Echoes by Marissa Lete (best books for students to read txt) 📕

the glass I see her turn back towards me, placing her hand on an electronic box just outside the door.

Then two giant metal doors come out of the wall in front of me, slowly sliding closed in front of the glass doors, trapping me in the building. Frantically, I quicken my pace, realizing that I might have just enough time to slide between the doors before they fully close. But just before I get to them, I look over my shoulder.

My parents. Maverick. What will happen to them if I leave them in here? What will happen to me if I’m stuck alone outside with Alice?

My steps slow, then come to a stop.

Alice flicks a little wave at me through the small gap between the doors, and then the metal slabs slam together.

We’re trapped.

Chapter 35

A second later, a fire alarm screams through the building. Little red lights spin above the doors, flashing white every couple of seconds.

I look back at Maverick and my parents, who are jogging down the hallway towards me. “We need to find a way out. Now.”

We race back down the hallway and I throw doors open, looking into side rooms. The first two don’t have windows. The third does, but a metal panel has dropped down, preventing us from going through it. Alice must have this place sealed, airtight.

We keep going anyway, but by the time we get to the bend of the L-shaped building, we can smell the smoke. Up ahead of us, an orange glow flashes through a window on one of the doors.

Fire. The building is on fire. And there’s no way out.

Maverick’s hand touches my shoulder. “There are more people in the building. Downstairs. More anomalies,” he tells me.

I remember all of the doors I’d passed by. He’s right. There are more. Alice’s lab rats. People she kidnapped and had Maverick cover up. We can’t leave them in here. That is, if we can even find a way to escape at all. “Let’s go get them,” I reply.

So we spin around and hurdle down the stairs again. When we get to the bottom, I rush to the first door I see, hold Dave’s ID to it, then rip it open. The inside is empty. I go to the next door, finding it empty as well.

The third time’s a charm. When I open the door, a thin, dark-haired girl is standing in front of me, like she’s been waiting for someone to show up. I recognize her. It’s the girl from the file I opened in Alice’s office—Veronica.

“Who are you?” she asks, looking over me, then peeking at Maverick and my parents, who are standing by the door to the staircase. A wave of fear rushes into me, more than I’d felt before. I remember something else from her file: ability to manipulate emotions.

I try to stifle it. “I’m Laura. I’m here to get you out of here.”

The fear coursing through my veins dulls, being replaced by relief. “Okay,” she replies.

“I need to get everyone out,” I tell her, turning away from the door. “You can wait over there with them,” I point at Maverick, Mom, and Dad. She nods, then crosses the hallway.

I go to the next door and inside is another girl, at least a few years younger than myself. I give her the spiel, and then I move on to the next.

Door after door, I release the prisoners. I recognize another one, the boy named Gabe from another of Alice’s files. I remember his ability, that he can hear my thoughts, but I have no idea what any of the other anomalies are capable of. I don’t know if they really are dangerous, or if each and every one is just another person trying to live a normal life.

Behind one door, there’s a young boy in a room that’s completely padded in a white rubber-like material. I don’t know why, but I just tell him the same thing I’ve told the rest, and then move on.

They’re all fairly young. The oldest looks like he could be at most twenty, and the youngest is a girl somewhere around ten. After opening the very last door, I head back to the group standing by the staircase. All in all, there are thirteen of them, a relatively small group.

“The building is sealed off. We’re going to have to break down a door or something,” I announce to the group, loud enough that they can hear me over the fire alarms. They all look back and forth at each other, wide-eyed. “And it’s on fire, so cover your mouths. Let’s try to be quick.”

I lead them up the staircase, then into the hall where smoke has created a thick, hazy cloud that’s hard to see through. We move toward the back door that Maverick and I had snuck through earlier, but it’s blocked by a metal door, too. I walk up to it, put my hands on it. It’s thick, unbreakable. Every possible exit is covered in one, metal sheets standing between the captives and their freedom.

I don’t know how to get through them. In minutes, the smoke is going to suffocate us, and I don’t know what to do.

Then, a finger taps my shoulder. I turn around and a boy is standing behind me, bright blue eyes wide and focused. It’s the boy I’d found in the padded room.

“I think I can help us get out,” he tells me. He can’t be older than thirteen—tall and lanky, but his voice hasn’t quite deepened yet.

“How?”

He looks past me at the metal door. “I’ll show you.” Then he walks up to it. He lifts one finger and a light shoots across the air onto the door. Electricity. A moment later, the door slides up. Then the fire alarms shut off.

I stare