Author's Notes: I leave for the Army on August 29th, so I have a deadline. If I don't finish this story by that time, it will never get done. So I'm going to put out as many chapters as I can until I think that it is done. Special thanks to Panny for reviewing very quickly, lol.

Chapter 12

Scott and Kenneth quickly made their way into the room and started to move everything in front of the door. Kenneth took a guess and figured that the monsters would find them much quicker now because of the shotgun blast and the dead beast outside. They had to move with haste, there was no doubt about it.

Terry and Nicole were busy making the unconscious Wilkers comfortable in his chair. Using bed sheets and ripped up blankets, the couple tied him down using several, well made knots. He wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

Scott and Kenneth were busy moving the bunk beds to block the door. The beds alone would hold off a large amount of people, and then the added bonus of locking the door made Kenneth feel safe for the time being.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Nicole said as she tied the final knot. "Terry needs someone to look at that", she pointed at his gunshot wound.

Kenneth stopped to think about it, even though he knew she was right. They'd backed themselves into a hole and had no escape route. "We have to find a way to get into Ana's room so that she can look him over."

"How's that possible? Those things will get us right away if we step outside." Terry pointed out the obvious, but no one was going to call him on it. He had a gapping hole in his leg.

"The air duct." Scott said to himself as he turned his eyes to the ceiling. "The air vents run throughout the entire compound; we can get anywhere if we can up in there." The sound of his voice showed that he was exhausted, and with good reason.

All eyes in the room with the exception of Wilkers turned up to the ceiling, a small, square panel covered the vent opening.

"It'll be a tight fit, but most of yall can go through." Kenneth said as he looked around at everyone. "I think that Nicole and Terry should go over to Ana's room and see if she can't look him over. Tell her about the vents and see if she can come up with a plan. If yall come across Phil or Wilson, tell them that Wilkers got hurt by one of those things and he is out like a light."

Terry, who was sitting on the ground, looked over at Nicole. She was already looking at him with those sparkling blue eyes. He knew that he loved her and that he wasn't going to let anything that happened in the silo stand in the way of that.

"Nicole, would you go first?" Terry asked.

Kenneth was already stacking the four mattresses so he could reach the vent cover. Once stacked, he climbed up on top and began working with it until it popped off. "You're up." He held his hand out to her and she took it, letting him help her up onto the mattresses.

"I'm gonna hold you up and you're gonna climb your way in. Try to keep your body weight distributed evenly and move slowly. If you feel yourself starting to get panicked, just slow down, stop, take ten deep breaths and then start moving again. If you think you can't go on anymore, call back to us and start moving backwards at a nice, slow pace."

She nodded and then looked down at Terry. He looked vulnerable, like a small child that had been hurt playing football. His face showed that he had seen more and felt more in the silo than he had in his entire life outside.

She gave the words and Kenneth propped her up by her butt, lifting her in slowly.

"Scott, I want to tell you something." Terry said as he tried to stand. Scott moved over and gave him a hand. "I wouldn't have really shot you, I was just playing along so that I could fool Wilkers."

Scott looked at him for a second and decided that speaking wasn't what Terry needed at the moment.

"I hate you for what you did with Nicole," Terry said the words and watched Scott's eyes get large "but as long as we are here we need to make friends so that we can get through this." He held his hand out to him. Scott took it and gave it a firm shake.

"I'm ready, Kenneth."

Kenneth reached down and pulled Terry up onto the stack, and, in one quick movement, he had him up into the vents.

Ana lay on a bed mattress, dreaming about Michael. She had been having the same dream night and night again. In every dream she saw Michael's face for the last time, watched him pull the gun up to his head, and...

Just that second she was woken up by a large banging in the ceiling. Hey eyes jumped open and darted to the vent cover, which was falling to the floor. Nicole's smiling face appeared in the hole and it was a welcome sight.

"Nicole? What's going on out there?" Ana jumped up, trying to erase the dream of Michael from her head.

The lovely redhead was already making her way out of the vent and into her room. She filled her in on what had happened and what was going on. She recited what Kenneth had told her to say and, just as she was finishing, Terry poured out of the vent as well.

"Let me have a look at this." Ana switched into nurse mode as she looked Terry's leg over. "It missed the bone, which is a plus. All we have to do is try to stop the bleeding and keep it clean." Easier said that done.

Ana went to work cutting the bed sheets to get some makeshift bandages and then she was off tying his leg off. "Try to keep pressure on this as much as possible and tell me when the bandage is of no use anymore."

"Do you have any idea on what we should do?" Nicole said. Just as the words exited her mouth she heard a loud band on the metal door. The first of the monsters to find out where they were. For just a moment it reminded them all of being at Crossroads.

"Well, you say that these vents run through the entire silo?" Nicole nodded. "Have you talked to Kenneth about trying to get to a weapons cliche or maybe about trying to find a way to the surface?" She shook her head no. "I'm gonna go up and over to talk to Kenneth myself. Nicole, would you keep an eye on Terry and make sure that he doesn't fall asleep?"

She smiled innocently, blushed a little and looked over at Terry. "Sure."

((Author's Notes: Probably one of the more boring chapters, but I wanted to establish that the group still has a way to move around. But, as we all know, when there are zombies just outside your door distasters are sure to happen. What do you think could possibly go wrong? Tell me when you reivew!))