“But aren’t those just for food and goods?”
Gabe nodded. “It’s a risk because the speed is so fast, our bodies may not withstand the stop, but it’s truly the only way I can think of getting thethreeof us inside.”
I raised my eyebrows. “There’s not another way besides potentially crushing ourselves?”
“Yeah,” Jude sarcastically answered. “I like your idea of knocking on the door. Let’s try that and hope I’m not instantly shot dead.”
He wasn’t wrong. Any human—actually anyone—who gets close to Elysium is likely to be a target since the Dogs have been disabled. I’m sure my father has been notified of the shutdown and, by now, is assembling a team to reactivate both locations.
I took the disc Nessa gifted to me and slid it into the port within the car’s dashboard. The car groaned, and a whizzing sound quietly hummed through the silent car. Within a few moments, a sultry woman’s voice sang through the speakers with an upbeat back track.
The song ended, and an infectious wave of laughter erupted from Gabe, shaking his shoulders. “This is the worst song I’ve ever heard.”
“We don’t have music like this in Silvertown, but the people who bang on plastic buckets sound better than this.”
We laughed together, the joyful sound echoing with the music’s rhythm, until the song repeated. Interestingly enough, neither of them turned the song off. I suppose we figured even bad music was better than silence during our drive, a welcome distraction from the fear of a Dog ambush. Approximately ten songs filled the car as we drove along, the catchy tune a soundtrack to Jude’s fingers drumming on the steering wheel.
There was a vast expanse of water in front of us with no bridge in sight. I’d never seen a body of water this close before. A fierce wind roared as we drew closer, the car fighting against the gusts, pushing and pulling at it. As the road plunged into thedark tunnel, the headlights flickered on, cutting a swathe of light through the blackness.
Jude slammed on the brakes, the tires squealing, and the car lurched to a halt. “This was an underground tunnel used for vehicles that led to the city, but it has since caved in. When you get out, don’t be surprised if there’s water underfoot.”
I stowed the gun in the band of my pants and stuffed the cardboard ammunition in my pockets. We exited the car, and a disgusting stench reached my nostrils. The air was damp, with a musty smell clinging to the moisture that soaked my ankles. The lights from the car revealed that the tunnel extended deeper into the earth—we were at a dead end.
Jude popped the trunk and took a shovel out from the back. He moved to the tunnel’s edge and began attacking a jutting pipe with a flurry of blows.
Initially, I thought the oddly shaped piping might be part of a generator, maybe to redirect water in the event of flooding or to safely house electrical wiring, but I was clearly mistaken. Jude used a drill to bore a hole in the pipe while Gabe crouched down, carefully peeling back the sharp metal edges to create a wide enough opening for us to squeeze through.
“We’ll go first,” Gabe explained. “I’ll let the guards in the receiving area know it’s us.” He turned to Jude. “Don’t go directly after us; give me five minutes before you enter. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Jude nodded, and a high-pitched whistling echoed through the busted tunnel. Balancing precariously on the aged pipe, he thrust the shovel downward. “The vacuum suction being disrupted should slow the pod, and putting the shovel in its center should be enough to stop it. Once we have the pod halted, both of you can get inside.”
“You’re saying ‘should’ a lot, does that mean it maynotwork?” I looked into the busted pipe, knowing if I made onewrong move, I’d instantly be dead after the vacuum-sealed tunnel took me.
Before he could answer me, the whistling grew louder. “Here comes the first.”
The shovel’s handle shook back and forth, reverberating as a car-sized metal pod struggled to get by the carefully placed obstruction. Gabe ripped open the door to the pod’s innards and plunged headfirst inside. Within an instant, he threw a flurry of cans of beans, fresh produce, and packaged goods through the air, each with its own distinct collision against the wall behind us.
“You two need to go. The second pod will be coming soon, and we don’t want them to collide.”
Gabe nodded and ushered me inside. “Lie down.”
Carefully, I lowered myself into the cramped pod, noticing that the majority of the remaining goods had been pushed to the front. I inched backward, my body pressing against the boxes, causing them to shift and creak below me. In the darkness, Gabe lowered himself inside, and the clicking of the lock pierced the silence.
“If anything happens, I’ll be crushed, but you’ll be safe,” Gabe whispered. “If that happens, wait for Jude and make sure he gets out of here safely.”
“It won’t happen.” My anxiety was skyrocketing. How are we playing with our lives so easily? There has to be a better way. But here we are. Inside a pod going hundreds of miles per hour in a vacuum-sealed pipe, heading straight to Elysium.
Gabe knocked twice on the metallic pod, the dull thud echoing in the confined space, and we were instantly propelled deeper into the dark, twisting tunnel. We went from zero to a hundred miles an hour in seconds.
“You okay?” Gabe’s voice was shaky. I’d never heard him scared before.
“I’m fine.” A wave of dizziness washed over me as the relentless speed and the horrifying possibility of being crushed threatened to make me vomit.
Until we came to an abrupt halt.
The suction disappeared, and gravity soon became nonexistent. Were we being lifted? The door to the pod hissed open, a blast of harsh, white light revealing two indistinct black shapes hovering above.
“Don’t shoot!” Gabe yelled, his hands above his head. “My name is Gabriel Rodriguez, Captain of the Guard. I have Mr. Asposito’s son with me. I saved him.”
