Free Boy X by Dan Smith

use it. Come on, let’s do this and get out of here.’
    Isabel focused on the trigger device in her shaking hand. The white glow continued to move in a ‘Z’ shape across the screen with the word CONFIRM along the top. It repeated the pattern, waiting for Isabel to trace it, but she couldn’t get her thumb to move.
    â€˜ Do it, ’ Ash said.
    It was their only hope. The only way they were ever going to get out. The only way to help his mum and Isabel’s dad. The only way to stop Pierce from taking Kronos off the island.
    Millions will die.
    â€˜I can’t,’ Isabel said. ‘I can’t move.’ Her voice wavered in panic.
    The banging continued, echoing through the corridors. It was growing louder and more terrifying with every passing moment. Thorn was like an angry caged beast, and with every second he was coming closer to escape.
    Isabel was struggling to keep the device still, her whole hand jittering about. Ash put his own trembling hands around Isabel’s, his thumb over the top of hers, and looked into her eyes.
    They would do it together.
    Unable to cover his ears, Ash prepared himself for thepainful noise and began to count. ‘One.’
    The banging continued. Clang! Clang! Over and over again.
    â€˜Two.’
    â€˜Three.’ Ash pushed Isabel’s thumb onto the touchscreen and together they traced the ‘Z’.
    The effect was instantaneous.

22 hrs and 42 mins until Shut-Down
    T he HEX13 exploded with a tremendous BOOM ! The floor trembled as the sound and shock wave expanded from the lobby. Even where Ash and Isabel had taken cover, up two flights of stairs and all the way at the end of the corridor, something in the air changed. The oxygen was drawn away, making it impossible to breathe, and then it was sucked back in a blast of warm, scorched gases.
    A sharp pain stabbed through Ash’s head as it was filled with the sound of the explosion, but in an instant everything went blank and he could hear nothing at all. At his feet, the fluorescent lamp wobbled and toppled over. Dust filled his nostrils and coated his mouth.
    He doubled up, pressing his forehead to the ground. He had tried to push the sound away as he had managed to push away the smell of blood, but he had failed. The noise of the explosion had been too much for his heightened senses. It was as if his skull were being crushed in a vice. He didn’t care about anything now; couldn’t think about Mum or Isabel. It didn’t matter that Thorn was coming or that Pierce and Cain might escape with Kronos . In that moment – right then – Ash wanted nothing more than to die.
    He felt Isabel put an arm around his shoulder and hold him, leaning her head against his and giving him a gentle shake.
    Ash remained still, face contorted, as the pain began to subside.
    Isabel shook him again, making him turn to look at her, and he realized she was speaking to him.
    He watched her, seeing her lips move, but hearing nothing. Instead, he felt a cold fear wash over him. Goosebumps tingled down his back and across his scalp, popping to the surface of his skin like tiny explosions.
    He couldn’t hear.
    In panic, he put his fingers into his ears and waggled them.
    Isabel spoke again, deep concern in her expression as Ash took his fingers from his ears and looked at the blood smeared across them.
    â€˜I can’t hear.’ He held his hands out for Isabel to see the blood. ‘ I can’t hear. ’
    Isabel slung the satchel over her back, grabbed the light and took hold of Ash, pulling him along the corridor.
    Ash stumbled along behind her in a daze, shaking his head, trying to banish the pain from his ears. His joints hurt too, and his muscles were aching, but as they moved along the corridor he began to feel better, and by the time they pushed through the doors at the end of the passage he actually felt strong . The pain in his head had faded to a dull throb and his joints