Ruby ignored them, her knees scraping against the rivets of the duct. She reached a fork in the vent, one path led toward the main warehouse floor, the other toward the back rooms where Nancy was being held.
Ruby reached the grate directly above the room where Nancy lay. Through the slats, she saw one of the women who fixed Nancy coughing, trying to find the exit in the thickening smoke. She opened the door and ran out shuting it behind her. Nancy was lying on the bed, her chest rising and falling in shallow, drugged breaths, oblivious to the fire starting just a few walls away.
Ruby kicked the grate hard. Once. Twice. On the third strike, it gave way, crashing onto the floor of Nancy's room.
Ruby knelt beside the bed, her hands shaking as she took Nancy's face in her palms. The air was getting heavier, the thick smoke curling like grey ghosts around the ceiling.
