Heaven's on Fire || Robin Buckley

Chapter Six

"I'm in." Erica's voice rung over the radio. Haven and the others were sitting on the roof of the mall, once again overlooking the delivery hub, which was now free of any guards.

Steve sighed under his breath, relieved, as the doors to the secret room were opened, the young girl standing with her arms on her hips.

"Free ice-cream for life!" she called up to them.

So, there they were, standing in the box-filled room, staring down at an Imperial Panda box that was full of what was most definitely not Chinese food. Steve reached into the space, turning the handle jarringly and pulling the lid away.

"Uh, maybe you guys should just stand back," he said to the others. Robin and Erica stepped backwards willingly, but Dustin and Haven didn't budge.

"No," Dustin shook his head.

"Just step back, okay?"

"No."

"Step back, seriously!"

"No!" Dustin yelled, causing the others to look to him in surprise. "If you die, I die."

Steve just stared, looking to Haven with incredulity, but she merely nodded her agreement with the younger boy.

"Okay," Steve sighed.

Reaching into the box once more, he turned and pulled the handle of a smaller container, bringing it into everyone's view.

"What the hell?"

The tube was filled with a bright green substance that looked, to Haven, toxic. There was no way it was safe to be around. Before she could voice her concerns, however, the room shuddered abruptly.

"Was that just me, or did the room move?" Dustin voiced.

"Booby traps," the Sinclair girl whispered, showing the first emotion other than arrogance that any had heard from her.

"You know what," Robin reached forward, taking the tube from Steve's hand, "let's just grab that and go."

Dustin ran to the control panel, pressing the button to open the door. When it didn't work, he turned to Erica for help. Haven blocked out their arguing as they got louder, realising that the door wasn't going to open. They were stuck. She shut her eyes tightly, sighing in resignation as she processed the situation. They really were in deep shit.

The yelling stopped as the room shook again, this time more violently. Haven's eyes flew open, a scream flying to her mouth as her stomach dropped. They were falling. The room was falling.

Screaming filled her ears, and she fell into the wall closest to her, attempting to steady herself as they dropped rapidly.

The screaming came to an abrupt stop as the room jolted to a halt. Steve flew to the ground under a heap of boxes and Robin fell directly on top of Haven, both of them dropping to the ground.

"Ow," Haven rubbed the back of her head, soothing the spot that had slammed into the wall behind them.

"My groin," Steve groaned from the other side of the room. "It fell on my groin. Dustin! Get this off of me."

"Is everyone okay?" Haven asked, her voice wobbly. She tried her best to ignore Robin's body pressed against hers and was thankful when the freckled girl moved to stand, offering her a hand up.

"Yeah, I'm great now that I know Russians can't design elevators!" Steve shouted. He stood at the control panel, once again pressing the buttons aggressively.

"I think we've clearly established those buttons don't work."

"They're buttons! They have to do something!"