The Traitor

Chapter Nine: Plan B

We carried Brandon back through the door from which we came in, and down the staircase. I almost tripped twice, but finally, all three of us made it to the bottom.

"Where to now?" I whispered to Jasper. He nodded his head toward the changing room where we borrowed the uniforms and hurried to unlock the door, leading us inside. We helped Brandon over to a bench where he laid down across it.

Jasper stood in front of us as I sat down next to Brandon. "Okay, there are going to be a lot of guards outside looking for whoever threw that rock at the window, so we need a disguise," Jasper told us. "Teya and I are already disguised and we could get Brandon into a uniform, but the problem is, he can't walk, and we can't carry him or we'll attract attention from the guards." He began pacing back and forth as he devised our escape plan. I looked around the room, then stopped when I noticed a mop leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

"Hey, is there a janitor here?" I asked. 

Jasper looked at me curiously. "Yeah, why?"

I stood up to explain my idea. "If we can find a janitor cleaning cart, we could lay Brandon on the bottom shelf of it and cover him up with towels or something, then we could get in janitor uniforms and act like we are just cleaning the building."

"At night?" Jasper asked.

"This place is filthy. There should always be a janitor cleaning up around here," I replied back, both jokingly and completely serious.

He shrugged. "That might work. Now we just need to find the cleaning closet. There has to be one somewhere, right?"

Brandon groaned in pain before I could respond and both Jasper and I looked over at him.

"There's one...just down the hall," he said, scrunching up his face in a grimace from the pain.

"Brandon? Are you okay?" I sat down next to him with a worried expression.

He exhaled, then drew in a long breath of air. "Yeah," he finally replied. "I'm fine. Go." His voice was still shaky and as much as I didn't want to leave him, I knew we didn't really have a choice.

"Okay." I stood up and glanced over at Jasper, who was looking down at Brandon with a concerned expression. "He'll be okay," I told him. "Let's go."

Jasper nodded then followed me to the door. I opened it slowly and glanced around, examining the halls for any sign of a guard patrolling around. 

"It's clear. Let's go." I lead the way down the hallway to where I thought Brandon had said the closet would be. I tried three doors before coming to one without a lock: the janitor's closet. I knew it didn't make sense to put a lock on the janitor's closet, but I was still relieved when it opened easily. I felt around for a light switch and flipped it on as Jasper closed the door so as not to attract attention with the light.

We began searching around the closet, pulling spray bottles and rags from shelves and racks, till I finally found a big cleaning cart, hidden in the corner of the small room. I pulled excess supplies from the bottom shelf and piled them onto the shelves in order to make room for Brandon to sit. Though the cart was only about three feet by three feet, I figured that if he were to curl up in a ball, he'd be able o fit.

"Will you grab some towels?" I asked Jasper.

"Will do," he replied as he reached up and pulled some towels off a high shelf mounted to the wall. Suddenly there was a loud crash as a broom and mop that had leaning against the wall were knocked over, pulling several spray bottles down with them.

I flinched as I realized someone had to have heard the sound.

"Quick, hide!" Jasper pushed me into the corner and told me to crouch down, throwing a couple of towels over my head, then doing the same to himself. We waited as we heard a bunch of footsteps pass by multiple times, hoping they wouldn't trace the sound back to the cleaning closet. If they did, Jasper and I were busted. And if we were caught, it would only be a matter of time before Brandon would be too. 

We sat and waited, holding our breath every time someone would pass by. Then, to my horror and dismay, we heard at least four sets of footprints approach the door, then enter. I held my breath for the longest I had ever held it before as the men searched the room.

"What's this mess?" a man with low voice growled.

"I told the janitor he needs to clean up better," another said.

"Unless it wasn't the janitor," a gruff voice added.

There was a moment of silence when no one said anything, and I was hoping with everything inside of me that they wouldn't find us. Finally, to my relief, the men left, settling on a decision to fire the janitor. I felt relieved and bad at the same time; someone would be going home without a job tomorrow because of me.

Jasper and I waited at least two more minutes before moving, and when we did, we grabbed the cart, threw on the uniforms and rushed out of the room as quickly as humanly possible.

"That was close," I whispered as we ran down the hall, as quietly as we could, back to the dressing room. I hadn't thought about what would happen if someone had come into the dressing room while we were gone and I desperately hoped nothing had happened to Brandon.

We arrived at the room and Jasper unlocked it, pushing the door open enough for the cart to fit through it, then shutting it behind us. To my relief, Brandon was still exactly where we had left him, laying on the bench.

"Okay, we have one shot at this. We have to do it right." We helped Brandon into the bottom shelf of the cart and hung towels off the edge of the top shelf to conceal him inside.

"You okay?" I asked him. He was scrunched in a ball in order to fit and he looked super uncomfortable.

"Yeah," he responded. He shifted a little which unconvinced me and I began to think the plan wasn't going to work. 

I turned to Jasper. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea," I told him. I was beginning to lose hope that we would ever get out, when Jasper grabbed my hand.

"It's going to work," he assured me. I nodded nervously and he squeezed my hand, giving me an encouraging smile. "I promise."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do this." I finished putting up the last towel to cover Brandon and we pushed the cart out the door. We crept quietly down the hall and turned down the last corridor before the door. We stopped when we saw a crowd of guards waiting at the once unguarded entrance.

"They must have realized we used the rock as a diversion to get inside. We need a new plan," Jasper whispered.

"What about our disguises?" I reminded him.

"They'll never fall for it if we go out of the building. The whole purpose was so if they saw us walking around inside, they would think it's the janitor. But if we go outside, they'll know something's up. We need another plan."

 I nodded in agreement, then crouched down next to the cart and moved the towel out of the way so I could see Brandon. He was curled up in a tight ball in order to stay hidden behind the towels and his expression showed pain and fear. I noticed his eye looked more swollen than it had before.

"Brandon, the guards are blocking the way. We need to find another way out."

He nodded in agreement, then grimaced with pain. I moved the towel back in front of him and stood back up, glancing back over at the large group of guards blocking our path.

"So, now what?" Jasper looked lost in thought and I hoped he had a plan. "What is it?" I asked.

"I have an idea, but I'm not sure it will work."

"Well, it's our only chance. I say let's do it."