The 34th Floor

The 34th Floor - Chapter 39 - Grace

Author's Note:

This next chapter is up and running. I do not know how I'll be able to work out the next chapter of this story, but I am working hard for a solution to the problem. I somewhat know how I want this story to end, but I have for you here the very next chapter in Grace's perspective. [=

Enjoy. Vote and comment as you wish. I don't mind suggestions at all. [=

The 34th Floor

Chapter 39:

Grace

It all went by so fast, the flying, the water wave, the sliding through the air vent. No one could keep up when the water tore apart the walls of the mini passageway, tearing everything in its way.

I had been thrown right off of my feet, on my belly, gliding through the metal passageway. My knee had banged against the walls several times, and Noah had collided against my back every now and then. Cade had to grip Rachel’s arm or she would have been consumed by the wave, and the saving would have been for nothing. I had completely forgotten about Lee, but Noah had rewrapped his crippling body in the old blanket we had salvaged from the previous room we had been in.

“Noah!” I shouted over the roaring of the water.

“Just hold on, Grace!” He called out before his head got dunked under and it took him several seconds to recover.  Several very long seconds, might I add.

“I don’t think I can, Noah,” I called over my shoulder as I straddled nothing but the water that slipped out from beneath my fingers.  

I struggled to breathe as the current flew over my head. It dominated me instantly, pounding against the back of my head furiously until I chocked and pleaded for mercy. Noah screamed for me to cover my head and to hang on in there, but all I could do was let out strangled moans. His arms were full with Lee’s body fighting to stay afloat.

My hands reached out to cover my head when the bang against a metal bar. I gripped the edge of the metal board, trying to pull my body through the water. Half of my body was buried in the water while the other half was simply drenched. I struggled to pull myself over the metal bar and up another passageway. I felt a hand wrap around my ankle and I immediately began to thrash wildly.

“Stop, Grace. It’s just me,” Noah called over the roaring of the water.

Immediately, a sigh of relief escaped my lips and I continued down the passageway, Noah on my heels, Cade and Rachel on his.

Clambering through the air vent, I struggled to go faster as my clothes weighed me down. The water had soaked through the thin material of my clothes and now the ends of my shirt dripped wet. Noah followed closely behind. When I looked over my shoulder, he had the ends of the bed sheet wrapped over his shoulder and one under his armpit so Lee was dangling across his chest. Lee’s body probably weighed an extra ton. Noah was breathing hard, so hard that in the narrowness of the air vent, I could feel his warm breath gathering on the back of my neck. It was comforting that his presence was near me, but at the time nerve-wrecking that we were pressed together in such a tight place together.

“Are you alright?” I questioned, my voice bouncing off the walls.

“My throat burns, my nose and ear drums are filled with water, this body weighs more than me and you combined even though it’s a bag of bones, and I could be doing so much better, but I think I’m alright,” he sarcastically responded, causing a soft giggle to escape my lips.

Before I could open my mouth to reply, the metal flooring beneath our bodies dented until a steep ramp shot downwards. My eyes widened in horror as the water from below rose to the ramp. Before I could warn the other three, my whole body escalated downwards until all four of us were tumbling down the ramp at full speed. The water was carrying us faster and faster towards the end of the ramp, its pressure surging all around us.