Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 17 - Duncan Quagmire

Their plan was simple: when all of the crew were having lunch, they would sneak into the storage room and take two paraglides from the ample supplies they have. Then the two would go onto the deck whilst all of the crew were still in the diving hall, and jump. Isadora and Duncan both knew that they were reaching the Hadley's house around the late afternoon so they wouldn't be too far away if they jumped. Unfortunately, the plan was easier said than done.
The Quagmires assumed that all of the crew were having lunch but, they were doing a rotation so there were always people on duty, steering, cleaning around the whole air-ship. Duncan and Isadora packed a few things into a satchel that Isadora was putting around her shoulder. They just put in some money, Montgomery Montgomery's letter, and a spair change of clothes. Then, it was time for the tricky part.
The two remembered their plan by heart so nothing could go wrong. If this went badly, they could miss their only chance of getting out of this ship. Duncan and Isadora cautiously followed the route to the storage room that was engraved in their heads. He was walking in front with Isadora behind him and they pretended to be in a quiet conversation.
"Okay, just take this left and if we continue down this corridor we should be there." Isadora whispered, right when another crew was walking past them in a hurry. Duncan nodded. He took the final left with his sister trailing behind and they started down a long corridor.
Each door had a sign next to it, saying specifically what was inside the room. This couldn't have been anymore obvious, Duncan thought, as they stopped at a sign reading, "Storage." Duncan looked gingerly down the corridor. He and Isadora were the only people in this deserted corridor. He reached his hand to turn the door knob and as he predicted...
"Locked." Duncan said, trying to move the handle. It wouldn't budge.
"Is there any other way we could get in." Isadora asked, checking down the corridors again. She guessed that it would look a bit suspicious if there were two children just standing outside of a door, trying to get in.
"Do you have a hair pin on you? Duncan asked whilst Isadora felt her hair.
"No but, I have a card and I think I know how to open it." Duncan left Isadora to slide a card just where the lock is through the crack of the door and bending it to push the lock open from the other side. Duncan wouldn't think this would work and just when he was about to suggest the idea of stealing the set of keys, he heard a miraculous click.
He turned around in bewilderment to see Isadora pulling the door open wide. They both went in. The storage unit was by far was the largest room in the ship, the room being bigger than the living room and the dining room. There were shelves lining every wall of the room and more shelves towering around them that it reminded the Quagmires of the supermarket they went to every Sunday.
The Quagmires immediately went onto the task of finding the paraglides. They decided on splitting up to find the stash of paraglides and within minutes of running down each aisle, Duncan stopped in front of a pile of blue parachutes all packed and ready. "Izzy, I found them!" He shouted but immediately regretted after he remembered the situation he was in.
Isadora came running over. "Okay, now take two paraglides and put it in this satchel. We don't want to attract attention." Isadora's satchel looked a lot bigger than it has before with the two paraglides. They quickly ran out of the room and closed the door. Isadora slipped the card into her satchel and they walked out of the corridor.
The next step was to get onto the deck and go into one of the changing room. Once Duncan and Isadora were inside and locked the door, they took out both of the paraglides. Duncan vaguely remembered a book he read about paragliding and he instructed Isadora how to put the backpack on and tighten all of the straps and the harness before working on his own. He told Isadora the use of the brake handles and speed bars and once everything was in place, he exhaled and she copied. We could probably die, he thought before removing the thought out of his head.
The two waited for about ten minutes by checking the clock which was hanging on the wall and knew it was time. It was currently the rotation time, so it would be less busy and less people would know what to do. Isadora tightened her satchel before Duncan opened the changing room door, sunlight streaming in.
Thankfully, not many people were on paying attention when the two Quagmires were edging along the side of the deck towards the drop off point. The day was bright and sunny, the sky was blue and there were a few clouds in the air. As they neared the drop off, Duncan's heart elevated a lot faster than he imagined. He followed Isadora's trail and sooner or later, they stood before the drop off.
The drop off area was completely unoccupied so Duncan had time to tell Isadora the instructions one last time. "And when you want to slow down, you have to pull the brake handles. We are aiming for that beach over there." Duncan pointed down at a stretch of sand next to a still ocean.
Isadora nodded. "See you down there and good luck!" And she went off, sitting on her seat, the wing opening and inflating going against the wind. She made a yell of excitement that was too loud in Duncan's opinion because a crew member on deck, George, Duncan recalled, looked over and saw Isadora paragliding off.
"Hey! Is that..." He yelled pointing at Isadora who wasn't paying attention and was paragliding further down. George looked over at the drop off station and saw Duncan who was checking the harnesses one last time and was ready to get off. "Stop right there!" George shouted, pointing at Duncan. He was running towards him. It's now or never, a voice inside of Duncan's head spoke. He breathed in one last time and jumped off the ship.
Duncan was falling. All he saw was the blue sky around him, some white clouds. Barely off in the distance was a smaller blue wing and above him was the hull of an enourmous ship. Remember what you have to do, the voice in Duncan's head spoke again. He remembered all of the instructions he gave to Isadora and pulled in the brake handles. Suddenly the falling slowed down and Duncan adjusted in his seat. The wind rushed around him, cold, cool air enveloped him and he suddenly wasn't nervous anymore.
"Whooooo!" Duncan yelled. He was paragliding. Duncan started to pay attention, he started to follow Isadora who was not too far ahead of him. He saw the ground more clearly and the pale grey sand that was meters beneath them. Little figures, people, were moving around, going in their normal life.
Finally, he felt the ground touch his feet. All of these months on the ship, Duncan became accustomed to feeling the occasional jolt, tilt or turn, but here, the ground stood firm beneath him. "Duncan! Thank god your safe! That was epic!" Isadora rushed over to Duncan and started unstrapping the harness and the ropes around him. Duncan looked up.
He could see Jemma's ship passing by but he knows that the crewmembers know. "Come on, we have to get out of here. They know that we have jumped off and it won't be long until they catch up with us." Duncan said. He started taking off the paraglide and once it was off, he took in the surroundings.
"What are we going to do now?" Duncan queried. He looked at the vast ocean on one side and rows of houses on the other other side, all polished and neat. "This isn't Briny beach!"
"It is, we're used to going that side of the beach where it looked quite different."
"Oh. What are we going to do now then?" Duncan asked again. He was eyeing the ship above and half expected people to be paragliding off it in any seconds.
"Let's just get to the City. It's big enough and we will be able to try to contact the Baudelaire's then." Isadora replied unsurely.