Alien Disaster Read Free

‘We saw your hot sister running around here before you showed up.’
    Brandon ignored Jason’s question. He was wondering if Gem ran through the cemetery often. ‘You don’t really need to be hiding,’ he said. ‘The probability of—’
    ‘Don’t start boring us with maths,’ Jason warned him. ‘School doesn’t start for three more weeks.’
    ‘But listen,’ Brandon persisted, ‘The chance of—’
    Jason suddenly lunged forward and Brandon hopped to the side to avoid being caught in a headlock. Jason just tried to barge into him instead, and they ended up locked in a wrestling hold, each trying desperately to unbalance the other. Jason was stronger and heavier, but Brandon was quicker with his feet and managed to find a secure footing that would unbalance his opponent. Except when Jason toppled over he brought Brandon down with him, and together they crashed into the mausoleum door head first, breaking it open.
    Brandon and Jason disengaged and picked themselves up off the floor. Brandon pulled off his cycle helmet and threw it down. Jason was rubbing his forehead. Behind the wooden door that they had just demolished was a small space and then another door—this one made of thick reinforced steel.
    ‘Why is there another door?’ Kat asked.
    Brandon looked around and noticed a tiny camera lens just above the doorframe. As he looked up at it, the door made a soft click and opened inwards slightly. ‘The camera recognised my eyeball’s retina pattern,’ he explained, pushing the door open. ‘It’s not a crypt. My mum works here. I need to go in and get something—’
    Jason pushed past him and entered the mausoleum. The inside was floor-to-ceiling steel. Some metal stairs descended into darkness. As Jason started down, strip lighting came on automatically and illuminated his descent. Before he followed, Brandon went back to pick up his bike. It had cost him too much time and money to build to leave outside, even chained up. He carried it down the steps.
    Brandon found Jason about thirty metres underground, in front of another solid-looking door. This one slid open in two halves like a lift door as he approached. As it did so, he could see that it was at least thirty centimetres thick.
    The two boys entered a large underground chamber that had a stone floor and a metal ceiling that was supported by massive beams, also metal. Steel, maybe even titanium, Brandon thought. The space was partitioned into smaller areas by glass walls. There were lots of machines and computers that looked like they had been left on standby. The opposite wall was hidden in darkness.
    The staircase that they had come down had turned back on itself several times, but Brandon had been keeping track and calculated that the vast space before them was directly under the cemetery. He was amazed; he had thought that his mum’s lab was nearer the hospital.
    ‘What does your mum do here?’ Jason demanded to know.
    ‘She’s a doctor. But she doesn’t treat patients much. She does medical research down here all day, I guess. Something to do with genetics. I don’t really know—’
    ‘And what’s so important that you have to get it today of all days?’
    ‘I’m not sure. I didn’t ask,’ Brandon said. Why didn’t he even ask?
    Jason rolled his eyes.
    Kat came down the steps behind them. ‘Wow! This place looks like it would be safe from a nuclear bomb , never mind an asteroid.’
    ‘Actually a big enough meteor could release as much energy as a nuclear explosion,’ Brandon informed her. ‘A meteor is a shooting star: a falling meteoroid. An asteroid is bigger …’
    Brandon trailed off as Jason glowered at him.
    Kat gave Brandon an apologetic smile. Jason started off into the lab and more strip lights flickered on as he explored.
    Brandon checked his map on his phone and headed off in a different direction: to where he assumed his mother’s office was. Kat loitered by the door; she seemed more interested in admiring