Oompa Loompa Takeover

Chapter 12

XII

"Wonka, you there?" Miles asked again.

Static.

He must be somewhere where he has to be really silent and can't respond? Miles hoped it was only that. In front of him was a solid steel door with no handle and no obvious weaknesses. Miles wasn't sure he could blow through the door.

But maybe he could blow through the wall around it.

He'd hoped for some advice from Wonka, but that didn't look like it was happening. Miles turned and surveyed the room around him. He still needed something to direct the blast towards the wall. All there was to choose from was dingy bunks and thin blankets. He grabbed a couple mattresses and dragged a bunk over to prop them up.

"Here goes nothing." Miles said to himself before he licked his pack, stuck it to the wall next to the door and then slammed the two mattresses up against it. Counting down his twenty seconds, he shoved the metal bunk up against the mattresses and ran out of the room.

A loud boom resonated through the air as Miles slammed the door shut. All the surviving slaves turned their gaze away from the elevators for a moment to stare at him. Miles gave a quick grimace at them before whipping around and tearing open the door.

Miles let out a laugh of relief. It had worked! There was now a gaping hole in the wall next to the steel door! Miles kicked what remained of the bunk that he'd used as a blockade out of his path and ran to the newfound entrance. It lead right into a hallway. He looked left. He looked right. All clear. It was a miracle!!

He ran back into the main room. "Everyone! Come this way! I've got us a way out!" He cried as he began to struggle with picking Gerald up off the floor.

"You got through the door?!" the girl from before asked as she rushed over to help him set Gerald upright.

"Yeah, but we've got to hurry. I don't know how long our exit will be unnoticed." Miles said as he managed to get Gerald's arm over his shoulder.

"Screw that, I'll carry him, it'll be faster." The girl said as she scooped up Gerald in her arms. "Everybody move!" She cried to the remaining slaves in the room. "What's your name, kid?" The girl asked him as they ran with the others through the sleeping area and the hole in the wall.

"I'm Miles."

"I'm Maybelynne."

Everyone was in the hallway now, all bunched together and looking uncertain. "Which way do we go?" A young woman with candy colored pink hair asked. She was holding the little kid Calvin in her arms. "May?" someone else asked. But Maybelynne looked to him.

Miles looked bewildered."Don't you guys know how you got down here?"

"No." A man with a missing arm said. "I was unconscious when they brought me here."

Chorus's of: "So was I." or "I was blindfolded." echoed among the group.

"We've got nothing." Maybelynne admitted. "But you got down here by yourself though, right? So you know the way?" Her voice held a note of anxiety.

Know the way? Miles had no idea where they were going or where they should be headed. Wonka had lead them down here, and half the way had been spent in the ventilation shafts. He could be leading them into Gloobenstomper's layer for all he knew. Anywhere has to better than here, he thought, remembering the room full of gunpowder behind them. "Let's head this way." Miles said, pointing to the right. He pushed his way to the front as they ran, to ensure that if he had lead them into any danger, that he would be the first to face it.