Gravity Does the Work

They made it to the roof, but the fire escape was compromised. Three men were coming up the metal stairs.

Wei kicked the roof access door shut and braced a rusted pipe against it.

"Trapped," Wei panted. He was bleeding from a graze on his cheek. "We're four stories up. No crossover."

The door buckled. *BAM.*

Chloe looked around the roof. It was cold. She was wet. She was wearing a towel and a sheet mask that was starting to peel. She wanted to be horizontal immediately.

She saw the vent.

It was an old, industrial laundry chute from when the building was a hotel in the 1920s. It was wide, rusted, and smelled like mildew.

"There," Chloe pointed.

"The ventilation shaft?" Wei asked. "We don't know where it leads."

"It leads down," Chloe said. "Gravity does the work. Zero effort."

Wei looked at the door. It was splintering.

"Gravity," Wei agreed.

He grabbed her. They jumped into the dark maw of the chute together.

It was a terrifying, frictionless slide. They careened through the dark, bouncing off metal sides, until they were ejected into a massive pile of dirty linens in the basement laundry room.

They landed with a soft *whump*.

"Ew," Chloe said, entangled in Wei’s limbs and someone’s questionable bedsheets.

"Contact!" a voice shouted.

The Ghost Face team had breached the basement door.

Wei rolled off the pile, putting himself between the gunmen and Chloe. He was out of ammo. He grabbed a bottle of industrial bleach from a cart.

"Stay down," he ordered Chloe.

Wei engaged. It was brutal. He used the bleach to blind the first man, disarmed the second with a leg sweep, and used the momentum to throw him into the third.

Chloe watched from the pile of laundry. She saw the red fire alarm box on the wall near her head.

She could help. She could throw a sheet. Or...

She reached up and lazily pulled the lever.

* CLANG-CLANG-CLANG.*

The sprinklers overhead burst to life. The water mixed with the bleach on the floor, creating a slick, noxious hazardous zone. The gunmen slipped, coughing, their eyes burning.

Wei stood amidst the chaos, wet and triumphant. He looked back at Chloe.

She gave him a thumbs up from the pile of dirty towels. "Teamwork."