PART 37 - SINKING IN

 My gasps, sped with an unrelenting force through the surfaces of my throat without a moment to spare and jumped into the air, of the vent, which, I had barely inserted myself into, while clutching onto Azoe's dead weight, straining my bicep . The echo of my panting, sunk into my ear, when I felt the grip, tighten, and sink into the fibers of my jacket. My arms, wrestled, desperately against the force of the grip, squeezing, ounces of strength, that burst like small sparks, of electricity, into my emotions, and clutched onto the metal, which my soiled fingerprints, slid off from, like slugs. The skin, on my back was abruptly intruded with a chilling slight breeze, which crept, a bit shy of my upper back, with grains of sand trickling and tickling together with the breeze. "Arrrgh!" The shouts of the people, attempting to capture us, crashed into my ear, as the grip intensified and I felt, my body, float further towards the surfaces. The grains of sand, sunk its weight, like an anvil into the sea, towards my back, which, blocked a small part of the entrance of the vent. I wriggled around, aggressively, rolling and bending, all my joints, helplessly, throwing my palms to catch anything in sight, to push me further into vent the space. The strain on the elastic end of my jacket, near the waist, slowly, started to feel loose, as the sand, clasped onto the entrance of the vent, and consequently started push me, further.

The air, brushed, evenly, with a cooling effect on the surface of my skin, as the gravity, strung heavily on my body, tugging me further, with increasing speed, surrounded by muffled echoes, courtesy of the sand that rained down behind me. Thin beams of light, tore through the darkness, and crashed into my eyesight, as I felt, I could be reaching the end of the fall. Sand, burst, in a conservatively manner, through the small spaces, that broke out in our erratic toss and tumble. My echo, merged itself, with the limited space, of what slowly what appeared to be, the other end of the vent, and I suddenly burst through, with showering sand, weighing on my back, when I tried to get up off the ground. "Unngh! Unngh!" A groaning sound, came from Azoe, rolling, at a slug's pace, out of the grip of my arm. "Hey! Hey! Wake up!" I said, shrugging his exhausted body. Azoe, crept up slowly, like an injured animal, inhaling air, into his deflated lungs, and twitching, his muscles. "I'm neee...vvv...caught" Azoe said, gradually losing the balance, sluggishly, and dropping to the ground, on his back. Heavy breaths, puffed out of his lungs, with a great pace, and his fist, gripped on to the tears in his shirt. "I got you, I got you...Who...What....Who are those people?" I asked, rushing towards Azoe's aid. Azoe's panting, increased, as I held his head up, trying to get him in an upright position. "Where are we?" I asked, as I looked around to see the environment.

"We're close....We're here" Azoe said, struggling to push through his words.