Finally, he could go no further. He released his wife of twenty years, swearing to come back as soon as he had the door open. He started crawling; his motions growing more and more difficult with each passing second.

After what seemed like hours, he reached the door and grabbed the doorknob, reaching up to fumble with the deadbolt until finally, it opened. Unconsciousness was only moments away, he was certain. He twisted the knob and yanked the door. He'd made it!

Rupert was confused when, after only two inches of movement, the motion of the door came to a crashing stop. He shook it several times before he realized the security chain was hooked. It took an extra moment to process this, because in the twelve years they'd lived here, they had never used the chain. He tried to pull himself up onto his knees to release it but he was far too weak; he fell back to the floor with a crash. Now he was so exhausted, he couldn't even raise his head. The last thought to cross his mind was that if just one of the three smoke detectors in the house had gone off, they probably would have gotten out.

Chapter Twelve

DAY 936

James Cowan sat in front of his computer. He was intrigued by the idea Fitch proposed. There was no reason why it couldn't work in theory, but it would take a lot of engineering. He'd worked steadily on the concept the whole day before and was making significant progress. Fortunately, Fitch was due in this morning, and hopefully, there would be answers and he'd give James a better idea as to where this was going.

At 0800 Matt Fitch walked into Cowan's office. Cowan looked up and said, “This is the second time in as many months that you've been on time. I'm starting to get nervous.”

“I considered sitting in my car listening to the radio for another twenty minutes, just so I wouldn't have to take this abuse,” Fitch said with a grin.

Cowan smiled. “I've been working on your idea, and I think I can make it work.”

“Good, I need a live, short duration test as soon as possible,” Fitch responded.

“How soon are we talking?” Cowan asked.

“I want it to begin next week.”

“Are you serious?” Cowan responded quickly, but he could see from the look on the Colonel's face that he was completely serious.

“It doesn't have to be a big test; three to five subjects and they only have to be out a week. It just needs to be enough to prove we can do this,” Fitch explained.

“I don't know if we can pull it off that fast. We need an airtight chamber in which we can manually control the atmospheric pressure. Not to mention rounding up test subjects,” Cowan advised.