Hey all! Loved the feedback I got from last chapter (as well as the one-shot that you should check out if you haven't already). This chapter is going to start picking up in intensity so be ready for that feeling in your stomach when you're hanging on the edge of your seat, genuinely hoping for our main characters to catch just one lucky break.
Oh, also sorry these have been slow coming out recently. School has been amped up for me lately.
Chapter 12: The Air Vents
Alvin's POV
A father. Oh God. I was known for being a selfish, immature child, even know as a technical adult. And now I was expected to take care of one. Looking at this as a screw-up would be unfair and a little messed up. Of course I was happy that I was going to help bring a life into this world… I just didn't envision it happening so soon.
At least I could be thankful that it would be with the right girl. The girl of my dreams. No matter what happened or how bad things got, I'd never leave Brit.
Not that it probably mattered, anyway. We had a long, uphill battle ahead of us if we were going to get home safely, and we needed a lot of things to go our way.
"These are the blueprints of the air systems," Simon said to the rest of us as he unrolled a large sheet of paper over the kitchen table, which contained what looked like a maze of ventilation ducts.
We all leaned over to follow along with what he said.
"The exits are located here… here, here, and… here," he finished by pointing at the spot in the engine room where we had originally trapped that little troublemaker. "This one way over here is in the garbage room, right next to the airlock. I think if we open this door that leads to the airlock, and then open up the exit in the garbage room, we could trap him in the airlock and then open it up to let him outside."
We all looked unsure.
"Look, I know it's a long-shot but it's our best bet. Unless someone else has another idea?"
"I just have one question," Jeanette spoke up, "how are we gonna get this thing to go through the garbage room on its own? I doubt it would unless it felt like it had to."
"This is where Alvin's gun stash comes in," he said.
We all looked at him in confusion, especially me.
"Most animals run away from the sound of gunfire, do they not?" he theorized. "One of us chases it through the vent system firing blanks. That simple."
"I'm not volunteering for that," Theodore said. "No way. You saw how strong those things were."
"This one's just a little baby, Theo," I said. "I'll do it."
Brittany put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a look that said, "Please don't."
"No," Simon said. "I brought this creature on board. And the safety of my crew is my first responsibility as Captain. I'll do it."
"I'm Field Operations Officer," I said matter of factly. "It's my responsibility."
"Alvin," Simon said, lowering his voice, "you and I both know that that title is just an excuse for you to be here."
Everyone laughed, including me.
"Besides, you have more to take care of than just yourself. You have Brittany. You have your kid."
I decided Simon was right, so I nodded and wrapped my hand around Brittany's waist in defeat.
"It's settled, then," Simon announced. "I'm gonna need a revolver. And a flashlight."
Simon's POV
The engine room was hauntingly silent, and the angle that the ship was at made it feel nauseating. Alvin was in there with me to see me into the air duct entrance.
"Got everything?" he asked me.
"Let me see," I said. "Revolver, check. Flashlight, check. Headset?"
Alvin handed me the extra headset that he had brought. I flipped it to channel 1 and fitted it to my head. "Testing, one-two one-two."
Alvin spoke into the headset that was already on his head, "Yeah, pretty sure it's working. Brit, can you hear us up there?"
"Affirmative," came Brit's answer from her chair in the cockpit in front of the motherboard. Because there were no cameras inside the air vents, the motherboard screen had loaded a giant blueprint of the air system that also happened to track movement, similar to the device Alvin had used earlier. This meant that not only would she be able to follow my moves and guide me, but she'd also be able to let me know where the alien was if he was moving around at all.
I nervously climbed into position to climb into the air duct. I held my flashlight up, pointed directly at the entrance, and I had my gun ready even though it was only loaded with blanks.
"Hey," Alvin said softly behind me. "I'll see you on the other side bro."
I smiled at him, genuinely appreciative of his support.
"Simon," Brittany spoke to me through the headset, "everything's set up and ready to go."
"Alright," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm ready. Open the air duct."
I heard her typing, then the covering of the vent slid open with a rusty screeching sound that made me grit my teeth. I shone my light inside the pipe, illuminating what was otherwise a pitch-black tunnel made out of aluminum. There was no Martian, at least not as far as I could see down at the corner several feet away.
I set my flashlight down inside the air duct, then did the same with my gun, making sure to point both of them away from me. I then got my nerves together and pulled myself up, making as little noise as possible. I grabbed the light and gun and took a step away from the edge of the pipe.
Making eye contact with my brother, who was watching me enter safely from the ground, I said, "Ok, Brit. Close the sliders."
It wasn't long before the covering slid closed behind me with a screechy, rusty clank, locking me inside ventilation system alone. I took one deep breath, suddenly remembering that I was claustrophobic. The pipe wasn't quite tall enough for me to stand up all the way, meaning I had to crouch to get around. With no light escaping through the entrance, the whole thing was pitch black. All I had to light my way was my small flashlight.
"You picking up his signal yet?" I muttered, trying to rest comfortably.
"No sign of him yet," Brittany responded. "He might be sleeping." I could suddenly hear a high pitched beep through the headset. "That's your signal," she said. "You just appeared."
"Ok," I sighed, "notify me the second you see him."
There was no answer.
"Brittany, you read me?" I demanded impatiently.
"Yeah I read you, Simon," she said. "Relax. You're going to be fine."
I nodded, knowing she was right that I needed to keep my nerves under control.
With my light pointed down the pipe in my left hand and my empty gun in the other, I bent my legs, hunched my back, and pressed forward. The metal at the other end reflected my light back at me as I tried to shuffle towards it. Each of my footsteps made undesired noise against the aluminum surface they stepped on. Walking got harder and harder on my leg and back muscles as I went. By the time I reached the corner, they were already aching.
When I arrived at the corner, which turned right at exactly 90 degrees, I got on my hands and knees, if for no other reason, I needed to rest. I slowly peeked my flashlight around the corner, down the intersecting hallway of pipe, and poked my head around the corner to see.
This stretch of pipe seemed to go on forever, as my light barely even touched the opposite end. I forced myself onto my feet and began to move again. Painfully, I trudged through the metallic tunnel with increasing disregard for how much noise I was making. Each step was a noticeable "thonk" and each breath I took was becoming heavy and desperate for air that wasn't thick and hot. Sweat was beginning to pour down my face and drench my clothes and body.
I soon came across an intersecting tunnel to my left. I carefully shone the flashlight through it, and it seemed as empty a vent as the rest of what I had seen.
Suddenly, I heard another beep through the headset. "What the…?" I heard Brittany mutter. "This can't be right."
"What is it?" I whispered.
"According to this signal, there's something in there that's a little bit bigger than you are."
"It can't be the Martian," I said, suddenly getting nervous again. "It's only been alive 36 hours."
"It's reading right," she said. "Be careful, Simon."
I took a deep breath. "Ok, where is he?"
"Umm… keep going in the direction you were going."
I turned my light down the tunnel that I had been walking through and began to press on. "Ok," I said.
"You're going to come to a four-way intersection soon," Brittany said, directing me.
Panting hard, I eventually stumbled into a round metallic bubble that had four tunnels of pipe connecting to it in all directions.
"Shit," Brittany cursed. "Simon, you're going to need to hold your position please. His signal died."
I grumbled in frustration as I began to turn about, flashing my light down every single stretch of pipe that I was surrounded by at least twice. I couldn't see or hear any alien. "See him yet?" I asked, continuing to spin around with my beam of light, checking each pathway carefully.
"Not yet."
Getting impatient, I lifted my gun. I waited for a few seconds, hoping to hear a beep that meant the signal had returned, but it didn't. Shutting my eyes, I pointed my revolver down a random pipeway and pulled the trigger. A blinding flash and a deafening bang made me stumble backwards, as even the recoil of the shot took me by surprise.
As the ringing in my ears slowly started to go away, I suddenly heard the beep in my headset once again. "Oh my God," Brittany gasped. Another beep.
"What?" I said, suddenly frozen in my tracks.
"He-he's right behind you!" Another beep. "Simon he's coming right for you!"
"Right behind me?" I said, frustrated and dizzy and not even sure which direction I had come from. "What do you mean?" Another beep.
Suddenly, I could hear some scratchy, heavy pawsteps. But I couldn't tell from the echo of where they were coming from. Another beep. My breathing turned into frenzied gasps for air as I began to spin all around, desperately trying to figure out which direction the Martian was coming from. The pawsteps were getting louder and faster.
Desperate, I lifted the revolver right next to my flashlight and pointed it down a stretch of pipe. I fired the gun towards that one, then quickly turned to the next one and did the same, repeating until I had fired blanks at all four pipeways in a last-ditch attempt to scare the Martian away.
The steps were so close now and they didn't stop, definitely coming right for me.
"SIMON GET OUT OF THERE!" Brittany's panicked voice begged me.
It was crunch time. I quickly took a random guess as to which pipeway was safest and began to run through it as fast as I could, still having to hunch over and looking back every once in awhile. I looked forward, then flashed my light back to look over my shoulder as I ran.
I didn't see anything, so I flashed my light back down the pipe which I was running just in time to catch a glimpse of the giant red-furred Martian that in just one split second, pounced on me and knocked me on my back, landing on top of me.
Brittany's POV
All five of us stared at the cockpit in disbelief. All we could hear was a big "thud" as Simon's headset pair was knocked off his head and landed on the bottom of the pipe. I covered my mouth in shock as the two dots on the motherboard screen had combined, and all we could hear were the muffled and echoey screams from Simon, as well as some hissing and some other noises that indicated that a struggle was going on.
"Oh God," I said.
Suddenly, one of the dots sped away from the other, back towards the four way intersection. It was obviously Simon's, as it was the smaller of the two. Simon darted away as quickly as he probably could in those cramped pipes. He came to a halt with a thud in the intersection, alerting the Martian who began to creep towards him.
"He left his light behind!" Jeanette gasped, obviously not wanting to watch.
Simon apparently picked himself up and began to stumble down the pipe that led towards the garbage room that he was supposed to chase the Martian towards. Our eyes lit up as there was hope, but Simon wasn't going nearly as fast as he definitely could have.
"There might be something wrong with one of his legs," I said gravely.
"Eleanor, be ready," Alvin said.
Eleanor said nothing, watching the motherboard screen intently with her hands folded over her mouth in prayer.
The Martian was picking up speed, chasing behind Simon, obviously tracking the direction of his footsteps. Simon was trudging through the pipe, probably on all fours, so quickly that he slammed into solid pipe when he came onto an intersection. In a panic, he shook off his daze and turned left. Another good guess. Just behind him, the Martian made the same mistake as he did and went probably head-first into the aluminum at full speed. We could all hear an angry hiss as the beast stayed put for a while, allowing Simon to put some distance in between the two.
He was slowly coming down the home stretch. Just around the next corner was the open exit that led to the garbage room. He could probably see the light. In fact, he could probably smell it.
Suddenly, the Martian began to move again. It sprinted in Simon's direction in a fit of rage, closing the gap between the two quickly. We all held our breaths, and I held my hand on the button that closed the exit. Almost there…
The two dots were almost on top of eachother. At the last second Simon's dot rounded the corner out the exit and disappeared. I slammed my fist on the button. The Martian tried to round the corner but suddenly halted with a thud against the now-closed vent covering.
I switched the screen to the camera feed in the garbage room. Simon just laid there, on the ground, surrounded by garbage, panting. It was hard to tell with how fuzzy the camera was, but he didn't look so good.
Eleanor's POV
Theodore and I rushed into the infirmary to get it prepared, although for what we weren't sure. One thing we did know: this was way different than taking care of Brittany.
"Theo, pull out the operation table," I commanded.
He did so quickly, knowing that this could be life or death for Simon.
I brought out the pain-numbing drugs, the anesthetics, the antibiotics, the rubbing alcohol, the bandages, the stitch-wire and needles, and the operation tools and set them on the fold-up operation table that Theodore had set up for me.
Just as I felt as though I was as prepared as possible given the circumstances, I was only given time to inhale and exhale to calm my nerves before Alvin, Brittany, and Jeanette came charging through the infirmary, carrying Simon between them.
"Set him on the table!" I barked at them.
Theodore helped them gently place Simon face up on the makeshift operating table, and this was when I got my first look at him. His left eye had a giant claw-sized bloody gash through it. His right arm was badly bruised and dislocated. His left leg had obviously been crushed and broken somewhere, as it was swollen and bent outwardly.
"He had passed out by the time we got to him," Jeanette said, panting with her hands on her knees.
And add a probable concussion to that list, I thought to myself grimly.
"Ok," I said, grabbing an empty shot needle and some pain medication. I filled up the container with the pain meds and stuck the needle into a vein in Simon's one good arm.
"That was a lot…" Jeanette said in a worried tone.
"I know," I responded. "That's because this is about to be long and painful."
Sorry for the shorter chapter! I felt like that was a good place to leave ya'll hanging.
I would like to take a little time to address the fact that some of you reviewers have been receiving messages saying that your reviews are either too negative, too nit-picky, not grateful enough etc. I would just like to assure ANY reviewer, as well as whoever sent those messages, that this couldn't be farther than the truth.
I have always, as a writer, invited constructive criticism openly. I don't take it as a knock on my writing, I take it as a tip to get better. So when a reviewer takes the time out of his/her day to write me a detailed review that not only tells me what I'm getting right but also politely lets me know what I'm getting wrong, I appreciate those reviews most of all.
And so, at this time, I would like to invite all of you who have made it this far to now kindly leave a review. If there were aspects to this chapter you liked, I'm enthusiastic to hear about it. If there were aspects that could be improved, then I most definitely want to hear about those too, so long as you tell me in a constructive and polite way, as all of you guys have done so well so far.
I'll catch you guys in the next chapter!