'Funny how the pain in my neck isn't bothering me that much now.' Dora thought to herself as she moved around. She then ran the wire through the slots of the vent, threading the one loose end through the mounting bracket so she could get a good grip on it. Working quickly she slide the grate out and turned it up the right way, then used the wire to pull it close to the vent opening. It didn't line up perfectly, but it was close enough. She twisted the rest of the roll of wiring around the other mounting bracket and let go of it, the grate sagged a little, but stayed in place.
Looking over her body she told Paige and Mike to be quiet, very quiet, because the infected were getting into the room. Paige, who had been watching Dora closely, told Mike to stop working and stand still. Then whispered to Dora, "Are they in?"
Dora nodded, she kept her eyes glued to the hole in the wall, which was now big enough for someone to crawl through. She saw bits of the naked woman trying to get through the wall, then the suit wearing zombie made a play to get past her, trying to worm his way into the room. He wasn't successful and was pressed sideways by the fat woman and it was she who finally was the first to crawl through the hole, coming through the opening like a maggot going through meat. The others could hear the noise as fatty knocked over a chair and slipped around on the books and binders on the floor, finally standing she shifted weight and her bare foot came down on the porn magazine Mike had been so infatuated with earlier. The glossy magazine proved to be a slippery surface and she went down again. The suit chose that time to scramble into the room, crawling right on top of and then over the woman. It was all Dora could do not to laugh. On the one hand she was more scared than she had ever been, on the other the scene was comical, who could be afraid of such a fat woman and her little shrunken companion? She held her breath and didn't let out a peep, watching as both zombies righted themselves and stood up.
Their brains may have been rotting, but they both still seemed to realize that with no other exits in the room their prey should still be there. Slowly their eyes tracked the walls, checked out under the desk and then made their way to the grate set in the wall.
The fat woman lifted her arm to point at the grate in the wall.
'No way!' thought Dora, 'No way she can see me and the wires were too small to be noticed that quickly. It's like they have some sort of x-ray vision or maybe a strong sense of smell.' Dora could smell the sweat of 'teenage boy' and 'fat woman' quite clearly. Well, there was nothing to do about it, except try and help Mike clear the way onto the roof. Dora backed up and ran into Paige.
"Mike through yet?" she asked the woman.
"No you told us to quiet down." said Paige.
"Oh yeah." said Dora, "Don't worry about being noisy now, they know where we are. Get that vent open Mike!"
"Uh, okay. I dropped my screwdriver." Mike told her.
"Well pick it up, it's not like it could go far in the vent, right?"
"It slipped out of my hand, went through the hole onto the roof."
"Shit! You are aware that we are fighting for our lives here right? I won't die because you fat fingered a screwdriver, get the fucking vent opened so we can get out of here before they get in!"
Mike mumbled something under his breath then shifted position in the vent until his feet were up against the hole he had been enlarging near the seam.
"Oh, I got this little hammer too, if you think it would help." Dora called to him.
Mike was straining, pushing with his legs up against the edge of the vent, the seam gave away slowly and steadily, until it hit a supporting bracket on the roof, then it would give no more. The hole was still too small. Dora might fit through it, but only if Mike were pushing against it and she crawled through at the same time.
To Paige, Dora said, "We are going to get close and personal real quick, honey. Try not to get your stink on me, okay?" and then she wrestled by the woman to get close to Mike. "You push and I will get through and try and get something from the outside. On the count of three, ready? One. Two. Three!"
The fit wasn't that tight, Dora made it through with hardly a scrape and she felt good to be out of the confines of the stuffy office and into the bright morning sun. She took a deep breath and stood up. When she did so, she caught sight of several other infected people coming towards the restaurant. Leaning over she called back in, "More of them are coming. We gotta get you guys out of there."
"Dora?" called Paige, "They are at the grate."
"Which one do you see there Paige?"
"The woman, the big woman."
"Oh then that is alright, she is fatter than you and I don't think she will fit through the hole. If you see the small guy up there give me a scream."
"And then what?"
"Well, I will know you two are fucked and can leave off trying to get you out. Shut up and let me think here a minute."
Paige shut up and Dora looked around the roof. The top was lined with large stones, not pebbles, but pretty hefty rocks. She bent and picked one of those up and started pounding on the bracket that was preventing the vent opening from getting any wider. The rock broke into two after about ten hits. "Jesus Christ! They don't make rocks like they used to."
She heard a banging from inside the vent. "What is going on in there Mike?"
"They are hitting the vent. I think the fat woman is. It's bending."
"Gotcha!"
Paige picked up the hammer and looked at the bracket, the hammer was tiny and the bracket was huge, large enough to hold the ductwork steady in the high winds that tore through the city from time to time. She gave it a couple of hits anyway but nothing happened. Picking up the screw driver she told Mike to back his feet away and started pounding it through the thin metal alongside the bracket, then she pounded the metal down and had Mike push it back up, doing this several times they weakened a line of the metal and made the opening about six inches wider and Mike didn't have to hold his feet against it either. Looking at the hole Dora thought that would be enough.
"C'mon guys get out now. It's wide enough."
Mike didn't need to be told twice, he slithered through the opening quickly, while Paige lined herself up for her attempt.
"The guy is there, they got the grating off, but it is still bent around and hanging by the wires you used, so he is having a hard time." Paige thrust herself up through the hole, then stopped as her belly halted all forward progress. She could not push through. To make matters worse the metal sides acted as a trap, preventing her from ducking back down into the duct so they could make the hole wider.
"Hm. This doesn't look good Paige, push harder." Dora told her.
Sweat broke out on Paige's face as she pushed with her legs as hard as she could. "I can't do it!"
"Bullshit bitch, stop fucking around and push!" Dora grabbed one of the woman's hands while Mike grabbed the other and they all three strained with the effort of pulling Paige through the hole.
Paige let out a shriek, "Something touched me!" then started frantically kicking and jerking about, her uniform top was soaking through with sweat and she finally gave an adrenaline empowered thrust that popped her out of the vent sending all three of them onto the rooftop in a heap.
"God you two reek! And, Paige starting now you are on a diet. No more chips or candy for you until you are size six again."
"I skipped size six." Paige mumbled, checking the scrapes on her stomach.
Mike rolled away from the two women and approached the vent cautiously, Dora propped herself up on her elbows and watched Paige examining her belly.