|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:24 pm
Jack paused for a moment, fingers jammed in his mouth as he licked the juice off of them. "There's a ladder," he offered, pointing to a metal square protruding from the ceiling, "For 'mergency stuff." He would have suggested the normal method of climbing out through the stairs that had been used to access it when it was still in use, but it had long since been sealed up by a layer of concrete. "Could prolly get it down."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:05 pm
The preteen looked up when Jack pointed, noting for the first time that there was indeed a ladder up there. Excellent. "It would probably be best if we did go that way," Mae said slowly, moving to get a better look at the metal square. "If we can get out this way, it'll be less suspicious. We could just go home and nobody would be the wiser. If we went back we might run into the police or someone looking for the culprits." The plan sounded fairly fool-proof, and would involve fewer explosions and make shift bombs than the last plan he had been a part of. Taking a moment to judge the distance to the ceiling, Mae finally asked, "D'you think if you stood on my shoulders you could get the ladder down?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:14 pm
Jack frowned, looking up to the rusted box and then to Mae. He nodded, "Yeah, could prolly get it, just gotta get it open." That shouldn't be a big deal either, he had plenty of sharp wedging things on him. He yanked his hat off again, digging through it until he found what he believed would serve perfectly, an old piece of metal he'd gotten off of a broken picture frame. Putting his hat back on, he held the shard up to Mae, "Think it'll work?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:22 pm
With a nod of ascent, Mae turned to speak to his friend when Jack started looking for something in his hat. By now, the boy had calmed down enough to be cooperative, and the Sin'aeis wasn't too worried about getting him out. So long as Bae stayed calm, everything would go alright. The preteen turned back to Jack when the other boy held up a shard, and gave another nod. He didn't even want to know what other stuff the boy kept in that hat of his, but was thankful that he had all this stuff. They would have had to scrounge for something to pry open the box with otherwise. Now to get the plan underway and get them out of here.
Once he had positioned himself under the ladder the dark chocolate boy knelt down, waiting for Jack to get up on his back. While he wasn't exactly the tallest Sin'aeis around, Maelon was hoping that their combined height would get Jack close enough to get the ladder down. Scratch that. Get the ladder down safely without dropping it on his foot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:29 pm
Tucking the shard in the waist of his pants Jack climbed onto Mae's shoulders, holding just tight enough to keep himself steady. His plan was to stand up when he got close, and grab hold of the small pipe nearby the box. That way Mae and the shaky kid could be out of the way when it dropped down. "Ready," he said looking up toward the prize.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:34 pm
Maelon reached up to grasp Jack's ankles, making sure he was steady before slowly standing up. It felt weird having a heavy weight on his shoulders, and for a moment the dark chocolate boy thought they would surely fall. Luckily for the pair Mae managed to hold it together, preventing any unfortunate mishaps. Taking a deep breath, he stood as straight as possible, turning to squint upwards at Jack. "You alright? Call when you think the ladder's going to come down." Bae had (wisely) moved out of the way and was watching the pair warily. Apparently he didn't think this plan was very smart, though he would be the first to admit he had no better ideas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 5:55 pm
"Yeah, 'm okay," Jack answered, stretching up to reach the hatch. Taking his shard from his waist he started to stab at the layer of rust, slowly knocking bits and chunks off of it. Freeing enough that he was almost through the layer, he reached back and took hold of the nearby pipe. "It's gonna come down soon," he told Mae, "I'm gonna kick it loose."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:50 pm
At first, Maelon craned his neck upwards to try and see what was going on. However, as chunks of rust and god knows what started falling from the sky, the Sin'aeis was forced to look away. Instead, the preteen focused on holding Jack steady. After several minutes, he felt the boy shift, and looked up to see what he was doing. "Alright, don't hurt yourself," Mae called out, moving so he was out of the way. So far so good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:14 pm
"Always do," Jack chirped with a bit of playful sarcasm in his voice. As soon as the other boy was out of the way he started to swing back and forth, tucking his knees up to his chest. "One.. Two..." Instead of saying three he slammed his feet forward, colliding with the metal with an echoing bang. As he swung back he caught himself, a good move as with a last few crumbles of the rust the door came open, dropping down an old metal ladder than seemed to lead up into a manhole tunnel, hopefully an entrance to the street. "There," he said, still holding himself up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:20 pm
Mae chuckled softly at Jack's comment, before shielding his head with his arms and waiting for the impact. The echoing bang made him jump, though he would be the first to blame it on the fact that Bae had screamed when the ladder hit the floor. Apparently the kid hadn't been expecting it. Once the dust had settled Maelon carefully approached the ladder, giving the bottom step an experimental nudge with his foot. It appears to be safe enough. "Seems alright. You gonna be okay getting down from there?" Maelon motioned to Bae as he spoke to Jack, nudging his companion up the ladder. Hopefully there wasn't anything too dangerous up there. The last thing he needed was to explain to Bae's mother why her son was covered in scratches from alien rats (or something equally as disturbing).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:48 pm
"Yeah 'm good," Jack responded, swinging back before he let go to avoid hitting the ladder. He dropped like a rock, landing sideways on his ankle when he hit the ground. He cringed a bit as a little snap was heard, but drudged his way to the ladder after Mae and Bae anyway. "Kinda higher than it looked," he added, ignoring the pain coming from his leg as he started to climb the ladder after them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:29 am
Maelon was already halfway up the ladder by the time Jack hit the floor, and he hadn't heard anything but the thump and the clang of their shoes against the ladder. The emergency exit ended up taking them to the small alleyway in between the deli and the library. Bae had had to shove a few boxes aside to allow the trio to leave. Once Bae was safe and out of the way, Mae hauled himself up through the emergency exit and into the city. After getting out of the way of the hole, the Sin'aeis boy turned back to look for Jack. He caught the boy's last comment and frowned. "You land funny or something?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:07 pm
"Yeah kinda," he answered, smirking a bit as his voice echoed off the inside of the tunnel. He hopped his way up the ladder with one foot, dragging his injured ankle behind him as he slid out. "S'fine," he told them, poking it gingerly. He could still walk on it, even if it hurt a bit, so it was nothing to worry about. "So is this?" He asked, figuring that from his earlier statement this Mae must be a map genius.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:24 pm
If the boy said he was fine then Maelon would take his word for it, though he looked anything but fine. Hopefully he wouldn't get in trouble for just letting the boy keep moving even though he was injured. He could always argue that Jack had told him everything was alright if need be. "We're between the deli and the library, some sort of small alleyway I guess. D'you know how to get home from here?" The dark chocolate Sin'aeis doubted that there would be anyone useful out at this time. Most of the respectable folk were probably in bed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:45 pm
"Umm..." Jack looked around, taking a chance to sniff the air of the alley they were in. They were still deep in the city, so he couldn't go home home, but he could probably go to Duncan's house, or at least back to Aunt Naomi. "Yeah, m'ok," he said with a nod, deciding to go back and hide out with Aunt Naomi until Aunt Ul came for him. At least at Aunt Naomi's the police had better things to worry about than his pranks. "Had fun," he added, not sure whether this Mae person had anything else in mind for the night. It was still light enough to cause a little more havoc, but from the look of the shaky boy he'd have to cause that havoc alone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
