Forbidden Shadows -- Chapter Eleven

The ducts were cold, breezy, dusty and small. Stormcloud, being big for her kind, had to lay down flat and push herself forward with her back legs just to fit in there and make some progress at the same time. Bluejay had to crouch, but he had more room than poor Stormcloud.

The air ducts had a rectangular shape. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all gray. Little squares of the freezing cold gray metal were cut out and nailed into their places.

As Bluejay was waddling along in his squished-down position, he stopped to listen. Stormcloud bumped into him, but he ignored that. "What are you looking at? We have to get out of here, quickly!" she hissed at Bluejay. But she wasn't mad at him. She was rather annoyed, but the she-cat could hold in her patience for a little longer.

"I'm not looking. I'm listening. Sh, you'll hear it," said the blue tom. So Stormcloud listened quietly. And she heard it.

The same noise that Bluejay made as soon as his paws hit the sheets of metal flooring. Click, clack, click, clack. Claws against the cold, sterile gray squares. Bluejay looked at Stormcloud. Stormcloud looked at Bluejay. They didn't have to say one word. They knew what to do. Run.

Stormcloud couldn't move as fast as Bluejay, and Bluejay was too small to be able to help. So instead of kicking along slowly like she was doing before, Stormcloud rammed her head up. It broke a square off. She bit the squares of thin gray steel and tore them off of their hinges. It gave her enough room to catch up to Bluejay, who was scrambling towards the end of the duct.

It was another square, but bigger than the harshly cold sheets of metal that they had encountered the whole time. It was like the entrance to the duct, but bigger. It was where other duct tunnels branched off to get the fresh air to the other rooms of the building. Air conditioning.

Stormcloud and Bluejay both stopped. They could hear their follower's claws clicking on the steel rectangles, faster and faster. The two strays had to work fast or their pursuer would catch up. The way their chaser kept speeding up rapidly told the omen cats he or she was running after them. And something deep inside the two companions told them that whatever was fueling their pursuer to chase them wasn't a good thing. They had to escape whoever was behind them.

Stormcloud instantly took to trying to pull off the covering that led to the outside. Bluejay knew that would take longer, so he stuck his claw in a small hole on a screw and twisted. After four or five quick twists, the screw came right out. Stormcloud quickly caught on and did the same thing to another screw. Soon all four screws were off. A strong gust of wind forced the cats to hold on with their claws.

With all their might, the two dream sharers held on for dear life. Hopefully their follower had encountered the gale of wind too, and it had pushed the stranger back. Suddenly the metal cover flew off, unable to cling to the opening anymore without its screws. It smacked right into Stormcloud and Bluejay, blowing them back. Everything went black for a few seconds.

Bluejay pushed the steel screen off of himself and Stormcloud. Both snapped to attention. Unfortunately for the omen cats, the metal screen had blown them right to their chaser.

"Hello, old friends," said Hawkscreech, amusement in his eyes. What fun it was to see his enemies blow right into his paws.