128 (Operation Armageddon: Book 1)

Chapter Sixteen: The Metro Station | Part 1

"Matthew!" Daniel called out, squeezing through the crowd and joining Matthew, together with Megan. He noticed Matthew's anxious demeanour before seeing that Matthew was looking ahead. Daniel then stared forward at the boarded entrance blankly with no comment.

"It's a dead end," Matthew sighed, his cracking voice barely coherent in the midst of the violent anarchy going on behind them.

They were utterly cornered. They couldn't move forward, all thanks to the sealed metro entrance. And they couldn't retreat either, as the creatures were originating from behind. Either way, they were still going to die.

Until Megan found a solution.

"Hey, guys!" she alerted them, catching the other two's attention. Thus, Matthew and Daniel turned around to look at what she was seeing. "There's a ventilation duct here, and the cover isn't locked," she explained as she pulled the cover away from its position. The cover fell to the ground, exposing the large hole in the wall.

Matthew moved forward, examining the duct more closely. He moved his hand around the hole, estimating its size. Thankfully for them, the gap was perfectly large enough for all of them to fit into.

"I think this is where the air from the hospital goes into," he theorised. "It goes into the station," he added.

Daniel and Megan nodded, agreeing that it was good and the only escape plan that they had. However, they couldn't selfishly keep the information to themselves. Thus, Matthew decided to make another announcement to the remaining survivors to proceed into the metro station via the ventilation system.

"Everyone!" he snapped. "Move through this ventilation duct to get into the metro station!" he directed, pointing to the duct.

To make sure that he didn't slow the movement of the survivors, he laid Gregory flat before sliding him into the duct. It was almost as if he was sliding a coffin in to be cremated.

Matthew then went into the vent himself, pushing Gregory forward as he moved. Gregory tried to relieve some of the workload, but Matthew insisted he rest. And so, Gregory relaxed his arms and left the work to be done by Matthew.

Daniel then entered the vent, followed by Megan, as they were the closest to the vent. Like Matthew, they didn't want to hold up the queue. Matthew made sure to move Gregory as quickly as possible. At the same time, he ensured that his wound wouldn't be worsened by the friction that was going against him.

Eventually, they reached a T-junction where they could either keep going on or turn left. Assuming that the station would be on the left, Matthew turned Gregory carefully before turning himself. Matthew then slowly pushed Gregory out of the duct. Thankfully for them, the duct was almost at floor level, and so, it was easy to move him out of the vent.

Gregory then shuffled himself to the right to make way for Matthew, who was exiting the vent. Eventually, Matthew popped himself out of the duct and joined Gregory in the station. He could hear the sounds of screaming and crying through the ventilation system, but they were getting softer and fainter. It was almost as if the number of cries for help was declining.

Following behind the two men were Daniel and Megan, who crawled their way out of the vent and also slipped themselves down onto the ground slightly. The two then got up on their feet and inspected Gregory, looking at his wound.

"It's bleeding again," Megan remarked, inching closer to the wound.

"Yeah, I-I think the vent rubbed against it a little too hard," Gregory responded, groaning a little.

"Have some water," Daniel suggested as he brought out and opened a bottle of water before handing it over to Gregory. "You lost quite a bit of blood earlier on."