Escape

Chapter V (Bullets)

"Hey! Wake up!" Ivy yelled. She sat by Will's bedside. The light of the broken lamp softly fell of his face. She watched as he breathed softly, mesmerised by how relaxed he was. He looked peaceful, she thought. She stretched her hand towards his face, and as she did so, he moved.

"Five more minutes," he whispered. Flustered at the sudden response, she snapped her hand back. She rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Like hell!" She answered pushing him to his side. The tired boy pushed his aching body up from the sleeping bag. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

"And when I thought your attitude was improving," he muttered, fixing his hair. He raised his gaze at Ivy, surprised as she handed him a sandwich. "I take that back." He took the sandwich from her and sat down to eat. He watched her as she paced back and forth from the door and the counter. She stopped and picked up the paper bag from the counter and revealed a black gun. Her hand wrapped around the metal of it. His eyes followed her hand gently tap the chamber of the gun, allowing bullets to land on Will's sleeping bag.

"Two," he muttered. She nodded and squatted down to further investigate the bullets. R.12 was carved on one and the other had ROOF. Rubbing his hands together to get rid of any remaining crumbs, Will jumped up and walked in front of Ivy. "I guess we found our next clue," he said, beginning to pack his bag. Puzzled by the "clue" he spoke of, Ivy hurried to her bag and slipped the gun and bullets in. A gun would be a great advantage for them. It was light and quick and infinitely better than the pocket knife they both held on to.

"And by clue you mean the stuff written on the bullets, right?" She said, walking alongside him. Surprised that she didn't understand the letters, Will grabbed hold of his stomach and burst into a fit of laughter.

"Wait. Don't tell me you don't get it," He said through his laughter. She stopped walking and faced him.

"Room 12, roof," she interrupted his laughter. "I get it but Room 12 could be the 12th room from the beginning or the end."

Will let go of his stomach and wiped away the lingering tears. He walked out of the room and checked out the room nearest to them.

"Classroom 9," he said, reappearing from the hallway. "Kitchens and toilets don't count since they don't have "room" in them," he announced.

"That's all you had to say," she walked past him.

Once again they walked through the hallways like every other day. A week had passed already and everything had almost become the norm to them. They appeared completely desensitised to the squeaking floorboards and the odour. It took them two hours to finally arrive to their destination. "We're here," Will announced, unnecessarily.

"I think we found the secret rooms," Ivy pointed towards the next intersection. Will leaned over the corner, inspecting the symbols on the doors.

"We'll check them out after this," He said, pushing the door open. The room was quite similar to the other rooms. They were left in disarray and disorder. They pushed forward to keeping an eye on the ceiling to see if there were any visible openings to it. It wasn't too long after searching, they found a misplaced ceiling tile. "It's pretty far" Ivy said and Will agreed.

"Yeah, you're right. We need to find something to get you up there." Ivy stoped and turned around, facing him.

"Me?!" She exclaimed. She stared frantically at him, searching for an excuse. Fear washed over her as she thought about climbing up there and her heart pounded in her chest. "It has to be you. You're....you're taller, so it'll be easier," she argued. Her eyes widened with fear as she gazed into his eyes as she quickly muttered "It makes sense."

He gritted his teeth. He stared at the opening and he sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. He looked back down.

"Fine." He muttered. "But you owe me one," he picked up the ladder. She nodded and sighed in relief and followed him. He placed the ladder down and Ivy held onto it as Will climbed up to the ceiling. He disappeared into the opening and reappeared holding a gun identical to the one they had before. He jumped down and began to brush the dust off his uniform. "Lets go somewhere safer," He suggested. Ivy agreed, silently following him outside and in front of the secret rooms.