Rise

Chapter 5•

When he reached the door he stopped. James was standing in front of the door and froze for a moment, trying to think, about the flashback of course. Replaying it over and over hoping something else would click. Nothing. He pulled himself out of his thinking and focused on the door, keys still clenched in hand. He wiggled the knob but knew it was locked. Than brought up the keys in both hands and picked the first key on the ring. Left hand holding the silver metal knob. He took a deep breath before sticking it in the lock. A short pause than he turned the key right, tried. The lock didn't turn and neither did the door knob. His faced showed disappointment as he pulled the key out and brought the ring back up. Grabbed the second, stuck it to the lock, nothing.

James displayed frustration now and banged a fist on the hard wood, it didn't budge. For the last time he raised the ring of keys dropped the middle key and took of the third and final key. A rush of nervousness swept over James, this was the last key and if it didn't work he wouldn't know what to do. The door was a thick heavy wood, impossible to slam a body against. He had a more than decent build for his height, and slightly broad shoulders, an intimidating sight. One of the store shelves may work, but it would deffinatly be a lot of by himself.

James grasped the last key nervously. He lowered the hand wielding the key to the knob but stopped just infront of the lock. He paused, took a deep breath, exhaled than shoved the key in. A third turn to the right, he did it slowly.

A blast of relief shot through his tensed body when he'd reached the point that the other two keys came to a hault at, and than kept going. A weight pressed against the carved strip of metal as he passed the stopping point and continued turning another ninety degrees. Than, a click. The sound was a relief to his ears. Holding onto the key and now unlocked door he scanned the store.

Sarah was still wandering among the registers in the checkout isle, looking through drawers. He brought his attention back to the door and gave it a push, easing it open. The door creaked as it gave into the force pushing it open.

The first look into the room defined it as dull and dark. Though light filled the room as James pushed the door in more and more. A desk against the left wall, glass projecting screen on the wall to the right of the desk, trash bin to the left of that, two file cabinets to the right. The door was opened all the way now, exposing the small room to the light of the mid afternoon and illuminating it. The room was empty otherwise. He took a first step inside and onto the hard dark brown carpet. Light switch on the right, he decides to flip it for no reason because he knew already that the lights in the store wouldn't turn on, but flicked it anyways. He's completely caught off guard however, when he flips the switch and a bright white light engulfs the room forcing James to squint for a moment at the brightness of this miniature sun.

His eyes get use to the light and fixes his pauster. A second later Sarah peeked in the room curious as to what he was doing. "Hey wasn't this door locked?"

"Yeah but I found some random keys in that drawer before I found the blade and figured one would work," he explained.

"Anything odd in here?", she asked before steeping in the small room holding her head.

James just nodded "nothing really, looks like a normal office." Sarah takes another step forward but tripped on a slight uplift in the carpet. She caught her self than quickly turned to see what she tripped on and grabbed James's attention over.

"What the hell did I trip on," she blurted confusingly.

"What happened?"

"I triped on something under the carpet," she replied, pointing to the slightly uplifted portion of the carpet. James looked over and kneeled down infront of the area, inspecting it.

Pointing at the small bulge in the floor, "this thing?" James pokes the bulge, its hard. "Feels like a thick ring," he said, looking up at Sarah. He leaned against the ring as leverage to get up but it gave slightly, surprising him. "Woh! somethings loose."

"What is it?" Sarah bent over for a better look.

"I have no clue, trap door?" He said it jokingly but with sirousness in his tone. He found a grip on the hard object hidden by the carpet and was able to pull it upward. A square shape began to form under the brown material, pressing against it. It was small though, too small to be any kind of trap door, it was only about twelve inches across.

"What the?" James had on a confused face and Sarah matched it.

"What the hell is that?," Sarah finally said.

"I think were about to see." With that comment, James pushed his hair back, than dug in his pocket. It was the only thing in his right pocket but after a second or two the pocket knife emerged from it. James gripped the blade tight in his hand before, with his pointer finger, flipping the blade to its deadly position. He lowered the ring back down till it was level with the floor again, but held on to it. With a straight face, but hidden with curiosity, he lined up the blade with the floor behind his hand, inching back till he felt the thin gap between the square and the actual floor board. With one breath, the cutting began. The carpet was thick, but once he'd dug the initial cut through the carpet, it was much easier to dig around the square following the path the gap lead. Sarah peered over his shoulder with anticipation. She broke the sound of cutting material with a comment. "This is just odd."

Between thrusts he replied, "maby its supposed to be a hidden compartment." She nodded in agreement. He kept his consintration on cutting. About a side and a half had already been sawed through. When he'd finally gotten through most of it and only a portion remained on the last side, he repocketed the blade than grabbed either sides of the square and toar it off with one strong twist and yank.

A sealed fragrance of dark wood emitted from the revealed compartment. All it was; a small square compartment. Both Sarah and James starred at a metal container that filled the space. The silence was only broken by the creak of the floor when Sarah adjusted to sitting on her knees. James finally found the word. "Woh." Which Sarah shared a groan to.

The compartment hatch laid open, flat on the floor. What stared back at them; one metal face. But, a nob, one you would turn in code to unlock something, lied on top of the silvery surface, staring back at the two. James was the first to break the trance. "A combination lock." he said it in an empty tone.

"For what?" This from Sarah, giving a lost glare to James. "I mean, what could possibly be kept in there?"

"I wish I knew." He gave the nob a feel. It felt new, turning it still had an even friction, from lack of use. The metal face too was clear and had a rough yet smooth finish. "Its a safe." James muttered. He stood up, than, as if he cant move fast enough, he says in a calm but ordering tone, "its a three digit combination lock, left right than left. Gotta look for any possible combination numbers, search that desk. Assuming the power is fully functional in this room, I'm going to search through the computer interface." It came out without him even thinking about it. Like muscle memory. Like he was trained for it. When James finally realised what had blurted out; his mouth stayed open and his eye brows were raised, he was surprised at himself. Sarah just threw a confused look at him.

"Where did That come from?"

"Uh I really don't know," he replied. Its like that situation triggered his mind to pitch the solution to him from deep within his clouded consciousness, seemingly out of nowhere but having always known this information.

The sudden out burst may have surprised James at first, but it gave him a slight pleasure of finally knowing what to do and how to solve it, being in control of the entire situation.

Soon enough, both were at work. Sarah had started rummaging through the drawers of the desk closest on the left and James messed with the computer interface in the wall. It wouldn't power on. But, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed behind a fileling cabinet stuck out a small intena. James didn't take any longer and reached for it. It was a small metal intena with an end that resembled a USB drive. He realises its possible use and begins scanning the edgfes of the glass interface. After a short time a small not so noticble USB port revealed itself. James slowly inserted the intena into the port on the left side. Right as he did this, a quick flash and a flicker brought the interface to life. The lights began to dim as the computer finally began to wake up.