The Elites

Chapter Twenty-Three

The vent was horrible and cramped and almost impossible to navigate through the thickness of the gas. While the amount emitted was noticeably lower back in the room, the concentration worsened as we progressed through the tunnel.

If I wasn't on the brink of passing out before I certainly was while crawling through the vents. My arms started to feel numb as I struggled to keep myself upright to the point where I wouldn't be able to feel them give way. I wasn't sure if Ashton would feel worse than me or not. I wasn't sure how much low level exposure he'd had with the mask, but it was hard to compare it to my higher dosage without one. However he felt, we were both saving our breath as we passed through. I could only hope that we wouldn't be met by a grate screwed solidly to the wall. Then we'd just have to turn back.

After a few minutes of crawling - the tiny width of the vent made our movements incredibly slow - we reached a crossroad. Ordinarily a crossroad in an alien series of ventilation shafts would be unwelcome; you never know where you might end up and where you would miss as a result. But for us it was the most welcome thing in the world.

The choices were to either keep going straight ahead or to turn left. Turning left would result in following the gas trail and consequently get continually closer to the source. However, continuing straight ahead allowed us to follow the gas as its concentration lowered again. It would at least allow us a small bit of breathing space; being so close to the source was really starting to take its toll.

As the drowsiness worsened I felt inspired to pick up the pace. Not that I wasn't moving as fast as I could before, but the threat of passing out and consequently dying in a ventilation shaft due to toxic gas exposure got less and less appealing as the minutes passed.

Ashton started to cough lightly underneath his mask and I knew we needed to be coming to the end soon. Not because we'd been crawling for so long but because we needed to be coming to the end to stay conscious. And even once we were on the other side we wouldn't suddenly snap to being perfectly alert.

Quite literally, lights started to appear at the end of the tunnel. Or maybe they just seemed like lights in my delirium. In actuality it was just a slightly less dark room visible through gaps in a vent cover we were approaching. I scrambled to the end with Ashton hot on my heels, reaching out savagely for the bars. In my desperation I pushed a little too hard and ended up falling through the space head first as it swung upwards. The drop was only short but the floor I was greeted by was solid concrete. Obviously, it helped my poisoned state brilliantly.

I rolled over onto my back to see Ashton sliding himself out of the vent cover and onto the ground much more gracefully than I had. He hadn't had enough space in the vent to swing himself around to land feet first, and therefore resembled a seal easing itself from a ledge into the water below it. He started to cough much more violently and clambered up from the floor, reaching out for the vent cover I'd pushed up; I'd definitely misjudged its security.

"Did you have a nice trip?" Ashton said dully. He didn't say it like it was a joke but at least it lightened the mood a bit.

"Marvellous," I grunted, sitting forward and feeling like a kid going through a growth spurt that hadn't moved a muscle in days. "Now let's go. God knows what Violet's done by this time."

We were in what looked like a janitor's closet. There were a couple of dingy old lockers against the wall, the insides strewn with half-filled bottles of detergent and broom heads separated from their handles.

Ashton wasted no time in getting the closet door open and thundering out into the corridor again. I ached all over but I pulled myself up and followed him out, quick to shut the door behind me just in case any gas escaped.