Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30 Amy dived under Olivia Cahill's table. "Dan! Over here!" she screamed. "Hamilton!" The lights snapped off, plunging the room into total darkness. Now Amy could only hear the falling rocks, not see them. This was worse. "Dan! Dan! Dan!" she screamed. She could hear Dan and Hamilton calling out to her, Ian and Natalie calling out to each other. "Everyone under the table!" Amy called out to all of them. "It's the safest place!" Then she heard something hit hard on the table above her. The table leg she was clutching cracked. What if no place was safe? Dan grabbed Hamilton's arm and took off running toward his sister's voice.

"This way!" he screamed. The falling rocks cracked and exploded around them, throwing up rock dust. Dan couldn't breathe. "Go on without—" He tried to scream. Hamilton didn't listen. Hamilton lifted him up and carried him. "It's her!" Natalie screamed hysterically. "It's her!" "Just run!" Ian screamed back to his sister. He heard Amy calling out something about a safe place. He started running toward her voice. Alistair staggered and fell, his cane knocked out of his hand. He checked quickly to make sure none of the secret compartments in the cane had sprung open, nothing had spilled out. But he was disoriented— it felt like the rocky ground had jumped up and hit him. And was still hitting him. Maybe that was because the air was full of rocks, too.

"Can't," he murmured. "Can't move." He'd faked his own death in a cave-in back in Korea, tricking Amy and Dan and Bae. Was this fate's way of laughing at him? Could he die in a cave-in for real, so close to the final prize? "Can't… die… now," he whispered. "Oh, no," a voice said above him. Hands started tugging on his shoulders, pulling him away from the rocks. "I'm not going to let you die." It was Sinead. Now a new word formed on Alistair's lips: Why? Why would anyone save him? Jonah was alone, ahead of everyone else. When the world began to collapse around him, he could hear the others calling out names: "Dan!" "Amy!" "Hamilton!" "Ian!" No one called out for him. A rock hit his shoulder, knocking him down. Hundreds of thousands of people call out my name every night, he told himself. "Jonah! Jonah!

JONAH!" He could hear the rhythm of his fans' screams in the rocks hitting the ground around him. Another rock hit his leg, pinning him to the ground. I'm one of the biggest stars in the world, he told himself. More rocks fell down on him. And… I'm going to die in a place where nobody cares.