by Jack Heath
You step off the ladder, only to discover that the ground isn’t solid. Splash! You’re standing knee-deep in foul-smelling water.
Kye climbs down the ladder after you. ‘Worst day ever,’ he grunts.
You’re about to agree when someone screams in the maintenance room above.
‘Down!’ Alhamed roars. Then he kicks the hatch closed, separating you and Kye from the rest of the group.
The water laps quietly against the walls of the tunnel.
‘What do we do now?’ Kye whispers.
If you run up the sewer tunnel to find a way out and get help, Click Here.
If you wait a minute and then try to sneak back through the hatch to help the others, Click Here.
‘Yaaargh!’ Bellowing like a tenth-century warrior, you sprint towards Miss Scarlet.
Her eyes widen in astonishment. It takes her a second to recover—a second too long. You’re already throwing yourself at her.
Wham! You knock Miss Scarlet off her feet and both of you hit the concrete, hard. It’s not like tackling someone on the sports oval—every part of you hurts.
The laser pistol goes flying. It lands on the rooftop a couple of metres away. Just out of reach.
‘You’ve ruined everything!’ Miss Scarlet screams.
Still on the ground, she lashes out at you. You raise your arm just in time to protect your face.
She’s an experienced criminal. You’re just a kid. Can you really hold her off until the cops get here?
Maybe—if you had the laser gun.
If you reach for the weapon, Click Here.
If you try to hold Miss Scarlet down, Click Here.
‘How are we going to get out of the building?’ you ask, climbing down the ladder after Alhamed.
You find yourself in a gloomy maintenance room. Wrenches and screwdrivers dangle from grimy hooks. A withered mop leans in the corner next to an empty bucket. A forgotten mobile phone sits on a wooden bench beside a first-aid kit.
‘You’re not going to like it,’ Alhamed says.
He is unlocking a steel hatch in the corner of the floor. A stamp on the lid reads CAUTION: SEWER.
‘You’re kidding,’ you say.
Alhamed lifts the lid. A foul smell washes over you. It’s like visiting the tip on a forty-degree day.
You cover your mouth and nose. ‘There must be another way out.’
Alhamed shrugs. ‘You could stay here with the robbers,’ he suggests. ‘But I wouldn’t, if I were you.’
‘Why not?’ you ask.
‘You might survive until they turn on the device,’ Alhamed says.
‘You mean the bomb?’
‘Well, it’s not exactly a bomb. It will send a signal to make all mobile phone batteries explode. They’re the bomb. You probably don’t want to stick around for that.’
He must be kidding.
‘But . . . everyone has a mobile phone!’ you exclaim.
‘Exactly. We have to stop them. But the cops won’t cut the power to the building until they know we’re safe.’
Kye is climbing down the ladder. ‘What is that smell?’ he demands.
‘That’s your way out. Grab that first-aid kit. And you’—Alhamed points at you—‘take that torch. We’ll need it.’
You pick up the torch off the workbench and hook it into your belt. Kye snatches up the first-aid kit.
The other hostages are climbing out of the vent into the maintenance room. Alhamed gestures to the hatch. ‘In you get.’
Grumbling, you clamber down another slippery ladder into the foul-smelling shadows. You try not to breathe.
You step off the ladder and splash into stinky, knee-deep water. Mysterious blobs float past.
You can’t wait to get home and take a long, hot shower.
Kye climbs down after you. ‘Smells like my brother’s room,’ he grunts.
You’re trying not to laugh when a scream rings out from above.
‘Down!’ Alhamed roars. Then he kicks the hatch closed.
You and Kye are now on your own in the sewer, with no idea what’s happening up in the maintenance room.
The water gurgles and hisses around your legs. Slime drips from the walls of the tunnel.
‘What now?’ Kye hisses.
If you run up the sewer tunnel so you can find a way out and get help, Click Here.
If you wait a minute and then try to sneak back through the hatch to help the others, Click Here.
You let go of Miss Scarlet, scramble to your feet and run to the fallen laser pistol. It’s only a few steps away.
Miss Scarlet doesn’t chase you. She doesn’t even get up.
You snatch up the pistol. It’s surprisingly heavy. The grip is cold against your palm. You’re not sure how to fire it, but that doesn’t matter. It’s just supposed to be a threat.
You whirl around to face Miss Scarlet, and raise the laser gun. ‘Stay back!’
She still hasn’t gotten up, but she’s pulled an object out of the pouch at her waist. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like some kind of miniature remote control—the sort people use to unlock their cars or open their garages.
‘Game over,’ she tells you.
Then she pushes the button.
The laser pistol beeps in your hands.
You look down. The grip is becoming uncomfortably hot. The metal glows. You drop it and turn to run, but—
Kaboom!
THE END.
To try again, Click Here.
‘We need to get out of here and find the police,’ you tell Kye. ‘Come on.’
You slosh up the tunnel away from the ladder. Kye follows you.
It’s too dark to see anything. You flick on the torch and sweep it across the tunnel as you walk. The walls are encrusted with old gunk. The water has a strange silvery sheen.
‘Is that another hatch?’ Kye asks, pointing ahead.
You raise your torch and squint into the distance. There is something on the ceiling, but it’s too far away to be sure what it is.
‘Maybe,’ you say. ‘Let’s go.’
You wade through the water, grimacing. At least it’s not cold. The bacteria must keep it warm, like compost. Gross.
‘Ow!’
You turn around. Kye is clutching his leg.
‘What happened?’ you ask.
‘It’s like . . . something bit me. And it’s still biting me. Ow, ow!’
You run back to Kye. He pulls up his trouser leg. There’s nothing on him.
You scan the dark water. It never occurred to you that something might be living down here. Leeches? Piranhas? Baby crocodiles, flushed down someone’s toilet?
‘It hurts!’ Kye moans. The skin of his leg turns pink, then red—like an ugly rash.
Suddenly you can feel it too. A stinging pain in your shins, as though you’ve walked into the tentacles of a jellyfish. When you look down, you see holes in your trousers—and the holes are getting wider. You rub your legs, to try to brush off whatever is attacking you. The palms of your hands start to sting and turn pink.
‘Run!’ you scream, although you’re not even sure what you’re running from. You both splash through the waste to what you desperately hope is another hatch—
The waste.
. . . designed to eat waste and turn it into more useful materials . . . a few bots somehow got flushed down a drain . . .
You shine the torch on your throbbing hand. A sandy grey substance is stuck to your palm. When you look closely, you can see the tiny grains moving on their own.
‘The escaped nanobots!’ you yell. ‘They’re eating us!’
‘The what?!’ Kye sounds like he thinks you’re losing your mind. But you’re sure you’re right. Alhamed said that some of the escaped nanobots had showed up in a water quality study, but he didn’t say that all of them had been found. If they could build anything, maybe they could multiply by building copies of themselves.
Your skin is bright red and blotchy. Will the nanobots realise you’re not garbage and
stop eating?
You stick your hand in the water and splash it around, trying to wash the nanobots off. It doesn’t work. They hang on tightly with their tiny jaws.
‘Fire!’ Kye says. He pulls a box of matches out of the first-aid kit. ‘We can burn them off!’
Getting burned might be better than being eaten alive, but it will hurt. Maybe there’s another way.
Batteries can cause an electric shock. Instead of matches, perhaps you can use the battery in your phone to short-circuit the nanobots somehow.
If you strike a match, Click Here.
If you start disassembling your phone, Click Here.
Miss Scarlet crawls across the concrete towards the fallen laser pistol, but you grab her legs. She kicks at you with her hard boots. A sharp pain in your chest makes it hard to breathe. Gritting your teeth, you hang on to her legs.
She rolls over, pulling her feet free. Then she clambers towards you and puts her hand on your throat. Your vision goes blurry. She’s choking you.
A cold wind washes over your body. Perhaps that’s what dying feels like.
But no.
It’s the helicopter, sweeping over the top of you.
‘What the—’ Miss Scarlet doesn’t get any further. A dangling hook has caught the hood of her jacket. She screams, terrified, as the helicopter lifts her up into the air. It’s like watching an angler pull a wriggling fish out of the water.
You can breathe again! You roll over, coughing, as the helicopter swings out over the street. Miss Scarlet has grabbed the hook and is holding on tight trying not to fall.
You drag yourself over to the edge of the rooftop and look down. Police officers swarm all over the street below, waiting for the helicopter to lower Miss Scarlet down.
You rest your head on the cold concrete of the rooftop. It’s over.
00:00
You survived! There are thirteen other ways to escape the danger—try to find them all!
You make a shushing gesture at Kye, and then climb slowly and carefully back up the ladder.
You listen from beneath the hatch.
Silence.
You’re not sure what just happened up above. Maybe one of the robbers came into the maintenance room, saw the escaping hostages and attacked them. If so, there’s probably nothing you can do. There are no voices above.
But you can’t just leave them behind.
So you wait. Long enough for the robbers to decide they’ve dealt with the problem. Long enough for them to escort any surviving hostages out of the room.
Long enough to notice that two kids are missing.
The hatch lifts up above your head, bathing you in light. You yelp and try to scramble down the ladder, but you’re too slow. Mr Sharp—the man with the knife tattoo—grabs you by the collar and hauls you out of the hatch. He dumps you on the floor of the maintenance room, next to Alhamed and the other three hostages. All four are unconscious. Mr Sharp grips the laser pistol.
‘Run, Kye!’ you scream.
There’s a series of splashes from below. Kye is fleeing up the sewer tunnel towards safety.
Mr Sharp swears. He doesn’t want to leave you alone, but he can’t let Kye get away. He looks down at the hatch, as though preparing to jump.
If you try to stop him, he’ll have plenty of time to zap you with the laser pistol. But if you don’t, he’ll drop down into the sewer and shoot Kye instead.
If you attack Mr Sharp with the torch tucked into your belt, Click Here.
If you do nothing and let him climb down into the sewer, Click Here.
Kye tosses the matchbox to you. Good decision—he’s hopeless with matches. At his brother’s birthday party, it took him several minutes to light all the candles. You don’t have that kind of time right now.
You dig out a match. Your hands sting. Your legs are in agony still standing in the sewage. Even if you do manage to burn up all the nanobots, you still might die of infection.
With a trembling hand, you strike the match. No spark.
‘Hurry!’ Kye urges.
You strike the match again.
A spark lights up—
KABOOM!
The methane—the horrible-smelling gas in the air—ignites. A fireball explodes outwards from the matchbox—
Click Here.
You scramble to your feet and charge at Mr Sharp, brandishing the torch.
He points the laser pistol at you and pulls the trigger.
Zap!
A bolt of lightning hits you square in the chest.
It tickles. That’s it.
You’re so surprised that you miss a step and almost trip over. The laser gun must be running out of batteries. The charge is so low that it doesn’t even hurt.
You lunge at Mr Sharp, swinging the torch—
But he snatches the torch out of your hand and swats you out of the air like a fly. You hit the ground.
‘Urgh.’ You roll over, joints aching.
Mr Sharp raises the torch, about to bring it crashing down onto you . . .
And then he sneezes.
You stare at him. He sneezes again, blinking furiously. His eyes are watering. He staggers sideways, losing his balance. Then he falls face first onto the concrete floor.
What just happened? You sit up, and suddenly you’re dizzy too. A strange smell lingers in the air, like sizzling oil. Your ears are ringing.
Alhamed’s voice echoes through your head.
. . . they can gas the building through the air conditioning.
The police must have arrived. You can hear stern, authoritative voices echoing from other parts of the building. You pull up your T-shirt over your nose, trying to keep out the gas.
‘Down here!’ you try to shout. But only the ‘Down—’ comes out before you slump sideways onto the floor, asleep.
00:00
You survived! There are thirteen other ways to escape the danger—try to find them all!
‘We can electrify them!’ you yell, and you dig your phone out of your pocket.
‘No, burn them!’ Kye prods you with the matches, as though you simply didn’t hear him the first time.
You ignore him as you rip open your phone case. You can’t just poke the nanobots with the battery. That might shock one or two of them, maybe. But there would still be millions of nanobots ripping at your skin.
‘On the count of three,’ you say, ‘I want you to duck under the water.’
Kye looks aghast. The water is foul. ‘Under it?’
‘Trust me,’ you say, although you’re not sure this will work. ‘One.’ You pull the batteries out of the torch as well. ‘Two,’ you say.
Kye looks torn. He’s probably wondering whether being eaten alive would be better than diving under sewer water.
The nanobots have spread to your knees and wrists. The pain is unbearable.
‘Three!’ you yell. Then you throw the handful of batteries into the air and dive down into the water.
The world goes quiet and dark. You keep your eyes and mouth tightly closed.
The batteries hit the water above your head with a sequence of muffled splashes. You don’t hear them discharge, but you feel the electric shock zap through the water—a sudden but slight tingling in your scalp and your fingertips.
You stand back up, gasping for air. Kye is already up, spluttering and gagging.
‘Did it work?’ he gasps.
You look down at your hand. It still hurts, but the nanobots are gone. Hopefully they released their jaws when they got electrified. Hopefully.
‘I think so,’ you say. ‘But I can’t see. I need light.’
Both of you wade over to a nearby ladder. The thing above is a hatch—or a manhole cover, at least.
You climb the ladder and push upwards. But the cover is too heavy.
‘Help me,’ you grunt.
Kye climbs up beside you. Shoulder to shoulder, you both heave upwards, shoving the manhole cover out of its slot.
You clamber through the gap
into the early morning light. You’re smeared with muck, and your clothes are ripped all over. You must look like a zombie climbing out of a grave. But no-one sees you. The street is deserted. Dust, or maybe ash, blows past you in the breeze.
Kye hauls himself out of the manhole. ‘I have never needed a bath so badly,’ he grumbles.
‘Yeah.’ You examine your skin. Almost all the nanobots are gone. You shake loose the remaining ones, and they fall right off. You’re safe.
‘We have to call the police,’ you say.
Kye digs out his phone and tries to turn it on. Eventually he gives up. ‘The water broke my phone,’ he says. ‘Where is everyone?’
Good question. There are no pedestrians. No traffic noise. All the cars are parked in the middle of the street, empty.
‘We need a phone.’ Kye opens a car door. It’s unlocked. A pile of ash spills out onto the road. A blackened phone lands on top of the pile.
You suddenly feel dizzy. As you stumble, you see the street again—lots of ash. No people.
‘The bomb,’ you whisper.
‘The what?’ Kye asks.
You fall, landing on your backside. It’s too late to call the police. No-one will answer. Everyone with a phone is now dead. If you hadn’t ruined your phone batteries in the sewer, you would be too.
It’s just you and Kye in a quiet, empty world.
00:00
You survived! There are thirteen other ways to escape the danger—try to find them all!
You keep your hands raised and wait for Mr Sharp to climb down into the sewer.
But he doesn’t. He leaves the hatch open and runs over to the workbench. He grabs a hammer and spins it in his hand.
‘What are you—’
He doesn’t let you finish the sentence. He swings the hammer.
You duck. The hammer swooshes by your head.
You scramble past him, but there’s nowhere to go. You’re trapped between him and the workbench.
‘I surrender,’ you yell, holding up your hands. ‘You win!’
After a long moment, Mr Sharp lowers the hammer.
You exhale slowly.
