The Oneiro Rangers: First Night Read Online Free Page B

his pocket. “Now, before we start
anything, we are going to go on a small field trip. Doesn’t that sound fun?” He
smirked at his own sarcasm; the students unamused. “I’m glad everyone’s here.
That means nobody will have to go later, alone .”
    Errol sat up, shooting his friend a gloomy glance. “I don’t like
how he said that,” he whispered.
    “I don’t like how he said we gotta get up and go somewhere,”
Roland replied. “I just got comfortable.”
    “You know the drill.” Clint directed everyone to the door. “Form a
line and follow me. The sooner we’re done with this, the sooner we can get on
with training.” His eyes shifted around, glaring at the majority who weren’t
getting up with the few who were. “Move it.”
    The thirty-or-so teenagers in the classroom stood up and narrowed
into a single line through the door, lazily shuffling behind Clint. The grand
staircase lead them all the way down the four flights until the main hall,
tucked and folded into the very center of the hallway; their dress shoes
tapping softly against the clean marble steps. It seemed to be only them in the
entire building, everyone else in class; muffled lectures seeping quietly from
behind closed doors. There was little talking among the students circling down
the wall enclosed stairs, other than the pockets of people wondering what the
“field trip” could be about.
    Crossing over the first floor hallway and entering the wider main
staircase, Clint took the right lip of the stairs and went into a never used
area behind the stairs, under the steps they just descended from. It would be
the perfect place to hide and skip class in, that is, if the Dog Drones
standing guard didn’t prevent intrusion. Made entirely of steel and with
exposed wires at the joints, the Dog Drone robots had the appeal of a large dog
with the skin and bite of a cold knife. The green beads of light from their
eyes floated still in the dark recesses under the stairs, inactive and on
standby. Once Clint passed one of them, its lights changed to an alert yellow,
its chest engine growling to life.
    Exhaust puffed out of its nostril vents, masking the smell of
tottree wood with a dark cloud of spent diesel. “Presence detected,” it said in
a prerecorded voice from its mouth speaker. Its searchlight eyes swung over to
Clint’s back, scanning him with a loud electronic chirp. “Morpheus detected.
Returning to idle.”
    With the Dog Drone’s head clanking back forward, its eyes faded
back to a green standby. Clint pulled out a heavy flashlight from his coat
pocket, lighting up the long forgotten hallway. His steps swayed the beam side
to side; the walls faded and torn, as if they’ve never been touched for years.
The thick metal door at the end was unlocked by lifting a steel bar that lay
across it, and the bar itself was locked in place with a giant padlock. Whoever
designed it made sure nobody would be able to break inside.
    Or more so, to prevent anything from breaking out...
    Keys jingled, Clint’s light focused straight on the padlock while
he spun his key ring around in search for the right one. The students were deep
inside the darkness, only their outlines visible from the faint glow struggling
to reach into the long crevasse they had clustered into. A sound echoed loudly
within the small space — a yell. Everyone turned back to see what it was,
Clint’s flashlight peeking over the back of all of their heads. Some of the
students gasped at the sounds of the Dog Drone engines growling, loud and
aggressive.
    Roland came into view, doubling back as a one of the robot dogs
rammed his legs with its hard nose. “Easy, easy! Down boy! Heel, heel!”
    Clint lowered the flashlight, shaking his head with a long huff.
“Unit forty-five, Aus!”
    The Dog Drone instantly backed away and sat down, its engine
slowing down to a hum. Its ears fanned out at attention, exposing the
microphone holes on the inside of them. “Awaiting