Living Hell by Catherine Jinks

Author:Catherine Jinks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
ISBN: 9781741762129
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2007-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TWELVE

The smell was the first thing we noticed as we poured out of the Pen. It was a terrible smell that made us all cough: a smell of burning meat, with another stench overlaying it. Then we saw Firminus standing by the door.

He pointed.

‘Something’s trying to get in,’ he rasped.

Where the two fleshy panels met, the door was changing colour from pink to brown. Bits of it were sloughing away, in yellow-and-red streaks. A pale vapour poured off the dissolving tissue.

‘Acid,’ said Sloan.

‘But – but it can’t be!’ This was Lais. ‘They can’t be attacking the fabric of the ship!’

‘NK cells,’ Mum croaked.

‘What?’

‘Natural Killer cells.’ Mum couldn’t take her eyes off the door. Her voice sounded dull. ‘If there’s a virus inhabiting an ordinary cell, an NK cell binds to it and releases chemicals which destroy the cell membrane, so that the cell bursts open.’

‘Holy mother of God,’ said Ottilie. I froze up. I couldn’t think. Natural Killer cells? Natural Killer cells?

We didn’t stand a chance.

‘We have to get out.’ Dad grabbed my arm. He was scanning the room. ‘How can we get out?’

‘We can’t!’ Lais wailed.

‘Yes we can.’

It was Dygall. He seemed remarkably calm – perhaps because he was still sedated.

‘The air ducts,’ he declared.

The air ducts! Yes! I peered up, searching for the access panel. Because we were on A deck, the air duct ran overhead. It ran between A and B decks, along with the filtration ducts and cable conduit. You could reach it through access panels, or through hatches in the stair shafts that could be found at both ends of every street.

‘But will the duct be big enough?’ somebody wanted to know.

‘Oh yes.’ I knew that. I had spent enough time in Sustainable Services to have learned about the air ducts. ‘There was a minimum standard circumference set, to allow for manual repair -’

‘Come on.’ Dad jerked me forward. ‘Kids first.’

‘No!’ about three women exclaimed at once. Then Mum said, ‘Not in the lead, Tuddor!’

‘Sloan, then! Hurry!’

Arkwright had already dragged a stool under the access panel. It didn’t look much like an access panel any more. It had become a semi-transparent sheet of membrane, streaked with blood vessels.

Arkwright fumbled frantically at its edges, trying to find the release catch.

‘For God’s sake, Arkwright, hurry up!’

‘Oh no! Oh no!’ Lais was shaking and crying. ‘Oh no!’

‘Just pull it!’ Dygall yelled. ‘Just rip it off!’

‘If I damage it, we won’t be able to reseal it,’ Arkwright replied, through his teeth.

‘Arkwright, quickly!’

‘Here.’ Sloan sprang onto Arkwright’s stool, causing Arkwright to lose his balance and fall back onto the floor. Sloan slid his fingers under a flap of muscle above his head. He began to peel open the access panel.

‘Someone has to hold it,’ he gasped. ‘While I climb through . . .’

I glanced at the door. Its centre was now black. The brown area was getting bigger.

I could hear the hiss of chemical reaction, even through the clamour that everyone was making.

‘Go, Sloan, go on!’

‘Yestin next!’

‘But there are samplers in there! Inside the air ducts!

Aren’t there?’ This was one of Ottilie’s staff.

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