12

Oct 30, Monday, 3:00 P.M.

    Ian had been feeling his way around the vents for at least an hour, though it had felt like a million years.  Every room he found seemed to be crawling with Vallorians.

    The heat in the ventilation shafts didn't help either.  By the time he had realized he was going in circles, he was already sweating.  The pizza smell made his stomach grumble like it never had before and he wondered if they should have waited for the Valorians to feed them before they escaped.

    After their escape had been discovered, everyone in the base had been put on high alert.  But it puzzled Ian that none of the valorians had ventured into the vents after them.

    Maybe they were scared of something.

    Maybe Ian should be scared too.

    This stayed on Ian's mind until he found his answer.

    He drew close to a vent and heard alien voices talking quickly.  He, of course, had no idea what they were saying, but it sounded rushed and scared.

    He crawled on his belly and peered into the room through the slits in the vent.  It was some sort of security room and had a large screen that displayed an image that looked like a maze.  Ian realized that it was the ventilation shafts.

    But in, random places on the map, there were black holes that seemed to be moving.  Ian gulped, were there actually other monsters in the vents?

    The two male Valorians stationed there kept pointing at the map

and speaking gibberish.

    Ian quietly backed away and felt his stomach churn.

    Should he just give himself up now?  Were the things in the shafts worse than being experimented on by aliens?

    Then he remembered a face.  Chelsea's face.

    His emotion immediately switched and he set his face.  he had to do whatever it took to make sure she got back home.  No monsters would stop him.

    He decided that he would need to climb higher in the vents and began searching for a way up.

    Finally, he found an upward vent and began to slowly climb into the shafts above.  Suddenly, underneath him, he heard a distant clicking.  Something was coming towards him.

    Ian propped himself in the upward tunnel and looked down at

the metal vent flooring below.  The clicking grew louder and suddenly the metallic bottom opened like two doors swinging wide.  Ian got a clear view of the room below that shaft and saw a hallway lined with people.

    The door was only open for about a few seconds, then it shut abruptly and the door next to it opened.

    Ian suddenly realized what the moving black dots had been.

    It was a way to get them out of the vents.  The vents must be fitted with mechanisms that opened and closed the doors so they could flush out anyone or anything that was in them.

    It was quite a clever way to get rid of dust, but Ian hated the thought of falling through one of those doors and right into the middle of a Valorian room.

    Plus, how far was the drop? What if he died from it?

    From now on he had to listen and watch for any more opening doors.  

    He hoped that none of the others had been caught so far, but what could he do if they had been?

    Ian shook the thought and focused his strength on climbing up the tunnel.

    By the time he reached the top, his muscles were sore and he was breathing hard.

    But he knew that, with this new realization of vent traps, he needed to keep moving to stay alive and out of the reach of aliens.

_________________________________________________________

    It wasn't long before Ian heard a sound.  But, to his great relief, it wasn't the signal of the vents, but of another human.

    Adam Stephanie to be exact.

    Ian patted his shoulder once they met and Adam just looked confused.

    "How'd you get here?" he asked. 

    "I climbed," Ian said simply.  Then he quickly explained to Adam about the vents and how he could tell when they were going to open.

    "These aliens seem to be much more advanced than we thought," Adam observed.  "But I had acquired Chelsea's whereabouts."

    "How?"

    "I found a room listing all their prisoners.  There was nobody there so I snuck in and quickly checked for her name.  She's on the top level, about three more floors up."

    Ian sighed.  His muscles were beginning to cramp from being on all fours for a long time.  Plus he was hot and tired and hungry.

    But Ian quickly snapped out of it and reminded himself how much Chelsea needed him.

    "Ok," he said with an air of strength.

    They both began crawling off together to find a vent, one in front of the other.

    Suddenly, a dreaded sound reached their ears.

    They both stopped dead and Adam turned to face Ian, "Is that the sound?"

    Ian nodded as he heard the fearful clicking growing nearer.

    "Crawl!" he yelled and Adam shot off, zooming as fast as he could.

    The clicking grew closer, but Ian saw another upward shaft ahead and relief filled his bones.

    "Adam!  Climb up there quickly!"

    Adam began climbing but his shoes kept slipping on the metal.

    The sound was very close now.

    Beads of sweat formed on Ian's forehead, which wasn't from the heat.

    Adam finally got footing and lifted himself up.

    The clicks were now a few meters away and Ian could see doors opening and closing along with the clicks.

    "Adam, help me up!"

    Ian reached up his hand and Adam stared down at it but didn't extend his hand to help.

    "ADAM!"

    "I'm sorry, Ian, but I need to be the one to find Chelsea," Adam said, then turned away.

    The door underneath Ian suddenly gave way and Ian felt 

weightless for a few moments.

    Then, the reality of gravity set in and he plummeted to the floor.