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wanted to ask what was happening, but the terror on their faces made her afraid to interfere. Once on the level for the nursery, she burst into the corridor and ran into Mr. Nightly, who was holding a bloody rag to his face. She stopped him. “Do you need help?”
    “There’s no time!” he yelled.
    “What’s happening?” she tried to ask, but he was already running away from her. Nothing was making sense.
    Her limbs felt cold and floppy with fear, but she made herself run even faster. She saw Felicity Wiggam walking, dazed, in the opposite direction, and she stopped. Felicity’s blond hair was mussed, her porcelain cheeks flushed, her tunic hanging askew on her long, lithe frame. “Help me with the nursery!” Waverly shrieked at her.
    At first Felicity only stared, but Waverly grabbed her wrist and dragged her down the corridor.
    When they finally reached the nursery, it was empty. Building blocks and coloring books lay haphazardly in the middle of the floor. A box full of flash cards had been knocked down, splayed over the central table. “They must have already evacuated,” she said, breathless. “Thank God.”
    “They’d have heard your announcement,” Felicity said through the curtain of pale hair hanging in her face.
    “Felicity, what’s happening?”
    “I don’t know. Where were you when it started?”
    “The garden. You?”
    “In my quarters.” She held her bony hands over her stomach. “I’m scared.”
    “Me too.” Waverly took hold of her friend’s hand and squeezed her cold fingers. “I’ve got to go get Serafina. Can you check the kindergarten on your way to the auditorium?”
    Felicity only stared at Waverly, impassive. She seemed in shock.
    “Go!” Waverly shouted at her over her shoulder as she sped back down the corridor.
    Just then the floor under Waverly’s feet seemed to shake, and she heard a rumbling that she’d never heard before. Something had gone very wrong.
    Another river of adults ran past Waverly. She looked desperately at the passing faces, hoping to see her mother, but everyone was moving too fast.
    She trotted along with the adults, but when she got to the central corridor, she turned toward the Mbewes’ quarters. She found their door, which was covered with a mural Serafina’s mother had painted of the African savanna. Waverly pushed the button for ingress, but the door didn’t open. Serafina must have locked it from the inside. There was a keypad for a numeric code. Once upon a time Waverly knew the code, and she tried several combinations of numbers, but the door remained locked.
    “Serafina!” she screamed, pounding on the door. But of course Serafina couldn’t hear. Waverly would have to break in.
    She pulled from her pocket the folding knife she’d received as a gift when she’d turned fifteen. She opened the blade and slid it behind the faceplate that housed the door lock. She worked the metal plate off, then pried away the numbered keypad to reveal a mess of wires underneath.
    She could cut the wires, but she was pretty sure that would leave the door locked permanently. No. She had to enable the mechanism that would open the door.
    “There’s only on, and off.” She recited the lesson about circuits she’d learned last year in electronics class and looked for the mechanism to slide the door open. It was encased in yellow plastic, but the copper ends of it were exposed and fastened under a hinged copper plate. Right now, the plate hung open. Could it be so simple? Waverly pressed on the copper plate, holding it to the wire.
    A shock of vicious electricity punched through her arm and into her chest. For long moments, she was frozen in an altered state, aware only of her frantic heartbeat and her burning hand.
    Emergency. There was an emergency. She couldn’t go into shock. She forced her breathing into an even cadence. When she could think again, she saw the door had clicked open.
    “Serafina,” she whispered as she limped through the small