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We walk up the stairs in a single file line. Me in the lead, Cassie behind me, Nugget behind her, and Zombie in the rear. We practically crawl up, holding tight to one another and choking on the thin air. We're still going blind, but I think I've gotten better with working in the dark. Practice makes a better maggot, right Reznik?
Halfway onto the third landing when my hand smacks into stone. "Christ, these stairwells are the worst thing in the world." Turning to Zombie, I whisper, "I'm going to climb it-- might be room to squeeze through at the top."
"You're hurt," Cassie says, and shoves her way to the front of us. "I'll do it."
She gets three feet up when her foot slips and she comes back down, smacking her chin against rough stone. I can't help but smirk. What? It's not like she can see me.
"Alright, my turn," I say, nudging her away from the wall of concrete. Second one today. I'll be damned if this one gets in the way, too.
Grunts leave my mouth as I scale the massive mountain of remnants from this Base of Hell. Sweat and blood drip down my back. Guess I really did give my training blood, sweat and tears, huh?
"Are you okay?" Cassie calls to me when I'm halfway up.
Wheezing, I shout, "Define 'okay'."
"Okay means you're not bleeding to death, Ghost," Zombie shouts. He's nervous, and I think I hear him muttering about how he should have been the one to go up. I ignore him. I've gone through much worse in the past few months.
"I'm okay."
Ten minutes later and I'm still scaling the mountain, searching for the light. And then I see it, up what has to be ten feet from me. Up here, the air is even thinner. For some reason my mind goes to Mount Everest, like I'm an adventurer climbing the mountain for fun-- risking my life for fun. It's so bittersweet I start to laugh.
"Well?" Cassie calls, probably worried after hearing my broken laughter way above her. No way out, she must be thinking. Stuck.
I shake dust from my hair and take a deep breath. Looking up at the light that's so far, imagining Zombie's injured self pushing himself through with his big, square shoulders. Calling down to them. "Just... enough... room." Under my breath. "I think." And out loud again. "It's up pretty far, but I can see light up ahead."
"Light?" Zombie asks.
"Bright light." Squinting at it. "Like floodlights. And..." The slab of concrete falling beneath me. Heart racing, wondering if I'm going to fall to my death right now. Wondering if it will hold for the others.
Cassie again. "And? And what?"
"And it's not very stable. I can feel it slipping underneath me."
Zombie sighs. Cassie tells Nugget to climb aboard, right on her back, and wrap his arms around her neck. He must grip her too tight because she gasps and says, "Not that tight."
"Zombie?" I find myself calling for him, again, in the dark. "Think you'll die on the way up?"
"It'll be on the way down that I die, Ghost," is his response. I roll my eyes. Ass.
