Chapter 4 #4
The other boys came running. Putting his finger to his lips, he tossed another vegetable stick up.
Once again, the wall shimmered for a second as the object sailed through, but opened only to the extent necessary for the thing to pass.
Given the smallness of the stick, he couldn’t discern the size and shape of the opening.
Claiming victory might be premature. It could be too small for a human to fit through.
He needed to get up there to try, a potentially difficult task because the space existed between eight and nine feet up.
The other boys gasped collectively at his success before someone, Joel he realized, clapped him on the back.
“You’re fucking brilliant!” Joel said on a laugh.
Wid allowed himself a second of happiness before he got down to business. “Maybe. I can’t tell yet if the opening is big enough for us. I’m going to need a leg up to stick my hand in. Jordan?” he asked, looking around.
The tallest and brawniest of them, Jordan stood a little over six feet.
He understood exactly what Wid needed because he stooped down with his hands clasped to give Wid a foothold.
Wid put his hands on Jordan’s shoulders and slipped his foot into the human stirrup.
He made a few trial bounces before propelling himself up.
Joel helped by pushing Wid’s ass. Icky as that was, it gave him the extra strength and balance that he needed as he put one foot then the other on Jordan’s shoulders.
Other hands grabbed his calves, steadying him while he stood straight and ran his palms up to find the opening.
There it was, just as he’d seen. With both his hands breaching the space, he could see it fully as a rectangle large enough for his body to fit through.
Warm air hit his face as he slid his hands in to keep the opening visible.
Peering inside, he saw the things he’d flung inside lying on the floor and muted colorful lines of light along the back wall.
It was a vent of some kind, part of the arteries of the ship, just like one would find on a human vessel.
Poking his head in, he looked left and right and saw confirmation in the form of long tunnels.
He pushed his arms in as far as he could. The material that the walls and tunnels were made of proved to be too smooth for him to gain much purchase on his own. He glanced down over his shoulder. All of the guys were staring up at him, even the ones, like Joel, who kept him in place.
“Push me up. I’m going inside,” he ordered.
No one questioned him. They just did what he said and in that moment he recognized that he’d taken over as the leader of their pathetic group.
Knowing it knotted his stomach. They were counting on him now.
Those faces held the first real expressions of hope any of them had had since their capture.
He prayed this all came to something, anything.
Otherwise, he’d have let them down, and he couldn’t bear that.
He’d never thought of himself as being particularly strong, but he was muscled enough to haul himself up into the tunnel with only a modicum of effort and scrapes.
He’d have to remember to take a dip in the pool to wash away the evidence he’d been doing something more strenuous than lounging around and eating.
Once his body was fully inside, he tossed the food back down and took greater note of his surroundings.
Air moved briskly past him, creating the only sound he could hear.
With a tentative touch, he confirmed that the lights he saw were imbedded in the walls, yet barely tangible and not, thank God, live.
He hoped that was true throughout the network that he expected to find wound all through the ship.
The only way to know for sure was to do a walkabout, or rather a crawlabout.
Good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic. He was, however, somewhat directionally challenged.
There was a good chance if he wasn’t careful, he’d get lost. Laying down a trail of crumbs, literally, seemed the obvious solution.
Twisting back to the entryway, he learned with great joy that the opaqueness was one-sided. He could see into the room.
When he stuck just his head out of the opening, another collective gasp greeted him.
“Shit, man,” Joel called up. “That’s so fucking freaky. It’s like you’re a disembodied head.”
Wid grinned. “Yeah, I know. While the opening is only visible from out there if something is passing through it, I can see out of all of it from this side. That means if this leads to other rooms, I’ll be able to see into them too.
” Muted exclamations and backslapping greeted that information.
“I’m going to do a little exploring. Someone toss me up a large piece of bread so I can find my way back. ”
Stuart stood farther back than most, so he fetched the bread for him. He broke through the crowd to toss it up. Wid caught it one handed and pulled back. Then remembered something and stuck his head out again.
“Keep watching the doors. I’m not going to go far, given how late it must be, but if any of those fuckers come in, someone toss something up here hard enough to make a sound. Hopefully I’ll hear it and come back when the coast is clear.”
“What if the first one to come is the captain?” Stuart asked.
“Or they might come all at once like last night to give us exercise time,” Joel pointed out.
“Shit!” Yeah, both good points, but he couldn’t resist at least a little exploration. Maybe the tunnel dead ended in both directions. Better to learn that sooner rather than later. “I’ll be quick,” he said.
He went to his left for no other reason that his head was more or less pointing in that direction, clutching the bread in his hand.
There was no need to use it unless and until he turned.
That point came quicker than he expected.
The tunnel was dark, the only light coming from the colored lines in the wall.
He found himself at a four-way intersection, giving him the choice of keeping straight or turning in either direction.
He chose left again and put a piece of bread down to mark the decision.
If he made all lefts, he’d be able to find his way back again, but it didn’t do to get cocky.
He made another left when he came to the next intersection and again and again.
He swiveled his head from side-to-side, looking for other openings and was delighted to find more of them in their room.
Each time he found one, he tore a piece of bread off and tossed it into the room to mark the general area on the floor.
At one point, he could see the backs of the others, standing around gazing up at the place he’d entered.
He didn’t dare call out to them in case sound traveled easily in the tunnels.
Eventually he made the circuit around the room.
Knowing his way now and not wanting the bread to stay where it might be detected, he did the loop again, picking up the pieces and eating them for lack of a pocket.
By the time he’d finished, he was stuffed, but elated.
They had a way now to get around the ship and maybe off it.