18

"Do something! Please — do something!" Clay was screaming.

Luke lowered his shoulder to the glass and struggled to stop it from moving. But he wasn't strong enough. The walls kept sliding in on him.

I backed up, my hands raised like a shield.

Closer, closer. The glass walls moved slowly, silently.

I backed up until my back hit the wall behind me.

There was nowhere to go.

"Do something! Somebody — do something!" Clay's terrified screams rang in my ears.

"The glass — it's squeezing me!" Luke shrieked. "Lizzy — !"

"I — I can't move!" I shouted to him.

The panes of glass began to press in on me from all sides. Above and below, too.

I suddenly pictured one of those crushed cars. You know. The cars that are crunched into a perfect square in those big compactor machines.

My entire body shuddered as I realized I was going to be crushed into a perfect square, too.

"Ow!" I cried out as the glass pressed down on me. "Somebody — help!" I tried to scream, but my voice came out a muffled yelp.

It was getting hard to breathe.

The glass panes moved in. Tighter. Tighter.

I gasped for air.

I tried to push with all my might against the glass.

But it was no use.

I was being crushed into a human square.

I couldn't hear Luke or Clay anymore.

I could only hear my gasping, choked breaths.

I shut my eyes.

And felt the floor drop away.

And before I realized what was happening, I was falling, falling rapidly down.

I opened my eyes in time to see the glass walls roll above me as I slid down, down, down through an open chute.

And in a few seconds, I was back outside. I landed sitting up on the grass with a gentle thud.

Luke and Clay came sliding out beside me.

For a long moment, we sat on the grass, blinking in the bright sunlight, staring at each other in disbelief.

"We're okay," Clay said uncertainly, finally breaking the silence. He slowly climbed to his feet. His round face was bright red, and his glasses were crooked and nearly falling off his nose. "We're okay!"

Luke let out a laugh. A gleeful laugh. He stood up and began jumping up and down for joy.

I didn't exactly feel like jumping up and down. I was still picturing the crushed car.

Luke reached down, grabbed both of my hands, and pulled me to my feet. "What should we do next?" he demanded, grinning.

"Huh? Next?" I cried. "Are you for real?"

"That was really scary," Clay said, his face still red. "I thought we were going to be scrunched flat."

"It was awesome!" Luke declared.

Once again, he was forgetting that a few seconds before, he'd been screaming in total panic.

"It was way too scary," Clay murmured, shaking his head.

"Clay's right," I agreed. "It was too scary to be fun. One more second, and . . ."

"Don't you see? That's the whole idea!" Luke cried. "That's how they scare you here. It's so awesome! They make you think that one more second and you're a goner. But it's all perfectly timed. They want you to be terrified — and, then — poof — you're okay!"

"I guess you're right," said Clay doubtfully. He pushed up his glasses, then rubbed his chin.

"We're not really going to get hurt or anything," Luke continued. "This is an amusement park, remember? They want you to come back again and again. So they're not going to really hurt anybody."

"Maybe," Clay said.

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