Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman Page A

And that’s not happening until you get what I sent you down there for.”
    â€œThe vials.”
    â€œYes, the vials. And like I said, it’s dangerous. There will be obstacles.”
    â€œLike what? Rats?”
    â€œWorse,” she said, turning my sarcasm into something I was actually worried about. I watched the monitor as Mrs. Goring disappeared and the screen returned to a view of the entryway. They’d returned there, and I tried to pick out Marisa in the group, but the camera was far away, so they were just bodies milling back and forth.
    â€œThere are still some, shall we say, hot locations down there.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, hot?”
    â€œNuclear. It’s why they put these things underground, Will. Also why I don’t swim in the pond.”
    â€œAre we being nuked down here, Mrs. Goring?” I couldn’t think of any other way to ask a serious question.
    â€œOnly if you enter the wrong rooms or open the wrong doors. Watch the dials—they’ll tell you if someone has gone someplace they shouldn’t.”
    I walked up to the control panel and found a series of round dials like speedometers on a car dash with words under them.
    GREEN ZONE LEVELS
    RED ZONE LEVELS
    BLUE ZONE LEVELS
    O ZONE LEVELS
    The needles were all hovering softly around the number 2 out of a total of 10. At 6 the numbers turned red.
    â€œThere are also some electrical problems,” Mrs. Goring said. “Look to the left of the door, there’s a schematic.”
    I turned and saw a tattered piece of paper about a yard wide with zones and rooms and passageways. There were hazard lines all over it.

    â€œThe lines indicate places where the floor has caved. There’s a lot of electricity pumping through the water in those holes. Keep your friends clear.”
    When I turned back in the direction of the monitors, Mrs. Goring’s face had returned. She’d moved from being only heard to being seen again, which had an unexpectedly calming effect on my nerves. Seeing her made me feel closer to the surface, closer to getting out alive.
    â€œLook familiar?” she asked.
    Part of me wanted to put my fist through the glass surface of the screen. She was staring at me like she held all the cards and knew it. And she was referring to the room she was in, which did look familiar. She was standing in the bomb shelter. Obviously she had more control over those monitors than I’d had a year before. My guess? There was a hidden panel of buttons I hadn’t been aware of, controls she would now use to communicate with me at the times of her choosing.
    â€œSo you don’t see a problem with one or more of the six people you sent down here falling in a hole and getting fried?”
    â€œNot really, no.”
    â€œIs there a chance someone might find a drum of atomic sludge?”
    â€œOnly if they open the wrong doors, and you control the doors.”
    That was interesting. Apparently I controlled the locks on the doors, which meant I could also limit where everyone could go.
    â€œAny bombs down here?” I asked, moving in closer to the monitor, trying my best to remain calm while I searched the space around her head for anything that might help me get out of an abandoned missile silo.
    â€œThey’ve all been dismantled, but some of the parts are still down there. Someone much smarter than you might even be able to piece something together if they had the right tools.”
    Yeah , I thought. And shove it down your throat.
    â€œAnd you think I’m just going to agree to help you find these vials?”
    â€œIt’s your call, Will.”
    â€œAnd it’s your war with this guy, not ours.”
    â€œI’ll find someone else to do it if you won’t. But your friends won’t last long without your help. There are a lot of wrong turns down there. I know the right turns; the ones that will keep them alive.”
    I yelled at her and fell heavily