Ward reached out to try and grab Skye as she fell through the now apparent hole in the floor, but he only managed to grab a fistful of her coat.
The sound of the coat ripping and tearing was loud in the silent room.
They could hear Skye scream as she fell.
Simmons stepped forward, but Coulson caught her arm and pulled her back.
"No. We have no idea what else could happen if we step out into the room. For all we know there are more arrows!" he told her, before shouting to Ward: "Don't move until we find a safe route Ward!"
Ward wasn't listening. He was watching the hole where Skye had just disappeared through. He could no longer hear her screaming and he couldn't be certain, but he thought he heard a thump and a soft voice call "I'm ok!"
"Where the hell do we find the safe route?" Fitz asked, voice shaking slightly.
Ward climbed slowly and carefully to his feet.
"I thought I told you to stay put?" Coulson demanded as Ward glanced around the room.
"Yeah, but I figured if I was going to get killed it would have already happened." Ward retorted.
"We need to find a way out of here and locate Skye." May said, kicking out against the wall in frustration.
As a group they scanned the walls, ceiling and alcoves for a way out of the room. Glancing at the floor, Ward noticed the edges of the square tile he was were lit with a dim, pale green light. Scanning the floor more closely he noticed all of the adjacent tiles were lit dimly with a red light. Testing his theory, Ward looked for another green square. Seeing it three squares to him left, Ward jumped for it.
As his feet touched the ground he could hear screaming from Simmons and Fitz while Coulson was shouting at him for disobeying orders. Ward stood tall and upright, waiting for the room to attack, but he realised that he was safe.
"Find the green squares. They appear to be the safe route!" he called back to the others.
Turning back to face them Ward headed back towards them, knowing Simmons and Fitz might need a little help.
Coulson jumped to the first green square and then moved onto the next to allow Fitz the space to land.
When Coulson reached the square before the one Ward was occupying and he realised there would be a problem.
Ward, looking at Coulson, realised the same thing.
Only one of them could fit on a square!
"May!" Coulson shouted
"What?"
"You may need to go last, one person to a square which means, none of us can get back to help so you'll have to do so from the back!"
Ward chuckled as May's response came back garbled and under her breath, the jist of which he understood quite clearly.
Slowly the five of them jumped from square to square across the room until Ward was close enough to the door to jump through it.
Landing, Ward lost his balance and fell head first into the darkness of the next room.
Simmons screamed, Fitz froze and stared at the now empty doorway, May was cursing under her breath because she was at the back and could do nothing, while Coulson stood debating whether to jump or not.
Realising Ward might be hurt from his fall, Coulson made the decision to jump, but aimed it so he would land to one side of the door.
He took a deep breath, jumped, landed awkwardly and fell, reaching out for the doorframe to steady himself and missed, following Ward into the blackness. He could hear the shouts as he was hurled forward.
He suddenly connected with something hard, which gave way immediately and Coulson fell further into to the darkness.
Coulson soon realised that he was falling down as well as forward and knew that they had found some steps that may lead them to Skye.
He landed at the bottom of the steps and heard a groan.
"Ward? You ok?" Coulson asked through the darkness.
"I'm fine I think."
"It's lucky it's a squishy landing."
"Squishy? You do realise you landed on me?"
"Oh, oops. Sorry. So that solid mass I fell into?" Coulson apologised.
"I was climbing the stairs to get back to you guys to help you all land and avoid making the same mistake I did."
The two of them could hear a dull thudding sound and deep squeals of pain.
"Don't tell me Fitz jumped?" Coulson questioned paling.
The thudding got nearer and the squeals became louder.
Before Ward and Coulson could move, Fitz reached the bottom of the stairs and landed on the top of them, making Ward, who was on the bottom of the pile grunt in pain.
The three of them struggled in a mass of limbs before, a minute later another body reached the bottom of the stairs and landed on the top, rendering their efforts moot.
"Simmons?" Ward groaned, breathlessly from the bottom of the pile.
"Sorry, May was anxious to find out what happened." Simmons told him.
"Please tell me you know for sure she landed on her feet?" Coulson asked rubbing his ribs while trying to extract his other arm from under Ward's back.
"From the sounds coming from the stairs, I'm going to say not."
Fitz, Coulson and Ward let out a collective groan before May came flying out the bottom of the stairs and landing on Simmons.
"Right, that's everyone. I think it's safe to get up now!" Coulson told them, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"Speak for yourself!" Ward hissed back at him.
Slowly Ward felt the pressure and weight lift off his body as one by one his teammates made it to their feet.
May and Coulson, looking down at Ward laid spread eagled out on the floor, put one hand each under his shoulders and hauled him to his feet.
"Right, let's go find Skye, the SOB behind this and let's get the hell out of here." Simmons advised as she quickly scanned her eyes over Ward's body looking for obvious injuries.