“Impossible,” Salzburg said as he stared in horror at that flashing alarm. A second later there was an ear-shattering boom that momentarily drowned out the alarms. The floor rumbled underneath me as the very walls around us shuddered and creaked, sending torrents of rock dust down onto millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. I threw my hands over my head to protect it as the room erupted in screams. It was as though I was back in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire as equipment got knocked aside, chairs were upended, and everybody made a run for the door. Everyone was shouting at once, shoving one another in their panic to escape. Within seconds, the room was cleared. I stumbled to my feet and realized that Elliot was still beside me, his face and pajamas covered in the fine gray dust of the mountain. Before I could formulate a coherent thought, there was another explosion and the door to the Glitch room slammed shut. We were trapped.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Elliot

I couldn’t believe it. I was going to die like those women in 1911. The ground shook again, and I was about to run for the door when Regan grabbed me by the arm and pulled me backward. A second later, a huge chunk of the ceiling came loose and crashed to the ground exactly where I’d been standing.

Regan didn’t give me time to scream or vomit, which was probably good since I wasn’t sure which was the best option. She yanked me backward again, but this time it was to one of the abandoned computers.

“What are you doing?” I yelled. “We have to get out of here!”

“There isn’t a way out,” she yelled back. “But I know how we save ourselves.” She jabbed her finger at the screen, and I could see that Professor McMillan hadn’t been kidding earlier—he really had already programmed the Glitch back to the Academy on the night it was destroyed.

“Come on,” she yelled. “We have to do this. It’s the only way.”

I nodded, and for once, I actually agreed. The mountain would eventually crumble under whatever onslaught it was under, and we’d die. I had no clue what would happen if the equipment we were going to Glitch on was destroyed, or how we could ever come back to this exact moment without it, but none of that mattered now. The lights flickered and Regan dug her nails into my arm. If we lost power, it was all over.