Doomed Read Online Free PDF Page B

answer at the same time.
    “Total annihilation?”
Now it’s Theo who sounds like a parrot.
    “Yep.”
    He stares at me blankly for a moment, before rubbing his hands over his face and then up through his hair—the universal gesture for stressed out and a little pissed off. I know, because I was doing the same thing not very long ago.
    “Okay,” he says after a minute. “Let’s think about this rationally. Did you have landline phone service before you logged on to Pandora’s Box?”
    “I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t check it or anything until after my cell phone stopped working, too.”
    “Your cell phone isn’t working, either?” Now he’s completely incredulous. But still, he and Eli reach into their pockets at the same time, check their own phones. From the looks on their faces, I’m guessing their luck is about as good as mine is today. “That’s not possible.” Theo turns his phone off and then back on again, frustration stamped into every line of his body.
    “That’s what I said, but it’s happening—”
    “No, I mean, really. It’s not possible. They run on totally different networks. There’s no way your landline and cell phone can be infected from the same virus—at least not this quickly. And not if it started from an MMO you were playing online.”
    I don’t say anything, but then I don’t have to. Because it’s glaringly obvious that, whether or not it makes sense, it appears that’s exactly what has happened.
    The million-dollar question is, what do we do now?

5
     
    At that exact moment—as if in answer to my silent query—the computer on the desk blinks back to life. We all watch, mouths open and eyes wide, as a series of bright red words scroll across the screen:
You’ve reached the point of no return.
Welcome to the real Pandora’s Box.
     
    “What. The. Hell?” This time it’s Eli who asks what all three of us are thinking.
    Theo reaches for the mouse, tries to exit the game. It won’t let him close, however, won’t let him do anything, no matter that he tries to force shutdown using about five different ways I never even knew existed.
    Instead, the same numbers I saw at my house—the countdown from 10 to 1—flash one after the other. It’s even creepier watching it over here, when I know that Theo neverlogged on to Pandora’s Box from this computer to begin with. Plus, the fact that it’s not just me, that it’s happening to them, too, makes it all seem more real. Less about the demon possession I originally feared and more about some kind of technological meltdown.
    I think I’d almost prefer the demons.
    Finally, Theo reaches over and unplugs the computer from the wall. The screen goes blank, of course, and we all breathe huge sighs of relief. I know it sounds stupid, but for a minute I was really beginning to believe that there was no way to turn the thing off. That somehow Pandora’s Box had done what its namesake had and seized control of our whole lives with whatever evil was inside it.
    Theo waits about a minute or so, maybe a little longer. The silence is heavy around us, but nobody breaks it. Eventually what Theo deems is enough time passes, and he reaches down and plugs the computer back in. Then he turns it on and we wait for it to start up.
    Now, like I said before, I’m a Mac girl, and this is a PC, but even I know within a few seconds that something’s not right. It doesn’t ask for a password, but it doesn’t load the desktop, either. Instead, it just sits there grinding away for a few seconds, and then the same words scroll across the screen:
You’ve reached the point of no return. Welcome to the real Pandora’s Box.
     
    Theo still doesn’t say anything, just shoves back from the desk and takes the stairs behind us three at a time.
    That snaps Eli into action. “Hey, where you going, man?” he demands, starting up the steps after his stepbrother.
    “To get my laptop. Get yours, too, okay?”
    The next few minutes are oddly