At the rate the water was rising, Layla and I had only a minute tops before we were entirely submerged. Then I realized why I couldn’t get it open. I was supposed to pull instead of push! There was just enough of a groove in the metal for me to hook my fingers into and yank. It flew open, dumping a few hundred years’ worth of dirt onto our heads in the process. I managed to drag myself out, pull Layla up after me, and slam the hatch door before it could overflow. “Are you okay?” I asked, panting. “Thanks to you I am,” she said breathlessly. “I didn’t think we were going to make it out in time.” She looked around. “Where are we anyway?” That was a good question. There was just enough light to make out shapes and shadows. Which meant that wherever we were, it was either on the surface or close to it. We were in a large room with high ceilings and creepy statues lurking in the corners. There were also more cobwebs than I wanted to think about and a platform that held a pair of long, rectangular boxes.
