Nightmare Academy (42 page)

He stared another moment, and then . . .

Oh,
great . . .

It finally sank in: The computer was executing a program, setting off charges to destroy all the buildings—with
this
building the last on the list.

Elijah could see the exit door, still open. He could still get out of here. He could also see his sister and classmates struggling, crying, trying to get out of the mansion.

I won't
leave you here, Elisha.

He remained seated at the console, staring at the monitor, praying he could figure out how in the world to abort the program. His mind just wasn't clicking.

“Dear Lord Jesus, I need your help—uh, right now. I mean,
really
right now.
Please."

The tunnel went straight through the mountain for hundreds of feet, maybe thousands. There didn't seem to be an end to it.

“Heads up,” said the marshal.

There were faint lights coming the other way.
Click-clack!
Nate heard the marshals chambering rounds in their pistols. He did the same.

“Escapees, no doubt,” Morgan nearly whispered.

They quickened their pace, nearly running, half blind in the dark, heading for those lights. The lights began to waver, dart about. They heard distant, echoing voices of alarm.

Ping PaPing!
A bullet ricocheted off the rock walls while everyone ducked.
BANGangangangangang!!!
The sound of the shot echoed up and down the tunnel. The lights reversed. The “escapees” were turning tail and running.

“Let's go! Let's go! Let's GO!” hollered the marshal.

OOOM . . . oom . . . oom . . . oom.
Another explosion, much closer, much louder.

Britney and Cher both screamed, covering their ears as they huddled in a corner, totally beside themselves. Alexander banged on the stubborn Plexiglas with both fists, roaring in total panic.

Elisha, Rory, and Warren watched through a window as the last dorm building disintegrated in a ball of fire.

“They're going to blow up everything, aren't they?” said Rory.

“Even this building,” Warren added.

From all she had seen and heard in the control room, Elisha could only reach one conclusion. “Yes. I believe they are.”

The clanging of the tools was beginning to subside. The kids were starting to give up.

Elisha felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Joan, all tears. Neither had to say a word; Elisha just held Joan close as Joan wept in remorse.

Another explosion! The concussion pounded the mansion like a drum. The kids flinched, cried, screamed.

The Rec Center was gone, and all the games were reduced to black, burning ash adrift in the wind.

Elijah kept staring at the screen, trying to get his mind to grab hold of something:
Okay, red means the building's blown, green
means it's going to be blown, the numbers counting down mean the
number of seconds and tenths of seconds before each blast . . .

There was a field labeled RESET He clicked on that, but got an error message: PLEASE ENTER RESET QUANTITY.

Reset quantity, reset quantity
. . . what
quantity?

He stared at the columns of numbers not yet counting down.
Come on, come on, what's the relationship? How did they stack the
numbers?

Oh, Lord, don't let it be a logarithm, not today.

The Campus Exchange billowed into the sky, a cloud of splinters, pulverized stone, and shredded Knight-Moore sports clothing and souvenirs.

Nate and Sarah heard the explosion just before they broke out of the tunnel into the daylight, and now they could see the smoke through the trees, filling the valley below. The marshals fanned out, giving chase to unknown people—men and women in business attire carrying briefcases and valises, running in all directions through the forest. By the way those people were struggling, slipping, and tripping through the brush in their dress shoes and high heels, it seemed they wouldn't get far.

A trail led from the tunnel entrance, and up ahead, through the trees, Nate, Sarah, and Morgan could see the towering white walls of a huge mansion. They ran for it.

BOOM!
Another structure went up in a ball of fire and smoke. They heard bulldozers in the valley scraping, rolling, squeaking.

Morgan started crashing down the hill through the trees, shouting at the marshals, “Stop those bulldozers! Stop them!”

Then Nate and Sarah heard something else: a low, close-tothe-ground snuffling, then a snorting. Some bushes rustled. Some twigs snapped.

Nate raised his pistol, aiming it in the direction of the noise.

There was a growl, the pounding of big feet. They saw a large, furry form charging through the brush, and then a monstrous head appeared, a roaring bear with glistening teeth.

Nate fired two rounds, then a third.

Sparks exploded from the bear's mouth and chest, and then, a stream of smoke. The big creature began to jerk and jolt like a poorly driven car, until finally it burst out of the bushes and lurched to a stop only a few yards away, hissing and smoking, the growl reduced to garbled radio noise. There was a smell like burning wire. Hydraulic fluid dribbled out on the ground. This bear had steel wheels on his feet.

No time to wonder about it. They ran on.

They saw a large, furry form
charging through the brush, and then
a monstrous head appeared, a roaring bear
with glistening teeth.

The computer monitor was telling Elijah that the cafeteria had just blown up. The numbers next to OFFICE were counting down now. When they dropped down to a certain value, the office building was going to blow.

What value?

He went to the bottom of the list—just three lines down, now—and checked out the building where he and the other kids were this very moment.
Hey!
55.5
seconds! That has to be the
demolition cycle,
55.5
seconds!

He entered that from the keyboard.

ERROR. PLEASE ENTER RESET QUANTITY.

“There's somebody out there!” Jamal shouted, and all the kids ran to the windows.

“There goes somebody else!” said Rory.

Elisha could see green-jacketed marshals running across the front lawn. The kids raised a ruckus, banging on the windows, yelling, screaming.