The Never War by D.J. MacHale

can’t trust anybody,” said Spader.
    â€œHey!”
    We both looked to our right and saw the gangsters rounding the far corner, headed our way. We had to keep running. Spader and I jammed it down the corridor. Our only hope was to find a stairwell, or at least another corridor. Luckily it was a long hall and we were too far away from the gangsters for them to take a shot at us.
    When we got to the end of the corridor, we found a door that probably led to a stairway, but it was blocked by furniture and painting supplies. If we tried to dig through that mess, the gangsters would have us.
    â€œThis way,” ordered Spader.
    We turned right and sprinted down the next corridor. This hallway ran parallel with the corridor where our room was, on the far side of the hotel. It was pretty long too, so we could stay out of bullet range. But we couldn’t keep running in circles. We had to find an escape route.
    Halfway down the corridor, I saw it. An exit sign. Without stopping to think, I took a right into that door. I was hoping to find a stairway, but no luck. It was a service corridor. We were now running parallel to the hallway with the elevators.
    â€œMaybe we can loop around back to the elevators,” I said. “If we’re lucky we’ll catch one closer this time.”
    â€œHobey-ho,” Spader said.
    We ran to the far end of the service corridor and stopped. I slowly opened the door to peek out. No bad guys anywhere. So far so good. We quickly ran out, turned right, and sprinted back along the corridor toward our room. We had come full circle.
    But this was scary. For all we knew, one of the gangsters could have doubled back and would soon be rounding thecorner in front of us. We passed our room and had only a few yards to go before hitting the elevator corridor again, when we heard footsteps coming toward us. Oops. At least one of the gangsters decided to circle back. He would be on us in seconds!
    We were done. I froze in panic.
    Spader didn’t. He grabbed my shirt and pulled me into the last room of the corridor before the turn. There wasn’t a second to spare. I caught a glimpse of the gangster coming around the corner.
    The two of us dove to the inside of the door. All we could do was hope the gangster wouldn’t peek in. A few seconds later we heard footsteps run by. I looked to Spader. He winked at me. We waited a few more seconds, then slowly took a peek outside to see the gangster running full throttle down the corridor, away from us. Excellent.
    Now we had to move fast. We booked out of the room and back toward the elevators. We made the right turn again and saw an empty corridor. We also saw one of the elevator doors opening up! We took off on a dead run.
    â€œGoing down?” a voice called from inside the elevator.
    We were too far away for him to see us. We kept on running, and I saw the elevator door starting to close. At this point it didn’t matter if the gangster heard us or not, so I shouted out, “Dewey!”
    Too late. The elevator door slid shut. We missed it. A second later the nasty gangster appeared at the far end of the corridor. I guess it did matter if he heard us. We were now staring right down the pike at worst case scenario.
    That’s when the elevator door opened up again! Dewey heard me after all.
    â€œWhat are you guys doing?” he asked.
    We both dove into the open car before the door was all the way open. “Close it! Close the door!” I shouted.
    Dewey was totally confused. Both Spader and I started pushing the door closed ourselves. “Hey! That’s my job!” Dewey whined.
    We ignored him and almost had the door shut when the nasty gangster arrived. He got his fingers in the door and tried to pry it open.
    â€œDown, Dewey!” I shouted. “Not that way.” I looked up. “ That way.” I looked down.
    â€œBut there’s another passenger out there!” Dewey complained. That’s when