"Is there really such a big difference between Middle Street and High Street."
In a voice cracked with disbelief, Frank let his finger remain on the elevator button. Everything in this cemetery seemed incredibly extravagant. From the waterfall to the fancy engraving on the elevator buttons inside this box of gold.
"There is. It's just really hard for people to notice since there isn't much movement between High Street and the rest of the streets. Especially Middle High Street and High High Street."
Standing behind him, Oliver answered with an apathetic voice as he put a hand on Frank's shoulder to comfort him. Descending into silence, I could feel the heavy tension in the air like an anvil on my shoulders. Looking up and waiting for the elevator doors to open, I could feel disgust and jealousy start to rise from my heart. Everything here was such a waste, it was ridiculous. While people in Bottom Street were dying from the lack of water and food, forced to eat off trees and the ground, there existed a forever-flowing giant water fountain in a large empty building that only held the dead. It was depressing.
As I felt the gold and glitter eat away at my faith in the people from High Street, the memory of Linel's expression at the Middle Street cemetery emerged in my mind. At this exact moment, I could understand how he felt. How fake everything must have been for him the moment he came down from High Street and realized how wide the gulf between people was.
Taking a deep breath to calm the raging waves of emotions deep in my heart, the door of the lift finally opened to a large room filled with shiny coffins.
"So this is where they hold the dead."
Stepping out of the elevator, the three of us surveyed the area with our eyes as we tried to spot Mark and James. The floor was so wide that it was impossible to see the area where the floor met with the wall. The large coffins laid in a neat and orderly manner, starting from the area furthest from us.
"At whose coffin do you think they are?"
I asked Oliver with my eyes scanning for a certain name. The news had mentioned before that her body had been stored here ever since the police had confiscated it after Andrew's arrest.
"My sister, Alex."
Oliver's voice was emotionless, his eyes empty as he started heading to a coffin on our right. Following his lead, we silently approached the coffin with a small name scribbled on it. In contrast to the other coffins, with their fancy decorations and large nameplates signaling who they were and where they belonged, Alex's coffin was simple. There were no extra decorations, not even a last name, just 'Alex', scrawled half-heartedly on a piece of metal as it lay slightly crookedly on her coffin.
"Oliver? Dan?"
Reaching the tail end of the coffin, two men suddenly appeared from behind the large box, their faces showing confusion at the sight of us.
"What are you doing here?"
Straightening his back, Mark questioned us with a raise of his eyebrow as he straightened the lid of the coffin as nonchalantly as possible.
"We've come to warn you that those people in High Street know that you're here."
Stopping only when he was right in front of her coffin, Oliver placed a hand on the expensive-looking wood and slowly ran his hand on its side.
"...Then that's even more reason why you three shouldn't be here."
Mark seemed to stuff a bracelet into his pocket as he gave James a nod.
"Anyway, we need to get out of here quickly."
Slightly bending his hips, Mark scooped Oliver into his arms and started running towards a door beside the elevator. Similarly, James picked Frank and I up and the five of us entered the small area behind that door. Just in time for footsteps to ring out as another door near the elevator opened to show the two men with the flashlights.
"Darn! We missed them!"
The man with an ugly face cursed as he bounded right for Alex's coffin and threw off the lid.
"Be careful there Flint. You don't want to break the coffin lid. Those people from the lower Streets can't afford it."
Snickering, the man who had a mean cackle stopped where he was and swung his head to scan the entire room. He seemed like the smarter one of the two.
"Oh come on Zack, we can just blame those intruders from the lower Streets for the damage. We don't have to care so much about the box used to hold this rat."
Picking up the coffin lid with a grumble, the man called Flint carelessly placed it back with an angry slam and turned to face his partner.
"Anyway, those rats have fled. It's not as if they'll see anything."
Flint leaned his body against the coffin and scoffed, reaching into his pocket to take out a small paper tube.
"Don't smoke in the cemetery. The smell will disturb people."
Zack chastised Flint as his eyes continued to search the room. His eyes seemed to pause at several spots, including the door that we were currently behind. However, the small gap that we were spying on was too tiny for him to notice, so he quickly moved on to other suspicious areas.
"...It seems they've really fled."
After scanning the cemetery twice from his spot, Zack sighed in regret as he signaled for Flint to follow him.
"Come. We'll set up an ambush for them near the main road. Those from the lower Streets shouldn't know the layout of this place well enough to take the other routes out. They probably haven't left the building yet, since the elevator and the stairs are still here, and we didn't see them before we came up. They might be hiding somewhere. But it doesn't matter where they hid. We'll catch them either way."
Giving a mean cackle again, Zack explained his thoughts to his dumber teammate, his eyes smug yet exasperated as the man nodded his head at Zack's words but his eyes showed no understanding of them.
"You should also think for yourself one day. I can't always be the one doing all the brain work, then having to explain it to you."
The two men entered the elevator, their words echoing out as they talked to each other.
"But as long as you're here, I don't have to think. Besides, we make a good combination like this. You're the smarts, and I'm the muscle."
A loud laugh and a sigh escaped from the elevator doors before they closed, sending the two men back down to the reception area.
Holding our breath, I waited a couple of seconds after the two had left before I relaxed my shoulders. Reaching for the doorknob, I was about to open the door wide for the five of us to stream out of this 'small' room when a large hand grabbed my wrist.
"Shush."
With a harsh whisper, I heard James' warning just a couple of seconds before the elevator door opened again.
"They didn't take the bait."
Making a sound of frustration, Zack and Flint took a step out of the elevator.
"Zack? Why did we come back up again?"
Flint showed a face full of confusion as he glanced at Zack's face. And Zack, upon seeing this expression, gave another sigh as he started walking toward one of the suspicious spots he had taken note of earlier.
"I said earlier, that the elevator was still here earlier, and we saw nobody when we came up the stairs right? And since we didn't see the two of them as we were walking here, it means that they must be hiding somewhere on this level."
Opening the door of another storeroom, Zack popped his head in as he continued speaking to Flint.
"You stay out here, just in case they take this opportunity to race down the stairs while I'm inside. If we search each room carefully, we'll definitely be able to smoke them out."
Zack gave a wave to Flint as he headed into the room, and Flint showed a thumbs-up gesture back.
"Ok! Then I'll wait here."
Looking around, Flint seemed to put on a face full of thought, before he moved near the elevator and leaned on the small piece of wall between the elevator and the stairs.
"Not good. If the two of them stay like that, we're going to be found out sooner or later."
Gritting his teeth, Mark commented as he shook his head. Beside me, James finally let go of my hand and took a step back to stand beside Mark.
"What do we do?"
Whispering to Mark, James asked as his eyes scanned the storeroom that the five of us had ducked into.
"We'll have to search for an exit. Even a small wind vent would do. We should at least find a way to get the children to escape."
Breaking away from each other, the two men carefully moved some of the stacked boxes as they tried to search for any hole or vent. As they shifted boxes here and there, their frowns deepened, and I could almost see a sort of desperation in their actions as time continued to pass.
"Shit! Is there really no vent here?!"
"Mark! Language!"
Cursing, Mark looked behind another stack of boxes in vain and replaced the boxes with an ugly expression. On the other hand, James' lips had peeled back as the frustration within him grew, and he snapped at Mark when he heard his foul words.
Wiping off the sweat on his brow, Mark took a small break from carrying boxes around and gave the storeroom another quick survey.
"Over here."
In the middle of their increasingly frantic searching, Oliver's voice suddenly broke the tense atmosphere, and the two men immediately rushed over to the direction of his voice. Oliver was standing near one of the corners of the room, his face calm as he saw us crowd around him.
"Did you find an exit?"
With an impatient expression, Mark asked harshly as he towered over Oliver. In response to this, James grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back far enough to give Oliver some breathing space.
Shooting a glance at James, Mark then positioned himself a little further away from Oliver and gave him a look of apology.
'So? Did you find an exit?"
James asked after checking on Oliver's expression. When he didn't see any emotion other than calmness in those obsidian orbs, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"One of the ceiling tiles in this room is loose."
Pointing up, the five of us lifted our heads to stare at the ceiling. As Oliver had said, one of the ceiling tiles was pushed slightly aside, revealing the dark space beyond the tiles.
"Just perfect!"
A smile split across Mark's face as soon as he saw the hole, and he gestured for James to help him. Squatting down, James acted as a footstool for Mark as they pushed aside the loosened ceiling tile, creating a nice, large hold large enough for even adults to enter. After glancing around at the space, Ralph nodded his head and signaled to James.
"Come here."
Giving us a kind smile, James invited us to come closer to him. Standing on James' hands, Mark reached a hand down towards us and gestured for us to take his hand.
Sharing glances, I pushed Fraank forward and urged him to take Ralph's hand. Being bumped near Ralph's hand, Frank turned towards me to give me a look of surprise before Ralph whisked him up into the ceiling space.
"Next."
Oliver and I looked at each other, and before we could 'argue' on who would go first, I felt an invisible force on my back and was forced to enter Ralph's arms. Feeling Ralph's strong arms under mine, I was lifted from the ground and up to the ceiling tiles. Then, taking Frank's hands, I was pulled up to the ceiling space.
The space was dark and musty smelling, with layers and layers of dust covering the 'floor'. The lack of light, except from the one opening, made it impossible for us to see past several meters in front of us. Ignoring the dust, I maneuvered myself a slight distance away from the opening and positioned myself to help the next person through the hole. Extending our hands, we pulled Oliver through the hole, before moving a decent distance away for Mark and James to pull themselves up.
Once everyone was inside this space, James, the last one to arrive, closed the ceiling tile, leaving just enough space for light to pass through and illuminate the space.
"Nice job at spotting this ceiling tile."
The moment the ceiling tile was closed, Mark praised Oliver with a smile in his voice as we all waited quietly for Zack to enter the room.
"It's because I always look up to speak to adults, so I tend to notice things on the ceiling more."
Brushing off the compliment, Oliver made himself comfortable on the floor with as little movements as possible so as to not stir up more dust.
"Regardless, if you hadn't noticed it, we would have been sitting ducks for those two from Hight Street to catch as they pleased."
Mark sighed as he leaned over to peek through the slight gap between the loose ceiling tile and the storeroom.
"Then since I've managed to find us a way out of that storeroom, could you hand over the bracelet you took from my sister."
"..."
Swerving his head over to look at Oliver, Mark and James exchanged a silent glance before Mark reached into his pocket to fish out a bracelet. He stared at it for a while, a slightly conflicted look on his face, before he sighed and handed it over to Oliver."
Receiving the bracelet, Oliver immediately put it on. It matched the bracelet on his other hand.
"Thank you."
Touching Alex's bracelet with his hand, Oliver caressed it for several seconds before looking up at the two.
Opening his mouth, he seemed to want to say something. However, before any words could escape his lips, the sound of the door opening in the storeroom below echoed through the dark space and everyone fell into a tense silence.
"This is the last storeroom in the cemetery. I know you're here! Come out and well maybe lighten your sentence to a lifetime in prison."
Zack's voice shouted as his footsteps stomped through the room.
"We've already spent so long in here, I'm starting to get impatient. If you would just come out right now, we could all be at home asleep. Although it would be in jail for you two."
The voice below grew more and more agitated as the sounds of footsteps became louder and louder. Then, they stopped.
"No way. There's no one here."
Silence descended on the area below, before the door of the storeroom slammed shut with a bang.
"Damn it! They managed to get away! Hurry, we need to rush down and try to chase them down. We spent too long here, we need to hurry!"
Rushing sounds came from the main room of the cemetery as Zack and Flint's voices bounced throughout the building.
"What! They weren't there?!"
We waited for the sound of the two of them to disappear before Mark and James exchanged glances and leaned down to peer through the gaps in the ceiling tile.
The five of us held our breath, our eyes focused on Mark's expression as he observed the room below. In the corner of my eye, I saw Oliver make a small gesture to thin air. Then, he shifted closer to Mark and James, squeezing himself next to them to sneak a pic down at the room.
Watching his actions with cautious eyes, I saw their hands tense as they hovered near Oliver, probably ready to pull him back in case he did anything reckless.
The air stilled as three pair of eyes, and probably at least one system, checked out the place below. While we waited, the silence was so strong and deafening that I could hear my own heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
After what seemed like half a lifetime, Mark and James shared another glance at each other, communicating with their eyes, before reaching over and pushing open the ceiling tiles. At their movement, Oliver's eyes immediately shot to them. However, based on how he didn't stop them, it seemed that the two men had really left.
Mark gave James a signal before he jumped down from the ceiling and walked towards the door of the storeroom. Then, he disappeared from our sights for several minutes. After Mark left the storeroom, James covered up the ceiling tile just to be safe and resumed peering down into the room. It wasn't until Mark reappeared again with a thumbs-up signal, the dust still in his hair, that James fully exposed the hole and started lowering the three of us down.
Once on the ground, the two men patted off the dust on us, before doing it on themselves, and then patching up our secret escape hatch.
"They're gone from this level, but they might not be gone from the building. Or they might be hiding outside, waiting for us."
Wiping off the dust on his hair, Mark spoke with a solemn tone as he kept a weary eye on the entrance of the storeroom.
"What one of the men said was true. We don't know enough about High Street to avoid them."
James frowned as he took off a tuft of dust from Frank's hair. Then, with a crooked smile and a half-joking tone, Mark tore his eyes from the door and directed his gaze to Oliver.
"Don't tell me you also know a way out of here without going through the main path?"
Although he sounded like he was joking, Mark's eyes held a sort of illogical desperation as he looked to a child less than half his height, and was probably not even half his age, for a solution he didn't have.
Hearing this, Oliver looked sideways at an area near me before slightly nodding his head. And as Mark and James' eyes widened, he spoke the words that they needed the most right now.
"I do."