“We’ll manage,” Lynn said, although she wasn’t sure she believed it herself. She couldn’t think of too many experiences worse than climbing over a naked, comatose patient in an upwardly angled, dark cylinder.
Lynn heard Michael say, “Sorry, bro,” as he struggled forward. Lynn waited. Looking straight ahead and to the side of Michael’s dark form, she could see a bit of light, giving her the confidence there wasn’t that much farther to go.
“Okay,” Michael said a minute or so later. “Your turn! I’m sure this poor bastard is going to think you are a picnic after me.”
Getting past the patient was physically easier than Lynn had anticipated but psychologically more trying than she’d imagined. She struggled not to put any weight on the comatose person but wasn’t totally successful. The fact that he was supine rather than prone made it worse.
“Okay,” Lynn said breathlessly once she was past. She had been holding her breath while in close contact with the individual. Michael was waiting impatiently.
“Let’s get a move on!” Michael whispered urgently as he began crawling forward. They could hear voices behind them more clearly. “They might reverse the direction of the belt.”
After another fifteen feet of their racing on all fours, the belt leveled off and the ambient light increased dramatically, especially after the belt made a ninety-degree turn. After another ten feet they emerged into Cluster 5-B, which was a mirror image of Cluster 4-B. Relieved at having made it, both stood and climbed over the side. As they did so, the belt suddenly resumed operation, with the rollers moving in the opposite direction, as Michael had feared.
With a sense of partial relief from having avoided being pulled back into the clutches of the people chasing them, they used the conveyor superstructure to swing down and drop onto the walkway. With all conveyor machinery shut down, the room was quiet. The only real noise was from the intermittent flushing process in various cylinders.
The students lost no time. They rushed to the door leading out of the room and, once they determined the hallway was clear, made a mad dash for the exit. They ran past the NOC and soon skidded to a stop at the door to the outside. Michael snapped up their raincoats and handed Lynn hers, and they pulled them on quickly. They didn’t want to have to explain themselves if they ran into anybody on their way to the dorm or in the dorm itself.
“Ready?” Michael asked. His hand was poised above the door lever.
“More than ready,” Lynn said, glancing back over her shoulder. “Come on! Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Michael hit the lever, but to their horror nothing happened! He hit it again several times in a row with the same effect. Then he pressed on the lever as hard as he could and held it. Still nothing. The door didn’t budge.
Lynn folded her arm against her torso and lunged at the door with her right shoulder. She hit it hard, but it wasn’t going anywhere. Michael did the same with the same result. The door was made of steel, with a solid core. It was meant as a significant barrier, and both of them knew it.
The two students eyed each other in desperation.
“What are we going to do?” Michael barked.
Lynn didn’t respond. Instead she whipped out the stapled bundle of floor plans and rapidly flipped through them.
“Come on, sis!” Michael snapped breathlessly. “We have to run. Our only chance is to cross over to the hospital. Are you looking for the best route?”
At that moment both heard the unmistakable sound of a door bursting open. They couldn’t see it and assumed it was the stairwell door.
“This way,” Lynn said hurriedly. She started forward in the opposite direction from the hospital.
Michael ran after her, trying to tell her they were headed in the wrong direction, but she ignored him. After turning a corner, Michael again tried to talk to her. Behind them they heard the sound of men running in their direction.
Lynn turned yet another corner, entering a long hallway that stretched out like a study in perspective. She was running at full speed, with Michael a few steps behind. They were passing doors on either side.
“Where the hell are we going?” Michael gasped.
Lynn continued to ignore him. Suddenly she stopped in front of one of the doors along the main corridor. She did it so precipitously that Michael plowed into her. He had to grab her with both hands to keep both of them from falling. She struggled out of his arms and hit the door’s opening lever. The moment it slid open, she dashed inside.
Michael followed. He was confused as to what she was doing. Before the pocket door had opened, he’d seen the block letters on the door that identified the room as PHARMACY AND GENERAL SUPPLIES. Once inside, he turned around and closed the door. Facing back into the highly air-conditioned room, he saw that it was filled from floor to ceiling with rows of shelving, crammed with all manner of drugs and associated supplies. To his further surprise, Lynn had disappeared.
Michael ran up the center aisle, glancing down each cross aisle, looking for Lynn. Her behavior had him baffled. He found her at the very back, on her hands and knees, in front of a relatively large metal latticework screen some two feet high and three feet wide that was positioned just above the baseboard and painted the same color as the wall. She had her screwdriver out and was madly removing the sheet-metal screws holding it in place.
“What the hell are you doing?” Michael demanded. “They are going to be in here in a flash and the ball game’s going to be over.”
“And we won’t be here,” Lynn said confidently.
“Are you suggesting...”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” Lynn said quickly. She took out the last screw and then struggled to remove the grille. It wasn’t cooperating; dried paint was holding it in place. “When I was at the building commission today, I learned that the Shapiro shares infrastructure with the hospital, including the HVAC system. This return duct will take us back to the hospital.”
“I ain’t going in there, no way,” Michael said.
“We don’t have much of a choice,” Lynn said. She was now frantically using the screwdriver to scribe the periphery of the lattice. A moment later she was able to break it free from the wall. “Finally,” she voiced. She leaned the screen against the wall to the side of the opening and put down the screwdriver.
“How do you know you won’t get lost?” Michael said.
“Easy,” Lynn said. “We’ll follow the airflow. The good thing is that the ducts have to get larger and not smaller.”
“How come you picked this room out of all the rooms we passed?”
“I knew a pharmacy would be kept cooler than other rooms, meaning bigger ducts. And we are in luck. I don’t see any video cameras in here.”
With mounting panic, Michael glanced up at the ceiling. She was right. There were no cameras. Then he bent down and stared into the duct. Compared with this dark, narrow duct, dealing with the conveyor system had been a comparative picnic. Considering his size, he wasn’t sure he’d even fit.
“We got to do this, bro,” Lynn said. “It might take us a while, and I hope you are not claustrophobic. You want to go first or second? Whoever goes second has to try to reposition the grille.”
“You first,” Michael said.
“Okay,” Lynn said, trying to bolster her courage. Despite what she had said to Michael, she had serious misgivings about what they were about to do. At the same time she knew they had to either try it or give up. And with the enormity of what they had discovered on their visit, she wasn’t eager to put herself and Michael into the hands of Sidereal Pharmaceuticals or Middleton Healthcare.
Taking a deep breath, Lynn stretched out her arms in front of her and then, using her feet, pushed herself headfirst into the duct. By slithering like a snake, she found moving on the metal surface was actually easier than she had envisioned. She’d gone six or seven feet into the steadily growing darkness when she heard the metal grate hit against its housing. She sensed Michael was not behind her. Without being able to turn around or even see behind her with ease, she called out to Michael. “What the hell are you doing?”