"Get off me, you little monsters!" she shouted good-naturedly.
Her shirt rode up during the scuffle and I caught sight of her lower back. Tan, muscled, gorgeous.
She was in better shape than me. By far.
"Let's get more blankets," Niko said. "And do another layer. Then I want to see if there's some plywood and make it more sturdy."
I wiped the sweat off my head and the air felt nice and cool on my forehead. It made me realize something and the something hit me like a fist in my gut.
"The AC," I whispered. Then I shouted, "The AC!"
The AC was on. The huge industrial AC unit was sucking in the air from outside. It was why we all felt so nice and cool after working so hard.
"Son of a bitch," Niko said.
CHAPTER FIVE
INK
"Where's the main controls?" Niko asked Astrid. "Do you know from when you worked here?"
"There's some kind of security office in the back," she stammered. "In the storeroom."
The little kids clung to Astrid so she stayed behind while the rest of us raced with Niko toward the back of the store.
We headed through two giant metal double doors into the storeroom.
It was dark back there. Most of the storeroom was filled with crashed-over boxes and toppled shelving units. Lots of smells mixed together: fruit juice, ammonia, electricity, dog food.
Set into the back wall were two giant loading bays, each with two huge metal doors.
I hadn't even considered that there would be loading bays but of course there would be. Safety gates had come down over the huge doors, just like up front.
To one side of the big, cavernous space was a booth with the words Operations Center on the door. It had had glass walls before the earthquake, but now it just had glass debris scattered everywhere.
"Bingo," said Brayden, king of stating the obvious.
The door to the Operations Center was locked but since the glass in the door had been smashed to pieces, Niko just ducked through the jagged-edged door.
There was a row of security cameras, seeing into every corner of the store, though most looked focused on the Media Department.
"This is awesome," Brayden murmured. He pointed. "Look, you can see into the women's changing rooms!"
"Focus, Brayden," said Jake. "We need the controls for the AC."
Alex pointed. There were four panels, built into the wall. One controlled the solar harvest system on the roof. The function lights were steady green, which confirmed what we already knew: We had power.
One was about the gates. A flashing override message read, "Remote Trigger—Riot Gates." And one had to do with water pressure. That seemed fine.
And there was the one we needed: AC.
We all scanned the panel.
It was all numbers and zones. Percentages and lots of icons that were impossible to decipher. One looked like a lightning bolt. Another looked like an upside-down smiley face. One looked like someone mooning you, I'm not kidding. It was a totally indecipherable.
"Oh man," Alex said anxiously.
Brayden started pressing elements on the flat screen randomly.
"Don't—" Alex started, but Brayden cut him off.
