Chapter Seventeen: Claustrophobia
After sealing the hatch behind them, Zack, Cody, Max, and Russell began climbing up the stairwell. Cody determined it must be a special staircase for the kitchen staff so they could get from their cabins on deck 11 up to the kitchens.
Chef Paulo must have just loved having to climb these stairs every... Cody thought before sadness over the loss of his friend sunk back in and stopped him. He was ascending the stairs beside his brother who suddenly turned his head to him to ask a question.
"Cody, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now...do you have any ideas on where exactly we should be heading to in order to get out? I mean, when we get to the bottom of the ship we can't just knock on it and say 'open up'"
"To be honest, I haven't really thought that far ahead. Up to now I figured the plan was just to get to the lower decks" Cody replied. His face then took on a thoughtful look as he pondered just where they should be trying to go.
"Didn't you spend a lot of time in the lower decks with your engineer friend?" Zack asked.
"Yeah, but we never came through here" Cody replied. He began muttering to himself as he thought about where they were in relation to where Harold had taken him through the lower parts of the ship.
"I know one time we went to where the air conditioning plant is...now let's see, we are somewhere near the middle of the ship and it seems like that was too. So it should be nearby...we passed through deck 9 where we stopped at..." Cody rambled on to himself as Zack watched, half interested, half amused. When his brother suddenly stopped and grinned he knew Cody was on to something.
"What?" Zack asked.
"The secondary control room!" Cody said excitedly.
"Ok what's so special about that?" Zack asked.
"It's kind of like a second bridge. If weather or a big wave were to ever hit the ship head on, break through the windows on the bridge and short out the controls, the crew could run the ship from the secondary control room" Cody replied. By the look on Zack's face, he still wasn't seeing how this could help them so Cody went on.
"If we could locate it we might be able access the ship's self diagnostic program"
"What will that tell us?" Max asked from behind them where she climbed along with Russell.
"Well, the program uses these sensors placed throughout the the ship on each deck to relay environmental and technical information back to a central computer. It can be accessed from either the bridge or the secondary control room if need be. If it's still operational we could use it to find out which decks are flooded, where the fires are, and most importantly, a way out of here!" Cody said. The others nodded their heads, finally understanding.
"Well, sounds like a plan to me, let's find that room!" Zack said and they all began walking up the stairs a bit faster, having some hope to put a little bounce in their steps.
Their new found optimism was short lived however as they soon realized there were no exits from the stairwell to any of the decks between 6 and 11. Apparently, the designers intended for this stairwell to be accessed only on those decks.
"Well that's stupid!" Russell exclaimed once Cody had pointed it out.
"It makes sense though..." Cody began "...The crew on a big ship like this have all kinds of behind the scenes corridors and stairwells specifically for them to use so their interaction with passengers is kept to a minimum. This one is obviously for the kitchen staff to get from their quarters up to the kitchens...we'll have to find another way to get into deck 9."
Looking back down the stairwell at how far they had already climbed and then looking up, Cody did an estimate in his head and determined that they had to climb one more flight of stairs before they would be level with deck 9. He told this to the others and they continued up. When they had climbed the stairs Zack wrapped on the walls of the stairwell, testing the thickness of them.
"Seems like it's just plaster and drywall, we might be able to break through it" he said.
"Unless it's got steel behind it" Cody replied.
Zack nodded in agreement as he continued to ponder their options. Suddenly Cody pointed to something up high on the wall that they hadn't noticed.
"Another air vent" he said.
"Oh not again" Max said as she and Russell spotted it as well.
It was much smaller than the last one and looked as if it would be a tight fit for anyone over the age of ten.
"If I couldn't get in the last one, there is really no way I can get in that one!" Russell said.
Zack turned to Cody to address him but the others could still hear what was said.
"What if you and I go through, find that room, get the information if we can, and then come back here" he said.
"That sounds like it could work" Cody replied.
"What about us?" Max asked.
"While we're gone you two could go on up to deck 11 and see what's there. If Cody and I get to this room and find the system is no longer operational and we come back empty handed, you guys could already have an idea on where we could go from there" Zack replied.
"What if you get trapped over there and can't get back?" Max asked, sounding slightly alarmed.
"That's not going to happen Max. We're gonna crawl trough, find that room, and come right back the same way. We'll be fine" Zack said.
"Well, I...I know that the information in that room would probably help us a lot, but why can't we just keep going like we have been? We'll eventually find a way out" she said.
"Max..." he began, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes "...we can't keep guessing where to go next. Remember back in that foyer? We would have been trapped if this stairwell hadn't been there. I don't want to risk getting us in that situation again"
Max nodded, understanding. Zack turned to Russell.
"Can you give me a boost up so I can get the cover off?" Zack asked.
Russell nodded and moved over by the wall below the vent.
"Once I get it off I'll climb in...I don't think I'll be able to turn around and help pull you up Cody, think you can manage with one good arm?" Zack asked.
"I'd should be able to, I haven't been doing all those pull ups for nothing" Cody replied.
Zack gave a small laugh "You've been doing pull ups?"
Cody took on a defensive look, knowing immediately that Zack was teasing him.
"Among other exercises! Why?" he stammered.
Zack chuckled again.
"It's just...you don't...never mind let's just go" Zack replied. He turned to Russell.
"How do you want to do this? Boost me with your hands or standing on your back?" Zack asked.
"Hands" Russell replied cupping his hands together. Zack stepped into them and Russell lifted him up.
He worked the vent cover off, grabbed the bottom edge and began to pull himself up into the duct beyond. Almost immediately he knew it was going to be a very tight squeeze. His shoulders passed through the opening with centimeters to spare but then the curvature of his spine crashed painfully into the top edge of the vent opening.
I am going to get stuck in here! his brain screamed, but he pressed on, knowing how important it was for them to do this. After a little more pulling at the inside walls of the duct, and some minor removal of the skin down the middle of his back, he was finally inside. He moved forward to make room for Cody behind him. It was slow going as the duct was barely large enough to accommodate his body, let alone any actions to move it. There was only a couple of inches of space above him and to his sides. Zack was slightly claustrophobic under normal conditions, so it wasn't surprising that in this duct he found himself fighting back intense waves of panic.
And if the water comes... his mind started before he quickly pushed that thought out of his head. Behind him he heard a small bang and realized Cody's hand had grabbed the bottom edge of the vent opening. He could hear Cody grunting in effort and some more bangs and then, glancing back as best he could in the small space, he could see Cody's head come through the opening.
"Oh man..." Cody said upon taking in the dimensions of the duct and seeing his twin wedged in it ahead of him. Russell gave him a good shove and then it was Cody's turn to have some skin shaved off his back. That combined with the passage of his hurt shoulder through the opening caused him an intense wave of pain. Thanks to Russell's strength, at least it was over quickly. Cody came to rest on his stomach, halfway in the duct and halfway out. He now faced a dilemma. Unlike Zack, he was not able to use both arms to pull himself the rest of the way inside using the walls of the duct and Russell could no longer reach him. Zack heard his distress from behind.
"How you doing?" he asked.
"Not so good, I can't pull myself forward" Cody replied. Zack backed up a bit.
"Grab my foot!" he said. Cody reached out ahead of himself and grabbed Zack's foot. Zack tried moving forward again but quickly discovered that he didn't have enough strength or purchase in the small area to move them both.
Outside the duct, Max could see things were not going well. She asked Russell to boost her up and he agreed. Once she was lifted up, Max grabbed Cody's legs and began to push. Together with Russell pushing Max, Max pushing Cody, and Zack pulling as best he could, Cody finally made it completely inside. Once inside, without the weight of half his body hanging outside the duct, Cody found he could move forward on his own bit by bit using his one arm.
"You guys good!" they heard Max yell from outside.
"Yeah!..." Zack yelled back, the sound of his voice in the tight space causing Cody to cringe and squeeze his eyes shut "...go on up to deck 11 and see what you can see, we will try to make it back in..." he added but then faltered.
"How long do you think we'll need?" he asked Cody.
"I'm not sure...we have to find it, then I have to access the system somehow if I can...20 minutes?" Cody replied with a shrug.
Zack resumed yelling and Cody jammed his eyes shut again "20 minutes!"
"Ok, be safe guys!" Max said and then they heard her and Russell moving away up the stairs.
After that the only thing that could be heard was the sound of their breathing, Cody noticed Zack's seemed to be coming in faster bursts than his own. He couldn't tell if it was because of the exertion of getting into the vent or if Zack was anxious. Although the two of them had often climbed all around in the ducts back at the Tipton and Zack had had no problems with that, the two of them had been much smaller and those ducts had been much larger. Cody had learned years ago, after a game of hide and seek with their friends in which the twins had hid together under a couch, that his brother had a slightly harder time dealing with small spaces than he did. Of course later Zack had denied it. For him to admit to being claustrophobic would be admitting weakness and that was something Zack just didn't do.
"Doing okay Zack?" Cody asked.
"I'm...alright...let's just get moving so we can get out of here" Zack replied.
They inched along the duct for what seemed like an eternity before coming to a T-junction. Zack looked left and saw more darkness. He looked right and spotted another vent about a fifty feet away.
"What do you see?" Cody asked.
"There is a vent to the right, about fifty feet away, but I don't know how we are going to make this turn" Zack replied.
Zack's already high anxiety began to build. He knew that if they could not get to the vent and get out of the duct and into a room where they could turn themselves around, the chances of them being stuck were very high. He began to attempt the turn. He positioned his body at an angle as much as he could and tried to move forward. The turn was too tight, there simply wasn't enough clearance. He could feel his pulse pounding in his temples.
"Cody..." he began in a quiet voice "...are you able to move backward?"
Cody tired but couldn't.
"No" he said.
In the next instant the normal roles between them as they had been during this entire ordeal were completely reversed. Zack, the normally calm, level headed one began to panic. His breathing went through the roof and he began to feel lightheaded. He'd been close to this point once before, when he had been alone on deck 4 as it flooded around him and he had had nowhere to go. At that time, just as his panic had reached this point, a solution had presented itself, freeing him from his predicament. This time no such solution was appearing and his panic was allowed to reach the same point and then move beyond it. Cody, who would ordinarily be the one more prone to panicking, was actually the one to keep calm. He realized in an instant that he needed to calm Zack down so they could think of something or they were both going to die in here. He reached up and touched Zack's leg.
"Zack, calm down! Listen to me, we're okay! We are going to figure this out!" he said, his commanding voice surprising even himself.
Zack began to calm down but Cody could feel in his brother's leg that Zack was trembling.
"Just breathe slowly, deep breaths...we're okay, we have time...let's just think this through" Cody said.
Zack nodded at Cody's words.
Once his vision went back to normal from the blur he had experienced during his panic attack, Zack looked around again seeking a solution.
"Okay, what is it that we need?" Cody asked.
"More room" Zack replied.
"Is there any way to create that? Can we force the walls of the duct to deform somehow, allowing us more space?" Cody asked.
Zack reached ahead of him and pushed on the far wall of the crossing duct. It gave a little bit. Then he tried punching it a few times. His effort left a small dent in the wall.
"I think I can move the wall of the cross duct out if I keep punching it, but I'm gonna end up breaking my knuckles" Zack said as he punched a few more times.
Cody thought for a moment and then came up with an idea.
"Zack, I'm gonna take one of your shoes off and hand it up to you. Put your fist inside it. That should provide some cushion" he said.
"Good idea" Zack replied.
Cody untied Zack's shoe and pulled it off. Zack reached back and Cody put the shoe into Zack's hand. It was a tight fit to get the shoe between the duct walls and his body but Zack was finally able to pull it through. He balled up his fist and put it in the shoe. With renewed effort Zack slammed the duct wall repeatedly. He kept at it until his fist ached and his arm burned. As he got to the point where he couldn't throw another punch he realized he had deformed the duct wall enough so that they might be able to make the turn. He inched forward and found his hunch to be correct. A wave of relief washed over him.
He moved around the corner and Cody followed with some difficulty, emitting a few gasps of pain from his bad shoulder. Then they moved slowly over to the vent. Using the shoe once again, Zack put all the remaining strength in his arm into one good punch. The vent flew off and Zack eased forward to look into the room beyond. It was a small reading room with a single emergency light illuminating it. This vent, like the one they had come through, was high off the ground and Zack had no other option but to allow himself to plummet from the vent opening to the floor. He landed with a crash onto a pile of books and an overturned chair. He stood up and helped Cody emerge from the opening.
"Glad that's over" Cody said as he stood up.
He looked over at Zack who wore an expression of embarrassment. His eyes were glued to the floor.
"Cody...I'm sorry...about what happened in there...I..." Zack stammered.
"There is nothing to be sorry about Zack, so you have a little bit of an issue with claustrophobia...that's nothing to be ashamed of" Cody said.
"Yeah, but I'm..." Zack began.
"...supposed to be Mr. Macho man, yes I know that. Don't worry bro, I won't tell anyone" Cody finished for him, playfully punching him in the arm.
Zack looked up then, grinning sheepishly.
"Now, let's find that control room" Cody said.