Exchange Day

By Alexander Mori

Avery is a special boy with a unique gift. He can hold his breath longer than any other student at The Mirador School. This is especially useful since the school rests on the ocean floor, providing protection from the war that rages above. On Exchange Day, the graduates are taken to the surface where they learn a dark secret. The school may be the only safe place in the entire world.

A mysterious explosion damages the school, causing water to slowly fill the classrooms. The electricity is off and the teachers scramble to protect the frightened children. Avery is the only one who can help. Armed with nothing but courage and a face mask, Avery sets out to save the school and everyone he knows from the darkness that slowly consumes them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Mori
• Release date: May 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311321671

Book preview

Exchange Day

Book 1 of the Exchange Day Series

By Alexander Mori

Copyright May 2014 Alexander Mori

Smashwords Edition

I dedicate this book to my wife Liz,

whom Hadley lovingly calls Wiz.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Acknowledgement

Chapter 1

Etta lounged in the corner of the sewing classroom, one of the few classrooms with a window, staring out at the murky depths of the ocean floor. She wrapped her blanket tightly around her shoulders, careful not to expose her feet, which were tucked snugly beneath her. She looked out of the window and considered the tremendous weight of the water that covered them, the water that covered the entire school. For a fleeting moment she imagined the water crashing through the window and violently filling the classroom. She shivered slightly as she imagined the cold water rushing through the school hallways washing away the students as they ran for safety.

Etta typically woke before the other students, and she liked spending mornings alone in a classroom with a window instead of lying on her pallet among the other sleeping students. She especially liked the classrooms on the south side of the school where the lights on the ocean floor still worked on a regular basis. This morning, however, she did not enjoy her peaceful solitude. She thought about Lukas graduating and leaving the school in a couple days. She thought about Exchange Day and never seeing Lukas again.

Etta arrived at The Mirador School two months before her fifth birthday to start kindergarten. She was the tiniest of girls with wisps of blonde hair pulled into two ponytails on top of her head like bouncing antennae. She did not remember much from her first day of school; however, she did remember the first thing Marnie said to the principal as she stepped off the elevator. Marnie, who brought all the new students to the school each year, lightly grabbed Etta’s hand and said, This little girl is special. And Etta, like all the students who enrolled in The Mirador School that day eleven years before, has lived there ever since.

Marnie was correct. Etta was special. Etta was born with the rarest of conditions that prevented her from feeling pain. Her teachers did not understand what was wrong. They did not understand that Etta’s nervous system developed in such a way that she had a congenital insensitivity to pain. They only understood that when she got the chicken pox for the first time, she did not itch. As a two-year old, she tripped and fell into the corner of the coffee table and gashed her head open just above her left eye, yet she did not cry. Etta was special in a way that no one understood. The only thing Marnie could do was check her as often as possible so that a minor injury would not turn into a major injury due to negligence.

Etta sat in the sewing room thinking about pain and what it must feel like. She wondered if she would feel an ocean of water crashing through the school windows and swallowing her up.

Etta grabbed a pincushion from a nearby desk and removed a single needle. She probed the back of her hand, hoping to feel the sharpness of pain as the needle punctured the skin. She often found herself probing different areas of her arms and legs, waiting for the one time when she might feel something. Etta marveled at how throughout her entire life she had never felt or known pain. Yet on this day, she thought of Lukas graduating and leaving The Mirador School forever, and she felt nothing but pain. She felt the pain of sadness and she thought to herself that this must be the most unbearable pain of all.

Etta placed the sharp end of the needle against the knuckle on her left hand. She moved the skin gently back and forth and closed her eyes. She focused her mind on what the pain might feel like. With her eyes closed she hoped to feel the needle on her skin. She felt nothing.

Suddenly, and without warning, all the sirens within The Mirador School erupted. Red lights flashed from the corner of the classroom and within each hallway of the school. The sudden and intense sound caused Etta to accidentally lodge the needle deep into the back of her hand, which rushed to cover her ears. She did not feel the pain of the needle in her hand, nor did she feel the trickle of blood dripping down her arm. With the sirens blaring and the red lights flashing, she looked once more out of the window and saw something extremely strange. The lights outside did not light the ocean floor well, but in the murky water Etta saw her classmate Avery swimming frantically along the southern edge of the school, pulling behind him the lifeless body of a teacher.

Chapter 2

Mr. Lenny fastened his helmet tightly to his diver’s suit, the only functioning diver’s suit left at The Mirador School. The helmet fit onto a small track at the base of the neck and twisted slightly to the right in order to lock into place. Mr. Lenny struggled due to the rubber gloves he wore on his hands. Avery stepped through the doorway leading to the hatch at the southern end of the school. He grabbed the glass helmet with two hands and carefully guided it onto the suit.

He clicked the helmet into place and asked, Can you see okay?

Mr. Lenny nodded and lifted his thumbs in approval, his rubber diving suit crinkling with every move that he made. Avery checked the flow of oxygen going into Mr. Lenny’s suit and asked rather loudly so as to be heard through the glass, Airflow okay? Again, Mr. Lenny nodded and lifted his thumbs in a rubbery sounding approval.

Well then, Avery said. Looks like you should have a good two and a half hours!

Avery stepped through the open doorway and closed the secondary hatch behind him, leaving Mr. Lenny alone in the exit bay. The room was pressurized against the unending force of the ocean. Mr. Lenny released pressure by turning a valve located just beside the outer door. The valve hissed and the room slowly filled with freezing cold water. The ocean slowly swallowed him, beginning with his feet and his knees. Then his chest and his neck. Mr. Lenny had great respect for the ocean. He had lived within its dark embrace ever since he could remember, and he knew of her unrelenting power.

The final rush of air bubbled from the exit bay. Mr. Lenny loosened the outer hatch and pulled the door open. He stepped onto the platform along the southern edge of the school, the expanse of the ocean opening out in front of him. The school was a monstrous facility that sat on the ocean floor and rose more than fifty feet into the water. Few lights on the ocean floor remained lit, causing the ocean to be a dark and never-ending void engulfing The Mirador School.

Mr. Lenny had been the fishing teacher for The Mirador School for nearly twenty years, and he had ventured out into the dark ocean countless times. He was solely responsible for most of the food the students and faculty ate, and he was the only person who regularly challenged the insanity and solitude of the infinite darkness. Each time he stepped onto the southern platform he felt his breathing intensify. He heard the hammering of his own heart within his chest like a drum beating inside his ears. Each time he faced the darkness, he questioned why the school was built so deep beneath the ocean.

Mr. Lenny approached the edge of the southern platform, which looked over the ocean floor on the southern edge of the school. The weight of his suit caused his movements to be slow and deliberate, like he was moving in slow motion. One misstep could lead him off the platform, where he would sink to the ocean floor with no sensible way to return.

Lights on the ocean floor revealed the school’s perimeter, but only to a point. Light did not travel well far beneath the ocean’s waves, and the lights at The Mirador School were centuries old. Perhaps older. Mr. Lenny peered into the darkness and remembered the days when they had two fishermen, with lights and proper equipment. He remembered the days when fishing for the school was a privilege, not a terrible curse. He again took a deep breath and thought to himself, One step at a time.

Two large cables connected the school to the fixed rig three hundred yards away. Principal Bly called these cables the Tight Rope, and it was the fishing teacher’s job to shimmy down the Tight Rope to the ten large nets hanging in the middle. On a good day, Mr. Lenny might pluck ten to twelve fish from the nets. On most days, however, he was lucky to bring in three to five.

The toughest part of fishing, without question, was the darkness. Once beyond the school’s lights, anyone venturing onto the Tight Rope ventured into a world without light. Mr. Lenny wondered who originally built the Tight Rope, and he wondered how they did it in a world they could not see. He often considered ways to bring light with him on his fishing trips. He once tried to light a candle and secure it in a helmet of a non-functioning diver’s suit, but no matter what he did, water would seep into the helmet, or the lack of oxygen would cause the flame to go out. He asked Principal Bly on several occasions to request lights from the administration on the surface, but each time he was given the same answer. Principal Bly would shake his head and say, The war effort has caused us to lose contact with our supply line. We must make do with what we have. No matter how many times Mr. Lenny heard that, he wondered why someone could not spare one underwater lantern for one of the largest functioning underwater schools in the country.

Mr. Lenny found no solution for the darkness. His only option was to train someone else how to fish, to share the burden of the dark ocean so that he alone did not have to face it. And that is what he did. As soon as Avery was old enough, he started teaching him about the Tight Rope and the nets that hung from it. He explained the importance of the last functioning diver’s suit, the only one that could be successfully connected to oxygen tanks. The others missed necessary hardware and could not be used for fishing. This was a strange lesson for Avery since he seemed to have the ability to breathe underwater, but Mr. Lenny felt compelled to teach him anyway.

Avery always told Mr. Lenny, I can’t breathe underwater! I can just hold my breath longer than everyone else.

Sure, Mr. Lenny answered him. Then how come you are underwater for almost an hour?

Because, Avery would answer, I can hold my breath for almost an hour.

And it was true. Avery was born with the ability to hold his breath underwater for almost an hour. No one could explain it other than to say he was born with a special gift. Mr. Lenny watched him each time he ventured outside the confines of the school, and it never looked like Avery was actually breathing underwater. It looked like he was holding his breath with little to no effort. After a few minutes, the normal length of time before a person would panic and search for air, Avery would simply remain calmly underwater.

On this particular morning Mr. Lenny wished that Avery could check the fishing nets. However, since Exchange Day was nearly upon them it was important that the school have as much food as possible. For this reason Principal Bly made it clear that he check the nets, instead of sending a student, even if that student was blessed with a special gift. Mr. Lenny wished he had the special gift of seeing in the dark.

Mr. Lenny’s right foot connected with the metal fastener holding the first net in place. Relief warmed through him as he finally made it to the nets. One step taken, and he was ready for step number two. Mr. Lenny double-checked his lifeline, the clamp securing him to the top cable, to make sure the connections were secure. He made it a point to double check the clamps because if he fell from the Tight Rope he would sink to the darkness below never to return. He could not imagine a worse feeling than sinking into the darkness.

Mr. Lenny unwound the safety line from his belt and pushed off of the Tight Rope. He dropped slowly through the water making sure to guide himself down the net one link at a time. The net swayed in the slight ocean current. Checking the net by hand in the darkness was not ideal, but it was the only process he knew. And it was the process that fed the entire school as long as he had been the fishing teacher.

Mr. Lenny reached his first fish toward the bottom of the second net. He felt the net pulling in his hands and worried for a moment, as he always did, what sort of fish he might have caught. Was it a grouper or a snapper? Perhaps a kingfish with the powerful tail? Or maybe the dreaded barracuda that could grow as large as forty pounds? He would know soon enough.

Mr. Lenny wrapped the net around the fish in such a way as to restrict its movement. He slid the thing under his arm, hoping to have the head in front of him. In the dark he could not always tell which side was the head. The large fish struggled beneath his arm. He clamped down hard on the outside of the net. He folded it in half and looped his arm through the holes creating a basket to restrict the fish’s movement. He ran his fingers down the fish’s spine until he discovered the mouth, which opened and closed as the fish struggled to free itself. Mr. Lenny took a metal pin from his belt and prodded the fish in the face, hoping to thread a rope through the fish’s gills and out of it’s mouth. The fish fought him and it fought the net. It’s powerful tailfin oscillated back and forth against Mr. Lenny’s grasp. A series of powerful thrusts allowed the fish to wiggle free, causing Mr. Lenny to lose his footing on the net. Mr. Lenny released his grasp on the fish and slid clumsily down the net.

Mr. Lenny twisted and dropped what felt like a few feet, when suddenly his safety rope tightened. He hung suspended in the water with his legs dangling beneath and his right arm trapped behind him by the tautness of his harness rope. What is going on? he said inside his helmet. He realized he was tangled in the net somehow, but he could not see where the hang up had occurred. He kicked his legs beneath him in an attempt to turn himself around so that he could find the knot and resume his fishing duties.

He explored the depths of the ocean by kicking his right leg. He hoped to come in contact with the bottom of the net so that he could climb up a step or two and find where he was snagged. His feet dangled helplessly below him. He kicked and stretched, yet found no trace of the net, found no foothold to grab onto.

He twisted himself around, hoping to grab the harness rope connected to his belt. If he managed to grab his harness rope he could climb back to the Tight Rope and start fishing all over again. Each time he twisted, the tautness of the rope and the fact that his arm was somehow wrapped in the net kept him from turning around. He hung in the water with his feet dangling below him, and he thought to himself that he would return to the school straight away and ask Avery to finish collecting the fish.

He pulled the harness back and forth, hoping to untangle the rope caught in the net. He tugged and twisted, and without warning, he found himself approaching panic mode. He ripped at the harness as hard as the ocean would let him. He yelled at the harness, What are you caught in! Come on! He felt like a struggling fish. He heard his muffled struggles through the water, and he could feel the rope and the net moving against his weight. He could not free himself. Neither yelling nor pulling at the harness rope helped, and he once again released all of his energy and hung in the water, trying as much as he could to once again slow his breathing.

Mr. Lenny felt cold. Not because of the extreme temperatures at the freezing depths of the ocean, but because of the icy realization that he had a serious problem. The net he used for decades to catch food for The Mirador School ensnared him instead of fish. He could not see how, but he imagined the net to be wrapped up in the oxygen tank on his back. Perhaps wrapped simply around his pressure gauge needing only a slight adjustment to get free; a slight adjustment he could not manage.

The realization that hit him hardest was the amount of oxygen left in his tank. The tanks at the school generally lasted two to three hours, the approximate time needed to inspect half of the nets and haul in the fish. Mr. Lenny could not see the gauges attached to his tank, but he figured he had ninety minutes, give or take, of usable oxygen left. It was the give or take that concerned him.

I hate the dark, he said to himself. Mr. Lenny had to laugh. He wondered how a fishing teacher could get caught in his own net. He recognized the humor, but the darkness kept the situation from being funny. He wondered how many fish were stuck in the same net laughing at the irony. I hate the dark, he repeated, as if it were a battle cry allowing his mind to stay focused on the problem instead of venturing too deeply into panic. Mr. Lenny stared into the darkness that was the vast ocean and blinked just to remind himself he was alive.

Mr. Lenny felt his frustration converting to panic. He stared into the darkness. He reached for the clasp at his belt and toyed with the idea of unhooking himself from the safety of the Tight Rope. He counted the seconds between his breaths, hoping to give Avery as much time as possible.

And then Mr. Lenny noticed the quality of the air changing. He noticed how it was more difficult to take a breath. He felt like he was trying to breathe with his head beneath a blanket. He felt the oxygen enter his body, but each breath lacked the fulfillment he had taken for granted his entire life.

All he could do was take shorter breaths. And wait.

Mr. Lenny hung at the bottom of the fishing net. All the fight left him, as it eventually did all things caught in the net. He stared off into the ocean. Instead of seeing the darkness, he saw the beauty of the sunlight that he could barely remember. He saw the warmth of the sun coming down in rays that pierced through the clouds. He thought about the warmth of a woman and the taste of a warm cup of coffee. He thought about Avery tapping him on the helmet, letting him know that someone has come to untangle him from the net.

Fifteen minutes later Mr. Lenny closed his eyes and succumbed to the darkness of the cold ocean.

Chapter 3

Six days before the upcoming Exchange Day, Etta prepared the sewing classroom for a late night rendevous with Lukas. She arranged rows of candles near Miss Sadie’s record player so they could listen to music while she cut his hair, which had become like a shaggy mop on the top of his head. She wanted him to look nice for his return to the surface. She wanted the last moments they spent together to be as memorable and beautiful as possible.

Etta and Lukas had been together more than a year. It had been the best year of her life. Everything was different when they were alone together. Like the weight of the ocean somehow lifted. His presence allowed her to forget the coldness of the halls, or the darkness of the candlelit classrooms. She forgot about the war on the surface and the biological weapons that poisoned the mainland. She saw The Mirador School as a wonderful place to spend her time, as opposed to the truth that it was only a temporary reprieve for the children of the wealthy. But most importantly Lukas made Etta forget she was the strange girl, the freak who could not feel pain.

She once asked him if there was something wrong with her. She said, Do your friends think I’m weird?

His answer had not made her feel better. He said, You are weird, but that’s what I like about you!

As a young girl, Etta did not like being the weird girl. She wanted to be normal, the same as everyone else. As she got older, she realized it was good to be different. She was special, with a gift that no one else had or understood. And because she was special, she got the most popular boy in school to notice her. Because she was special, Lukas wanted to be with her.

Etta thumbed through the records on Miss Sadie’s shelf. Lukas had his favorites, which included The Beach Boys and Van Morrison. However, on this day Etta wanted to listen to the album for which she was named. She lifted an album titled Etta James from the shelf and stared deeply into the woman on the cover. The woman had such splendidly dark skin that was beautifully contrasted with blond hair; blond hair just like Etta. The woman on the cover wore a black dress and she looked over her shoulder, as if someone had just called her name. Etta traced her fingers over the name scribbled in elegant writing and wondered who called out to Etta James while this picture was taken.

She placed the needle onto the rotating disc, which started with one of her favorite songs on the album, Something’s Got A Hold of Me. The song began with a powerful voice crooning about a good feeling the singer had never experienced before. Etta felt the power and vulnerability of the voice coming from the turntable. Her teachers explained to her as a child that she could not feel pain, that the natural communication between her brain and her body would not alert her when something was wrong. Listening to Etta James sing about her good feelings, Etta wondered if her body also failed to alert her when something was good.

The song picked up with a piano, drums and back up singers. Etta closed her eyes and sang along. She allowed the music to wash over her, and for a moment she forgot about Lukas, the war and Exchange Day. She thought about a wonderful room somewhere in the world where Etta James sang and danced with hundreds of people, sharing the song like positive energy being passed around for everyone to enjoy.

Hey there! Lukas called from the doorway, bringing Etta back to Miss Sadie’s classroom. Can I have this dance? Lukas shuffled his feet across the door and sang along with the record.

Let me tell you now, my heart feels heavy!

My feet feel light. I shake all over, but I feel alright.

I never felt like this before,

Something’s got a hold of me and it won’t let go!

Lukas dipped low and twirled with the music. He took Etta into his arms and danced lightly back and forth, careful not to put too much pressure on her arms or back. Are you hungry? He asked. I brought you something to eat.

Lukas unfolded a napkin with bits of boiled fish wrapped in cabbage. Etta took the food from Lukas and placed it next to the record player. She placed a morsel in her mouth to show Lukas her gratitude.

Did you hear about Gretchen? He asked.

The sophomore? She answered. No. What happened?

I heard she has the sickness. She’s leaving for the surface today.

Students with the sickness left immediately for the surface, never to return. Etta had never known anyone who contracted the sickness, and she did not know Gretchen well. But she was happy to know she had no classes with Gretchen, for fear that she might have gotten exposed.

That’s terrible, she said.

Lukas spied the chair arranged near the row of candles and said, Is this what I think it is?

Etta tapped the seat and said, Time for your hair cut.

Hair cut? Lukas said as he ran his fingers through the shaggy brown hair that grew over his ears and into his eyes. I knew there was a reason you wanted to meet in here!

You need a hair cut before Exchange Day. I want to be able to see your face on your last day of school.

Lukas pulled his hair back, squinted his eyes and stuck his front teeth out. This face? You want people to see this face! Okay let’s do this. He playfully plopped down into the chair, keeping his teeth protruding out as if his they were too big for his mouth.

Etta slapped him on the arm and said, Stop doing that! You look so dumb when you do that!

Etta stood in front of Lukas and arranged the candles on the table so that she could maximize the amount of light hitting his face. Lukas was a tall kid compared to the other students at The Mirador School. He had a thin face and a small button nose that wrinkled at the top when he smiled. The flickering candlelight made his brown eyes look darker than they actually were. Etta took scissors and immediately cut the hair that fell into his eyes so that she could cleanly see his face. The conviction and promptness of this first cut surprised Lukas. He said, Don’t go too short, please!

Etta focused on the task of cutting Lukas’s hair, so much so that five minutes passed before she said a word. Etta could not feel the softness of Lukas’s hair between her fingers, but she liked the way she could turn his head one way or another simply by touching his chin. She also liked the way Lukas gazed at her when she cut an exceptionally long clump of hair. She liked the trust he had to sit there while she altered the way he looked. It was trust that she did not have with any other student.

"I don’t know what I’m gonna do