The Mars Experience

Chapter 19: Athena's POV

It has the logo, a blue square colliding with a green hoop. That logo haunts me. I think about it, at the top of the paper I signed so carelessly, and now plastered on a dark-green, military-like bunker.

I scan my options. If I go in, I could be killed, or worse. They could be killed. There might be secrets lurking there, or just be an incredible waste of time. It's a gamble. It has the Arizona logo, though, and we're far past the borders. Why would they need to put it here, hidden?

Hugo walks up to me. "Good odds," he whispers, and I know exactly what he means. They wouldn't have had a chance to build a trap. I nod.

"We should go in," he asserts, this time directed to the whole group. I can't risk them getting hurt again.

"I'm going in," I tell them. "You guys stay out here with Apollo."

Hugo grabs my arm. "Are you insane? There's no way we're letting you do that."

"You've done enough for me."

Donna opens her mouth to say something, then looks over each and every one of us, stopping at me. "If you go in and get yourself killed, Conner died for nothing," she says. She doesn't even bother to wait for an answer before walking towards the vast field of short, yellowed grass.

We look around the premise, but can't find a door.

"There has to be a way in," says Donna.

I hurl myself against the walls, just to have Donna pull me back. They're hiding something. People don't make secret entrances for nothing. Something has to budge. Right. Something has to budge.

"Donna, feel for a weak spot!" We frantically rub our hands against the warm steel surface, trying to find any sort of nook. I feel something crunch beneath my feet. "Do you hear that?"

We both dive to the ground, feeling along the flawed patches of grass. A hollow noise, similar to a knock on wood. Donna finds a thin string on the ground that looks like a shriveled up worm. No one in their right minds would touch that willingly. We pull on it, revealing an immense, dark stairway. It looks like it leads into the abyss.

A plethora of things could be in there, most likely being able to kill us. Donna's fingers graze the top of the rough wooden board that managed to keep this place hidden. Although she hesitates, she steps inside. I close the door behind us.

It's pitch black and smells of bodily fluid. "Try to find a light switch," Donna tells me.

"Really?" I mock. "I thought we were just chilling here." I don't know what I was expecting her to do, but she laughs. After struggling for a while, I remember the glow-in-the-dark bracelet I got from a fundraiser run. "Here, we can use this." I show her the faint neon green light. It's not good, but it's enough to see where we're going.

With a wall covered in enormous flatscreens, it all looks exactly like an evil scientist's lab. It is an evil scientist's lab.

There are even huge beakers with green, purple, and orange bubbling liquids in the middle of a room, control panels underneath them. Further inside, we find a computer.

In contrast to all the high-end technology, the desktop model is old and dusty. It has the vintage, box TV shape I'd only ever seen before in movies and tons of wires attached to it.

Donna and I jog up to it and I anxiously click on the space bar.

"Careful not to break it!" Donna whispers.

It's password protected. "Do we just try something random?" I ask.

"No. There might be a limit on incorrect password entries. Hugo's good with computers, maybe he can code our way out of this."

We run to the staircase, soft rubber soles creaking against the metal. The trapdoor opens. Donna and I sprint back to hide behind the orange beaker and I shove the bracelet in my pocket.