Dolbin School for the Extraordinary-Chapter 19:The Crash

I am publishing my middle grade novel, Dolbin School for the Extraordinary, chapter by chapter.

You can download the whole book for free on Amazon.

Click here for the previous chapter--chapter 18 You Look Impressive

Or if you wish, you can go back to the beginning with chapter 1-Jake Cooper

Chapter 19: The Crash

Jake woke up with a start. He looked around his room. It was dark and quiet. The clock on his bed stand said 3:27 a.m.

Boom!

Jake was thrown from his bed. He heard the other boys running down the hallway. “What is going on?” He heard someone shout outside his door.

Jake stood up, ran and opened the door. Kevin came running to him and said, “Good! You’re up! We need all of the strong people up top.”

Jake was still in a fog of sleep and confusion. “What?” he asked, shaking his head.

“Follow me. Now!” demanded Kevin.

He turned around and sprinted down the hallway. Jake gave chase. When they reached the end of the hall, Kevin slammed open the door. With Kevin still in the lead, they bolted up the stairs. They reached the top floor and Kevin led Jake to the outside onto a bridge that lead to the main building. Jake had spotted the bridge when he first arrived at Dolbin. The span tilted upwards to the top of the building.

Jake could not see the top of the building. But he knew something was wrong.

There were people running around and shouting orders. When the boys reached the top of ramp, everything was suddenly clear.

A burning helicopter was resting on its side. Several older students and professors were holding a water hose in an attempt to douse the flames.

A radio tower had fallen across the back of the helicopter and was pinning it down. Kevin turned to Jake and said, “They are going to need you and other strong students to lift the tower!”

Jake just stood there. Several high school students and professors were running to the tower. A tall red-headed girl grabbed Jake by the shoulder and said, “I hear you’re strong. We need you. Follow me!”

She led him by the arm to the tower. Jake could feel the heat radiating from the fire.

“The fire will be out soon,” she said. “But we need this up now or we won’t be able to save them!”

Jake, the tall red-head, four other students and two professors grabbed the tower and started lifting. It was hot. Jake felt the metal burning his skin. But he kept lifting.

“Almost there!” shouted a gray-haired professor.

The tower came off the helicopter. The professor yelled, “Over there! Let’s get it into the clearing.”

The strong Extras lifted the tower onto their shoulders and carried it about seventy feet away.

“Here! Here!” shouted the professor. “On a count of three, put it down. One, two, three!”

The tower came down with a thud.

The professor approached Jake and said, “You must be Jake! I’m Professor Deluth. I teach math in the middle school. Thank you, young man!”

He put his hand out to shake Jake’s hand. Jake accepted it but immediately screamed out in pain. The professor looked at his hand.

“Your hand is burned. Let’s get you to medical,” he said. “Professor James, I need you.”

The other professor who had helped with the tower came over and looked at Jake’s hands.

“Come with me, Jake.” Professor James threw Jake over his shoulder and ran to where a medical station had been set-up. “This young hero has some burns to his hands,” he said. “Treat him well.”

Then he turned to Jake and said, “I’m Professor James. I teach history in the high school grades. I will check on you later.”

Then Professor James turned and ran back to the helicopter, where Professor Deluth was waiting. The flames were still burning strong in spite of the efforts of the men with the water hoses.

A woman in a white coat rubbed some cream on Jake’s hand and said, “I need you to sit here on the edge of this table.”

Jake sat down and watched the scene unfold in front of him.

A suitman yelled at the group of strong Extras. “Professors! Keep your group there!” he said. “We need to get the package out of the transport now!”

The suitman waved at two professors dressed head to toe in heavy black outfits. The two professors began running to the fire.

Jake looked at the doctor and asked, “What are they doing?”

“Professors Dole and Helton are fire-resistant Extras, but they still need some protection,” she explained. “Fire resistant does not mean fire proof. That’s why they are wearing those suits. But they need to hurry. We believe the student inside is a healer, so we hope he is going to be okay. But even healers can be killed.”

The two professors stood on side of the helicopter, surrounded by flames. Professor Dole jumped into the helicopter. Jake held his breath along with everyone else on the roof of the school. Time seemed to freeze. Seconds passed.

One of the fire-resistant Extras emerged with a body. Professor Helton took the new student and began running. Three doctors began running with a stretcher to the professor. They placed the student on the stretcher, turned around and sprinted toward the school. As they zoomed past, Jake glanced at the student, who moved his arms and finger. His face was charred like burnt hamburger. As the student passed by him, Jake stood up. He suddenly felt a dizzying sense of deja-vu. He sat back down.

Jake felt ill.

A noise of scraping metal made Jake look up. The helicopter had been turned right-side up and the students and professors were lifting it and placing it back on the landing pad.

Principal Glover appeared next to Jake and said, “Jake, are you okay? I heard how you helped us here. Tonight you were a hero, my friend.”

Principal Glover patted Jake on the back.

“What happened?” Jake asked, but when he looked around Principal Glover was gone.

Jake looked left and right. “Excuse me?” he asked the nurse. “Where did Principal Glover go? Did he disappear?”

The nurse smiled and said, “He does that from time to time. You need to lie down now. We’re going to take you to the clinic. You will spend the rest of the night there. They will need to look over everything here.”

The nurse waved a young woman over and said, “Jordon, can you take Jake here down to the clinic?”

“Of course. Relax, Jake. I’m going to roll you down to the clinic.”

“How can I sleep?” asked Jake.

Jordon smiled and said, “The medicine in your arm will see to that.”

Jake was out before they arrived in the clinic.