Crawlers

11:19pm

Ben had two older sisters. Back when his family still went on holidays together he'd got used to spending long car journeys with them all crammed together on the back seat while their parents sat in relative comfort up front. Sharing a broom cupboard with three girls he barely knew, however, was a novel experience for him. 

His brain started filling with unhelpful thoughts, mostly centred around the worry of touching someone inappropriately by accident - and exactly how mortifying that would be. Under the dust and grime his skin began to prickle. He found himself pressing his back against the door. 

'Well isn't this cosy?' said Samantha, grinning in his face. 'Poor Jasmine and Ben,' she went on, looking from one to the other. 'You'd probably be all right if it was just the two of you in here. In fact,' she added, 'I think Ben here might even quite like it.' 

Lauren stopped snivelling and cracked a smile. Ben flushed beetroot-red and found something to look at on the floor - not that he could see much of it with everyone standing in there. He didn't know what Jasmine's expression was, and didn't dare look at her to find out. 

'Yeah, whatever, Samantha,' he heard Jasmine say. 'If you don't mind, some of us are trying to concentrate on how to get us out of here. Now: I counted three rooms that we passed on the way here. Is that right?' 

'Yeah,' said Ben gruffly. 'That's right.' 

'Well, do you think we've got far enough along the passage to get around the guards?' 

'One way to find out,' said Samantha. Brushing against Ben's stomach with her arm, she reached past him for the doorknob. 

'No! Wait!' 

To everyone's relief, Samantha hesitated. 

'We might only get one shot at this,' said Jasmine quickly, 'so let's do it carefully. Ben, did you find anything in here that might help us?' 

Ben pulled himself together. 'I, um, didn't see anything that exactly jumped out at me,' he said. 'There are some bits and pieces in the toolbox. Otherwise the closest thing we've got to a weapon in here is probably that mop.' He gestured bleakly towards the corner where it stood. 

'Then you should have that,' said Jasmine, twisting round with difficulty to reach it. Lauren was pressed up against her, but managed to pass it over. 

Ben reached past Samantha, who was smiling again, and grasped the wooden shaft. It was reassuringly solid, and it did feel good in his hand, even if he didn't have much of an idea of what to do with it. 

'Our hero,' quipped Samantha, in a sarcastic breathy voice. 

Ben scowled and said nothing. 

'Anyone want anything from the toolbox?' asked Jasmine. 'Lauren, you can take this hammer. Me and Samantha'll go with these screwdrivers. Better than nothing.' 

Lauren looked at the hammer in her hand, nonplussed, as if she'd never seen one before. 

'All right,' said Jasmine. 'Now I guess we open the door.' 

'Hold on,' said Ben. 'I've got to say it: what if we haven't gone far enough? I mean, to be honest, before you three got here I was kind of all set to come back and tell everyone this place was a dead end.' 

'You think we should go back?' asked Jasmine seriously. 

'Well... yeah,' said Ben. He shrugged. 'Maybe. I don't know.' 

Lauren's knuckles whitened on the black rubber of the hammer's grip. She sniffed again, but resolutely this time. 'I ain't going back,' she said. 

'Me neither,' said Samantha, who had finally stopped grinning. 'I've had enough of that room, whatever happens to us out here.' 

'Ben?' said Jasmine. 

He blinked. 'All right,' he said. 

'All right,' echoed Jasmine with a quick, tight smile. 'We take our chances. Everyone ready?' 

No one replied. 

Ben turned to face the door for the last time. He put his hand on the doorknob, visions of Hugo's last moments in the security room flashing through his mind. He took a deep breath, hefted his mop in his left hand, turned the knob gently, and pulled. 

Directly outside the door, the passage was empty. He saw grey concrete walls and shiny, red, brick-shaped floor tiles that glittered faintly under the strip lights above. 

Holding his breath, he peered out. 

There they were - the sentries, standing frozen outside the security-room door, some twenty metres away. There were fewer of them than Ben had been expecting. They were turned inward around the door, still concentrating on that. They had their backs to him. And one of them was Hugo. 

He was standing there like a statue, just like the others. Ben could see the crawler on the back of his neck. 

Ben gulped. But his plan had worked. They had a chance. 

'What can you see?' hissed Samantha in his ear, making Ben almost jump out of his skin. Infuriated, he turned and put his finger to his lips, but Samantha just raised her eyebrows and turned her palms up in a Well? gesture. 

Before he spoke Ben glanced out into the passage again, taking a second to get the details straight in his head. 

'We could make it to the lifts,' he mouthed, still not daring to breathe. 'But we obviously can't just press a button and then stand there waiting for one to arrive: the sentries would get us. I think we'll have to try for the stairs.' 

'What?' Samantha whispered back, cupping a hand around her ear. 

'I said,' Ben hissed, 'I think we'll have to try for the stairs.' 

The glass-sided stairwell was just a little further along the passage than the lifts, which were just a few metres away. The double doors that gave access to the stairs were that much closer to the sentries, but Ben figured that way lay their only chance. He supposed they would just have to tiptoe out, and hope they weren't heard. It was a desperate plan, but it was all he'd got. 

'Eh?' said Lauren. 'I can't hear you. What did you say?' 

'Heaven's sake,' said Ben, losing patience. 'I...' By chance, before repeating himself a second time he decided to risk a quick glance at the sentries. 

It was lucky he did. They had just started to turn towards him. 

'Oh crap,' he said. 'Run!'