Chapter Three

We moved the bed to the other side of the room and removed the vent cover. Ruger grabbed his tool kit and placed it in the bag with the components before sliding it back into the vent. He went in after the bag crawling on his stomach while pushing the bag forward. He crawled up until his head was beside the bag, then Pushed it forward as far as possible. Shaye went in after him, trying to keep up with him. I waited a few seconds before going in myself. In didn't take long for me to caught up to them. After all Ruger was in front and his was never really fast when it came to crawling. We came up to the entrance to the maintenance hallway behind the walls. We crawled into a wider section to the ventilation system. Shaye crawled up beside Ruger and I crawled up beside her.

"Ruger, do you know where your going from here?" I whispered.

"Yes, I studied the maps you stool awhile back" he whispered.

Shaye and I continued to crawl through the ventilation system to the right as Ruger crawled into the maintenance hall. He threw the bag over his shoulder and tip toed down the hall, being extra careful not to alert anyone. It didn't take to long for Shaye and I reach the engineering lock up. The vent was located in the middle of the room and we could see everything happening inside the room. Shaye crawled up beside me peered through the slits on the vent cover. The vent was located in the ceiling and door needs an access card from authorized personnel to open.

"Okay, there are three people in the room right now… we need the access card from one and a clear path to the basement" Shaye whispered.

"We can wait until two of them leave the room then take the access card of the last one… why the basement?" I whispered.

"You'll see" she said, slowly lifting the vent cover up and moving it out of the way.

I looked at my watch and pointed to the time. We didn't have the time to wait for two of them to leave. Luckily one of them left the room while we were talking. Shaye didn't waste any time, when it came to jumping down into the middle of the room. I did a somersault while holding onto the edge of the opening and dropped into the room, after her. She was already wrestling with one guy as the other wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. I creeped up behind him, throwing him into a head lock. He gasped for air as he slowly lost consciousness and dropped to the ground.

"Got the access" Shaye said.

"Good, I've got the engine" I said.

The engine was in a glass case on a cart with six slightly big wheels. Shaye ran over to the door. She swiped the access card and glanced over to the break schedules.

"The entire team is on their way back; we have to go" she said.

I grabbed the cart and pushed toward the door. Shaye pulled the door open and cart rolled out, hitting the wall on the other side of the horizontal hallway. We ran out after it, grabbing hold and running toward the elevator. Shaye was tapping the button in a panic as the engineering team was approaching the corner on the other side of the hallway. She started to slap the button as the team got closer. The doors finally opened and we pushed the engine inside. Shaye had begun to attack the button to go down.

"Hey!" a man on the engineering team yelled.

"Crap" I said, joining Shaye in attacking the button.

The lead engineer on the team came running at the elevator. Shaye went into a panic as he was getting closer to the doors. I pulled the engine to the back of the elevator and stood in front of it. My fist out, prepared for a fight. He was inches away from the doors before they started to close. He threw his body in-between them and held the doors open with both his hands as the other members of his team started to run after him. Shaye tried to push him out, but he wouldn't budge. I grabbed Shaye, pulling her back before clenching my fist and punching him in the nose. He released the doors and stumbled back in shock. The doors closed and the elevator started to move.

"You punched him… good one" Shaye said.

"Thanks" I said.

"How does your hand feel?" Shaye asked.

"Like something cracked" I said.

We stood in silence as the elevator went down. The speakers were damaged and the music was muffled to the point that is was just a random noise. It felt like we were waiting hours until we reached the basement. Shaye and I grabbed the cart and prepared to bull doze through people when the doors opened. The doors opened and we ran. We ran for a few second before we realized the basement was completely empty of life. But there was an enormous amount of dust and sand. Shaye took the lead. She walked over to the very back of the large room, near the hanger doors. We walked over to large object covered by an extra-large tarp. She walked up to it, gripping the tarp and pulling it off. The tarp fluttered in the air like a feather from a Peakia bird.

"No way, is that what I think it is?" I said.

"Yep, I thought it would be easier to transport the engine with a speeder car instead of the bikes" she said.

"Do you know how to drive it?" I asked.

"No, but if anyone can figure it out, it would be you" she said.

We tried to load the engine into the back seat, but it was to heavy for us to lift. Shaye ran over to the trunk and pulled out a wrench from the make shift, on the go repair kit. She tossed it over to me. I held over my head with both hands and brought it down with all my strength. It came down cracking the glass case. Hitting it again, the glass shattered and we were finally able to get the engine in the back seat. I hoped in the driver's seat as Shaye ran over to the controls to the hanger doors. She opened the large thick metal doors and waited, just a few steps outside as I taught myself the how to turn on the vehicle. After flipping three switches beside the steering wheel the vehicle finally roared to life. Pressing down on the gas petal the vehicle dashed forward out the door. slamming on the breaks, it came to a quick stop. Shaye closed the hanger doors and ran up to where the vehicle had stopped. She hoped into the passenger seat beside me while trying to caught her breath.

"Why did you go so far?" she asked.

"I'm so sorry, the controls are bit finicky… you might want to put your seat belt on" I said while securing my seat belt.

She did the same. I placed my hands back on the steering wheel and gently pressed down on the gas petal. The vehicle dashed forward with incredible speed.