Fly or Fall

Chapter Twenty-Six

Escaping would have been easier if Andy could do magic. The 'Ligre' spell Anna used earlier would have been really useful at this point. He tried it just for the sake of trying. It didn't work, he expected as much. Without magic he did the only logical thing he could do; he thought his way out. A magnetic lock, he'd need heat to disable the magnetic field. Again, a flame spell could have been helpful here. He didn't have that but he had his phone and a bobby pin. He jammed the bobby pin into the phone's charging port until it was exerting pressure on the motherboard. He stood back after placing his phone against the biometric magnetic lock and waited for it to overheat. Minutes ticked by, then BOOM! and the door swung open.

He expected guards would be rushing over to check out what the sound was, he had to hurry. The hallway was empty, luckily. He turned left. There was an elevator three hallways from here, he'd seen it on the way in. He made a run for it, stopping to check the coast at the turn of every hallway. He was almost to the elevator when BANG! someone crashed right into him.

He fell with an awkward thud to the ground. "Ow," he exclaimed rubbing his sore elbow.

"Why don't you watch where you're going," said the stranger. He was on the floor too. His face was half hidden in the hood of his black shrug.

Andy frowned as he got to his feet. "Excuse me, you bumped into me."

"Because you were in the way," the boy rose to his feet as well. "What are you doing on this floor anyway? This is a restricted area."

Andy shrugged uneasily. "I was-" he scrambled for an excuse, he had none. Luckily, the boy cut him off.

"Oh shit," the boy exclaimed and Andy followed his gaze. At the end of the hall three armored guards appeared from the elevator.

"They're after me," they both said at the same time. Andy raised a brow at the boy. Why would they be after him? He didn't have time to think about it now.

"Halt!" one guard yelled and they ran.

The boy led the way, he seemed to know his way around the palace. Andy followed, his heart racing, running as if his very life depended on it, it probably did. They made so many turns it was any wonder how the guards kept up with them. They shouted after them, "Stop!", "Intruders!", "In the name of the imperial forces!" and other interesting things like that. Their heavy steel toed shoes thumped against the floor. They were close. Too close for comfort.

"They're going to catch us," Andy said between heavy gasps for air. They'd stopped. Why had they stopped?

"No, they won't," the boy said with a mischievous smile creeping onto his face. He pulled out a door to what looked like a garbage chute. "Our escape route."

Andy shook his head taking a nervous step back. "I'm not going down there."

The boy scoffed. "It's this or a blaster to the face. Your choice."

"I'm not really a fan of small spaces."

"I've done this a thousand times, it's not so bad." With that he grabbed the top of the chute and swung his legs into it. "You better hurry, they're close." He let go and slid down the chute.

He was right, the guards were close. Andy tried to obviate his inhibitions. How bad could it be? He climbed into the chute and with an irking feeling crawling down his neck he let go. His stomach lurched, he screamed then tried not to puke. The chute was dark and it reeked like week old tuna but it was over soon enough. He landed on top of a large pile of garbage bags.

"Not so bad, right?" the boy said, waving his way through the garbage bags to a door at the other side of the small square room they'd landed in. It was dark and it smelled.