Omega City by Diana Peterfreund Page B

one.
    Ooooonnnn . . .
    The voice trailed off. I waited for the hiss of nerve gas. Would we smell it before it killed us? Had I just sentenced all five of us to death in a metal box hundreds of feet below the earth?
    Well, at least we didn’t have to worry about burial.
    Seconds passed. Ten, fifteen . . . all the way past thirty, while we all stood there, cringing.
    â€œI think you stopped it, Gills,” Eric said at last.
    I did? That seemed . . . convenient. Maybe it was a slow-working nerve gas. Maybe we’d all drop dead in twenty minutes.
    And if we didn’t, could I still kill Howard for getting us all into this mess?
    â€œI think she stopped everything,” Nate said. “We aren’t moving anymore.” He pried open the elevator doors a crack and peeked out. “Yep. Dead stop.”
    â€œI can try to get it moving again,” Howard suggested, turning back to the control panel.
    â€œDon’t touch anything!” I screamed at him. “You and your buttons! You sent us down here! You almost got us killed! Stop pressing buttons! What’s wrong with you, you freak!”
    Howard flinched as if I’d hit him, then backed as far into the corner of the elevator as the space allowed. Savannah and Eric were gaping at me. Nate was staring daggers.
    I swallowed thickly. “Howard, I’m sorry—”
    He said nothing. His brother just snorted at me. “Forget it. He’s not going to say another word.”
    â€œHoward . . . ,” I tried again. I felt like that decontamination shower must have washed away all my good sense. A few days ago, I thought Savannah had been out of line to call him a freak, and here I was doing the same exact thing.
    Then again, here he’d almost gotten us all killed.
    I closed my eyes. No. I was the one who’d almost gotten us all killed. I was the one who wanted to find Dr. Underberg’s treasure. Howard may have pushed the button but before he did, we were just trapped inside a boulder, waiting for Fiona to catch us. If people were going to be mad at someone, it should be me.
    Because I was following a crazy old man’s directions into the center of the Earth. Who was the freak now?
    â€œGillian’s right about one thing,” said Savannah, breaking the silence. “We shouldn’t touch anything else. There could be more traps.”
    â€œSo what, you want to just sit here?” Nate asked. “Forever?”
    Eric peeked out of the open door. “I think we can climb down. We’re only about three stories up. There’s a utility ladder on the side of the rail here.”
    I shuddered, and not just because I was still soaking wet. Climb three stories straight down to a cement platform? On a ladder? In the dark?
    All at once, Howard pushed away from the wall and climbed out the door.
    Nate reached for him but he jerked out of his brother’s reach, stepped onto the ladder, and carefully started climbing down.
    I bit my lip as Nate turned back to me. “You’re next, boss lady,” he said, clearly still angry.
    I guess I deserved that. I couldn’t blame Howard for getting us into this mess. After all, coming out here had been my idea.
    The rungs of the ladder were sturdy and wide, and if you didn’t look farther than the next step, you could almostpretend you weren’t swinging over your death-by-cement-floor. Eric came down after me, then Savannah, and finally Nate. By the time we got to the bottom, we were all out of breath. Eric splayed out on the concrete floor in the glow of the floodlights, and the rest of us did the same. Howard kept a little way away from us, staring up at the fake starry sky.
    â€œMy cell phone’s useless,” Nate said at last. “Maybe it was the shower, maybe it’s the fact that we’re a mile underground.” He groaned and rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “I can’t believe this.”
    Neither could I,