Read 25 - Attack of the Mutant for Free Online

LOBBY.
    The door didn’t close. The elevator didn’t move, didn’t hum.
    I pushed LOBBY again. I pushed it five or six times.
    Nothing happened.
    I suddenly had a lump in my throat as big as a watermelon. I really didn’t
want to be stuck down in this dark basement.
    I started pushing buttons wildly. I pushed everything. I pushed a red button
marked EMERGENCY five or six times.
    Nothing.
    “I don’t believe this!” I choked out.
    “Let’s get out and take a different elevator,” Libby suggested.
    Good idea, I thought. There was a long row of elevators up in the lobby.
We’ll just get out of this one and push the button for another one to come down
and get us.
    I led the way out into the dark basement. Libby stayed close behind me.
    “Oh!” We both let out low cries as the elevator door quickly slid shut behind
us.
    “What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why wouldn’t it close before?”
    Libby didn’t reply.
    I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Then I saw what Libby was
staring at.
    “Where are the other elevators?” she cried.
    We were staring at a smooth, bare wall. The elevator that had brought us down here was the only elevator on the wall.
    I spun around, checking out the other walls. But it was too dark to see very
far.
    “The other elevators don’t come down here, I guess,” Libby murmured in a
trembling voice.
    I searched the wall for a button to push to bring our elevator back. I
couldn’t find one. No button.
    “There’s no way out!” Libby wailed. “No way out at all!”

 
 
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    “Maybe there are elevators on the other wall,” I said, pointing across the
huge, dark room.
    “Maybe,” Libby repeated doubtfully.
    “Maybe there’s a stairway or something,” I said.
    “Maybe,” she said softly.
    A sudden noise made me jump. A rumble followed by a grinding hum.
    “Just the furnace starting up,” I told Libby.
    “Let’s find a way out of here,” she urged. “I’m never going in an elevator
again as long as I live!”
    I could feel her hand on my shoulder as I started to make my way through the
darkness. The huge, gray furnace rumbled and coughed. Another big machine made a
soft clattering sound as we edged past it.
    “Anybody down here?” I called. My voice echoed off the long, dust-covered
pipes that ran along the low ceiling above our heads. I cupped my hands around my mouth and called again. “Anybody here? Can anybody hear
me?”
    Silence.
    The only sounds I could hear were the rumble of the furnace and the soft
scrape of our sneakers as Libby and I slowly crept over the floor.
    As we came near the far wall, we could see that there were no elevators over
here. The smooth plaster wall was bare except for a thick tangle of cobwebs up
near the ceiling.
    “There’s got to be some stairs leading out of here,” Libby whispered,
close behind me.
    Dim light shone through a narrow doorway up ahead. “Let’s see where this
leads,” I said, brushing stringy spiderwebs off my face.
    We stepped through the doorway and found ourselves in a long hallway.
Dust-covered ceiling bulbs cast pale light onto the concrete floor.
    “Anybody here?” I called again. My voice sounded hollow in the long tunnel of
a hallway.
    No reply.
    Dark doorways lined both sides of the hallway. I peeked into each door as we
passed. I saw stacks of cartons, tall file cabinets, strange machinery I didn’t
recognize. One large room was jammed with enormous coils of metal cable. Another
room had sheets of metal piled nearly to the ceiling.
    “Helloooooo!” I called. “Helllooooooo!”
    No reply.
    Flashing red lights inside a large room caught my eye. I stopped at the
doorway and stared in at some sort of control panel.
    One wall was filled with blinking red and green lights. In front of the
lights stood a long counter of dials and gears and levers. Three tall stools
were placed along the counter. But no one sat in them.
    No one worked the controls. The room was empty.