The Flipsyde

In the hospital

Another update :)

Great news :) 500 views!!! Party time!!

--------------- chapter 12 begins here------------

The vents were dark. I slowly crawled ahead as Jake whispered the directions from behind. It was a slow upward climb- not steep enough to make it tiring, but it was definitely narrow enough to make anyone start to feel claustrophobic. The vents left little space for arm room- I couldn't tell exactly how big it was, but maybe a foot or so wider than my trunk with just enough cross section to do a push-up. Not that I could do one or anything..

The journey wasn't all that boring- with Jake telling me everything about all the rooms we were passing. He has a mind blowing sense of direction and measurement. If I asked him the dimensions of my foot, I was sure he'd give me the value within a tenth of an inch, but that'd probably be too creepy to ask. Not for him. For me.

As we neared the top of the duct, Jake gave me a nudge on the back of my leg. It was a signal we had agreed on. One nudge if we were in the right spot and two If I should come back. No talking until we were out in the open. We couldn't risk any stray people catching us.

I slowly pushed at the grating. It moved slightly. I smiled- for once, the lack of care for the poor side was a good thing.

I took a deep breath and pushed harder at the grating. As it gave way, I slowly reduced my force down to small thrusts. I didn't want to make any unnecessary noise.

As I crawled out of the duct, I looked to the left and the right. Nobody there.. That was a good sign.

As Jake crawled out of the duct behind me, I grinned and gave him a thumbs up. We were in!

We made our way ahead, looking at the label on each door- till we found one with the name Christopher. I looked at Jake. He nodded. And I opened the door.

I don't know why, but a sigh of relief washed over me as I saw Christopher on his bed. He turned to look at me.

A squeal barely escaped his lips- muffled by jake's hands as he once again saved our butts. Christopher was super excited to see me. He had spent half a week in this place and seemed almost bored to death. I sat down to tell him about the last few days. His reaction was definitely not something I wanted to miss.

As I explained the money disappearing and the raids, his eyes grew wide; and when I moved onto the part with my meeting with isa, his lips took the form of a teasing smirk. I poured out every last emotion to Christopher to finally get the weight id been carrying off my chest.

As my story came to a close, Christopher started getting curious. Did I see Isa again? Were mom and Dave okay? How did I get in here???

I then explained how I hadn't met Isa afterwards, the situation at home, and how Jake brought me here- the last part accompanied by a double thumbs up from Jake.

Christopher thanked us for coming and through his excitement, I was able to see a flicker of weariness. I didn't want to tire him out- casually hinting to Jake that we should be going, and Jake- obviously having seen the same flicker of weariness- agreed that we should leave.

After saying our goodbyes to Christopher, we headed back down the hallway. Just as I entered the duct, but before Jake could, i heard some footsteps heading our way. I panicked and slid down a few feet as fast as I could. Jake, also sensing the imminent danger, climbed into the duct- possibly a bit too quickly- making a few bangs against the walls of the duct as he did.

Just as we closed the lid and had made our way about ten feet diagonally down, we heard the footsteps approach the duct.

"What was that?" I heard someone ask.

A flashlight shone down the duct- illuminating the duct brightly- until a few feet away from Jake-where the duct branched out into several ducts.

I held my breath. Even if they couldn't see us, they definitely could hear us.

Finally the flashlight switched off.

"Just the rats I guess" I heard a reply.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wanna test out that new rat fumigation system?"

My heart rate spiked. Fumigation? That could be bad.

"Let's do it" I heard the reply.

I didn't know if the stuff they'd be releasing was poisonous. I didn't want to stick around to find out.

-------------- End of chapter 12-------------- 

And I'm done with the two promised chapters :) There's no way to say I'm back better than putting two people in mortal danger :p

Love you guys for reading this far <3