"Sounds more like a prison, but — yeah, maybe," Percy replied.

"Then we're almost there!" Matthias hissed.

Percy's answer was to bend back over the nail, pressing down harder but moving no faster.

"Percy, that's no good. There's no time."

Percy didn't answer right away. Matthias had to bend in low to hear him say, "Take Alia, then. You two escape. Forget me."

"No," Matthias moaned.

The truck slowed down, navigating another curve. A missed opportunity, Matthias thought. The truck was virtually at a standstill. But he couldn't leave Percy behind. He couldn't. In a panic, he grabbed the nail from Percy's hand.

"What—?" Percy started to ask.

There wasn't time to explain. Matthias crawled away from Percy and plunged his arm down through the hole in the floor, plunged the nail into the slow>moving tire below.

At first nothing happened, and Matthias had time to agonize: How could he have been so stupid and impulsive? How could he have thrown away the nail, Percy's only chance?

Then, as the truck sped up again, there was a noise like a gunshot below them. Matthias had been hoping for just a flat tire, a slow leak that would buy them extra time. But the tire had blown out instead, bursting into shreds beneath them. The truck tilted crazily and veered off the road, as if the driver was struggling to regain control.

"Hold on!" Matthias yelled.

The truck crashed into the trees lining the road and came to a sudden stop in an explosion of breaking glass and smashing steel. It sounded like the truck had hit a wall. It sounded like the end of the world.

Then Matthias looked up and saw a huge tree falling straight toward them.

Chapter Three

The tree hit with an earth'shattering thud. The entire truck seemed to shudder to pieces. An avalanche of leaves and twigs rained down on Matthias, but miracu' lously, he felt no large branches strike his body.