“Looks like we’re crawling through.” Cillian pulled his head out and called down to Tobias. “Can you pass the rest of my stuff up?”
“You’re going first, right?” Tobias hesitated about handing the things up.
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, you go first with the crowbar, cause odds are there will be another grate we’ll have to go through. I’ll bring along your other stuff so it doesn’t get in your way.”
“All right. You sure your shoulder can handle it?”
“Yeah.”
“All right.” Cillian reached back into the ducts. He stepped up to the very top of the ladder and slid in to about his waist. After tossing the crowbar in before him, he pressed his arms against the sides and pulled the rest of himself in. It was a really tight fit, but he was able to move his arms and legs enough to propel himself forward. It felt even more claustrophobic than when he did something similar for his firefighter’s training.
He wiggled his way along until he thought Tobias would have enough room to fit behind him, then he waited. A short while later, the ducts shifted as Tobias pulled himself in as well. Cillian could hear him grunting as he heaved himself up.
“I hope you’re not claustrophobic.” Cillian couldn’t even see past his own body to see how Tobias was doing.
“Nope,” Tobias grunted. “Your boots smell though.”
Cillian grinned, trying not to think about the tight space himself. Although he wouldn’t admit to being afraid of anything, some things made him very uncomfortable. He waited a moment longer until he felt a tapping on his boots.
“Let’s move.” Tobias was hitting his feet to let him know he was right behind him. “Just don’t kick me in the face.”
“You might want to keep a bit of distance then,” Cillian suggested.
He began scooting his way down the duct again. It was nearly impossible to tell how far he was moving; the duct looked endless and monotonous. It was dark too, the only light being a very diffuse glow that shone off the walls, likely from vent slats. It was just enough to see by, but not very far. When Cillian reached the crowbar, he held onto it with one hand and brought it along. It was frustrating trying to move through the ducts. Cillian constantly banged his knees and elbows into the sides. He also kept hitting his head. All he wanted to do was stand up right then, just stand. This was not one of his better ideas. He wished he could be in Tobias’s shoes. He had a much smaller build than Cillian and could probably move more easily. Although he did have that shoulder injury which was probably screaming. And he was taller which meant his limbs were longer.
Finally, he came upon a shaft leading straight up, and straight down. Cillian was actually relieved for a moment due to the added space. He looked down and saw that it dropped a long way. Long enough that there wasn’t enough light to see very far, but the void gave off this feeling of being a great drop.
“How do you feel about heights?” Cillian asked back. His voice echoed up and down the shaft, back to his own ears.
“Not too great since we first met,” Tobias called up.
“Well then, you’re going to love this.” Cillian looked across the gap where the duct kept going. He tossed the crowbar over first. Grabbing the lip of the drop, Cillian pulled himself forward over the void. It wasn’t too wide, and he was able to get his shoulders across before his hips reached the edge. Still, having that drop under his belly was nerve-racking, even for Cillian. It felt like the gravity was twice as strong in that one spot and was trying to suck him down. He continued to pull himself along until he felt his knees drop into the gap. He wiggled, squirmed, and pushed off the edge with his feet until he managed to cross the gap completely. He kept moving, making sure Tobias would have plenty of room for his own crossing.
“What the fuck?” Tobias cried out from behind him.
“Don’t worry, it’s easy to cross,” Cillian reassured him. He didn’t mention how frightening it was.
He tried to look back again but couldn’t get nearly enough space to do so. He moved a little farther down, making extra sure Tobias had room, then stopped again. The skin on his arms hurt like hell from all the friction with the sides of the duct, so the break was nice. As long as he didn’t dwell on the close quarters, that was. Listening carefully over the sounds of Tobias’s banging around and the curses under his breath, he could just make out the zombies still trying to break in. That sound came from behind though, and he couldn’t hear anything from up ahead. He took that as a good sign.
Then a louder banging coming from near Tobias drew his attention. The sound was heading downwards.
“Tobias!” Cillian quickly called back, fearing he had somehow fallen.
“I’m all right,” Tobias answered.
Cillian breathed a sigh of relief. Having to deal with all this shit was hard enough, but having to do it alone would be harder. Cillian had to admit he had become attached to the little fucker.
“I lost your helmet though,” Tobias explained the banging.
Scratch that, he could go to hell. “Goddamn it. Whatever, just don’t lose anything else.” Cillian started moving again.
His arms hurt, his legs hurt, his head, back, and neck all hurt. He just wanted to be able to stand, or even kneel for that matter. He was tired of moving like a seal. It didn’t help that his shoulders were also starting to hurt, and not just from muscle strain. His pants kept trying to drag down and only the pull on his suspenders was keeping them up. They kept digging in and he would have to wiggle his hips around to loosen the pull. Often though, the wiggling resulted in smacking his hips even harder against the sides than need be, and they were bruising. Cillian began to think he had an idea of what it would be like to be buried alive. Except he had air. He wondered how people could go spelunking. Especially the kind of cave exploring without knowledge of what was ahead. At least in this place Cillian could safely assume the ducts weren’t going to shrink on him suddenly. Although it felt like they were.
At long last, he came upon another grate.
“Hold up, I’m busting us out,” Cillian warned Tobias, probably louder and more joyously than he needed to.
He didn’t care what might be in the room waiting for them; he just wanted out of there. He brought the crowbar forward and started attacking the grate with it. It took even longer to open this time because of his limited range of motion. When it did start to give way, Cillian put all his efforts into it and it finally burst open with a loud clang. Cillian dropped the crowbar through the hole and pulled himself up to take a look through.
“Fuck me,” he muttered.
“What is it?” Tobias called from his ass end.
“Well, you remember how we climbed that ladder to get in here? Well, the floor in this next room is just as far down. Like, two stories down.” Cillian wondered why in the hell this room and the last one were so bloody tall. What could they possibly need all the storage space for? He wondered what the stores above did for storage. Not that the rest of the building layout made a difference at the moment.
“Fantastic.” Cillian could picture Tobias rolling his eyes with that sarcasm. “And I take it that noise I heard was you dropping the crowbar so that we can’t find another grate.”
“Yup.”
“Awesome.”
* * *
Cillian clung to the edge of the opening, hanging his head down through it. As he looked around, he saw that a shelving unit wasn’t too far away. “I might be able to get down,” he told Tobias, “just stay put.”
Tobias grumbled something that he couldn’t make out.
Cillian pulled back up into the duct and pulled himself across the opening. Once his feet were over the void, he slid them through the opening and slowly backed down, allowing more and more of himself to dangle outside of the ductwork.
“You’re insane,” Tobias told him. He had shifted so that he was much closer to the opening.
“Yeah, well, my insanity saved you the first time, didn’t it?” Cillian
was now hanging by his armpits. He continued to lower himself until he was just holding onto the lip of the duct by his hands. Even at his full length, the floor was quite a distance away. Falling could break his legs. He swung his legs with a grunt, trying to reach the shelving unit with them. He couldn’t reach it though, and his strength to hold himself up was waning fast. Frantically he swung again, but missed again. Then his fingers slipped.
“Fuck!” was Cillian’s only reaction. It took him a moment to realize he hadn’t plummeted to the floor. Tobias had grabbed his wrists just as he slipped.
“Looks like we’re even,” Tobias grunted. He must have been using everything he had to keep from being pulled out of the duct. He let go with one hand and used it to help brace himself over the opening.
Cillian used his free hand to grab a second hold on Tobias’s arm. “Not if you drop me. Swing me that way.” Cillian gestured with his head.
“Swing you?” Tobias’s face was red with the strain. A large bead of sweat trailed down his face.
Cillian started swinging his legs, reaching for the shelves on his own.
“Cocksucker,” Tobias swore loudly but tried to help. Cillian glanced up and saw that Tobias was gritting his teeth so hard he wondered if they’d snap.
The first two swings failed but the third brought him close enough for his feet to hit it. He let go of Tobias’s arm, and Tobias let go of his immediately. Cillian nearly fell right off the other side of the shelving unit but managed to grab hold of the top before spilling off. Once he was in a stable position, he looked back up at Tobias. He saw he was wearing his firefighter’s coat, but not the gloves. He still had his damnable camera too.
“You all right?”
“I may not be able to move my arms for the next several weeks, but other than that, I’m peachy.” Tobias drew his arm back up inside the duct and shifted back into the vent to lay on his side. Cillian could only see the top of his head and his eyes peering out.
“Well, you just relax for a while; I’ll find something to help you down.” Cillian started climbing down the shelves.
“Yeah, I’ll just take a little nap while I’m in the most uncomfortable space in the world and waiting for zombies to bite my ass.”
Cillian made it to the floor and started looking. He found the door that led out into whatever mall shop they were in the back of and peeked out. It looked like a shop for ladies shoes, to complement the apparel store next door, of course, but no zombies were in sight.
Zombies, esh. Who would have thought Cillian would be living through an outbreak of zombies? He certainly didn’t. He always thought something catastrophic would happen one day, but not while he was alive, and certainly not zombies. Life had a way of throwing you curve balls at times.
He closed the shop door again and looked around the back room some more. Luckily for Tobias, this room was as well equipped as the last one and had a tall A-frame ladder. He manoeuvred it over to the open grate and set it up beneath Tobias.
“All right, Toby, come on down,” Cillian grinned.
“Enough with the ‘Toby’ shit.” Tobias crawled over the opening and backed his way out like Cillian had. Only he had something to put his feet on.
“I like calling you Toby. If I think we’re going to die I’ll call you Tobias, but for now, you’re Toby.” Cillian held the ladder steady while Tobias climbed down it.
“Screw you,” was all Tobias said when he reached the bottom.
“Meh,” Cillian shrugged. “Now give me my coat back.”
Tobias took it off, wincing. His shoulder was clearly agonizing him. Cillian took the coat and put it on. He checked the pockets and discovered his gloves and the empty pistol were still in them. As he put the gloves on, he noted how disgusting they looked with all the dried blood caked to them. They matched the jacket though, which was equally caked in gore. Cillian then walked over and picked up the crowbar.
“I assume your arms hurt too much to carry this?” Cillian held out the crowbar to Tobias. He just nodded as an answer. He was cradling both his arms to his chest by crossing them and gripping the camera strap around his neck. The scarf wrapped around his upper arm was beginning to turn red.
Cillian led the way to the exit. He poked his head out again to make sure no new visitors had shown up while he had been helping Tobias. The shop was still clear.
“They’re going to be right next door when we go out,” Tobias whispered.
Cillian nodded. They crept toward the storefront, Cillian in front, Tobias sticking to his back. As they walked around the shoe displays, Cillian noticed a pair Jessi would have liked. Size 8 ½. He really hoped she was in Aussie Town and didn’t have to deal with all of this.
Cillian made it to the front of the store and crouched behind a prominent display, creeping forward. He peered around it at the shop next door. Several dim-witted zombies hadn’t figured out how to get under the fencing and continued to stand there shaking it. Cillian hoped they were as unobservant as they were stupid. He stepped out into the mall, keeping low. None of them had noticed so far. He shot a quick glance behind him to make sure the way was clear and then started to back up, keeping a close eye on the idiots.
Tobias followed him, also keeping low. He passed Cillian who kept going backwards until he bumped into something. Cillian turned around and saw that it was just Tobias, who had stopped not long after getting ahead of him. Tobias was standing next to a door with a metal push bar. He pointed at the door, a question in his eyes. Cillian looked at it and frowned. It said on the door that it was an emergency stairwell, only to be used in case of a fire. If the door were opened, an alarm would sound.
Cillian glared at Tobias and slowly shook his head. Tobias frowned back and lifted his hands in a ‘why not?’ gesture. Cillian thought it was obvious and pointed back at the zombies, then at the word ‘alarm.’ Tobias rolled his eyes. He pointed at the alarm word next, then waved a pointed finger around the ceiling. Apparently, he thought the alarm would sound throughout the whole mall. Which it might. Cillian looked back at the zombies, considering the options. He turned back to Tobias just in time to see him press the bar.
* * *
After their attempts to be dead silent, the alarm blaring to life was deafening. Cillian quickly followed Tobias into the stairwell. He had no idea if the zombies spotted them or not. Both of them hurried down the multiple flights of stairs as fast as they could, taking some corners so sharply they bumped into the walls. There was no way to tell if they were being followed, the alarm was so loud. At least it seemed to be blaring all over the mall and not just in their vicinity.
They made it to the bottom of the stairs without running into any problems. Thankfully, there was an emergency door that led directly outside. They burst through it, out into a sunny alley. Tobias kept running, leading Cillian through the alley. There was a chain link fence ahead and Tobias climbed up on a big dumpster next to it, and then hopped over the fence. Cillian had to hand it to him; he could really move, even though he was in a lot of pain. He followed him up and over the fence. Tobias stood panting on the other side, a huge grin across his face.
“You’re an idiot,” Cillian told him.
“I’m an idiot, you’re insane, but together we make a great team.” Tobias actually laughed giddily.
“Did you know the alarms were going to go off all over the mall?” Cillian wondered.
“Not at all.” Tobias crossed his arms again and rubbed his shoulders. He winced slightly.
“You stupid shit.” Cillian pushed him lightly, trying to keep a smile off his own face. It was hard not to be happy now that they were outside again, in the somewhat fresh air. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
Cillian walked to the open end of the alley with Tobias dogging his steps. At the end, he stopped and looked around, getting his bearings.
“Well, at least we’re across Jalice.” Tobias pointed up the street. It connected with Jalice Ave, where the man on the bus had been.
; Cillian suddenly remembered Tobias’s habit of filming everything. “Hey, you didn’t film my ass in the air ducts did you?”
Tobias shook his head. “Not deliberately. I did a bit of filming at that shaft from hell, but I didn’t focus on your butt.”
“Good.” Cillian thought about it for a moment. “Wait, is that why you lost my helmet? You were filming?”
Tobias shrugged and took a step back. “Maybe.”
“You bitch,” Cillian sighed.
“It’s not like I did it on purpose.” Tobias took another step back. “Besides, you’re the one who lost the axe, remember?”
Cillian mumbled to himself, counting to ten. He had a point; he had lost the axe, which had more value than the helmet. Tobias had given him a lot of reasons to leave him behind though; the boldness with the door, the loss of his helmet because of his filming, the injury, but Cillian wasn’t going to do that. He had also saved his ass. And gotten him through the mall. He was useful despite sometimes being a moron.
“Come on.” Cillian headed onward.
He noticed Tobias let out a held breath before following.
Being out on the street at first felt nice, especially after being trapped in the ductwork. It didn’t take long though for Cillian to start feeling too exposed. Apparently, there was no amount of space he would feel comfortable in. There were a lot of zombies in the mall clumped together, but that didn’t mean there weren’t hoards out here. He just had to think of the bus incident; there were a lot of zombies there. Although there was running space out here, there wasn’t really anywhere to hide effectively. On the other hand, a zombie could be hanging around just out of sight. Thank God they weren’t very far from the hospital. Cillian could see its chimney in the distance. Maybe it would have the right amount of space.
Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel Paperback Page 33
