Escape(Harry Styles)

Chapter 16: Long Time

{A/N: This is where things get tricky because there were different things that even the FBI arent sure were accurate. There were different theories that have come up and different aspects of the mystery that cannot fully be proved, so all of this might not be true, it is just the widely accepted report the FBI has given. I felt it was risky shoving all of this into one chapter, so dont be afraid to speak up if something is confusing.}

~Harry's POV~

Six months is a long time.

I sat there, still with the letter in my hand and decided Hazel was right, I couldnt waste any time. During our next break that same day I explained everything to the guys and told them we would try making it out to the roof tomorrow night. They agreed, and that night I slept peacefully.

The following day dragged on slowly but I kept my head up, forcing my self to try and get back into the old routine, but knowing Hazel would eventually be back made it hard. I wasnt as nervous this time when I left my head in place and slipped through the vent, meeting the other guys in the back corridor with the little flashlight. We walked quietly down the service corridor until we were met with our pile of forbidden supplies. We all stopped in unison and looked up, I shined the flashlight  and there it was, the tiny crevice in which we needed to escape through. We looked at each other silently, noises here echoed throughout the whole C block, so we had to be careful. The small opening was very high up, and not to mention very small and circular {i had a picture of the roof opening on chapter 10 if you want to reference back}. The first thing we tried was getting on each others shoulders, Zayn volunteered with a wave of his hand and motioned me to come closer, I had Liam hold the light while I sat on his shoulders. Although I was barely tall enough to touch it with my hands, so I got off. We stood there and thought about it a while longer before Liam decided to act. There were multiple pipes coming through the walls, all from the pluming of block C. He started climbing the pipes, trying to make his way up, testing the strength of the pipe before actually trusting all his weight on it. We watched him carefully, he made it higher than I did, but still too short to make an actual escape. We stayed there another hour, thinking and rethinking and trying all sorts of things just to get up and reach it, but we were unsuccessful.

The next two weeks went on like this, we would discuss different approaches during lunch but nothing all too new that would really help us. We only went about every other day, since we still needed our sleep to keep up with everything, but that only made our mission seem longer. Until Liam got fed up one day and signed sarcastically, "Its a service corridor, there must be a tools in there, even a ladder."

I considered this and thought we might as well check it out. Zayn insisted it was a waste of time but Liam agreed to search the whole corridor with me. The two of us took the map and walked through the eerie paths trying to look for a tool set left for when things need to be fixed back here. I suggested it would be near the actual entrance so that was the first place we checked, or rather tried to check as we got lost multiple times, it taking us days longer than I thought. But with patience we found the original opening of the corridor and there was in fact a tool box. I got excited, hoping there may be a ladder here too. At first nothing was found and we were about to go back defeated, but Liam pointed it out, it was hanging up against the wall above the door. We cheered silently and headed back, we certainly couldnt have done it tonight since it was already late and Zayn was asleep.

The next night we went back with Zayn, retrieving the latter carefully and quietly scurrying back to our escape route. It was tricky keeping quiet, but we managed, and finally rested the latter against the wall.  They motioned for me to climb it first, which I did with an honor, and got to the hole. I stuck my whole upper body through the opening, still carefully standing on the edge of the ladder step. I had the flashlight in my mouth as I inspected the inside of it, it was dark, cold, and very tight, squeezing my shoulders together so much it started to hurt. I felt around some more but, just as I had suspected, there was still a cover on it, and it appeared to be locked. I let the guys go up and check it out and I think they were slightly disappointed, but they shouldnt have expected a clear passage through the roof. We debated weather or not we should take the ladder back, but I went with my better judgement and took it back, I had marked the place on the map earlier anyway so it wasnt so hard to find the entrance as the first time.