The Oneiro Rangers: First Night by Erwin Blackthorn Page A

such a small goof.”
    “Looks like the power’s out or something,” Clint told them, going
over to an emergency chest by the teacher’s desk. “We’ll just have to make due
until it comes back; this place has always had bad wiring. That’s what we get
for being away from the main power grid.” Pulling out a few small
battery-powered lanterns, he handed them to the delinquents as he continued.
“Just keep these by your desks and sit away from each other.”
    One by one, they took a lantern and turned them on, spreading out
among the aisles. Clint went over to the desk and opened up a drawer, grabbing
some detention slips to fill them out. The room wasn’t too dark–the moon almost
being enough to keep an actual class in order–but the teens still made a
racket, bumping into chairs and desks on their way to sit down. Dispersing to
the different corners of the room, the teens all took a desk and got ready for
a boring night of sitting down and doing nothing. Seeing that Clint was
occupied with the slips, Angelica changed chairs to sit behind Errol.
    “This is all your fault,” Angelica hissed behind his ear. “Now my
record is tarnished thanks to you.”
    Errol twisted around, holding onto the backrest casually. “Why are
you blaming me? I didn’t force you to go into the woods.”
    “I can hear you guys talking,” Clint warned, refilling his
fountain pen in the ink well.
    “If it wasn’t for you getting the idea to run away,” Angelica
continued, “we wouldn’t have wanted to go with you!”
    Roland waddled over to intervene, still in the desk and carrying
it down the aisle. “Don’t blame Errol for that, muffincake. Now see here: he
wouldn’t have wanted to leave if the Oneiro Rangers didn’t make people go
bonkers. Now, would he?”
    Clint raised his head in interest, stopping in the middle of a
letter. “Can you repeat that last part Mr. Lugosi?”
    “It was you that told us, Morphy,” Roland started, “The Nightmares
made all of those loonies in there. I saw them, they were practically foaming
from the mouth, they were.”
    Clint walked over to a desk to sit on top of it, crossing his arms
and chuckling, “And… did you hear the second part of what I said after we saw the first hall?”
    “Of course I did. We—” Roland paused, turning to Errol, “—what was
that about a second part?”
    Errol shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head.
    “Well,” Clint explained, “if you were listening to what I was
saying instead of talking in the back of the line–as you two were–you would
have known how those people were infected by the nightmare virus in the first
place. I went on to say how your class is lucky that the vaccine for the virus
was just created a few years back and is given to everyone on the first day.
You know, back when you were in grade school. Those people in the asylum are
the last batch.” He stood up to lean back. “It’s a bitter tragedy that the
vaccine doesn’t work once you’re infected, but we can only do what we can make
do with.”
    “Sooooo...” Roland winced at his own slowly churning realization.
“... what you’re saying is that we don’t have anything to worry about, right?”
    Clint laughed, getting up to return to his paperwork. “Just
getting injured on the job of course. But, that’s what the trainings for. So,
yes, there is no reason any of you will end up in the asylum. In fact, the main
reason we show it to you guys is for you to cherish how well you have it now,
unlike the ones before you. Even though only some of the Nightmares have the
virus for pantophobia, it was still a big problem back in the day.”
    Errol slide down in his chair. “Oh boy, that’s a relief.”
    Angelica shot up and shook violently Errol by the collar, making
his head flop from side to side. “You pea-brained loaf! Now I got a detention
for no reason!”
    Malory stood up and approached Clint, walking around the arguing
and slapping the others were occupied with.