Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman Read Free Book Online Page A

Ben.
    â€œMe neither, bro, me neither,” Alex agreed.
    Marisa turned back for the briefest of seconds, and I had a glimmer of hope that everything would be okay. Her resolve was starting to melt. I knew this girl. I could win her back if I played it cool for a few hours. And I could see how tired she was, which was to my advantage. She needed my protection the most when weariness set in.
    I heard the distant echo of Connor yelling back from around a corner where I couldn’t see him: “Nothing yet! You guys?”
    â€œNothing!” yelled Alex.
    Only ten minutes had passed since we’d been locked underground and I’d been ditched by my girlfriend and everyone else. I stood alone for a few seconds, glancing down both rust-infested tunnels, thinking about taking chase down one of them. Then I pulled out the thing that Mrs. Goring had given me and took a closer look at it.
    â€œWhat is this, a hotel?” I whispered to myself, barely hearing my own voice. It was a key card, green with a white arrow running down the middle. And there were words running down one side of the card, also in white:
    GREEN ZONE OBSERVATION. SECURITY LEVEL: 4
    â€œJust my luck,” I said. “Green would be the darkest one.”
    The one nobody else would choose.
    It was starting to feel like Mrs. Goring had set me up from the start, all the way back when she’d told me the truth about Rainsford and the cures a year before.
    I thought about calling everyone back to me. It stood to reason that I held in my hand the key to a room that would hold the vials we were supposed to retrieve. But a bigger part of me felt like this was my chance to redeem myself. They’d find nothing, locked doors at the ends of tunnels, probably, and I’d find the treasure we sought. I’d find what we needed, get us out of here, and better yet, get them all cured. They’d be sorry they ever treated me like a disease.
    I started down the hall with the green arrow on the floor and was stunned by how quickly it became disorienting and dark. My hands touched the ridges of metal and it made me think of a Slinky laid out along the carpet in my room. Looking back, I could still see a faint light shining around the hole that led up and out of the underground. Turning a corner would mean total darkness.
    I’m going to find these vials and show these guys, I thought.
    You tell ’em, bro! Keith’s sarcastic voice filled my head.
    You’re darn right. I got this.
    I started moving faster, hands in front of me like a blind man, and soon found another wall. This one felt like the surface of an empty swimming pool, smooth and flat, and it ended in a hard turn to the left.
    I was dangerously close to feeling like I might get lost in the dark and end up starving to death or killed by the unseen creatures I felt sure were lurking everywhere.
    In the distance I saw something small and green and glowing, like the soft light of an exit sign at the end of a darkened hall. It was lower than an exit sign, doorknob height, and when I reached it more quickly than I’d expected, I understood what it was.
    I held the key card in my hand, turning it over like an ace of spades, staring at what looked like a Visa card reader stuck to the wall. In the soft glow of green from a strip of light on the reader, I could see the thick handle of a sturdy metal door.
    â€œI’m so finding these vials,” I said, elated at the prospect of getting the job done that no one else could take credit for. I was equal parts exhilarated and afraid as I slid the card through the reader like I’d done a thousand times before paying for groceries at Walmart with my parents. The locking mechanism on the door clicked solidly, as if whatever bolt had just moved was meant to keep everyone on the planet out.
    I swung the door open and found that it was heavy, like the bomb shelter door in the basement of Mrs. Goring’s place. 7 It was dark