Glitches

Chapter 14 - A web of wires

When we turned the last corner, I stopped directly in front of the door. It looked, normal. Plain white, and with a big sticker on it, showing a gear wheel. A faint buzzing sound came from the inside of the room. Sam slowly walked closer to it, looking down at the handle, as if it would open up if he stared long enough. When he pushed the handle down the door didn't open.

"It's locked," he muttered, trying to open it again.

"I figured," I said sarcastically. "Can't we just kick it in?"

"You saw how well that went last time I did it," Sam scoffed, looking down at the ground a faint blush dusting his cheeks.

"Then what if we both do it. And that we actually kick it. I don't want you to crush your shoulder again."

"Well there's nothing to lose right?" he sighed, looking up from the ground.

I took place beside Sam, and we got ready to kick the door with all might.

"Ready?" Sam asked. I nodded in response, adjusting my position a bit.

"Alright. Three... Two... One... Now!"

With all the power we could, we kicked our feet against the door, making it give a crunching sound.

"Just a few more times," Sam said, taking a step back and preparing himself for another kick.

"Three... Two... One... Now!"

Once again, we kicked the door in sync, making it give in even more. I could now see through a little crack in the door. And when we kicked it for the third time it finally flung open, revealing a small room filled with wires in different kind of colours. Everywhere you looked, wires were in the way. They hung from the ceiling. Twisted along the floor. Or was laying in big bunches on the tables. It was like a spiderweb of wires, and in the middle stood a big metal cylinder. It was at stake, and it reached the top of the ceiling. That must've been the one making the buzzing, sounding like a sleeping animal. The same symbol was glued on the metal of the cylinder, the letters RTI standing under it.

"Which wires was it we should cut?" Sam asked, looking around the room with big eyes.

"The yellow ones from the centre to the right," I said. "I guess the centre must be that thing." I pointed at the cylinder in front of us.

"How are we gonna find them all, in this mess?" He kicked some of the wires on the ground, groaning softly.

"Let's start with finding all the yellow wires first and gather them all here." I pointed at a clean spot on the floor right in front of the door.

"Right," Sam sighed, and we began to collect yellow wires.

After a few minutes, Sam suddenly spoke.

"These wires are more messed up, than my headphones after being in my pocket all day."

"Why don't you have one of those packets to keep them without getting all messed up, or get a pair of headphones implanted?" I asked, humming a faint giggle by the frustrating tone in his voice.

"I use my money on more useful things," he grunted, as he jumped up to grab a wire hanging from the ceiling.

We went on in silence, when Sam spoke again.

"Stephanie?" he asked softly, making me look up from the ground, where I had tried to separate a yellow wire from a red one.

"Hm?" I hummed.

"I... I just wanted to thank you. From when you knocked that man off me with the fire extinguisher. You saved my life. So yeah... Thank you," he said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.