Xavier left Kevin and Clara in the office and was crawling through the three foot by three foot ventilation shafts that criss-crossed through the station, circulating the recycled air through all the rooms. A claustrophobic's worst nightmare. Thankfully that wasn't one of his fears.

With his mini light clamped between his teeth, he made his way up the narrow shaft as it began angling upwards. He'd been half expecting to run into a spider web, but then he remembered there weren't really any arachnids this far north.

"Kevin, I'm at a fork, which way do I go?" Xavier asked, glancing one way and then the other. It should be left but he wasn't sure.

"Left," his partner confirmed.

The shaft should lead directly to the clinic. His plan was to drop into the room beside the clinic and try to lure the zombies out. He wasn't sure how he was going to do that, but he'd think of something. He needed to be able to get back to Clint and Corey and make sure Corey safely got to the cafeteria.

The room across from the clinic was just a conference room and the vent was right over top of the table, so he could climb down easily. As he went to crawl over top of a vent, trying to avoid it with his knee, he scraped his arm on a metal piece sticking out of the side of the wall. He muttered a curse, which turned into a full-blown one, when the vent beneath him gave way and he found himself falling through the open hole. He gripped the edge before he tumbled to the floor right in the middle of a hallway.

Grunting, he attempted to pull himself back up when a sound behind him caught his attention. He struggled to look behind him, and caught a glimpse of an arm swinging wildly as whatever it was raced towards him. "You can't be serious!" he groaned, as he tried to pull himself up. But the hole was too small to get a good grip to climb up successfully.

Cursing again, he dropped to the ground and took a quick look behind him. He grimaced when he saw three dead ones coming his way. His chest tightened as he stood, a chill running through him. Exactly how many people were left alive in his station? Didn't anyone have survival skills?

Looking around, he tried to ascertain his position. He knew he hadn't gone too far before falling through the vent, but at least he was out of his office. It looked like he'd dropped down alongside the truck bay. All he had to do was go around the corner and then down to the end of the hall to reach the clinic. But now he had additional groupies on his back aside from the ones in the clinic.

Thinking on his feet, he took off down the hall. He couldn't go into the truck bay because it had been overrun. His only other option was to sneak into one of the other conference rooms and get back into the ventilation shaft. It's the only way his plan would work. With his heart galloping, he raced around the corner, then skidded to a halt, his shoes squeaking on the polished floor.

"Damn it!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air before dropping them to his side. Down the hall were another three of those creatures—two men and a woman—blocking his way, and it wouldn't be long before the ones behind him would catch up.

He swiftly looked around, weighing his options, as he held his hands on top of his head, muttering every curse word in the book. The only door closest to him led into the truck bay, and he knew more would be waiting for him in there. Xavier reached for his sidearm, unclipping it from its holster.

"Sorry, boss, but I don't have a choice," he said, as he lifted up a quick prayer of forgiveness before snapping off a few noisy rounds in the direction he'd been going. The first couple hit the zombies in the chest, but they kept coming. "Hit the head," he reminded himself. God ,he hoped it worked like the tv shows.

His first shot grazed the cheek of the man closest to him. They were only thirty feet away now and the ones behind him were closing fast too. Finally, one of his shots hit the guy between the eyes and down he went, black ooze flowing down his face. The other two tripped over their fallen comrade and fell forward.

Xavier was able to get one shot off and that left one more, but he didn't have any more time to deal with it. He took off running towards the only one left. Remembering his football days in high school, he rammed his shoulder into the chest of the remaining zombie and she dropped hard.

The noise alerted the ones inside the clinic who stumbled out of the room. Xavier rolled his eyes. "Why can't I catch a break." With all that was happening, he began to wish he'd remained in his office. There were more dead than alive it seemed. Looking around, he noted a janitorial closet. There was one on each floor. It had to have its own air vent.

Slipping inside before he lost his chance, he slammed the door closed behind him. Thankful that these rooms had doors you could close on your own and you didn't have to wait for them to close. It made it easier for the janitors to get their equipment in and out since they could just keep the door open temporarily. But it also was one of the weakest doors in the station so he wouldn't have a lot of time to get moving.

Xavier scanned the walls, searching for the vent, his muscles tense, his body stiff. He was going to have one hell of a headache when all this was over. In all his life, this was the worst thing he had ever dealt with, and he wasn't sure if dealt with was even the correct phrase. They hadn't dealt with it so far, it was kicking their asses.

After searching the room, he found the vent behind a shelving unit. With his heart thumping, matching the beat of the zombies fists on the door, Xavier swiped everything off the shelves and unclipped the bracket that held the unit securely against the wall.

Oh god. He hoped Hannah's group was doing okay. If he was having this much trouble, they had to be having just as many issues, and it made him feel guilty for leaving her there. She would have been safer with him.

Kneeling down, he reached for the bolts that held the vent in place and tried to turn them, but his hands were sweaty and all his fingers did was slip. "Crap it all to hell." Xavier dried his hands on his shirt and tried again, but the bolts were still slippery. He glanced towards the door. It was shaking on its hinges with each forceful hit from the other side. His nerves were on fire, spreading through him like a hurricane.

Noticing some dry, yellow bar cloths, he got up and grabbed them from the corner, then dropped to his knees in front of the vent again. Xavier placed it over the bolt and attempted to turn it, but it was stuck. Smacking the wall with the palm of his hand, he grunted with frustration. Nothing was simple. Damn it!

Tools. There had to be tools somewhere in here. Standing up, he started searching high and low for a tool box. Janitors sometimes did minor repairs so there had to be something. A Wrench. Pliers. Anything for him to use to grip onto the end of the bolt. A loud crack sounded beside him and his head swivelled in its direction. A long crack had appeared in the center of the door. What was he going to do now?

"Tools. Tools. Where are you?" he muttered. In the back left corner, he saw a pile of boxes and rushed over to them, noting a red box behind them. "Thank god." Tossing the boxes to the side, he lifted the tool chest and put it on the ladder next to it. He flipped the lid open and sighed in relief when he saw the pliers. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"What's your status?" came a distant voice.

Xavier gasped and spun around, trying to find the source of the voice until he finally remembered he was wearing an earpiece. "Don't do that?" he snapped.

"Don't do what?" Kevin asked..

"Nothing. Never mind. I accidentally fell through a vent, and I'm in the janitorial room on the other side of the floor."

"Are you okay?"

"Ya." But then the door splintered even further and he said, "I'm a little busy here, so I'll talk when I can."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Company is going to break through the door any second, so shut up please," Xavier snapped, as he attached the pliers to the bolt and tried to turn it. After a few tugs, it loosened the bolt and then it came off easily. He breathed a sigh of relief as sweat dripped down his forehead. The door wasn't going to hold up much longer.

It wasn't long before he had the vent cover off and crawled inside. And at the same time, he heard the door splinter when he pulled his right foot inside out of sight. "Shit," he muttered. He couldn't resecure the cover back in place. There was no room for him to turn around. This just keeps getting better and better.

Quietly he put one hand in front of the other, followed by one knee and then the other, attempting to not alert them to where he was. But that was easier said than done when crawling through a metal ventilation shaft. The metal sheet beneath him creaked and he froze, tossing a look over his shoulder.

Legs could be seen in front of the opening to the vent. Xavier was only about twenty feet in now. "Please don't look," he begged under his breath. If he could just have one thing go right, he'd be happy. Satisfied that they didn't seem to be aware of where he was, he continued moving again, eager to get around the corner ahead of him.

As he went to pass from one metal sheet to another, his knee came down on a screw that was sticking up and his hand slapped the ground as the screw dug into his skin. He bit back a cry of pain, but the sound from his hand was enough to alert the creatures and one bent down to look in the hole. It growled and climbed in after him.

"You gotta be joking me," he grunted as he turned his focus ahead of him again, hoping to outcrawl them.

***

Hannah had a choice. She could go back and help her friends or make it to her lab while they were keeping the zombies occupied. Chances were, they wouldn't be able to get into the room, but the question was whether Darius could keep Cheryl inside with him and not have her try to barrel through the creatures at the door.

Standing there biting on her nail, she watched them attack the door with the gusto of a battering ram, her insides churning. There was no way she could call on the vocera because it would draw attention to her. "What do I do," she muttered, rocking on her heels as she rubbed her arms.

Every second counted, she knew that. But she had no idea what the right move would be. Hannah glanced behind her at the empty hallway. Her office was down the middle hallway and by now all the zombies should be converging on the morgue. Maybe she could get to her lab and then draw them away from their door.

But she needed time in her lab to get her stuff prepared without them seeing her. She planned to take as much as she could into her office and work in there, away from prying eyes that could look in the window. With a hope and a prayer that Cheryl and the others would be safe, Hannah continued her trip to the lab. No one would be one hundred percent safe until she solved whatever the illness was that was sweeping the station. Hopefully Cheryl would forgive her.

Reaching the F Hallway, she poked her head around the corner, her body shaking as a chill rushed through her. Hannah breathed a sigh of relief to see the hall empty, but she knew that some of the creatures were barely a few feet around the corner on the other end. And her lab was smack dab in the middle of the hallway.

She raced down the hall on the balls of her shoeless feet as quietly as she could. When she reached the door, she reached for her card, that's normally hanging off her lab coat pocket, and came up empty.

"You gotta be fricken kidding me," she grumbled, slapping her forehead. In all the commotion, she'd forgotten that her card had disappeared somewhere along the way. I can't believe this. Now she was stuck in the hallway unable to go anywhere. Spinning around, she checked to see if the doctors were still in the room across from hers.

Nothing.

No one was there. The only thing she could do was check the fallen cleaner and see if they had a card. Their card had to work on her doors as they were responsible for cleaning the labs. The cleaner was exactly where they'd left her because Darius took her out. Problem was, she was in the same hallway as the rest of them. Hannah had no idea how to get her card without drawing attention to herself.

"Damn it, Xavier. Where are you?"

If he would just get his butt down here, then she'd have back-up and be able to get to where she needed to go. How had she forgotten that her card was gone? It was the most necessary piece of gear she had on her person. With her mind whirling and stomach aching, she walked towards the cleaner, every muscle in her body tense, like a spring waiting to be released.

As she walked down the hall, even her footsteps sounded loud, but she knew it was just her ears on high alert. Everything sounded like a waterfall, even the blood pumping through her body. How could she have been so stupid and not made sure she was prepared? It reminded her of those games that asked you how long you would survive in the zombie apocalypse and what would kill you. She'd be dead before she could blink.

Feet shuffling ahead of her made Hannah freeze. Please don't come here. Please don't come here. But then she heard Cheryl yell again, screaming at the top of her lungs at Darius. He probably had her pinned to the ground. If it was any other circumstance, Hannah would have laughed at the image, but not this time.

The shuffling feet moved away again, following her friend's cries, and Hannah sighed in relief or what she could class as half relief. If she could get into her lab, she could message Cheryl, but she couldn't do that in the hallway. She took the final step to the edge of the wall and poked her head around the corner.

And just when she did that, one looked her way and snapped to attention after catching her eye, letting out a high growl. The others snapped around, following suit. She pulled her head back, cursing as she ground her teeth together with frustration. Was this her penance for cheating with a married man? To be alone in her final moments? She was at a loss, her mind empty of ideas.

Hannah just wanted to collapse to the ground and give up, her legs weakening beneath her. Just as she started to slide down the wall, soon to be approached by the zombies, a head peeked out of a door beside her, along the same wall. It was the young scientist from earlier.