10 minutes of danger, p.1
10 Minutes of Danger, page 1
CONTENTS
Asteroid
Spider Bite
Rogue Machine
Crushed
Bad Dog
Killer Car
Spinning Death
Poison Spray
Jellyfish
Snapped Cable
Tsunami
Volcano
Air Vent
Smoke Storm
Blocked Waterslide
Thin Ice
Secret Room
Flight Chamber
Vanishing Base
The Brain
ASTEROID
10:00
The technician burst into the observation chamber, eyes wide, hair all over the place. ‘Mrs Prost!’
Finally, Dodi thought, things are getting interesting.
Prost, the chief astronomer, peered over her frameless glasses at the technician. ‘I’m with a school group.’
The technician ignored the six kids hanging around the giant telescope. ‘It’s an emergency! We’ve spotted a NEO!’
Dodi was thrilled. So far, the excursion to the observatory had been pretty lame. They had seen a model of the solar system, listened to a lecture about radio waves, and finally reached the giant telescope—but they weren’t allowed to touch it, and as the shortest kid in the group, Dodi could barely even see it over everyone else’s shoulders.
‘What kind of emergency would happen here?’ she whispered to Theo, before remembering that Theo wasn’t there. He’d asked her to cover for him while he snuck off to the vending machine. Theo was always hungry, and his pockets usually bulged with snacks.
‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ Prost straightened her lab coat and waved the technician away.
He didn’t leave. ‘We’re expecting an impact event!’
That got the astronomer’s attention. ‘What?! When?’
‘Not sure. The computer’s still calculating. Within days.’
‘Excuse me, children.’ The astronomer and the technician hurried out of the room.
Dodi’s teacher, Mr Lingday, looked up from his phone, blinking like he’d just woken up. ‘Uh, what just happened? Where’s Mrs Prost?’
‘Weren’t you paying attention?’ one kid teased.
‘I think we get to go home,’ someone else suggested.
‘To heck with that,’ Dodi exclaimed. ‘This is just getting good!’ She dashed into the corridor, texting Theo at the same time: Dude! Where are you??? Stuff is happening, FINALLY!
09:02
The rest of the class followed her out. This was typical. Dodi didn’t have the patience to wait for other people to decide what to do, so she always acted first, and then the others copied. She guessed that was ‘leadership’.
The astronomer and the technician were headed down a flight of stairs. Dodi gave chase. Soon she was close enough to overhear their urgent conversation:
‘How big is the NEO?’
‘Fifty-six metres across.’
‘Fifty-six?! How come we hadn’t catalogued that?’
‘I don’t know. It just appeared out of nowhere, on a collision course with Earth.’
‘What’s it made of? Are we looking at an airburst?’
Collision course with Earth. As the other kids caught up to her, Dodi’s excitement turned to unease. ‘
What’s a NEO?’ she whispered.
Violet, a pink-haired girl, was already looking it up on her phone. If there was an Olympics for Googling, Violet would be a gold medalist. ‘Near-Earth Object,’ she read out.
‘And airburst?’
Violet tapped the screen. ‘When something explodes in the atmosphere instead of hitting the ground.’
08:47
Dodi was relieved. ‘That doesn’t sound too bad.’
Actually, it sounds very bad. Apparently airbursts trigger “dangerous tidal, seismic, electrical and animal activity”. Also, fire.’ Violet held up her phone. Dodi couldn’t read the text, but she could see the picture—a huge ball of flames, flattening a forest.
The astronomer heard their voices and turned around. She looked appalled when she saw that the stairwell was full of students. ‘Hey! You kids shouldn’t be here.’
‘If an asteroid is about to hit the Earth, we have a right to know,’ Dodi said.
‘That information is unconfirmed.’ Prost glared at them. ‘We’ll get the word out as soon as we’re sure.’
‘Great! We’ll help,’ Dodi said. ‘Twenty phones are better than one, right?’
Maybe the astronomer agreed, or maybe she just didn’t have time to argue. She turned and walked into a computer lab to her left. Dodi took that as permission to follow.
The lab was filled with servers and cables, kept cool by roaring fans. Another technician was hunched over a laptop. She looked even more panicked than the first guy, her jaw clenched, eyes bulging in the screen’s glow.
08:35
‘The NEO just collided with a global positioning satellite!’ she cried. ‘The trajectory has changed—we’re expecting impact in seven minutes!’
A gasp rippled through the class. Dodi’s jaw dropped. Did she just say an asteroid was going to hit the Earth in seven minutes?
The first technician looked less and less steady on his feet. The colour had drained from his cheeks.
The astronomer gripped the back of the woman’s swivel chair. ‘Where?’
‘Near the phone tower. Sixteen kilometres west of here.’
‘Sixteen?!’ Prost’s voice rose to a shriek. ‘That puts us right in the blast radius!’
The first technician’s eyes rolled back as he fainted.
Dodi stepped behind him just in time and caught him under the armpits. She’d learned to spot the warning signs, because Theo was a fainter.
07:40
The technician was heavy. ‘Help me!’ Dodi wheezed.
Violet grabbed the technician and together they lowered him to the floor.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ Violet demanded.
‘Not enough blood getting to his brain,’ Dodi said. ‘He’ll be OK now that he’s horizontal.’
But in six minutes, he could be dead, she thought. Along with the rest of us.
Violet said something else, but Dodi wasn’t paying attention. She was listening to the astronomer and the woman with the laptop.
‘Sound the national alert—’
‘Evacuate the building—’
‘Are you kidding? We’ll be fried if we go outside—’
‘The walls won’t take that kind of force. If we stay inside, we’ll be crushed under the rubble—’
‘What about the basement?’
‘This isn’t a tornado! It’s a fifty-six-metre asteroid ready to explode with a thousand times more force than a nuclear warhead—’
Dodi stood. ‘How many people work here?’ she asked.
The scientists ignored her, jabbering at each other like frightened finches.
‘Hey!’ Dodi tapped the astronomer on the shoulder.
‘Zip it, kid,’ the astronomer snapped. ‘We’re dealing with a crisis here.’
06:55
Dodi spoke quickly. ‘The entrance to the car park is too narrow. Only one car can get through at a time. If everyone takes their own cars, they won’t get out of the blast radius in the next five minutes. But we have twelve empty seats on the school bus. How many people work here?’
Prost stared at her, gobsmacked.
‘Fourteen,’ said the technician with the laptop. ‘But only eight are here today’
05:02
‘Great. Get them to the car park as fast as you can.’ Dodi turned. ‘Everyone, follow me!’
She ran out of the lab. The whole class followed her as she dashed up the stairs three at a time, although Mr Lingday looked more confused than ever.
Dodi crashed through the fire door leading to the foyer. As she ran past the models and photos, she hoped she was right about the number of seats on the school bus. She’d had an empty seat next to her, until Theo—
Theo! Dodi skidded to a halt. Violet crashed into her.
‘What?!’ Violet demanded.
‘I forgot about Theo!’ Dodi cried. She couldn’t leave him here—he’d be crushed in the rubble. But if they waited for him, they could all die.
She bit her lip. What to do?
‘Get to the car park,’ she said to Violet. ‘I’ll be back with Theo by the time everyone is on the bus.’
‘Where are you going?’ Violet demanded, but Dodi was already running back towards the bank of lifts, where Theo had spotted the vending machine.
04:40
Her heart pounded as she sprinted past the ticket office and up a wheelchair ramp. She’d been friends with Theo forever. But if she got killed today because of his constant need for snacks, she’d never forgive him.
As Dodi rounded a corner, she crashed right into Theo, sending a handful of chocolate bars flying.
‘Oof!’ he said, as he hit the ground. ‘What the heck?’
‘Theo!’ She held out a hand and hauled him upright. ‘Come on, we gotta go!’
‘What’s going on?’ Theo bent down to pick up the chocolate. Dodi grabbed his greasy, blond hair and pulled him up.
‘Ow! Hey!’ he complained.
Dodi let go of him. ‘There’s an asteroid headed right for us! Come on!’
Theo didn’t look like he believed her, but she was running down the corridor, so he ran too. Leadership.
They hurtled through the foyer and out into the car park. The suns hine blinded Dodi for a second, but then she saw the school bus idling right in front of the observatory.
On the other side of the road was a lush, green forest under a cheery, blue sky—but Dodi noticed a speck up above. Like a star, even though it was daytime. The speck was slowly getting brighter.
‘Hurry!’ She shoved Theo onto the bus, then leapt on after him. The seats were full of panicked kids and confused-looking scientists. Dodi guessed there hadn’t been time to explain the situation to them. She was relieved to see the fainting technician sitting groggily next to Prost.
03:27
Mr Lingday was in the driver’s seat, peering down at a clipboard, as though this was a normal excursion. ΌΚ, roll call,’ he began.
‘We have everyone! Go, go!’ Violet yelled.
‘Three minutes until impact!’ the chief astronomer screeched. ‘Drive!’
‘Right.’ Mr Lingday put his foot down and the bus lurched forwards. Dodi nearly fell over, but grabbed the back of someone’s seat just in time.
‘Dodi! What’s happening?’ Theo shouted, as the bus zoomed out of the car park.
‘An asteroid.’ Dodi tried to catch her breath after all that running. About to explode. Sixteen kilometres away.’
Are you pranking me?’
Dodi ignored him. The bus was turning—towards the bright star in the sky.
‘Wrong way!’ she shouted at Mr Lingday. ‘We need to go away from the asteroid!’
‘Whoops!’ The teacher swung the wheel in the other direction. The bus screamed around, throwing all the passengers sideways. Dodi barely stayed upright as they hit the highway, still accelerating. They were out of the forest now, with flat paddocks on either side of the road. No shelter from the coming blast.
‘You should turn the hazard lights on,’ she shouted.
‘What?’
‘Hazard lights. High beams. Honk the horn. Everything! We need to warn people that danger is coming.’
Without taking his foot off the accelerator, Mr Lingday flicked a bunch of switches. The observatory was kind of in the middle of nowhere, so Dodi couldn’t see many cars around, which was good. Other than making people alert, there wasn’t much they could do.
The bus zoomed faster and faster down the highway. How long until the impact? Dodi looked out the window—
01:25
Just in time to see a bright flash in the sky. A silent explosion. And then ...
Nothing. The light faded away.
Dodi let out a long, slow breath. ‘I saw the explosion,’ she said. ‘It’s over. We’re OK.’
‘No, we’re not!’ The astronomer’s eyes were wide. ‘The shockwave will catch up to us any second!’
A wall of smoke and flame grew on the horizon, sweeping towards the bus.
Uh-oh. Dodi braced herself against the back of a seat and screamed, ‘Everybody hang onto some—’
There was a huge BANG that rattled her teeth, like the world’s biggest thunderclap. All the windows shattered, spraying the students with broken glass.
01:05
Dodi grabbed Theo with her free hand as the bus tipped over. There was a moment of zero gravity as the wheels lifted off the road, everyone screaming as they floated out of their chairs, then—
WHAM! The bus landed on its side. Dodi crashed down on top of the astronomer, who hit the window—or the asphalt where the window used to be. Theo landed on Dodi, knocking the air out of her lungs.
The echoes of the explosion died away, leaving only the groaning of students and scientists.
Dodi coughed up some smoke and tried to sit up. Broken safety glass fell out of her hair.
‘Everyone OK?’ she shouted.
There was a chorus of mumbles and moans. When she looked around, everyone seemed to be alive, at least.
She peered through the empty windscreen. In the distance, she could see the observatory—or the hill where the observatory used to be. The blast had reduced it to rubble. Wiping her sweaty face, Dodi promised herself she’d never complain about an excursion being boring ever again.
She and her classmates had survived—barely. But she remembered what Violet had said: dangerous tidal, seismic, electrical and animal activity.
00:00
This wasn’t over. It was only just beginning.
SPIDER BITE
10:00
'Ow!’ The pain made Brianna look down. A spider clung to her ankle, eight black eyes glittering.
She screamed, snatched up a stick and swiped. The stick left deep scratches on her leg, but it did the job—the spider flew off and landed on a nearby log.
Brianna’s heart was pounding. She hated spiders.
‘Get lost,’ she yelled, brandishing the stick.
The spider just watched from its perch on the log. It was brown, shaggy, and smaller than a huntsman, but just as ugly.
Brianna’s ankle throbbed. Between the scratches from the stick, she could see two puncture wounds from the bite. What if the spider was venomous?
According to Mum, no-one had died of a spider bite since the seventies, but only because antivenom had been invented and was kept at all the hospitals. Brianna was four kilometres up a hiking trail. The powerlines on a nearby hill were the only evidence that humans existed. It would take at least an hour to run back to the car park. After Mum picked her up, it would be another half-hour drive to the nearest doctor. Would she get the antivenom in time?
She told herself she was being paranoid. Most spiders were harmless, right?
But the throbbing was getting worse. And she’d started to feel hot. Her pink T-shirt was soaked with sweat.
Brianna got out her phone and tried to call Mum. The call didn’t go through. No signal. Her heart beat a little faster. There was supposed to be full coverage in this area. That was the only reason Mum had agreed to let her do this solo hike. Something must have happened to the phone tower.
Brianna dialed emergency services. Nothing.
The spider watched and waited. There was something hungry about its stare.
Brianna frantically tried to remember her first aid training. Step one was to keep as still as possible, but if she did that she wouldn’t get to help in time.
08:05
Step two: apply a pressure immobilisation bandage. Brianna hadn’t packed one. She only had a water bottle and sunscreen, plus a notepad and felt-tip pen to record her hike time.
Step three: wash the wound. Brianna pulled off her backpack and grabbed her water bottle. The cool water felt like sandpaper on the bite, as though she’d been burned.
Then she remembered step four . . .
Catch the spider.
She felt sick at the thought of going near the creature. But without it, the doctors at the hospital wouldn’t know which antivenom to use.
Brianna took the lid off the bottle and drank the rest of her water. It sloshed sickeningly in her stomach, maybe because she was so afraid.
She approached cautiously, holding the empty bottle at arm’s length.
‘Heeeere, spidey-spidey-spidey,’ she said.
The spider stared at her.
07:36
Brianna crept closer. She had the notepad in her other hand. She would swiftly clamp the open bottle over the spider, then slide the notepad underneath to trap it. Then she could tip the bottle upside down so the spider fell into the bottom of the bottle, and quickly screw the lid back on.
But the mouth of the bottle was only five or six centimetres wide. She would have to aim the strike perfectly. And the log wasn’t smooth. What if the spider squeezed out through a groove in the rough bark and attacked her again?
Brianna swallowed. It hurt, as though a tennis ball was stuck in her throat. Her whole body was swelling up, like an allergic reaction.
06:20
She needed that spider. She couldn’t be treated properly without it.
‘Here, spidey,’ she said again. Then she swung the bottle.
Clang! It hit the log—
