Voices in Stone - Emily Diamand Page 0,49

groaned Gav. “It’s a genetically engineered virus, and this is the first symptom. Next we’re all going to bleed out through our eyes and die.”

“It’s not that!” I said. “Come on, let’s think. We only see them outside, right?”

They nodded.

“So they aren’t zombies or clones, but they could still be some kind of ghost?”

“An outdoors-only ghost?”

I sighed. That didn’t sound very likely either.

“When did you first see them?” Jayden asked. There was something about the way he said it. That’s when I started to realise.

“Three weeks ago,” answered Gav quietly. “I saw a boy who looked like me. Only a glimpse, and I thought maybe I’d imagined it.”

“I saw this thing on the school trip,” said Jayden. “Just a shape, but it had my face.”

“I saw shapes too,” I said.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” asked Gav.

“Why didn’t you?” I took a breath. “And I saw this kid in our back garden, the day after. He looked just like a photo Mum’s got of me when I was five.” I didn’t tell them about the standing stone though. I was still worrying about the wrong things then, like them thinking I was the craziest of all.

The same thing clicked in our heads, all at once.

“The school trip,” said Jayden.

“Something at the quarry?” I said.

“This is because of that?” asked Gav. “But that was ages ago!”

“Oh!” yelped Jayden. “Remember in physics, we did all that stuff about radioactivity? How when they first discovered it they didn’t know it could make you ill and they used radioactive paint in watches, and made necklaces out of uranium and stuff?”

Me and Gav both nodded, even though Gav probably didn’t have a clue.

“So what if that rare earth stuff they’re mining is like that? Except instead of radioactivity, it gives you hallucinations?”

It made sense, and even if hallucination-inducing rock wasn’t the best, it was way better than seeing stuff with no explanation…

Gav shook his head though. “They quarry for rare earth metals in China and America and places. Wouldn’t it be all over the internet if it made people go loopy?”

We were quiet for a minute, then Jayden piped up. “Mr Watkins went on loads about it being a really unusual deposit or seam or whatever. Maybe what they’re mining there is so special that…”

“It makes you hallucinate?” Gav pulled a face. “It won’t be much good for touchscreens then, will it? Anyway, why would that Dr Harcourt take us into the quarry if she knew it would make us like this?”

“An experiment!” said Jayden. “Like Frankenstein?”

“Then why is this all happening today?” asked Gav. “Why not when we actually went to the quarry?”

“Perhaps it’s slow-acting?” said Jayden. “Like when that Russian man got poisoned using radioactive polonium? He didn’t die for ages.”

We all went quiet.

“Are we going to die?” asked Gav.

Chapter Nineteen

Isis

“So, are any of you going to explain?”

Isis’s cheeks were burning hot, and her stomach and heart seemed to have swapped places. She was standing in front of Mr Gerard’s desk with Jess, Chloe, Hayley and Nafira.

“I hope you understand how serious this is,” Mr Gerard said into the silence. “You may have thought you were engaged in some kind of game, or a bit of fun, but you’ve brought serious disruption to the whole school.” He leaned forwards in his chair. “I have children claiming to see ghosts and hysteria in the corridors. I have teachers who can’t teach, because they are so busy calming everyone down. The welfare officers are already overwhelmed with students: thirteen pupils had to be sent home because they’d made themselves ill with distress. You can imagine how pleased I was to have to phone so many parents, and how pleased they were to take time off work to pick up their children.”

Isis’s brow ached from frowning. Why was everything going crazy today? Mandeville’s disastrous seance had been over a week ago, so it couldn’t be that. It was hard to understand what was happening, especially as her thoughts kept drifting back to the standing stone, and the detached, otherworldly feelings it had left her with. She blinked, trying to concentrate.

Mr Gerard glared along the row. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to pretend this is nothing to do with you, because a number of Year Seven pupils have identified you as the group at the centre of it all.”

“But it can’t be us!” said Nafira, saying out loud what Isis had been thinking. “We haven’t done anything today!”

Mr Gerard leaned forwards. “So you haven’t been