They all moved out of the way. The temple fell silent as Snitch Gravel's men fumbled and changed their drilling spot. When the noise started again, Kyle punched the door. He pulled his hand back and shook it, wincing. The door was still there, unbroken and mocking them because it was just wood standing in their way.
"Um... Should we maybe try kicking it?" Jerry asked.
"The angle is even worse for that," Kyle mumbled.
"Then maybe we should just enlarge the hole," Sam said, looking towards Jimmy.
Jimmy nodded. He hated it, because it was going to take time and make it much harder to put everything back, but there was no point if they couldn't get past the door.
"Just let me try something else first," Kyle said, waving them all to the sides.
They complied, watching him as he stuck his back against the opposite wall of the corridor and squinted at the hole. Then, Kyle propped his foot on the wall and charged forward, forearms crossed in front of his face. He plunged through the hole with a deafening crash. The door was definitely opened because Kyle was left with his legs dangling out of the wall.
The drill stopped.
"What was that?" a weak voice asked.
Kyle scurried through the wall, disappearing completely. Then there was another crash and the sound of tumbling as Kyle cursed furiously.
Sam rushed to the hole and looked down, but it was impossible to see anything through the darkness. "A flashlight. Do we still have a working flashlight?"
Kay pushed him aside and hopped in, followed closely by Jessie.
"Watch out for the stairs!" Kyle called, his voice strained and coming from somewhere much lower.
Jimmy looked left and right as he waited for the others to scurry through the hole. The drilling had stopped and the men were talking amongst each other, wondering if they'd really heard anything out of the ordinary. Footsteps indicated that someone might come over to investigate. Jimmy climbed behind the wall and pulled the embroidery over the hole.
Complete darkness engulfed them. He could hear the others going down the stairs as he hurried to place the bricks back and make it look as if the wall was still intact. There were no sounds coming from outside, but he couldn't hear the drill starting either. Finally, he carefully placed the last brick in and, with calculated steps, started down the stairs.
They ended what seemed like three stories down, and the others had stopped at the bottom, waiting for him. Jimmy more likely felt than saw them.
"There's another door here," Sam whispered.
"How did you not break your neck?" Jimmy asked instead, speaking in the direction he assumed Kyle was.
"Forget that!" Jerry cut them off. "Let's keep moving. I still don't hear the drill."
Kyle grumbled. "Get out of the way."
Before Jimmy could even move, another deafening crash filled the air followed by a cold air current and the stuffy smell of closed space.
"No light sucks," Sam said, moving through the new door.
"I think we should try to turn on the flashlights. Eventually change the battery pack first," Jimmy said, already searching inside his rucksack. It was true that everything had gotten wet, but the new batteries were in a foil and maybe they'd survived together with some flashlight parts. If he'd only had the foresight, he could've built a functional flashlights out of all the fried ones. But he needed time and light to do that. He only had darkness and wet stuff.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Stars (The Jewel Project #3)
Adventure"You youngsters are stupidly adorable with your stubborn obsession with love. Love doesn't lift you. It destroys you." For Sam Grant, his family has become his sanctuary and the team that joins him on death defying adventures. But after everythi...
