Biting The Bullet

Chapter 2

"Vents?"

Kassidy nodded.

Evangeline's eyebrows squeezed together as she hugged herself with a shudder. "Crawling through vents is something I have never dreamt of doing. Not even in nightmares." The worst thing she could think of was her personal assistant resigning. 

"The same applies to all of us. But we don't get to choose at a time like this."

Evangeline pouted a bit, then agreed reluctantly, as did most others. As if given the green light, Kassidy rushed into the staff-only room and reappeared moments later with a tall metal ladder, which she set up and positioned under a vent opening at the corner. 

"You seem very skilled at this," remarked Arthur.

Kassidy glared at him. "Thanks for your insult." With nimble steps she made her ascent of the ladder and fiddled with the vent cover. When it came loose, she gently dropped it on the floor. Naturally, there was a loud clank as it landed, attracting several pairs of eyes.

"Holy cow, kid, what are you doing up there?" shouted Ferranda, straining his neck even though he was tall in nature.

"Escaping, duh!"

"Through a" - Lady Tate didn't seem to be able to utter the words - "ventilation network?"

"Yes, Lady Tate," replied Kassidy politely. 

"Good heavens, make good use of technology!" He revealed a smartwatch under his sleeve and tapped a few buttons.

"Bet there's no cellular data," muttered George.

"Holy cow!" said Ferranda, causing people around him to jump. "There's no freaking cellular data!"

"I would appreciate it if you altered your choice of expressions," said Lady Tate.

There was a brief moment of silence. Kassidy adjusted her position to keep a good balance.

"There's no data," mumbled the actor. "What should we do?"

Kassidy resisted the urge to slap her forehead. "We escape, through the vents," she said calmly through her teeth.

"That would totally ruin my image. I'd rather stay."

"As you wish. Let's get going," she said to her friends before grabbing the edge of the hole and heaving herself up. One by one they disappeared into the vent, while Arthur gave them two crossed fingers from below.

Inside the vent was a complete and utter contrast to the brightly-lit café bar where all sorts of sounds jigged in the air. Darkness encased them like a giant duffle bag, with a musty odour permeating the air, at which they scrunched their noses. They sneezed as dust flew off from the sides.

Kassidy blinked several times in an attempt to adjust her vision. No use. She took out a pocket torch and shone it around her. The vanishing point was obscure and far-flung. Oh well, there was no other escape route.

Richard stood up. "Can we walk instead — Ow!" He rubbed his head, hastily getting back down on his limbs.

They crawled for a while in silence, before Evangeline spoke, "Currently experiencing claustrophobia."

"Shush, the echo is chilling."

"I don't care."

"Careful not to fall through the surface! I heard the duct isn't very secure."

"That's the best news to hear right now."

"Sorry! But you can't assume it's going to hold all of our weight."

"For your information, I'm on a diet."

"Finally."

"Remember your manners," mimicked Richard.

"Can you all stop talking? The echo is making me shiver," said Evangeline. "Besides, I'm scared I'm going to fall through this... vent duct."

"Who's the one talking now?" said Richard.

"You," said Violet pointedly.

"No, you."

"This is getting childish," said Kassidy from the front. "You know when we speak the particles in air vibrate and could lead to a higher chance of-" She was broken off by a scuffling noise. 

Their muscles went into spasm as they looked at each other, eyes wide. Then they picked themselves up and started crawling in full speed. 

"Wait, stop!" There was a distant voice. 

"Beatrix? What are you doing here?" said George, turning around. 

There was a series of perfunctory shuffling and Beatrix caught up with them. "I just couldn't bear the thought of being trapped down there and waiting for doom. None of the others were of the same mind as they were all scared of falling, and even tried to talk me out of it." Holding onto a side, she huffed and puffed rapidly.

"We're happy to welcome you," said the others sincerely.

Beatrix beamed as she inspected her grimy hands. "It was hard work keeping up with your agility, especially since the roof is so low that I bumped my head a few times. Youths nowadays — they have endless potential. " 

"We can slow down if you want."

"Oh no, don't do that. I'll simply treat it as an exercise." She smiled with a hint of embarrassment.

They continued to advance, brushing aside the sporadic debris and trying not to think how filthy it is.

Finally, they came to the end. The problem was, there were two vent covers: one in front, one on the ceiling — if it could be referred to as a ceiling.

Peering through the first one, Kassidy saw the outside of the café — a road where a car or two passed by. However tempting it was to flee into the open space and call for help immediately, considering the fact that the criminals could be coming back anytime, it would be unsafe to head that way. Anyway, it was a sheer drop. 

"This one leads to the rooftop," said George, motioning to the vent hole on the ceiling.

As she pulled away from the lateral vent cover, she sensed a pair of eyes outside. She immediately looked again but there was not a single soul on the street. She continued to gaze intently but everything seemed perfectly normal. Her forehead folded into creases.

"Are you alright?" Evangeline placed a hand on her shoulder.

It was probably a hallucination stemmed from her feeling of precariousness. "Yeah," she said slowly. 

Suddenly, there came a crash and an ear-piercing scream. 

Down a gap, Richard's body jolted as he hung with a single hand on the edge and tried to grab it with his other hand, which slapped against the edge before falling back down. With each consecutive try, his fingers, his one and only support to prevent him from forever falling into the unknown underneath, was slipping every second and he knew it. His legs kicked madly as he tried to haul himself up, but failed. 

On hearing the sound, George's face appeared at the top vent hole and his eyes widened in shock. Without second thought he slid back down and held firmly onto Richard's white knuckles, then grabbed hold of his arm and afterwards his other one, before inhaling deeply and yanking him upwards. The others quickly aided the both of them and, together, they slowly pulled him up.

As Richard lay worn-out with his face down, he spluttered and gasped. "I almost died down there."

George patted his back. "You're safe now."

Richard looked up at them with dew on his brow. "Thanks for saving me." He paused before saying half-jokingly, "Hope I don't get PTSD." He brushed the dust off his shirt and was about to stand up when he remembered his sore head, so he crawled instead to the bottom of the vent hole. "So, are we escaping through here?"