Part of Wendy's mind knew she was in a vent, not a tunnel, that she was surrounded by the other trainees, not enemies. But the other part of her mind, the damaged and much louder part, kept trying to convince her to scream and run away as fast as she could.
After just a few seconds, all Wendy could hear was the ragged sound of her own breathing, which quickly turned into a buzz that got louder and louder until she could no longer think around it.
The vent dissolved and the tunnels appeared. The smell of sweat and fear filled her nostrils, along with the rich scent of blood and the less subtle but no less horrible smell of death. Until that day, she’d never known that the last moments of someone's life changed their smell. It was something Wendy wished she had never found out.
A long knife appeared in her hand. A glance over her shoulder showed a line of little kids—all wide-eyed and shaking. Some were covered in blood, somehow Wendy knew it wasn't theirs. Wendy had killed the Skinnies that had followed them. But there were more everywhere, and if she didn't get these kids to the next tunnel they would all die.
Her dad had told her to...
To what?
A voice cut through the thought. It came from the direction of Wendy's head.
“Arie? Where the hell are you guys?” The vision crashed down around her, and the buzzing in her ears subsided.
“Dennis, we're here,” Arie said.
“Where?”
“Wendy's stuck in the vent. She's on a trap. Kev and Cal went to disarm it.”
A light swept down the vent, causing Wendy to close her eyes and turn away.
“Is this on your route?” Dennis asked.
“No,” Arie said. “We had to go around a blockade. Wendy's on a wire.”
Dennis snorted. “Figures Kev and Cal would let that happen. Do you have the flag?”
“Yes,” Arie said. “I have it.”
“Send it through.”
Wendy didn't miss the moment of hesitation before Arie spoke. “Wait until we get there. Kev and Cal will disarm it in a second.”
“Do you know where it triggers? We want to keep that flag safe. Send it through and we'll make sure it doesn't get hit with paint.” A sneer entered his voice. “Just in case Wendy here twitches.” Wendy couldn’t see him, but she could tell he saw her fear.
Another delay before Arie spoke. “Okay. Wendy, can you reach down and grab this without moving?”
“Sure,” Wendy said. Blood pumped in her ears, and the scene around her started to dissolve again. The pressure in the vent changed as Arie crawled to Wendy's feet. She handed Wendy the flag. Wendy took it with her unoccupied hand.
“Toss it this way,” Dennis said. “I'll have Jordy crawl in for it.”
The light from Dennis' lamp made it past Wendy and hit Arie's face. Wendy glanced at her team leader and raised her eyebrows.
“Do it,” Arie said after a second. “It's part of our objective.”
One of Dennis' minions, Jordy, stuck the top of half of his body into the vent. Wendy tossed the flag past her head. It landed just a few inches from Jordy's fingers.
“Nice throw,” he said with a leer in his voice.
“Got it?” Dennis asked.
“Yup.”
Dennis shoved his head back in. “So long, ladies, we'll take it from here.”
“What?” Arie asked. Her voice rose. “Dennis, we're all supposed to get out.”
“That's not what Jeff said. He said completing the objective was the number one priority.” He waved the flag at Wendy. “Too bad you guys didn't make it.”
“Dennis!” This time Arie yelled. “It's always a priority to get your people out.”
“You four are not my people.”
Dennis' chuckling faded, along with the light.
The dark closed in around Wendy again. She buried her face in her arm and did her best to breathe. The vent constricted. The sides reached for her and the top pressed down on her back, eliciting screams of pain from her ribs.
It took years for Cal's voice to interrupt her mental breakdown.
“Wendy, we disarmed it. You can move now.”
The brush of someone's fingers on her arm caused Wendy to scream and press herself into the wall of the vent.
“Whoa, what's wrong?” Cal asked. He had gotten into the vent Wendy had passed earlier. His light shone in Wendy's eyes, and she turned away, burying her face in her hands.
“Hey,” Cal tried again. “Talk to me. What's wrong?”
“I—” A gasp interrupted her own voice. Pelton's face overlapped with Cal's. Wendy squeezed her hands into fists until her arms throbbed.
“Hey, are you afraid of the dark?”
Wendy couldn't answer, her teeth were clamped shut so she wouldn't scream, and her whole body shook.
“Yeah, me too.” Cal reached out again, this time gently putting his fingers on her arm. “You should have told us. We never would have put you down here without a light.”
Wendy continued to shake. She was terrified, but she didn't know why. It wasn't the dark. It was what lurked in the dark. Or maybe it was the confines of the vent. Or the flashes of light.
“Close your eyes and think about the show we watched the other night.”
The idea seemed silly, and Wendy managed to give Cal a look that told him so.
“I know it sounds dumb, but trust me. I hate the dark, and this is how I get through it. Close your eyes, picture something that makes you laugh or somewhere you love. Try to smell the place. Feel it under your hands.”
A picture of the woods outside of the Den came into her mind. She could almost hear gravel crunching beneath her. Wendy nodded. Cal gave her a little push. It helped get her started. She could crawl forward. She could, and as she did, the tunnels and the scent of death started to fade.
“Good, keep going. Don't open your eyes or stop until you drop out the other end.”
Cal kept nudging her as she went by. When he gave her foot a little shove, a breath of fresher air filled her nostrils. The mere hint of freedom propelled her forward.
A few squirms later, and her right elbow met the edge of the vent. She took Cal's advice, and didn't open her eyes until half of her body was out. Wendy pulled herself free and crashed to the floor a foot below.
“You out?” Cal asked.
“Yeah,” Wendy said. It sounded like she'd just seen a ghost—her voice was hollow and trembling.
“Coming through,” Cal said.
Wendy made sure she got out of the way as Cal extracted himself from the small space. He came out with the light, but immediately tossed it back for the others.
The brief moment of illumination showed that the room was only about ten feet square and completely empty except for a single table in the far corner and an open door opposite the vent. Wendy's hands wouldn't stop shaking, so she clasped them together.
Kev came out a moment later, followed by Arie.
“I can't believe Dennis left us,” Kev said.
“If we hurry we can catch him,” Cal turned to Arie. “Do we follow him, or go along our route?”
Arie shook her head. “Doesn't matter.”
“What do you mean?” Kev asked.
“There were instructions on the back of the map,” Arie said. “They said we all had to get out. I wasn't supposed to say anything. Jeff might be testing Dennis, and I say we let him burn. Jeff will take him apart for not getting us out.”
Wendy looked at the floor. This was her fault. If she couldn't keep the flashes from happening, she would have to give up training. Maybe they could still salvage this. Wendy cleared her throat. “Are you sure we can't catch him? If the point is to get everyone out, we should help ourselves, right?”
Kev scrunched up his face and gave her a glare. “Why do you have to be logical about this? I really want to see him in trouble for once. He's a bully, but he never does anything bad enough to get more than a few extra garbage duties.”
“You're sinking to his level,”
Wendy said. She always did her best to stay out of politics, but she'd watched her dad face these situations plenty of times. “Can we get out in time?”
Arie looked at her watch. “I doubt it.”
“We should at least try,” Wendy said. Sweat still trickled down the back of her neck. She shivered again, and was grateful no one looked too closely at her face.
“Oh fine,” Kev said. To Arie he said, “Should we track him, or follow our path?”
“He'll have taken out all of the traps. Jeff said to be ready to think fast. I say we track him.”
Kev nodded and headed out the door.
Wendy followed Arie. Her legs felt like weights, and her vision blurred as she walked. Right now she didn't really care about winning this exercise, but she did want to get out of these dark halls.
They traversed a handful of rooms and then started up a long flight of stairs.
Kev picked up the pace, and they started to jog.
The floor tilted beneath Wendy's feet, and she had to reach out and touch the walls to keep from falling over.
They were almost at the top, when the lights came back on.
Kev groaned. Arie cursed.
“What does that mean?” Wendy asked.
“It means that the exercise is over. We missed the deadline,” Arie said.
“We're almost there,” Kev said, breathing hard.
He was right. Less than a minute later, they burst through a door that led them back into the entry hall where they started.
The other teams had gathered at the far end, Jeff standing in the middle. His eyes turned to Wendy and her team as they came through the door.
“You're late!” Dennis said.
“And you're dead,” Arie said. She pulled the map out of her pocket and strode across the floor. “You were supposed to get us out.”
Dennis sneered. “Mine didn't say that.”
“Check again.” Arie's usual smile had been replaced by a flat stare.
Dennis' expression faltered. He held out his hand, and Jordy placed the map in it.
Silence descended. The tension in the room thickened as they moved toward the rest of the group. Wendy was still trying to blink away the remnants of the tunnels.
“On the back side,” Arie said.
Dennis turned the paper over. A frown creased his face. His eyes flickered up to Arie before going back to the page. He read, then looked up and turned his attention to Jeff. “You didn't say we had instructions on the back.”
“I said your instructions were on the paper.” Jeff's dark eyes remained steady.
Wendy could see Dennis trying not to explode. His nostrils flared as he ground his teeth together.
“If we had stopped to help them, we wouldn't have made it. Wendy had frozen in a vent they weren't even supposed to be in,” Dennis said.
“She was on a trap,” Kev said.
“She was scared to death,” Dennis said. “And you weren't supposed to be in the vent.”
“The vent saved us time, and didn't cause us to miss a single flag,” Kev said. He stepped toward Dennis, pulled the bundle out of his pocket and waved it around. “We are supposed to think on our feet.”
Dennis took a step toward Kev. “I did. I got the white flag out.”
More distance evaporated between the two boys. No one interfered. This confrontation had been brewing for a while.
Wendy saw it before it happened. Kev closed the last of the distance and put his nose to within an inch of Dennis'. “You messed up.”
“That's all you do,” Dennis said. Quick as a thought, Dennis' fist shot out and hit Kev in the gut.
Kev took it and doubled over, but not before Wendy caught the grin on his face.
“Enough,” Jeff said. He placed himself between the two boys and pushed Dennis back. “That's a week of KP for you. Along with a reprimand. Riggs will decide what to do about that.”
Jeff turned his eyes on everyone else. “Look at your instructions again. You all lost—either you were late or you missed something important.” His gaze rested on Wendy. She'd never seen him upset before, but at that moment, she realized he was not a person to mess with. “That’s an extra twenty laps for each of you. Anyone who isn’t here on time and ready to run tomorrow morning will be out of the program.”
For once no one groaned. Silence reigned as Cal hauled Kev upright, and everyone filed back down the stairs.