The Cold Core

Part 3

11

I thought the earthquake in the Spires was the worst shaking I could ever experience in my life. I was wrong. This one was a thousand times worse. The entire ITE building was shaking so violently that the walls were starting to crack. Matt, Izzy, Ruby and I all fell face first onto the ground.

We struggled to our feet and looked around. People were screaming everywhere, running around, trying to leave the site. Somehow, within a few minutes, almost everyone was gone. We were pretty much the last ones left in no time. Honestly, how are some people so strong and fast in such terrifying circumstances? All the inventions around us were tumbling out of their bulletproof casings and off their platforms. All of the cars were rolling off the platforms and crashing into each other. The bike with all the guns had toppled over and the other bikes were jumping up and down so much that the pieces were literally flying off. The other plane next to the Red Rocket was hit the worst, having literally flown off the platform and hitting the roof. The cockpit was shattered and the wings were destroyed.

"GET IN!" We all turned to see Ruby getting into the Red Rocket. The door was open and she was halfway in. "She's titanium. She can handle this quake. Come on!"

Matt and Izzy were already halfway there. I knew I had no other choice, so I reluctantly followed my two friends. Before I got in I looked around. Pillars were tumbling down all around us. The once beautiful aeroplane hangar was now in absolute chaos. Inventions littered the ground everywhere I looked. The beautiful modified cars were now completely demolished – even a professional demolisher could never do such damage to a vehicle. A massive crack was starting to form on the ground at the far end of the room and was quickly expanding and moving towards us.

"OI!" I turned to see an angry Ruby facing me inside the cockpit. "SHUT. THE. DOOR!"

No matter how mad I was at her, I couldn't ignore that tone and scrambled inside the plane. Now, that week had been full of surprises and I thought I was prepared for anything. The interior of the Red Rocket immediately proved me wrong. It felt like I was standing inside a TARDIS – it actually looked bigger on the inside compared to the chaotic outside. At the back, there was a hatch in the middle leading presumably to the weapons controller. There were also a couple of doors leading to the tail end of the plane – probably the rooms for long trips, I thought. Where I was standing seemed to be a sort of dining area – there was a dining table with five chairs around it in front of me in the middle of the aisle and a mini fridge next to it. A ramp that split a staircase into two ran down to the cockpit, which was where everyone else was stationed. The window we had seen from the outside was enormous from the inside, and was darkly tinted, which was strange, seeing as this plane needed to take off soon. There were two armchairs in front of the main control deck – probably for trips where two pilots were needed, I hoped – with three others littering behind them. Judging by the extremely thin gaps in the ground that seemed to create a sort of path, I assumed that the chairs could be moved around at the seater's wish. I went and sat down on the one next to Izzy, who was in the middle. Matt had taken the one to the left of Ruby, who was now furiously punching and toggling buttons and dials on the control panel, muttering to herself things like, "flaps are down", "engines need more time to reboot – stupid me", and "need to get out".

"Are we any closer to getting out of here?" I asked cautiously.

Ruby turned to Matt and said, "Did he say something?"

Matt rolled his eyes and reiterated, "He asked if you can get the plane started."

Ruby grunted. "I'm trying!"

There was a huge BANG from above us – it seemed one of the beams holding the top floor up had collapsed.

"We don't have much time!" Izzy cried. "The top floor is gonna fall!"