Glitches

Chapter 10 - Half of a plan

Half an hour went, when I suddenly heard a clattering sound coming from the vent. I quickly moved my body, making me lay flat on my stomach, my face directly in front of the vent entrance. The clattering noise became louder and the sound of panting quickly joined in. Shortly after, Sam appeared at the end of the tunnel, his pale face almost illuminating in the darkness. He turned his head in my direction, and when our eyes locked, he motioned me to follow him.

I looked down at the laptop, then back at him.

"What about the computer!?" I yelled in a whisper.

Sam's brows narrowed in a thoughtful manner. "Did you jam the camera?!" he whispered back.

"Yeah."

"Good. Then we don't need it," he clarified, then once again motioned me to crawl in. "Come on, let's move."

I did as he motioned, and when I pressed my small body through the gap, the darkness quickly engulfed me. The only thing to guide me was the weak outline of Sam's crawling body made by the light through the grids.

We came to a place where the vent turned directly upwards. Sam easily pulled himself up with a grunt. I tried, but not being a tall person, I couldn't reach.

"Are you coming?" I heard Sam complain above me, and I couldn't fight back the urge to roll my eyes. Luckily, because of the dim light, Sam couldn't see.

"I'm not as tall as you, remember?" I said sarcastically, "mind giving me a hand?"

"Sure."

A sound of clattering and grunting was heard, before I felt two warm hands grab mine and pulling me upwards.

"Geez you're light," Sam exclaimed when I had made it up.

"I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment, or as an insult," I joked while I steadied myself when he had pulled me all the way up.

"Take it the way you want," he chuckled. "Let's go on."

He then turned his body around with a groan and began to crawl again. I sighed heavily through my nose, preparing myself for the travel, and followed after.

"Man, this is such a bloody cliché," I muttered under my breath.

"Huh?" Sam hummed in confusion, not stopping in his track.

"Crawling through the vents to get out of the bad guy's big head quarter. I've seen enough movies to know that this is the biggest cliché ever."

I could hear Sam chuckle in front of me, the vibrations from his voice echoing through the narrow vent. "I'll remember that if I'm ever going to be an evil villain with his own head quarter. Rule one: The air vents have to be smaller than a human."

"Nice."

Then we both turned silent.

After what felt like hours, my knees hurt, and my forearms were sore from the constant contact with the metal. The heat in the narrow vent was unbearable and made my throat arid.

"Are we at the exit yet?" I asked, trying my best to breath steady.

"Yes and no," Sam answered. His voice muffled a bit by the reverberation.

I abruptly stopped in my track, grabbing the lower part of Sam's trousers to make him do as well.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a slightly frustrated tone.

"What do you mean by yes and no?" I hissed.

He heaved a deep sight, and his body language suddenly seemed nervous. "Uhm... I didn't totally found the way out," he admitted sheepishly.

"What?!"

"But I have complete control of the situation," he quickly added.

"Do you want to share your fabulous plan to me then?" I said sarcastically.

"Eh... I actually only have half of a plan."

I could see he looked down at his hands in the weak light, clearly embarrassed.

"Brilliant..." I sighed. "Just bloody brilliant."

"Are you mad at me," he asked, sounding like a five-year-old.

"No..." I mumbled, "but I have to admit that a whole plan would have been more gratifying."

"Sorry..."

"It's fine. Really. But I hope that your half of a plan is great then."

"It is."

Even if I couldn't see his face, I could tell that he smiled.

"Then tell me," I said.

"Okay. If everything is going smooth, we should be able to get into the monitoring room from the hallways. If we jump down from one of the further vent holes, we should be right in front of the door to it. We kick the door in, and we find the map over this place..." He paused. "This is how long I got. But I assume that we will manage to use the map to get out."

"What about the people inside of the room?" I asked sceptically.

"Let's get to our destination first, then I tell."

He then began to move again. Sighing, I began to follow.

"I swear Sam, if we die, it's your fault."