Which reminds me, the food drop is tomorrow. We need it. I check the fridge to see what we have to eat, but it’s a total downer. The cold light inside leaks out into the kitchen, and the sad part is that the dingy fridge light is about all we have at this point. That, cold air, and a few vegetables that are blacker than usual.
Have I told you the most depressing part about gardening? Looking at those sad vegetables. Even when you yank them from the dirt and they’re fresh, their skin is already kinda brown. It doesn’t take more than two days before they start going black. I mean, I know they’re still safe to eat, but they look like yesterday’s bathwater. I cut up a few of them and dump them into a bowl to make soup. The worst part about that is what happens to the water. It doesn’t take more than, like, a minute before the soup goes black. The changes they’ve made to our vegetables mean they last longer, but they also look like junk. It’s not because they’re rotten; just, it’s the chemicals in them. Or something like that.
So after the water turns black, I grab some coloring from the cabinet, which is the only way to make soup look even remotely appealing. We use glass vials so we know what type of color we’re using. Today I choose red. I open the top and let a few drops into the water. Soon I’ve got a rich crimson soup that looks like tomato sauce. Well, watery tomato sauce, but at least it’s something you can eat. Must suck to live on the lower floors and not have coloring.
I’ve been thinking. Tomorrow is Sevenths Day, almost twenty-one days since the Scavengers left. They’ve got Security everywhere right now. Thing is, Security’s always doubled on Sevenths Day, so I’m pretty sure that tomorrow most of them are going to be around Reception Hall. I cleared my plan with Allison, who’s going to cover for me. So, I’m going to tell Mom I’m going with Allison to service, but you know that’s not what I’m really going to do.
I leave to do some assertive sleuthing, and as I go up the stairwell to the rooftop, I notice the vents. Yeah, those things run everywhere. I’ve never caught it before, but I see that, high above the door to Floor 1, there’s a vent there, too. That means the vents connect everything in the Tower. I’ve always used them to go down to the lower floors, but never up. Tomorrow I’m going to do something about that.
I wonder if I’ll get put into Reinforcement if I get caught. Hah.
Who am I kidding? Of course, I will.
Anyway, I’m going to use the vent access to head up to Floor 3. You know, all those rooms you can’t access there? The labs? Well, I’m going to check ’em out. I want to see if Dad’s okay.
Plus, it’ll be a good chance to see how far up the vents I can really go. Because if I can, well… you know.
I’ll be visiting Floor 1.
Recording Twenty-Two
Rule 1 of the Air-Vent Explorer’s handbook says that before you go crawling through an air vent, make sure you’re small enough to fit.
For the record, I wrote the handbook. I think I’m also the only air-vent explorer.
See, not everyone can do this. It’s basically only for people that aren’t, well, big. I’m strong, but I’m still a thin girl, so it’s not exactly hard for me to fit in these. If Tommy tried this, he’d probably get that huge head of his stuck.
Other things. You need tools. I’m wearing a small bag around my waist, and it’s got everything I need to get in and out. For instance, I brought a screwdriver and wrench with me.
But, man, was it a pain getting those things.
So, of course, we don’t exactly have, like, spare stuff sitting around. Stuff gets sparse in the Tower. My friend Ben does lots of time with Maintenance, though, so he has access to these kinds of things.
You know, I had to promise him my next three candy bars? Damn it.
Whatever. I got what I needed. If you want to know what happened to my last tool bag, well, let’s just say I dropped it. And what I mean when I say that is that my bag must have dropped about twenty stories down a vent infested with Creep.
So it’s technically seen more of this tower than me.
Mom left for Sevenths Day fairly early, like she normally does. Dad might not be around, but she still sticks with her schedule. So everyone leaves for Reception. Meanwhile, I hide in a Cleanup closet. Those are about the only safe places to get in and out of the vents without Security finding you. Especially right now. There’s one not far down the hall from me, so I scouted it to make sure nobody was inside. That doesn’t take much. If you knock and someone answers, you just explain that you think you saw some vomit or something in the stairwell.
Those guys get right on it.
Removing the vent cover and replacing it is the most important part; otherwise people will know you’re moving around in them. The vents in this tower are pretty big, I guess because of all the machinery they have running things, but that doesn’t mean they’re spacious. Anyway, a wrench will take the grate off, but you can’t forget to replace it once you’re inside. If the grate looks too loose, then someone might notice that you’re in there. I’ve used this Cleanup closet a few times, and nobody’s noticed me use it yet. I don’t think.
It’s impossibly slow work crawling my way upward, not to mention hazardous to my skin. Rule 2 of the Air Vent Explorer’s handbook is to wear some padding, so I brought some of the elbow and knee guards I use when I fight. Some of the edges of those vents are real sharp, and you don’t want to go bleeding through a grate.
Rule 3 is probably my most important rule, though. Bring a flashlight. I’m just saying, have you ever crawled through an air vent before? It’s dark. Really, you can’t see your palm from the wall sometimes. The only light you get is whenever you’re passing by a vent that leads into a room. Which, by the way, is a cool bonus. I get to hear some insane conversations sometimes. But that’s totally not the point.
The point is, I’m here, taking a break for now. I’ve been working my way upward for about, oh, an hour now, and I just need to chill for a second. Though, total truth moment here, it’s kinda scary. It’s definitely super-dark. Doesn’t really matter if I look straight ahead or at the ceiling because, well, it’s all as black as my heart. Kidding. Just on days when I’m angry.
People will be coming back from Sevenths Day soon, so the only good thing I can say is that I’m getting close to Floor 3. I’ve probably mentioned that the Tower is huge. Yeah. Like, if you can get lost in the halls, imagine trying to move around in the vents.
I seem to have the instinct for it, though.
Anyway, after people get back from Sevenths Day, things will be empty up there on Floor 2. So, no problem, right? If I get really desperate, I can probably just exit through one of the closets near Reception Hall.
Anyway. Break time’s over. I need to get moving before I sweat so bad that people start getting a whiff of my stank through the grates.
Recording Twenty-Three
I don’t find anything too unusual, but to be fair, I don’t really know what I’m looking for. Most of what I see is, I dunno, usual lab stuff. At least, what I think should be in a lab. Lots of worktables, computers, whiteboards, all that stuff is here. Earlier I saw a big work space, but the only stuff there was a bunch of solar panels.
The one thing I’m sure of is that there’s lots of cool stuff lying around.
Lots more than I thought, actually. So, like, the rooftop. The solar panels are rare, right? But that work space had to have had, uh, at least a dozen of them. So, what the hell? Also, it kinda looked like there were a bunch more stored away in a locker. I couldn’t really make it out, since the doors were closed, but the front of the locker had glass windows. Anyway, I’m just saying that from what I could make out, it looked like there were tons more.