The junkyard was silent except for the distant rumble of cars on the highway. Leo, Maya, Ben, and Zap sat in the dimly lit shipping container, surrounded by scrap metal and old tools.
Maya crossed her arms. “Okay, genius, what’s this really risky idea of yours?”
Leo smirked. “We need to find Dr. Felix, right? Well… I know where he might be.”
Zap’s ears perked up. “Where?”
Leo took a deep breath. “There’s an old science lab on the edge of town. My dad used to tell me about it—said it was abandoned years ago. But guess who was working there before it shut down?”
Maya’s eyes widened. “Dr. Felix?”
Leo nodded. “Exactly. If he’s hiding from the people chasing us, he might have gone back there.”
Ben groaned. “Awesome. So let me get this straight—we just barely escaped two guys with laser guns, and now you want us to break into a creepy abandoned science lab?!”
Zap grinned. “Finally, someone around here thinks like me.”
Maya sighed. “Fine. But how do we get there? The agents are probably watching the roads.”
Leo grinned. “That’s the fun part. We’re taking a shortcut.”
The Underground Passage
The kids slipped out of the junkyard just before sunrise, moving carefully through backstreets and alleyways.
“Where is this shortcut?” Maya whispered.
Leo led them to an old storm drain hidden behind a row of overgrown bushes.
Ben’s face twisted. “You want us to go in there?”
Leo shrugged. “Unless you want to take the main road and wave at the bad guys.”
Zap hopped onto Leo’s shoulder. “I vote not getting caught.”
With no other option, they climbed into the drain, crawling through damp tunnels that smelled of moss and old rainwater.
Maya shivered. “This place is disgusting.”
Zap sniffed the air. “And slightly toxic.”
Ben groaned. “Awesome. If the bad guys don’t get us, whatever’s living in here will.”
After what felt like forever, the tunnel opened up into a large underground chamber.
Maya gasped. “Whoa… what is this place?”
The room was lined with metal pipes and old control panels, blinking with faint green and red lights. A massive vault-like door stood at the far end.
Zap’s ears twitched. “This isn’t just a storm drain. This is part of an underground facility.”
Leo walked up to the control panel and wiped away the dust. “Look at this—it still has power.”
Ben frowned. “But what was this place?”
Zap studied the markings on the wall. “It’s connected to the old science lab. This must’ve been a secret research entrance.”
Maya stepped back. “Okay, that’s… weirdly cool. But how do we open the door?”
Zap jumped onto the control panel, his tiny paws clicking buttons. “If I can override the system—”
Suddenly, a deep metallic voice echoed through the chamber.
“Unauthorized access detected.”
The room’s emergency lights flashed red.
Leo panicked. “Zap! What did you do?!”
Zap frantically tapped more buttons. “Uh… I may have just triggered a security protocol.”
Ben groaned. “Of course you did.”
The vault door rumbled.
The kids tensed, expecting security guards or alarms—
But instead, the massive door slid open.
Beyond it was a dark tunnel leading straight to the abandoned lab.
Zap grinned. “See? Genius.”
Leo swallowed. “Yeah… or you just set off every alarm in the building.”
Maya sighed. “No turning back now.”
They stepped into the tunnel, unaware that something—or someone—was already waiting for them on the other side.
To be continued…
