War on Whimsy (Space Brigade 3)

Nicola was busy looking at the numbers on the exit doors. "Oh, no--that's only Exit Door Twenty! We're so far away!"

They all picked up the pace, their parachutes bouncing on their backs.

"Are you all deaf? Space Brigade to Exit Door Five Hundred!" said the loudspeaker voice.

"We're coming!" called Nicola.

The corridor seemed endless. It was like something out of a nightmare. By the time they got to Exit Door Five Hundred, they'd all be so exhausted they'd just fall out.

With her longer legs, Shimlara was the fastest. She ran ahead of them, calling out the numbers on the doors.

Finally, she shouted triumphantly, "Exit Door Five Hundred!"

The rest of the Space Brigade ran up behind her, their faces red and sweaty, their chests heaving.

Exit Door Five Hundred was wide open and the heat and noise from the erupting volcanoes below struck them like a brutal slap across the face.

Nicola peered out at the fiery landscape below.

I can't, she thought. I cannot jump out of this spaceship. She could feel her own resistance as massive and immovable as a wall of concrete in front of her.

"I can't do it," said Katie to Nicola in a quiet, terrified voice.

"Space Brigade! You are required to jump on the count of three," said the voice over the loudspeaker. (Nicola was starting to hate that voice.)

"One . . ." boomed the voice.

Shimlara was clinging to the side of the Exit Door.

"We have to do it," she said, except you could tell she was facing the same concrete wall of resistance as Nicola.

"Yes," said Sean unconvincingly.

Nicola darted a look at her brother. His face was white. He was the one who loved doing this sort of crazy stuff! If Sean was scared, what hope did the rest of them have?

"We need training," insisted Greta.

"Maybe there is another way we could get to Volcomania," said Tyler.

"Two . . ." said the voice.

Nicola's mind was filled with images.

She saw Georgio performing his celebratory chicken dance the first day she'd ever met him when he'd turned up in her classroom and picked her as the Earthling Ambassador.

She saw Mully bending down to put her hand on Nicola's shoulder and saying, "I have complete confidence in you."

She saw Squid, dragging his blue blanket along behind him, his thumb jammed in his mouth.

If it wasn't for Georgio and Mully, Earth would no longer exist. Nicola's planet would be a garbage dump. They had to help the Gorgioskios.

"Three!" shouted the voice over the loudspeaker.

When you're frightened of something, Nicola's mother had once said to her, there's only one way to make the fear go away--and that's to do the thing that's frightening you. You just have to ignore the fear and DO IT, the faster the better!

Nicola looked at the others, their faces illuminated by the fiery light of the exploding volcanoes.

She pulled her lava goggles over her eyes.