“Okay,” said Jack. He cut a small hole in the hollow part of the wall. The box-cutter moved easily through the drywall, and soon Jack was peering into the gloom on the other side of the wall. “There’s a ladder back there,” he said with triumph in his voice.
“Cool,” said Stephen. “See if you can pull that panel.” He reached past Jack, put three fingers through the hole and pulled. The panel was loose from floor to ceiling, only held in place by tape and paint. They pulled the panel away from the wall enough so they could squeeze through.
Jack turned back to Ben and asked, “You coming?”
“No,” Ben replied.
Stephen was already halfway through the hole. When his feet disappeared, Jack followed along -dropping to the floor and squeezing between the wall and the loose panel. He found close quarters inside the wall, but the space contained a ladder.
“Help me push this out,” said Stephen. Together they pressed on the drywall and pulled the rest of the tape holding the panel in place. It popped away from the wall after a few seconds of pushing and they exposed the full entrance to the ladder.
Jack looked back to Ben once more. Ben stared down at his own knees.
“Careful,” said Jack, turning back to Stephen.
Stephen had climbed to the point where his head was about level with the ceiling.
“Be careful with the rungs,” said Jack. “We’ve had two traps that involved grabbing the rung of the ladder just above the ceiling.”
“Well what do you want me to do?” asked Stephen.
“Hold up,” said Jack. He got out the broom handle and taped the mirror to the end at an angle. “Look with this.” he handed up the makeshift periscope to Stephen.
“It’s hard to see,” said Stephen. “But I don’t think there’s any traps.”
“Is there anything on the floor, around the ladder hole?” Jack asked.
“Nope, just plywood,” said Stephen. “I don’t see anything.”
“Maybe you can pull yourself up without grabbing the ladder,” proposed Jack.
“Yeah,” said Stephen, “I think so. Let me try.” Stephen reached up to either side of the hole and grabbed the floor of the next level. Pushing with his legs and pulling with his arms, he ascended.
Jack saw Stephen’s light moving around above him — “What’s up there?”
Stephen’s face appeared in the hole. “Just another room — and there’s nothing attached to this ladder, so you can just climb up it.”
Jack followed up the ladder and pulled himself up the same way Stephen had. Jack blinked and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. A significant amount of light was coming up from where the ladder came through the floor, but it only illuminated a small radius. They stood on an unfinished plywood floor, and overhead they saw joists stuffed with insulation.
“Is this the attic?” asked Jack.
“Nah, can’t be — the ceiling isn’t slanted,” replied Stephen. “It would slope up.”
Stephen pointed his light at the floor and walked cautiously away from the ladder. The wall he encountered was framed, but not finished. He was looking at bare studs, through which ran power and water pipes.
“It’s like we’re inside the walls,” said Stephen.
“Thick walls,” said Jack. He had headed the opposite direction and discovered the room was about ten feet wide.
“Let’s try this way,” Stephen pointed.
The room turned out to be significantly longer than wide, and they walked thirty feet before they reached another wall.
“Should we break through?” asked Jack. “Feels pretty solid.”
“I think it’s like brick or something behind here,” said Stephen.
“How about the other direction?” asked Jack.
They headed towards the ladder and then past it. In this direction, the room continued for while and then took a ninety-degree turn right. After rounding the corner, they stopped in their tracks. Ahead of them, just in view of their flashlights, they found the top of the other ladder and the mechanism to lower it down. The whole apparatus looked sticky with red dye. The ladder didn't draw their attention though — their eyes locked on the shiny blades affixed to the ceiling.
“That’s the deathtrap,” said Jack slowly. “Those things would have swung down and cut me in half.”
“I think you’re right,” said Stephen. “Good thing you turned around.”
Approaching carefully, the boys gave the blades a wide berth.
“Jeez, that is pretty dangerous,” said Jack.
“Only because we didn’t have the plans then,” said Stephen. “What triggers those things?”
“Hard to see,” said Jack. “We shouldn’t leave Ben alone downstairs. I’m going to go get him.”
“I’m going to keep looking up here,” said Stephen.
“Be right back.”
When Jack got back down to the white room, Ben hadn’t moved an inch.
“Hey man,” said Jack.
“What’s wrong?” asked Ben, not looking up.
“We found the trap on the other ladder,” said Jack. “Look, I think you should come along. It might be dangerous alone.”
“What makes you think it’s less dangerous for us to be together?” asked Ben.
“Because we’ll help each other out,” said Jack. “Plus we have more chance of seeing something.”
Ben didn’t answer.
“I said I was sorry we didn’t tell you about the map,” said Jack. “Sorry,” he repeated and paused. “But I think together we can figure this thing out. And I really want to figure it out.”
Jack started to walk away, back to the ladder, and then he turned around — “Can you just come with us this time and then you don’t have to come back?”
Ben looked up and studied Jack. “Okay — just this time though.”
“Cool,” said Jack. He reached out to help Ben up, but Ben got up on his own.
When they caught up with Stephen he was past the death trap and sitting on the floor. Jack’s eyes registered only black beyond Stephen.
“There’s a hole,” said Stephen.
The floor was missing just past where Stephen sat. The boys couldn’t see the bottom of the hole. It spanned about eight feet.
“Oh wait,” said Jack. “I’ve got a penny. I’m going to drop this. Ben, can you time it? Everyone be quiet and listen for it to hit.”
Jack held the penny over the hole and waited for Ben to set up the stopwatch on his watch. “On three — one, two, three!”
When Jack released the penny, Ben started his stopwatch. They barely heard the penny hit below. Ben stopped his timer right when they heard the sound.
“One point five-seven seconds,” said Ben.
Jack dug through his pack and pulled out a paper and pencil. “Let’s see, it’s one point five-seven times itself, then times thirty-two point two and divided by two.” he said.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Stephen.
“Don’t you have physics down south?” asked Ben.
Jack looked up. “That’s weird — it’s almost forty feet deep. I would have thought the whole building was shorter than that.”
“I could have been a little slow with the timer,” said Ben. “Or maybe the foundation goes underground.”
“Well I don’t think you were late — at least not by much,” said Jack.
“Couldn’t you just lower down fishing line?” asked Stephen. “That would tell us how deep it is.”
“How are we going to measure the length of the line?” answered Jack. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with this method.”
“Well, it’s not that far across anyway,” said Stephen. Without consulting his friends, he removed his pack, swung it back and forth and then pitched it across the hole to the other side. It landed heavily and skidded to a stop. “Hold my light” said Stephen.