“What about that?” Josh suggested, pointing up. My gaze rose, following his finger until I saw a small air duct near the ceiling. “People always escape through air ducts in the movies,” he announced. As if he were some major expert expounding on a little-known fact that everyone here didn’t already know.
Still, he did have a point. Unfortunately.
“It’s kind of small,” Starr said, walking over to the duct and peering up at it worriedly.
“Yeah. But I think we’ll fit,” I said, joining her. “I mean, it’s worth a try. There’s really no other way out.”
“I don’t know…” I realized her face had turned kind of ashen. “I’m not really big on closed-in spaces.”
I wasn’t, either, but it beat my fear of heights. And, well, my fear of zombies.
“Look,” I said. “How about you stay here and keep the zombies’ attention at the door? We’ll go through the air duct and climb down into the next room. Then we’ll circle back and take out the zombies from behind and clear the door for you.”
She looked relieved. “That’s a great idea,” she said. “I can do that.”
“Cool. Help me get this desk under the vent.”
Together the four of us dragged a few desks over until we’d made a ledge under the vent. Then we climbed up onto the desks, and Josh yanked the grate free, tossing it to ground. He peered inside for a moment, then nodded.
“Let’s give this bad boy a try,” he said, boosting himself up into the vent.
“Can you fit?” Lilli called after him.
“Totally,” he called back, his voice echoing. “No problem at all. Come on, Speedy. Get up here and see for yourself.”
My sister boosted herself up into the air vent, also disappearing from view. I glanced at Starr, who, now that they were gone, still looked a little nervous. Make that a lot nervous.
“You gonna be okay?” I asked her.
She shot me a half smile. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s just a game, right?”
“So they keep telling me.” It was funny; in a weird way it made me feel a little better to know that someone else was nervous about things. Lilli was always so overconfident. And Josh—well, I didn’t even want to talk about him.
But Starr’s face told me I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t crazy to be freaked out.
I climbed up onto the desk, trying to exude confidence. She’d made me feel better a few minutes before. Now it was my turn. “We’ll be back for you in minute. Just hang tight.”
She nodded, then walked back to the door. Knocked on the window with her fist. “Hey, uglies!” she called. “How about you pick on someone your own state of decay!”
Feeling confident she was going to be all right, I boosted myself up into the vent, wriggling my body into the passageway. Josh was right. It was tight, but I could crawl just fine. As long as I didn’t think too much about it as I was doing it.
Speaking of Josh. Where was he? I peered down the vent. Or Lilli, for that matter.
“Josh?” I called out. “Lilli?”
No answer. Ugh. Seriously, would it have killed them to wait five seconds for me?
Annoyed, I started crawling through the vent. What else could I do? The air up here was dusty, and I had to stop and sneeze several times, not to mention brush thick cobwebs from my hair. As I pushed forward, I looked for more grates—entrances to other rooms—but came up empty. Which was weird, right? Something else the game designers hadn’t added yet, perhaps?
Finally I got to a fork in the road. Two vents—one going left and the other right. I peered down each passageway in turn, trying to figure out which one my sister and Josh had chosen. But both looked empty. Where were they?
They must have found a grate and climbed down, I told myself, even as my heart started to pick up its pace. They were probably already down in another classroom. Maybe they were halfway to rescuing Starr, even.
But why didn’t they wait for me?
Irritation rose inside of me. Was my sister still mad at me about the whole NPC Ikumi thing? Was that why she was so eager to pal around with Josh? If so, she was fooling herself; Josh wouldn’t have cared about some computer program any more than I had. Probably less, since he had no respect for the game.
Though at least he wouldn’t have frozen like I had.
Exasperated, I looked down each pathway one more time, then forced myself to choose. I turned left, crawling farther down the vent, hoping for some kind of exit. But there was nothing. It just went on and on. Maybe I should turn around, I thought. Retreat back to the room I’d come from. Maybe Josh and Lilli had done the same.
I started to try to turn. But in doing so, I realized I couldn’t. The vent wasn’t big enough. I was stuck. And I couldn’t even use my sword to try to cut my way through as the passageway wasn’t wide enough to pull it out from its sheath.
My heart started pounding loudly in my chest. Panic gripped my lungs, making it difficult to breathe. What if there was no exit? What if I was trapped in here? My fingers began to shake so hard it was difficult to keep from collapsing.
In the end, I decided to try to crawl backward. Retreat to the safety of the classroom with Starr. Josh and Lilli would have to take on the zombies
