Wells then spent the next three minutes explaining the combination of breakers and switches we'd need to flip on the master breaker box that would deactivate the active countermeasures (read: guns attached to cameras) while still providing power to deactivate the passive countermeasures (read: the reason we can't open doors.)
We stood at the base of the refrigerator and looked up into the mess of wires and ductwork above us while Arthur thumbed through a schematic of the duct system, a large man in a vest that read "site safety" Briefed us.
"You'll go straight up through the outflow pipe and follow it most of the way towards the exhaust vent, but before you reach it, there is a left turn and a drop that leads to the utility room. It looks like it was meant to draw smoke from that part of the building in the event of a fire, so expect to run into fans and filters. The fans won't be a problem while the power is out, but you'll need to remove the filters, and that'll be a pain while you're stuck inside the ductwork."
"Can we cut through them?" I asked, drumming my fingers against the multitool I'd lifted from Doctor Wells while he was spiraling down into existential dread.
Another worker chimed in.
"Sure, maybe, they're just like the ones in your house, only a foot thick instead of an inch. The filters are fabric, but there in an iron mesh cage. A pair of pliers will do the job, it's just going to take time."
"What about the heat?" Allison asked.
The safety manager spoke up.
"We gathered some of the instant cold packs from the pharmacy, now that we're managing to keep the system within acceptable limits, we can spare more of them than we might have been able to. We also got hand wraps and knee pads for you, the air might be cooling down, but the metal is going to be hot to the touch, it probably won't burn you instantly, but you'll be in there for a while."
"What about water?" Allison asked.
"A liter each," Site safety said, "and salty snacks before you go, if you sweat excessively, more salt, if you stop sweating, cold compress and water until you start sweating again. You'll have the radio, but there is little we can do from down here if you get into serious trouble, and that’s assuming the radios work through the network of girders and cables.”
Arthur looked up.
"If things get hairy, we can start circulating air in a different part of the duct system, creating a cyclone somewhere over Seasonal."
"What will that do?" I asked.
"Bernoulli’s principle," Allison said.
"Yeah, fast air has lower density, more air gets pulled towards it, it'll draw heat and air away from you and might cool things down."
"Okay," I said, looking around at everyone, "Why not just always do that."
"Because if we lose the generator, or if one of the fans goes out, that mass of condensed hot air could be fired through the ducts, and possibly back at you."
"And you go from sitting in a ninety-degree pringles can to a one hundred- and forty-degree pringles can filled with all the dust and dead mice that got blown around in the vortex."
"Got it."
"Or," Site Safety said "It comes back to us, superheats the gas we've been cooling all night, and the system ruptures. The gas would displace the air in the duct, you'd slowly suffocate."
"Oh," I said, "Should we carry one of those gas detectors then?"
Arthur shrugged "I mean, there's not much you could do if you have the gas detector, you'll just die surrounded by a loud beeping noise, but I've heard hypoxia is a pretty easy way to go."
I nodded, suddenly unsure of this endeavor.
"Okay," I said, "I have one last question."
"I give it thirty seconds until you prove yourself wrong." Allison muttered.
"How do we actually get up there?"
"Ah." Arthur said, everyone shuffled about, the safety offer looking like he might throw up.
"Well." Arthur said, "We have a ladder that can get you the first ten feet up."
"You'll have to climb the other forty." Site safety said. "So long as you keep to the one and a half inch piping, and don't grab onto any hoses, you shouldn't have to worry about anything giving way beneath you as you climb the next twenty feet."
"That'll take you to the thirty-foot mark, and that's where things get difficult." Arthur said, stepping forward, apparently having found the diagram he was looking for.
"As best I can tell, some of these will be strong enough to hold the weight of one person at a time for a brief moment."
He traced his skinny finger across the diagram.
"It's a roundabout route, but it'll get you onto the, for lack of a better word, roof, of the cooler.
"Why the roof? Doesn't the vent come into the cooler?"
"There it is." Allison said.
"Sure," Arthur said, "It drops ten feet from the ceiling straight into the top and has a seven-foot safety radius around it full of what's known in the HVAC business as 'fuck all to grab onto'."
"Entering from the cooling unit would mean a ten-foot vertical ascent through a duct with nothing to use as a handhold." Site safety translated, "Once you're on the roof of the cooler, there is an access panel for changing and cleaning the filters, you'll enter there."
"Jesus," I said, reviewing the multiple steps of this process. "How do you guys do this every day?"
"We use a scissor lift." site safety said.
I looked up.
"It's still out on the work truck." He sighed.
"Of course."
"We'll be on the radio with you the whole time." Arthur said, "Once you've made it past the piping on the wall and onto the two-foot duct that marks the thirty-foot mark, we'll talk you through the rest."
"We'll bring in one of the flood lights to help you see, and we might be able to spare some headlamps."
I nodded before glancing at Allison.
"Are you up for this?" I asked.
"Why do you ask?" Allison said.
"Well, just, you know, the leg."
"I still have two perfectly good arms, and one perfectly good leg." Allison said, "And besides, my cane is to help with my pain, the legs are functional." She tapped it with her cane "Mostly."
I adjusted my headlamp and shone the light onto the wall piping above me. The pipes served as the heat exchanger along the inner frame of the unit, sending frigid compressed liquid through the pipes to draw off any heat, before letting the gas expand outside the system, dumping its heat, before being recondensed and sent back through the cycle.
Allison had elected to go first. She'd taken her cane and tied a ratchet strap to the top and bottom, then slung it over her shoulder to free up her hands. She made her way up the ladder with some difficulty, then, standing above the row of freezer doors, she grabbed onto the piping.
She pulled herself up off the ladder, and let the pipping take her weight, she lifted herself well enough just with her two arms, and let her left leg sit carefully on a pipe to take some of the weight off the pipes in her hands. Even with her right leg dangling, she started her ascent, making good time and she lifted herself gradually up the wall of pipes.
Then, it was my turn.
I made my way up the ladder and made the mistake of looking down. Ten feet off the ground is already higher than any of the workers standing around watching, and at just about six feet tall myself, I now towered over everyone and everything in the cooler.
I looked away, trying not to think about it, instead, I faced the wall.
The two-inch pipes were the primary source of coolant for the unit, the condensed liquid would flow through these pipes, drawing off any heat and carrying it in the liquid until it could expand as gas on top of the unit. The heat would be let off and sent through the air vent to the outside, while the gas was compressed back into a liquid and sent back through the system.
The pipes were cool to the touch, but not cold. I grabbed onto the row, as high above my head as I could reach, and stepped off the ladder with one foot, planting it on the pipework.
The pipes held my weight, but I suddenly realized just how narrow two inches was as my fingertips and toes struggled to find purchase on the narrow ledge. I took a breath, and let my foot come off the ladder. I was now on the wall of pipes.
I looked up, Allison was making good progress, maybe four feet ahead of me. The flood lights cast harsh shadows that my headlamp struggled to fill. I looked back to the wall in front of me and continued my climb.
The pipes groaned, and the mountings clicked and strained as I put my weight on each one. At one point, I'd closed my eyes, the headlamp providing very little help with the wall so close to my face.
A metallic clang sounded overhead, and my head snapped up as my heart stopped, only to realize it was Allison's cane striking the duct that wrapped around the top of the heat exchanger.
"Okay, Allison." Arthur’s voice said over the radio, "That's good, Peterson is right behind you, so you're going to need to move before he can get onto that duct."
"Okay," Allison said, choosing to just yell into the void rather than use the radio, "Where's the next platform?"
The radio crackled.
"Face out into the unit with your back towards the wall you just climbed."
"Okay..." Allison said, not moving, as she was already in that position.
Nothing came over the radio, but from beneath, I could hear voices in an urgent conference.
"Any time now." Allison said. I couldn't see her anymore, but the duct was starting to gently sway as she struggled to keep her balance without the cane, the pain of the exertion evident in her voice.
I grabbed another pipe and lifted myself, I was closing in on the duct, only a few more feet. I planted all four limbs against the walls and rolled my shoulders to try and adjust the pack of supplies they'd given us.
"Allison." Came the safety officer over the radio, "How much do you weigh?"
The room fell silent.
I could hear Allison moving on the duct above me, and then the sound of her voice came from above and below as she spoke into the radio.
"Arthur," she said "I know you're not asking me this to see if the next platform can take my weight, right?"
Silence.
"Because you certainly did those calculations on the ground, right?"
More silence.
The safety officer broke the silence.
"We just, uhm, needed to see if there was an alternate route that you could tak..."
"I don't know." Allison said into the radio "I don't own a scale."
"Okay, that's fine," The safety officer said "How about the last time you went to a doctor, did they..."
I interrupted, shouting into the void.
"Just use my weight, for god’s sake!" I yelled "I'm 210, equipment included."
A pause.
"Okay, I think that number will work,"
I started my climb again, if nothing else, I'd rather be waiting above the duct, rather than below. I grabbed onto the next rung and lifted myself up.
"So, Allison, all you have to do now is..."
As I was nearing the top of my next lift, something seemed to grab my pack just behind my neck. I was pulled down, and my grip gave way on my arms. I slammed into the duct Allison was standing on, and somewhere in the mess of intricate piping and ductwork, something important sounding snapped, bounced off something heavy, and then a moment later, approximately the time needed for an object in freefall to travel forty feet, the object slammed into the concrete floor below, and the duct my back was leaned against started to sway wildly.
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