The door opened easily, but when they finally managed to push it open they discovered that the other side was just as dark as the nest. Olivia had spent many nights dreaming about what was on the other side of this door, but the truth was underwhelming. She saw a flight of concrete steps barely visible in the light filtering in from somewhere far above. It was a ruddy, warning sort of light, like the glow from an emergency exit sign and it didn’t seem welcoming at all.

  “What are you waiting for?” Sloane asked, joining her at the bottom of the steps with the flashlight they had found in the utility room.

  “I don’t know,” she replied wryly. “A sign?”

  Light flashed at the top of the stairs, flickering like lightning. Several seconds later, the ground again rumbled beneath their feet and the realized that what they had thought was an earthquake or artillery shells was actually more benign.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Is that thunder?” Jade asked, stepping through the doorway behind them.

  “And lightning,” Olivia guessed. “I guess the power got knocked out by a storm?”

  “As sophisticated as this place is, you’d expect them to have backup generators or something,” Ethan said.

  “Maybe they did. And they failed too.” Sloane looked back at him. “Remember when the lights flickered earlier and everything went dark for a few seconds?”

  “That could have been the backup power kicking in,” Zoe agreed. “That makes sense.”