Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman Read Free Book Online

with ridged edges like a Ruffles potato chip. They were also rusted out and gnarly looking, like acid and rotten water had chewed away at the integrity of the metal for a hundred years.
    They were lit with yellow lightbulbs that were crackling on and off with life or dimmed to near uselessness with grime. I half expected a zombie to come down one of the halls, followed by a whole army of them, hell bent on making us one of their own.
    â€œThis is giving me the creeps, big-time,” said Ben. He kept working his hands into fists, like the climb down had really set off his arthritis. “Are you sure it won’t open if you push on it?”
    â€œDude, I’m sure,” Alex said. He’d decided not to inject himself, shaking his legs awake instead. “She’s not letting us out.”
    â€œI bet she will if we find the vials,” I offered halfheartedly. Right after I said it I thought the same thing they probably did: how exactly is she going to know if we find them?
    â€œLet’s fan out in teams of two and see where these tunnels lead,” Connor said, leaning in pretty close to Kate as his chosen partner. “Three directions, six of us—meet back here in like five minutes. Maybe there’s another way out or a way to contact her from down here.”
    â€œI’m not going anywhere,” said Ben, “except back up there to pound on that door.”
    Alex stood up, rubbing his legs.
    â€œI’m telling you, man, it’s totally locked. And I already pounded on it a bunch of times.”
    â€œWell, I’m not going down one of those halls, no way,” said Ben.
    Marisa moved closer to him and put her arm around his shoulder. “I’ll go with you. We’ll protect each other.”
    â€œWith what? Our shoes? Your smile? What if something’s down here with us? I’m not doing it.”
    But Marisa pulled him toward her, which really bothered me. “Come on, we’ll take the best-lit way. It’ll be easy. We just have to find this room, get what we came for, and she’ll let us out. No worries.”
    â€œHell with that,” said Alex, looking down the passageway that remained, the one he’d have to go down with me as his partner. “I’m going with you guys. Light is my friend.”
    The three of them seemed to think if they got to the best-lit way first they’d have won the advantage to check it out, which turned out to be true.
    â€œFine, I’ll take Connor and head this way,” said Kate, pointing down the corridor with the red arrow on the floor and a sputtering light somewhere around a corner. Connor was game, and before anyone could start moving, the two of them were laughing nervously, holding hands like two people in a slasher movie about to walk into a very bad situation.
    â€œLooks like you got the bad draw,” said Alex, pushing Marisa and Ben down the second round passage, the one with the blue arrow and the pretty good lighting, and smirking at me like I was the big loser in this equation. Which I was. The one remaining hall, with the green arrow, was basically pitch-black. There were no lights down there at all, just curved walls of rusted metal that were quickly devoured by total darkness twenty feet in.
    â€œYou know what, I’ll go with you guys,” I said.
    â€œNo, we got this fair and square,” said Marisa. “Just go, take a quick look. We’ll meet back here.”
    Her eyes said it all. You had me, Will. You really did. But I can’t trust you, not for a while anyway.
    â€œMarisa, seriously—I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”
    She didn’t answer, unless you count those brown eyes looking back at me like I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.
    â€œYou guys would have done the same thing,” I said, feeling the fear of being alone rise in my throat as they kept on.
    â€œNo, I wouldn’t have,” said