Redeemed by Margaret Peterson Haddix

than that—he was in a jail cell with no door. There was nothing he could do to escape.
    And if Deep Voice thought he was worthless, would anyone ever bother coming back for him?

FOURTEEN
    Jordan panicked.
    He pounded his fists against the walls and screamed, “Let me out! Let me out!”
    He screamed himself hoarse before it occurred to him that this was a cubicle made for interrogations, and so it was probably soundproof.
    Probably nobody could hear anything he said, no matter how much he screamed.
    He slammed his shoulders against first one wall, then another, hoping to find some weak spot, some crack in the defenses.
    That just made his shoulders ache.
    He snatched up the cell phone and the plastic card from the table. Even though Deep Voice had said they weren’t Elucidators—and Jonah had said they weresuspicious—Jordan shouted commands at them anyway.
    â€œTalk to me! Tell me what to do!”
    Nothing happened.
    â€œYou answered questions before! Answer questions now!”
    Still nothing.
    â€œWhere are all the glowing words?” he asked. He put the plastic card down, and yelled into the cell. “Even if you’re just, like, a smartphone from the twenty-first century, can’t you answer anything?”
    If he was holding a smartphone from the twenty-first century, it was one with a dead battery.
    He slumped against the wall. Nobody could hear him. Nobody could see him. So he let himself do what he really wanted to do.
    â€œMommy? Daddy?” he moaned. “Why can’t you come and find me? I’m sorry! Come and fix everything I messed up! And everything everybody else messed up, too . . .”
    Nobody came. It was entirely possible that he would be stuck here until the end of time—especially since Gary and Hodge’s coworkers seemed to think that could happen soon. Which was worse, being stuck in a doorless cubicle when time ended quickly, or having to spend weeks and months and years in a doorless cubicle, and then just dying of old age?
    I wouldn’t die of old age here, Jordan realized, looking around at the tiny, blank space around him. I’d starve, ordie of thirst, or . . . or maybe there isn’t even enough air in here . . .
    He had to gasp for breath, but maybe that was just because he was thinking about suffocating. He did know there wasn’t any food around, and this was clearly not a time hollow, because he was getting really hungry. Hungry and thirsty, and he kind of needed to go to the bathroom, too. . . .
    Katherine would make fun of me thinking about bathrooms at a time like this, Jordan thought despairingly.
    Was Katherine maybe stuck in a doorless cubicle of her own, thinking she was going to die? Was she going to die being furious with him, because it was his fault both of them were stuck?
    She could be so annoying sometimes. But she was still his sister, and he really didn’t want her to die hating him. He didn’t want her to die at all.
    And Mom, and Dad . . . It’s pretty much my fault that they’re stuck wherever they are too.
    â€œI was trying to help,” he said aloud. “Really I was.”
    But had he been? Or had he been trying to show up Jonah and Katherine?
    Jordan didn’t like the thoughts in his head. It was no fun sitting around thinking when every thought led back to something he’d done wrong.
    Just to distract himself, he began running his hands slowly along the walls, trying to figure out how theyworked. Would he be able to feel any difference between the part of the wall that had seemed solid all along, and the section that Deep Voice had walked through?
    All the walls felt exactly the same.
    Jordan switched to feeling along the floor. Then he climbed onto the table and felt along the ceiling, looking for an exit there.
    Nothing.
    He went back to the walls again.
    Deep Voice got through, he told himself stubbornly.
    Maybe the walls