“HELLO?” I CALLED out.
Marco swung his torch into the room. It was nearly the size of a gymnasium, and totally empty. Bare walls, stretching out on all sides. “Nothing,” he said.
Aly leaned in. “All this for a bare room?”
I took the torch from Marco and held it to my right. “Yo! Anyone in here?”
Cass, Aly, and Marco followed close behind. The echo made our footfalls sound like an army. The Song of the Heptakiklos was pounding in my head now. “It’s deafening now,” I said. “That song. The thing has got to be near.”
“Maybe the Loculus is underground,” Aly said.
Marco stomped on the floor. The thumps echoed loudly. “It’s hard packed. We’ll need tools.”
A loud sssssshish went from left to right. “Yeow!” Aly screamed. She fell to the ground, cupping her hand over her left ear.
“What happened?” I said.
“I think I’ve been shot!” she said.
We all dropped beside her. “By what?” Cass asked.
“Let Dr. Ramsay take a look.” Marco pulled her hand away from her head. Her palm was covered with blood, but he used the edge of his tunic to wipe gently at her ear. “You’re lucky. It just grazed you.”
“What just grazed me?” Aly said. “Owww!”
I moved the torch to the left. Nothing and no one. I moved it to the right, in the direction the whooshing sound had gone. Floor and wall. I crouched, slowly standing up.
Ssshhhhhish! Ssshhhhhish! Ssshhhhhish!
I felt something whiz by my ear. My shoulder. My chin. “Get down!” Cass shouted.
His voice caromed around the room as I dropped back to the ground. “What’s going on?” Aly shouted.
I looked at the wall for a hole, some indication of an inner room, where someone could take potshots through a crack in the surface.
But I saw nothing. Whatever was shooting at us was completely invisible.
“Stay low,” I said. “The shots happen when we stand up.”
“J-Jack, we need to get out of here,” Cass said.
“Crawl,” I said.
We dragged ourselves slowly toward the door, keeping close to the dusty floor. But the song was boxing my ears, telling me where to go.
In the back . . .
“Guys, we need to head to the rear wall,” I said.
“Are you nuts?” Aly snapped. “With you and what armor?”
“Maybe we can do it if we keep low,” I said, veering off in that direction.
“Got your back,” Marco said.
I held the torch high. As Marco and I pulled ourselves like turtles across the floor, Cass and Aly looked on in silent dismay. The song grew louder. “We’re almost there,” I said to Marco.
“You mark the place,” he said. “Then we’ll get some picks and shovels.”
My nose began to twitch. I sneezed. Then Marco did, too. My eyes stung and began to tear, and I stopped to wipe them with my sleeve.
That was when I heard a low, persistent hiss . . .
“I—I can’t breathe!” Cass cried out. Behind him, Aly was coughing.
Marco collapsed to the floor, his hand over his mouth. “Gas . . .” he said.
I could see the tendrils of smoke now, but my eyes were swelling. They rose upward, collecting at the ceiling. “Stay low!” I said.
I was losing consciousness. Coughing. I put my hand over my mouth, as close to the floor as I could go without biting it. I tried to suck in something that felt like oxygen.
Now.
With my last burst of strength, I reached out to Marco and yanked him back. Toward the doorway. Toward air.
With the strength remaining in his legs, Marco pushed hard against the floor. We tumbled over each other in a tangle of limbs, bowling into Cass and Aly. Both of them were choking, holding their necks.
I was still positioned farthest into the room. I pushed the other three toward the door. My vision was clouding, and I could feel myself losing consciousness. A breeze from outside wafted in and I gulped it down as best I could.
“Breathe . . .” I said. “Almost . . . there . . .”
An image flashed through my brain, something I’d seen on a flight with Dad to Boston: an airline flight attendant with an oxygen mask, smiling placidly, tying the mask around her mouth. Secure your own mask first, before attending to children.
I was losing it. Having ridiculous hallucinations. I ignored this one, preparing to push my friends again.
And then I stopped.
I knew what that image was about. I had to get the fresh air first. Because I was the one who could. I was one who had some strength left, who had not breathed as much gas as the others. If I could revive myself, just a little, maybe I could save them.
I scrambled around the clutch of bodies, their three backs jerking up and down with racking coughs. Rising upward, I froze.
Stay down.
The bullets—or darts, or arrows, or whatever they were.
I dropped to a crouch. But nothing had been fired. Had the shooter gone away? Or run out of ammo?
Or was he lying in wait, trying to fake me out?
I crab-walked toward the door, gulping in air. Carefully I set the torch down, just outside the door. In that position, it would keep the vizzeet away and also provide light. I would need two hands for what I had to do. I could see Marco struggling to drag Cass and Aly toward the door. Good. He was reviving, too.
My body was cramped, my lungs tight. I breathed again. I had a little more strength, I could feel it. This would have to do.
I turned toward my friends, ready to pull them to safety. But the room began to shake. From above came a heavy metallic sound. The bare ceiling cracked in a couple of places. With a resounding clang, the entire floor bounced.
I fell backward. As I hit the floor I spun toward them again. I reached forward, focused on their rescue.
But my hand jammed against something hard. Metallic. Something I could feel but not see.
Gripping Cass’s tunic in one hand and Aly’s in the other, Marco lunged for the door. But his body seemed to freeze in midair and he cried out in agony, abruptly falling to the floor.
I reached forward, grabbed his arm, and pulled. I could only get a few inches before something stopped me. Dropping Marco, I felt around desperately, my hand traveling up and down what felt like metal bars—but looked like thin air.
I held one of the bars and shook. But it was useless.
Cass, Aly, and Marco were trapped in an invisible cage. And I was on the outside.