Surviving the Mockingbird

Finding the Clue... 8

We all stood there in a bewildered silence. Just what the hell is going on?! What is wrong with this guy?! I looked up at the other three. Candy looked as scared as, well… shit. Clev was obviously lost in deep thought. And Crank was scowling.

Well, now that I know it isn’t the complete end of the world…

Putting my hand on my hip and shifting my weight, I asked, “Sooo…. What’s the deal here guys?”

“He brought us here,” said Candy. She couldn’t seem to get past that fact. “He brought us all here to play this game.”

“Yeah, well, that seems to be the gist of it,” I replied.

Crank looked even pissed than usual. “What the hell, Tomboy? Whataya mean ‘the gist of it’? How the hell can you be so calm over a deranged sociopath kidnapping us and locking us in an enclosed environment to be his test dummies?”

I stared in amazement at the large, angry boy. “You know, you just spoke more than ten words at a time, Crank. You must be really shaken up over this.” I received a rapid-fire, lengthy stream of curses I’d prefer not to reiterate. “Anyway,” I told him. “I went to the McLahough’s Academy for Troubled Children. It’s the closest you can get to a child psych-ward orphanage. You get used to brushing shoulders with the mentally damaged and all the future psychopaths. After ten years, you get used to it. Almost nothing surprises me anymore.”

Candy threw a scowl towards Clev. “Well, then, how about you, Clev? Why the hell are you not freaking out?”

Clev looked down and started to scuff up his shoes against the floor. “It’s better than what everyone has been trying to convince me of for the last couple of years,” he muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing!” Clev said and looked up to glare at her.

“Calm down guys,” I said. “If he doesn’t wanna talk, he doesn’t have to. Just let him wallow in his own antisocial-ness, okay?” Everyone kinda shrugged and let it go—for now. “Now we have a dilemma. What’re we gonna do now?”

“Whataya mean?” asked Candy as she wrapped her arms around herself.

“Well, whoever this a**hole is, he left us a clue; the four numbers. We need to figure out what they mean and what we are gonna do next.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m feeling up to killing something. Let’s go find those goddamn zombies.”

“Shut up, Crank. You know we can’t do that just quite yet. We need a plan.” I passed the letter around so everyone could see.

“Okay, so figure out the clue, find some better weapons, and come up with a plan,” said Clev as he passed the paper to Crank.

“How the hell are we supposed to figure out the clue when they’re all numbers? Unless this is supposed to be something algebraic, then we’re screwed.” He passed the paper to Candy.

“I’m, unfortunately, of the same opinion,” said Clev. “It hurts, but it’s true.”

“Hey, guys,” said Candy, still looking at the letter.

“Not now, Candy, we need to figure this out. How are we gonna find better weapons, Clev? This is a school, if you haven’t noticed.”

Clev reluctantly nodded. “I know. That makes this a little bit more difficult, but we can still improvise.”

“What about a room to bunk down in? I’m a little uncomfortable with all this space,” I said.

“Hey, guys,” said Candy.

“Seriously Candy, not now,” said Clev, obviously frustrated. “We can always drag stuff in here, like chairs and desks. I think this cafeteria is the best place to be, since it’s already got provisions here.”

“And there’s always a bathroom near the cafeteria,” I said, satisfied. Crank scowled.

“What do we need a bathroom for? It’s an unnecessary risk to leave the cafeteria.” Clev and I stared.

“Dude. I bet you’re an absolute hit with the ladies,” Clev told him.  Just as Crank was about to step in with fists blazing, Candy interrupted.

“Goddamn it, guys!! I think I figures out the clue and all y’all wanna do is argue!”

Instantly the three of us were at attention, all eyes on Candy.

“Well, what do you think it is?” I asked.

Candy put on a concentrated frown. “Well, I was thinking… what if the numbers are the room numbers? Like, the numbers of the classroom?”

“Wow. That could work, I think. Maybe there is something inside the rooms we need to find.” I actually seriously considered this.

Obviously Crank didn’t want to. “Yeah, the only thing we’ll find in those rooms is a trap. More zombies. Great…” he mumbled. I stepped on his foot. He scowled. For some reason, it actually looked kinda cute… I mean, ummm, in an angry English bulldog kind of way. Yeah, that’s it.

“I don’t think that’ll work,” said Clev. Candy frowned and stomped her foot. She stomped her foot!! She actually stomped her foot!!!

“You’re just saying that to disagree with me, you big meanie face!!”

“No,” Clev said, rolling his eyes at her childish display. “I’m just saying, when was the last time you saw the room number ‘104’ or ‘576’?”

“Ummm, in elementary school. I think.”

“Exactly. Not in a high school.”

Candy scowled and handed my back the letter. I looked back over it, thinking hard. How can this be a clue? How can four different numbers help us? It’s not like we can do anything with them mathematically, because we don’t know which way he wants us to set up the problem. Hmmm… 104, 576, 1339, 2710….. How do those numbers relate to each other? To me? Oh, shit, wait a minute there…!!

“Hey guys, this is funny, look. I just realized that 2710 is my locker number this year. I couldn’t remember it right away ‘cuz we just started school but the number just caught my eye.”

I saw Clev, Crank, and Candy all slowly turn back to look at me. No, to look at the paper. With a somewhat crazy gleam in his eye, Crank said, “My locker number is 576…”

Candy looked up. “Mine is 1339…”

Clev looked at us all. “I guess we all just found our clue. My locker number is 104.”