Alligator Action Read Free Page A

staring around at the forlorn ex-lab.
    â€œBecause . . . Number Eight says, “‘One minute from red door.’” And I don’t like the sound of that.”
    Nor did Danny. He checked his watch. “Maybe thirty seconds?” he guessed. “What’s Number Nine?”
    â€œWorking lunch,” whispered Josh, his eyes wide and fearful as he checked his own watch. “Ten seconds to work that out, I think!”
    â€œThere’s no work going on here!” whimpered Danny. “Nothing! Except . . . wait!” He ran toward the little booth with its ancient computer.
    â€œDanny—we’ve got to get out!” said Josh. He could feel something rumbling under his feet.
    â€œI think this could be it!” Danny had found a lunchbox by the computer in the booth—which was shaking. Quite a lot.
    â€œDANNY! COME OUT NOW!” yelled Josh. “Something’s happening! Something BAD!”
    Danny could feel that for himself. The rumbling was getting louder. And there was a hissing and screeching noise joining it. The ground was trembling under his feet.
    â€œ
COME ON! RUN!
” shrieked Josh, hanging on to the doorway as the whole room began to sway.
    Danny wanted to run. But it wasn’t easy. A huge crack had just opened up across the center of the floor.

The crack tore itself open right in front of Danny’s eyes. The earth beneath it seemed to dissolve away. A red glow and a gassy smell rose up from it. Then suddenly—flames leapt up! Danny shrieked. Josh bellowed, “JUUUUUMP! Jump NOW! Before it’s TOO LATE!!”
    Danny was on a little shelf of ground with the computer booth just behind him. The shelf was beginning to crumble away. Incredibly, Petty had built some kind of collapsing pit over a gas fire trap! He had to jump now, or there would be nothing left to jump from. Below him, in the widening chasm, there were hissing and grinding and whining noises. Flames were shooting up higher. He shoved the lunchbox down his shirt, coughing as the gas caught in his throat. It was now or never. Danny jumped.
    He leapt across the fire pit, his arms waving frantically through the air. He crashed into the rough edge of the crumbling floor. He would have slipped into the pit if Josh hadn’t grabbed his wrists and pulled him up. “Come on!” screamed Josh. He looked terrified. And he had every reason to be. The whole room was breaking apart. The old corrugated iron ceiling was shaking and buckling. Dirt and grit cascaded down. As Josh and Danny scrambled back up the tunnel toward the shed, there was a huge
WHUMP
behind them. Glancing back, they saw the roof fall in. Dirt, grit, roots, and old brick tumbled into the flaming pit. Josh and Danny flung themselves through the metal door to the shed, across the wooden floor, and out into the garden. They landed in the tall weeds just as the shed collapsed. It tilted over toward the back and then just fell apart as if it were made of playing cards. The mower and the wheelbarrow stayed put on the floor. The wooden walls and the roof slithered to the ground. Rakes, hoes, and spades tumbled with it. Plastic plant pots bounced across the wreckage.

    Then . . . silence. In the garden, all evidence of what had just happened seemed to evaporate along with a cloud of dust. After a minute, the birds started singing again. Josh and Danny walked carefully across to the shed and peered at the back, where the doorway and the tunnel had once been. Tugging up the collapsed wooden panels, they found the back wall and the red door lying flat. And when they pulled the door up, they found nothing but dirt and grit and rubble beneath it. No sign of any secret passage to an underground lab. Nothing.
    â€œPetty set it to self-destruct,” marveled Josh. “So if anyone went in for longer than a minute . . .
boom
! Everything gone.”
    â€œNot everything,” Danny said. And he pulled a small metal lunchbox