Free Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman

watching.”
    She was gone in a flash, and the central monitor switched back to a view of the entrance, which seemed to be its resting position when Mrs. Goring wasn’t bothering me with instructions. There I saw Connor and Alex, yelling up into the tube, trying to coax Ben back down to earth.
    â€œThere has to be a way to turn on some audio in there,” I complained.
    I flipped switches and turned dials but there was nothing, just silence from the place where we’d entered, but I did discover something important in all my tinkering. The switches for the cameras swiveled, which I hadn’t realized at first. Each switch had a round knob sitting on the end of a metal rod—the shape and size of half a straw with a marble for a head—and swiveling one to the side like a joystick, the camera whirled slowly into a different position. It was like moving the side mirrors on my mom’s car back home.
    From looking at the map I knew there was a communication station on the other side of the blue door, so if I opened it and Marisa came through with Kate, I could move the direction of the S2 camera and I’d see them both. It was all I could do not to press the large, round button that would send them through, because I knew what I’d have to do once they stepped away from the door.
    I’d have to engage the BLUE LOCKDOWN option and throw the door shut again, sealing them off on the other side.
    My hand hovered over the blue button, big and round, like something the president would push in order to launch a missile attack.
    You have to get her through, Will, I thought. She’s safest on the other side. Just put her through!
    My hand hit the button hard and I felt it click under the weight of my palm.
    Had it worked? Was the door open? I didn’t know for sure until I saw them stepping cautiously through. I saw them on a monitor, slowly inching forward into a long, empty tunnel.
    â€œCan you guys hear me?” I yelled, watching them in the S2 communication feed.
    â€œTake it down a notch,” Kate yelled back. “No need to scream at us.”
    â€œSorry—move away from the door, but not too far. Don’t get near the broken-out flooring.”
    â€œWhy not?” asked Marisa. God, she sounded tired. I knew her well enough to know it was only a matter of time before she slumped down in one of the tubes and passed out for an hour.
    â€œBecause there’s electricity in the water down there. It’s not safe.”
    â€œVery nice, Will!” yelled Kate, but she and Marisa had moved away from the door, peering down into the muck of the first broken-out section. Kate had one of the two flashlights Connor had found and she pointed it down the tunnel in my direction.
    â€œDon’t move, just stay right there,” I said. “And don’t be mad, okay?”
    â€œToo late,” said Kate. But I was talking about what I did next and how angry I expected them to be. I pushed the button marked BLUE LOCKDOWN and heard the door slam shut behind them. Both girls screamed, then they returned to the door and tried to pry it open as Kate cursed me in a long, flowering echo.
    I couldn’t look from the shame of what I’d done, and I found myself staring at the entryway, where Connor and Alex were looking up into the exit, still trying to coax Ben Dugan down. They were waving and yelling, until something shifted in their perspective that made them stop what they were doing and jump out of camera range. About two seconds later I saw what it was: a falling body, which landed in a heap on the tile floor.
    Ben Dugan, with his arthritic hands, had lost his grip. And by the looks of the situation, it had happened quite a way up the ladder. Both Connor and Alex were quickly at Ben’s side assessing the damage, but I only got a brief look at them before the screen fluttered crazily and the feed went dead. I looked at Kate and Marisa and saw that Marisa had slumped