Outbreak Read Online Free

about something dangerous living down in the tunnels. Seabrook led a team of scientists down there to investigate but they all vanished. None of them was ever seen again. The tunnels were blocked off after that.’ Mr Bill nodded solemnly as we all stared at the picture.

    Well, I pretended to stare. Instead, out of the corner of my eye, I was watching the end of the hallway. Was it Mr Slender? Was he trailing us?
    â€˜Now, I can see I’ve bored you for long enough,’ said Mr Bill with a little smile. He shuffled around another corner. His voice echoed back faintly. ‘This way! Come along!’
    â€˜Hurry up,’ said Sophie, when I didn’t move.
    Reluctantly, I followed them around the corner. The corridor ended in a small, square room with a solitary desk in front of a window and large doors on the left-hand side. I peered around the doors and glimpsed the edge of a bed.
    â€˜This is Nurse Nellie’s office. My office is over here,’ said Mr Bill. He limped toward a small door in the opposite wall that I hadn’t noticed. ‘I will leave you in Nurse Nellie’s capable hands. She’ll sign you into sick bay. Wait there until the bell goes for your next class. And try to avoid Mr Slender for the rest of the day. Tally-ho!’
    With a small wave, he turned and vanished through the door into his office.

6
    â€˜Just pop your name here.’ Nurse Nellie pushed an open ledger across her desk toward me.
    I scribbled my name in the first space and Sophie jotted hers down underneath it.
    â€˜Have either of you been to sick bay before?’ asked Nurse Nellie.
    â€˜Um, no,’ I said, wondering how we could escape without making Nurse Nellie suspicious. We had to get out of there and find Michael. Sure, I didn’t always like my brother, but I didn’t want anything really bad to happen to him either.

    Nurse Nellie led us into sick bay, which turned out to be a huge room lined on either side with hospital beds. I guessed when kids got sick at school, it all happened at once.
    â€˜This used to be a ward in the old hospital,’ Nurse Nellie explained. She handed me a box of bandages. ‘Reroll them as neatly as you can. Sophie, you can clean the bedrails.’
    Nurse Nellie gave Sophie a cloth then bustled to the other end of the room. She disappeared through another doorway,reappearing almost instantly with a large bottle of blue medicine. She unscrewed the lid and pulled out a small tin from the pocket of her starched uniform. ‘I’ve always found adding a little sugar to the medicine makes it much easier to swallow,’ she said, tipping some white powder from the tin into the blue liquid.
    While she was distracted, Sophie turned to me and whispered, ‘How are we going to get out of here?’
    I thought fast. If Nurse Nellie was anything like Mum, all we had to do was ‘accidentally’ mess things up. She wouldn’t want our help for long after that.
    â€˜Watch me,’ I said softly. Working quickly, I unrolled the bandages and then bunched them into rough piles. ‘Nurse Nellie? Is this how you do it?’
    Nurse Nellie glanced over. ‘Noooo! Oh, dear! More neatly . Oh, don’t worry, I . . . I’ll finish!’
    â€˜But I really want to help!’ I told her, fiddling with the bandages so they looked even worse.
    â€˜Stop!’ Nurse Nellie put the bottle of medicine down and rushed over, looking panicky. She took the box of bandages from my hands. ‘Perhaps you can, er . . . help Sophie?’
    â€˜Great! This is such hard work!’ Sophie was sprawled across the head of the bed, rubbing the frame. The sheets were scrunched up around her feet.
    â€˜Your dirty shoes!’ cried Nurse Nellie. ‘Now I’ll have to change the sheets!’
    â€˜Oh, sorry,’ said Sophie. She slid her feet off the bed, leaving a pair of long black marks on the white fabric.
    â€˜You know, Nurse Nellie,