Chapter Eight

Griffin soon discovers that jumping is entirely out of the question. "It's like the whole building is electrified," he says, his face a mixture of astonishment and awe. "They must have wired the entire place. There has to be currents running through the cavities between walls, floors, ceilings. They went to so much trouble to make this place jumper-proof." He laughs in astonishment, his brow furrowed.

Crawl space it is then.

Griffin climbs up first and I follow, wincing at the scrapes on my forearms from where I fell. I feel a bout of claustrophobia threatening as I slide the panel into place behind me. The crawl space shrinks into the gloom; pockets of light from vents are the only things illuminating our path.

"How do we know where this goes?" I ask. My voice reverberates off the metal, echoing down the shaft.

"We don't," Griffin replies, his tone implying that I'm an idiot. "But it has to reach an exit at some point; the vent will lead outside."

"So we're just gonna crawl about in the vent system hoping that we stumble upon the exit," I retort. It's not a question.

"Do you have a better idea?" Griffin snaps, finding just enough space to turn his head and glare at me. I ignore him and we continue crawling.

I can feel the heat like a suffocating blanket, wrapping around my limbs, slipping down my throat and clenching my lungs. I could never live in a hot country. I'm finding it hard to breathe.

"You know, you never said 'thank you' for cutting you loose." I can't resist saying it. I'm grateful to him for helping me; honestly, I am. But when I help him out he says nothing. We've been in this together for what seems like months, when in reality our lives have been entwined for a few wild days.

"Thanks?"

I sigh heavily. "Okay, I'll go first; being courteous obviously doesn't come naturally to you. So, thanks for helping me in this mess."

There's a pause before he mumbles. "You're welcome."

Silence. I wait.

"Yes, okay, thanks for cutting the wires off me. Happy now?"

"Yes."

"Good."

We crawl on for ten minutes in silence, Griffin stopping suddenly every now and then as the sounds of people grow closer then further away. They walk below us and above us, completely unaware of our presence. It's an exhilarating feeling, though I know that if we're found then that feeling will become terror.

At a junction, we stop for a rest. We lean our backs against the sides, our knees tucked close to our chests, heads dipped.

"So where are you from?"

"What?"

"Where are you from?" Griffin looks taken aback by my sudden question, but the claustrophobia is kicking in and I need to talk about something to take my mind off it. "You have to be from somewhere, you can't have just jumped into existence."

Griffin mock laughs at me, but his laugh quickly fades away and his face becomes hard set. His hair is even more dishevelled than usual. "Oxford," he finally answers.

"Really?"

He nods. "I first jumped from the steps of the Martyr's Memorial in front of a bus-load of tourists."

"What happened?"

He shrugs, trying to be nonchalant, but the frown line on his forehead gives him away, and there's a sombre tone to his voice. "We moved to San Diego. Everything went tits-up there too. I've travelled ever since."

"What about your family? What happened to them? Your parents?" I can't stop myself from asking questions. This is the first time Griffin has opened up to me.

Yet before he can answer, if he was ever going to answer at all, a shrill alarm sounds, each shriek rising an octave. I slap my hands over my ears but it makes no difference. Amidst the alarm I can hear shouting, thundering footsteps. They know we're not in the cell.

Griffin hurriedly resumes crawling and I follow him. People storm about below and above us, and my heart hammers like bombs dropping in my chest.

A gun shot sounds and I'm startled, then I'm falling, falling falling. Bright lights, white. My shoulder cracks against the corridor floor. Shocked, I look up to see Griffin's surprised face glaring at me from a hole in the ceiling. Beside me lies a vent grate. I must have leant on it; it must have been loose. Stupid mistake.

There's no way I can get back into the vent and Griffin knows it too. I shuffle out of the way as he drops to the floor, his feet hitting the tiles with a bang. As if on cue, the sound of a horde of approaching footsteps echoes off the walls. Griffin reaches out a hand and pulls me to my feet. We start running, my shoulder throbbing with pain, when the stomp of footfalls suddenly increases. A group of Paladins hurtles round the corner towards us and we skid to a stop, shoes squeaking on the floor. Griffin drags me back the way we came and I stumble, yet manage to regain my balance. There's a familiar crackling sound behind us and we both instinctively duck just as a net of electrified wires whips over our heads, smashing into the wall. Dust and debris collide with my side but I ignore it and keep running.

We tear round corners but all the corridors look the same. I could swear we're going in circles. Griffin decides to try a few doors, and the fifth door handle he rattles swings inwards.

What I see makes me grind to a halt. Mum, Nathan and Mia, their hands tied behind their backs like the hostages they are.

"Alexis!" Mia shouts out in relief. Griffin slams the door shut behind us and drags a desk to barricade it. We're in some kind of small lab.

I rush over to them where they sit huddled in the centre of the room. I can't describe how happy I feel to see them alive, how relieved. It's like a wave washing over me. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"We're fine," Mum says, shaking her head.

Before anyone else can speak, Nathan interrupts. "Alexis, what the hell is going on? What have you got yourself into this time?"

"I can explain, but right now, we need to get out of here," I answer.

I start trying to untie their bonds, but it's no use without a knife. We're never going to escape in time.

"Oh shit."

I turn to see Griffin backing away from the little window in the door. "What?" I ask him. "What is it?"

"They've got a bomb. They're gonna blow the door off."

"Crap." I help Mum, Nathan and Mia to their feet, dragging them towards the back of the room. Suddenly the room goes dark and I smack into a desk, test tubes rattling.

"Griffin, what are you doing?" I shout at him.

"Find cover and hide," he says. "They've got an element of surprise, but so have we." In the sparse light he rushes over to me, and in his hands he hefts a large, box-like machine.

He dumps it behind a cabinet where we duck for cover, out of sight of the door. Immediately he rips open a flap on the machine's side and starts fiddling with the wires.

"What is that?"

"Just trust me," he answers.

And with that the door caves in.