Trapped

Chapter 5

This vent thankfully was bigger than the last one I crawled through. It was a tight squeeze to the second party room away from the Animatronic Bear.

Unfortunately the inside of this one was sticky; It smelled like oil and rust. It wasn't exactly pleasant and my nose wrinkled as the smell assaulted my nostrils.  Nearly gagging at the strength of the smell, I covered my nose quickly with my hand and kept moving forward.
   I had been crawling in the vent for a few minutes; my hand over my face to try and combat the smell. However I felt as if I wasn't getting any closer to an exit. How long could this vent be? I stopped and studied farther into the dark abyss, there seemed to be no exit yet.
I felt a creaking under me; It was probably a bad decision to stop. I barely had time to react as the bottom half of my body suddenly fell out of the vent. I shrieked hands flying out and slapping into the metal on either side. I kicked my feet as I pulled and fought my way back into the vent shaft.
I panted as the initial shock began to subside.
"JANE!"
I turned my head around back in the direction I had come from. I must have been pretty loud.
I silently cursed myself for it,

I inhaled a deep breath before calling back to them. "I'M FINE! I FELL THROUGH A VENT OPENING! DON'T FOLLOW ME YET!"
I slid myself forward and slowly twisted to face where I had fallen through. There was a vent grate opening where I had stopped. Smart Jane, I thought with a huff. Clumsy until the day you die.
Taking my flashlight from the back pocket of my jeans I clicked it on to see where the grate opened to.
The basement.
It lead back to the basement! I called back to Toby and Jackson with a pleasant surprise in my voice.
Jackson's voice sounded confused. "The basement? but..?"
"But where else?" Toby finished.

I sat cautiously in the vent shaft pointing the flashlight towards the direction I was heading originally,  "I don't know where else it leads! The flashlight beam only goes so far ahead."
"It might be our only way out," Toby's voice sounded hopeful, Jackson's was doubtful. "But it wouldn't budge the last time."
I bit my lip thinking, "Maybe this time we'll try and smash the window."
"Well." Toby voice was optimistic. "That isn't too bad of an idea,"
"If it doesn't work, we'll come back through the vent and wait till 6 am like in the story?" I suggested, "That part might be true as well..I don't know..."
Jackson's voice seemed to lose some of it's doubt and changed it's tune. "It's the best idea for now, since Jane's already inside I'll climb in towards her, and jump down the grate into the basement and help whoever needs it." A small thumping noise indicated that Jackson had crawled into the vent shaft behind me. I turned around slowly, to keep myself from falling through the opening again. I sat awkwardly next to it, waiting.
"Jane?" I flicked my light on to see Jackson staring at me, "So where's the entertance?"
I pointed down with my flashlight. "There."
The sound of the vent closing shocked me, it caused the vent to vibrate slightly.
"Xavier..." Toby whispered. "What are you doing?"
There was a long pause before he answered. "I heard something in the hallway. I'm staying put here."
Jackson's face filled with horror when he realized what Xavier was doing,
"Don't sacrifice yourself, Xavier!"

There was a small humorless laugh. "Consider it my noble act of the day since I wasn't able to save Mikey,"
"Don't be an idiot Xavier!" Toby's voice hissed, "Think of the kid! he would have wanted you to save yourself!"
"No, this is what I need to do." The scraping of him twisting a bolt into place made it clear.
"COME AND GET ME YOU LITTLE FREAK!" the door to the party room slammed open and Xavier's tough guy facade fell away. "GUYS THE FOX IS IN HERE WITH ME! ESCAPE GUYS! GET HEL—" his voice was cut off with a high pitched robotic scream.

The hard crunch of what I assumed was Xavier's head filled the vent, I covered my mouth in horror as the sound of Xavier's body hit the floor.
I felt tears prickle my eyes as yet another one of my friends was lost to these horrible creatures.
My flashlight illuminating the horrified faces of Jackson and Toby.
Jackson coming to his senses first pushed his legs down the opening and disappeared into the basement.
I stared at Toby with anguish over what had happened.
He shook his head in sadness, "Jane you have to go through. We'll have time to greave later when we get out of here.
I nodded with tears in my eyes. "J-Jackson! I'm coming!" I slid my feet into the hole. Jackson's hands found my waist as he helped me down into the basement.

I looked at him with tears in my eyes and hugged him tightly for a moment.
I heard Toby's feet hit the floor. I let go of Jackson to turn and look at Toby.
Tears filled my eyes as I stared at him.
I wish we never came to this stupid place in the first place, Xavier and Mikey would still be with us. We'd be hanging out finding another thing to entertain ourselves with.
I thought this would be the first of our silly little summer adventures.
A silly little adventure to an abandon restaurtant that was re-opening as competition to Chuck-E-Cheesy's.
I never thought we'd lose our lives here.
I looked away from Toby, pulling my cell slowly out of my pocket to check the time yet again.

5:01am
Still no signal.