HEART OF ICE

CHAPTER 28

The solid floor underneath us suddenly opened. The square of concrete split into halves. For a startling second after that there was only air. Then, there was the hard surface of another floor. It groaned when we hit it. A single channel of pale light poured out of the enchanted opening above us. It lit a choking cloud of bitter soot that swelled upward around us.

Dizzy and coughing on the ashy dust, I pushed myself onto my knees. My eyes burned as I tried to make sense of where we were. I counted twelve names around me. Robert had fallen through, pulled by the rest of us. His decent had accidentally towed Baron and Gerald through. Everyone was scattered around the shaft of light. I could hear gasps and coughs and then moans of pain. I could also hear something else-a sound that had started faint but was very quickly getting louder and louder. It was coming from all around us.

"Where are we," Moe asked with a tired groan.

"Umm, what is that sound," asked Alejandra.

I saw Ariana look at her leader, fear visible in her eyes. "Chase?"

He sat up slightly on his side. I think he was about to answer her. The noise around us reached its climax. All of us were looking into the darkness, trying to find its source. I felt a tremor in the floor under my hands. A surge of adrenaline and fear suddenly rushed through my body.

"Oh, snap," I said softly.

All at once, the floor we had landed on gave way. The weakened structure imploded into an open passageway below. We sank into the shower of debris with a chorus of panicked shouts. None of us fell far. Another floor was waiting to catch us. It wasn't any stronger than the first. The dirty, brittle surface was already coming apart by the time we started landing on it. A long, jagged crack stretched like a stiff vein across it. It opened like a piece of paper being torn, just as fast and just as loud-if not louder. The walls on either side of the dying corridor crumbled. Whatever building we were in was collapsing unstoppably around us.

I tumbled toward the cascading debris to my left. I reached out blindly into the rolling clouds of dust, dirt, and ash. I had to try to find something to hold onto, to keep from from falling deeper into the destruction. Fingers brushed my own. It was Alejandra. I looked up to see her, Moe, Orion, and Huron. A light fixture crashed out of the avalanche washing across the sinking floor. The supports underneath our section buckled. With jolt, I felt us drop another level in the smoky place. The violent motion made me look straight ahead again. A short distance away, Gerald, Baron, and Robert's names descended in the sultry, brown and black curtain blanketing the air. Even deeper in the thick smog were Chase and his gang.

I couldn't tell how far away they were or if they were getting closer or farther from us. We didn't seem to be moving for a moment. But that moment was like a heartbeat, fast and fleeting. A new sound flooded the polluted space. It deafened my throbbing eardrums. The thick cloud drowning the dark space was suddenly pulled away like a veil. Dim light enveloped the hazy darkness of the hallway we were in. I looked where the light was spilling in. A hole had opened in the wall. The jagged cavity was moving, growing and spreading across the wrecked facade of the building.

Cracks jumped up the wall to my right, stealing my attention from the hole at the front of the corridor. "Oh, snap," I shouted just before the floor we had landed on buckled. Only, this time we didn't fall straight down. The expanding hole had also been growing downward. The entire hallway split open and began to tilt.

"Grab onto something," I yelled as we started to slide and roll toward the opening.

Baron, Gerald, and Robert struggled to get on their feet and run toward us. It was a losing battle against the steepening angle of the dying floor. Gerald reached out as he lost his balance. I leaned forward, falling onto my chest. My fingers found his wrist as we slid down the dirty slope. Cold wind gusted up at us relentlessly. It wasn't strong enough to stop us from moving. But then, all of a sudden, my motion halted. Fingers tightened around my ankles. It was Alejandra again. She was being held by Moe who was being held by Orion who had a hold of one of Huron's legs. The taller dwarf had grabbed onto the rogue light fixture that had become wedged into a space between the wall and floor.