bushes next to the back entrance and nudged Zero with his elbow, encouraging him to enter the building to ensure that the coast was clear. It wasn’t. Caiman, one of the enormous boys Zero knew to be part of Flea’s gang, was spending his lunch hour pushing a mop around on the hall floors, which Zero presumed was punishment for some sort of misdeed.
    Zero looked at the clock mounted on the wall. Eight minutes remained before lunch break would be over. For a brief moment, he hoped Caiman would remain in the hall for the rest of lunch break to make it impossible for Lefty to go anywhere near Flea’s desk, but that hope dissipated when Caiman splashed the mop into the bucket and began walking in the opposite direction. He wheeled the mop bucket around the corner and out of sight.
    Zero exhaled, shook his head, and walked outside to tell Lefty the coast was now clear.
    Lefty stole a peek through the glass panes of the double doors before Zero opened it for him. The sound of the crocodile’s tail slapping the linoleum as they walked caused his heart to race. He was sure some professor would hear it and come bursting into the hall to see what was going on. He now believed Lefty was correct when he said people would be talking about this for years to come, but for all the wrong reasons. Countless things could go wrong with this plan. He shuddered, not being able to keep himself from envisioning what some of those things might be.
    They tiptoed through the empty hallway, which smelled strongly of Caiman’s lemon-scented mopping suds. Each step, no matter how quiet they tried to be, echoed off the walls.
    Zero stopped just outside the classroom door. “Seriously, Lefty, this is stupid!”
    Lefty took two steps into the room and spun around. “Come on. This is going to be great.”
    “How do you expect this to work? No crocodile is ever going to lie still inside of a desk. He’ll pop right out.”
    “Not if I’m sitting on it.” With a menacing grin on his face, Lefty turned into the classroom, lugging the croc, which, apart from flopping its tail now and again, had apparently abandoned the urge to fight back.
    Zero backed into the corner of the hall. His assigned desk wasn’t far from Flea’s, and he wasn’t about to take his seat yet. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the action when everything went down. He was convinced he’d somehow be the first one bit and be left with fewer fingers than Lefty had.
    The bell sounded, and Zero jumped. Flea soon walked through the doors with six of his cronies close behind. In less than a minute, the hall was buzzing with hundreds of students, which meant Zero could more easily proceed without drawing attention to himself.
    This was how Zero lived his life. For him, hiding from others was an art form. Like a chameleon, even though he was one of the largest people in school, he had the ability to blend into his surroundings simply by walking in others’ shadows, retreating to corners whenever possible, and avoiding the discomfort of conversation with everyone except Lefty—his only friend.
    It was this type of behavior that inspired his nickname. He had been standing motionless against a wall for nearly half an hour when a Professor directed a comment his way,