It took a while, but the two finally found a large air duct that could fit a human. The door was out of the question, so they needed to get creative.
- Is there nothing here that we can use as protection? – Rachel had already prepared for what they were going to do. They would follow the path from the air duct to some hallway or room on that floor that was empty. From there they would use the emergency stairway to get to the control room and see if there was anything on where to find Harold Smithens. One thing at a time, of course.
- Look, I don't think it's a good idea for us to mess with different viruses... We'll end up creating a super mutant that we won't be able to reverse. Better not try to play scientist.
- You're right...
Aidan opened the air duct and Rachel ran into the other room and came back right away.
- What is it? – She had her hand inside her backpack.
- Nothing, I just wanted to check on something.
- All right, let's go. Hold on to me and I'll push you up.
She reached out to brace herself against him, but then pulled back and took off running again.
- Rachel? What happened?
Aidan thought it strange. He was hearing suspicious noises. Almost like she was opening all the doors and drawers. When he decided to go after her, she walked through the door towards him. – Put this on.
Rachel handed him gloves, a mask, and a lab coat.
- He said he threw the virus into the vent. I'm immune, but you need to protect yourself.
The simplicity with which she said that touched Aidan. As if her first instinct was to help him, but she barely knew him. It was strange, refreshing and somehow comfortable. - Thanks. - He did what she said.
Aidan grabbed a nearby chair, brought it to the wall of the air duct, and held it tightly as Rachel climbed in first. He held out a hand and soon she was on top. She had pushed her body toward the duct with almost practiced ease. Soon, he followed suit.
They needed to be careful, after all the building was complicated. The closer they got to the emergency stairway before leaving the ducts, the better. So the contact time with the monsters and Ronnie would be low. This hurt. It hurt his heart to think that he might have to leave her here to find a cure. It hurt even more to think that there was a small but present possibility that someone might come in and kill her. "It's true…I can't do this to her. When the possibility arises, I need to do something."
The ducts were clean for such a large building. But the mite level made his nose itchy. He didn't have any illnesses to make it a problem, but that doesn't mean it didn't bother him. He could feel his hand getting dirty and even a little sticky. In that instant, Aidan was immensely grateful that he was wearing gloves. His body was already filthy from running and trying so hard. Still, he didn't want to make the situation worse.
Using his sense of direction and watching the open passages, Aidan realized they were heading for the emergency stairway he and Rachel had been waiting on.
- Hey, wait. – He whispered to the dark. The ducts had only the vaguest light through the hatches to light the way and they weren't in a good position to carry a flashlight.
Rachel's body tensed when he called out to her. She had started to feel something different at the time and was trying to avoid contact. Because Aidan was up front and it was dark, she could at least pretend he wasn't there. Even so, she wasn't very successful. His presence exhaled in waves and she felt it all the time. - All right?
- Yeah. I was thinking... I think we'd better go down the emergency stairway Ronnie was on. It was there that she met Tomás, that must have been where he met Harold.
It made sense. It did. But she had no idea how to get there. And her map was god knows where.
- What do you think?
- It might be. But you go ahead.
He nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him very well and tried to remember which way to the air duct. It should be easy. Aidan reached into his memory for the map pamphlet he had seen and tried to look through the nearest air vent to see where they were. - This way.
Aidan reached out to find her hand in the dark to pull her onto a bifurcation. Rachel allowed herself to be guided. If she were looking from the outside, she'd hit that pathetic girl who fell in love with the first guy who is genuinely nice to her. She was less innocent than that! She had to be! She had learned so many things in her life that prepared her for a time like this. But no one but Jonathan had been kind to her.
Rachel was taking turns without even arguing, and as she let her head wander, she bumped into Aidan's body, who stopped in front of an air vent.
- The firescape is right there. Unfortunately, we cannot get out here. I think this is the best place. - At that moment, she noticed three very important things: the first was that he was whispering; the second, that they were on top of an operating room; and the third, that there was an infected pinned to the table, unconscious. Or dead.
- Strange... Do you think he was one of the people Tómas told us about... Whom had been used for disease experiments?
- If true... This Harold has serious problems. - He said with some hatred. But that felt different to him. - Look, it must be the walking and lack of rest, but could it be that this monster was pinned recently?
Rachel followed Aidan's train of thought. She knew what he was trying to say and even that it was possible. But the room was empty.
- Well, let's go down. He is pinned down.
The two struggled to remove the vent shield without making any noise, in the slight chance it was still alive or anything else nearby.
Rachel was the first to go downstairs. She slowly exited the vent onto a table full of colored vials. Some of them looked broken, lying on their sides with a pungent brown puddle around them all and giving off a strong, unnatural smell.
She had nothing to worry about, they were both wearing masks. Still, she didn't want to let any of it touch her skin.
As Aidan descended, Rachel took a look around. He was really dead. There was a bullet hole on the side of its brain that was visible as daylight. All over the room there were marks of struggle, of resistance. It appears that this being was alive at the time he was placed on the table. That could only mean that scientist Harold Smithens was alive after all, or he or someone else. Maybe even more than one. Because how could he have trapped this guy on the table without help? And with him out of control?
Rachel turned her face away and Aidan was trying to read the labels on the broken vials. Taking pictures of what he still considered legible. They had to leave, so she pressed her ear to the door in one of the oldest childish tricks she knew and tried to focus her hearing to make sure no one was on the other side. It looked clean. It felt safe.
She looked at the boy a little further behind her in an attempt to comfort herself and opened the door slightly. The path was clear. Slowly and with extreme caution, she made her way towards the closed fire door of the emergency stairway.
They were close, but they needed to go slowly. The corridors here were exactly the same as the ones on the other side. How many people got lost here? Fair enough that she was never introduced to the site, but wow...
That wasn't even her biggest concern at the moment. Her biggest fear was that they would find Veronica in that short period and Aidan wouldn't be able to take it. Everyone was acting within their limits. That being hunger, energy, emotional. Then, she grew infinitely calmer as she placed her hand on the doorknob of the stairs. She had taken a few quicker but no less silent steps to reach her destination quickly, and there it was.
Rachel opened the door and let Aidan through first. The problem was that the moment Aidan passed, something pulled her from behind as he rounded the curve to enter the emergency stairwell. She screamed in fright, fighting with herself for being stupid and screaming.
- Aidan! Help! – She tried to free herself from the infected's arms. Upon saying this, several others rushed towards them. They didn't have a lot of time.
- Stay calm! – Aidan spoke, pulling the monster's hands that were on her. Rachel managed to headbutt the infected and both were free. And surrounded.
A crowd of beings yelled toward him and Aidan didn't think twice. He grabbed the machete from his pocket, hit the nearest monster and pulled Rachel by the arm.
The infected who had caught her managed to drag her a good few yards, so they needed to get back to the emergency stairwell. Aidan yanked the door open, nearly hitting Rachel in the face, and flung her inside. Two hands held the door, preventing it from closing and he needed to pull them out, but couldn't.
Out of the corner of his eye, there were monsters coming fast and throwing themselves against the door. He was out of luck and after all that, he was weak and tired. Behind him, Rachel threw a fire extinguisher hitting the monster's hands and the door finally closed. However, before celebrating, they barricaded some objects that were lying around. Then, both ran a couple of floors down the stairs before Rachel collapsed against the wall and passed out.
Aidan was in a panic. He didn't have time to catch her before she fell, but he reached down and supported her in a sitting position. Now that he looked at her, it was clear. She was covered in blood.
- Hey, hey... What happened?! – But she didn't answer, of course. She was out.
He opened his backpack looking for first aid, a bottle of water, or anything else that might help. He found the water first. With as much respect as he could manage, Aidan placed her on his leg and sought the source of all that blood. She didn't have anything visible on her arms or legs, but when he pulled her a little further forward he noticed that her back was scratched.
It was in a place that Ainda couldn't make a tourniquet or anything. It needed sewing. But she was losing a lot of blood and fast. He picked up the bottle and threw it over the wound so he could see it better. It was two deep claws that were causing all this fuss. As quickly as he could and hoping what he had would be enough, Aidan began cleaning and sewing with a thread and needle he'd found in first aid.
The scratches were two cuts, actually. They were close to the shoulder, close to an old and somewhat recent bite. He was surprised because that girl was definitely the strongest person he knew. She had suffered a lot and was still there helping him.
His hands shook with nervousness, but he pushed his emotions away and sewed only what was necessary. It had reminded him of Ronnie's arm that he'd just sewn on. Maybe two days ago? Maybe now it was three. It felt like an eternity ago.
Rachel was pale. More than any before. She wouldn't be able to keep up with all this blood loss. Aidan remembered seeing people who had blood transfusions in strange places and he didn't even want to risk it. With the luck he had, he would end up killing them both.
After finishing the last stitch and covering it with the rest of the bandage he had in his backpack, Aidan made a sort of bed out of their suitcases. Of course he was ignoring several things, like: the fact that there were corpses surrounding him; that his body was covered in blood, sweat and dirt; that he was kneeling in such a way that his leg fell a sleep and it was hurting a lot; that he felt like an inexperienced child in the midst of civil war; and mainly that he was lost, even though he knew exactly where he was.
Ainda no longer saw the future. They were spots that showed final variables of what could happen. And every time any of them got hurt it seemed that the number of happy endings diminished.
Aidan supported her body and threw the rest of the water from the bottle in her face to clean it up and try to wake her up. It didn't work, but she was still breathing.
- Rachel… - He shook her shoulders lightly and gently to get some response. – Hey, wake up. Wake up, please. - He was feeling more alone than ever before.. – Rachel!
Her body jumped in fright and woke up. But before she could open the stitches or make the situation worse, he held her gently against his own body to withstand the impact.
- Finally!
- What happened? - He pushed her away a little and saw that her face was sweaty. Her hair stuck to her forehead. She was scared, maybe disoriented would be a better definition.
- It's okay… - Aidan's voice was gentle. He didn't know what had gotten into him, but he was trying his best to be the best person she needed right now. - You got hurt. One of the monsters scratched your back badly but I took care of it.
- Is that why it hurts? - Her voice was barely present. She tried to improve the position to take pressure off the wounds.
Rachel was trying not to show pain. Aidan's face showed the exhaustion he felt, the worry, the strain, pretty much everything. The last thing he needed was more pain.
- Thanks. - She spoke, smiling through the suffering.
- You're welcome. - Aidan finally leaned his back against the railing behind him and sat up straight. His leg gradually started to throb while the two just fell silent. – Why don't we stay here until morning? And we sleep a little...
Rachel wasn't sure if he was saying this for her or himself, but either way it felt like the same answer. - Of course.
- I don't think there's any way a monster can get in here. – He said looking around and looking at the end of the stairs. There were no open doors and this place barely had windows. – Why don't we both sleep?
There was no answer. When he looked, she had already faded. And he wasn't too far away.
He closed his eyes with the image of Ronnie in his mind and promised himself a thousand times that this would all be over tomorrow. Sleep came fast and rocked him. Part exhaustion, part pain. But soon he was in the arms of Morpheus.