~~~~~

"I will now explain our battle plan."

We both looked at him and nodded.

He switched one of the big monitors to the floor plan of Sevco. "So, you see this floor plan?" He used a red laser pointer and pointed towards one of the smaller displays to his right. "Currently, there are 3 groups of pawns in Sevco. Hoots[1], BoS[2], L2[3]. Let's give these groups of soldiers a name: Alpha, Beta and Gamma."

He pointed towards Hoots. "After you guys left, Alpha entered Hoots. Seeing that patch of blooded-cotton on the floor, they are now cautious of their surroundings."

He pointed towards L2. "As you can see, Gamma stayed at L2 even though Alpha discovered you guys' presence. What does this mean? Alpha didn't report it even though Gamma is so close to their location."

"But why?" I asked.

"That's why they are 'pawns'. They want the achievement for themselves."

I looked at Rose and she looked back at me with a weird smile on her face that shows 'I don't get it'.

"Now look at Beta. The last time I saw them, they were heading into BoS. No idea what they're doing but that's irrelevant. What's important is that they are all separated."

He swirled around in his chair and turned off his laser pointer.

"Now, I want 'you' to go into Hoots with this," he said pointing at me with an object.

The object was slightly round with what looked like a stand. He unscrewed the stand and passed the object to me. The object was cold but smooth. Probably something made of metal. I took the object and hovered it in the air facing the monitor. Oval shape with silver mesh-like structure, it was a microphone.

What am I supposed to do with this? Go in and smack those soldiers in the head?

"Erm... how's this gonna help us escape?" Rose asked.

"Escape? No, no, no..." he stated while shaking his head. "We gonna start a 'wildfire'."

He smirked.

"I will guide you into hoots by using this walkie talkie[5] and this earpiece. Now then, you will create a diversion and smoke them out of Sevco. Take these and go."

He handed them to me.

I was dumbfounded. This kid can analyse the situation and come up with a suitable judgement and even an approach to the dilemma in mere... seconds?

As he was pushing me out of the room, Rose spoke up, "Hey! Hey! You can't do this!" She held onto my arm. "It's too dangerous! They have guns!"

"Don't worry my lady," he said with a slightly laughing tone. "He will be fine with my guidance. Just so you know, I need to get out of here as well and I won't give him a dangerous task if it means my own doom."

"Yeah... it's alright." I agreed with him. He's a smart kid. Although I've not met him for long, his knowledge exceeded our expectations already. He's also slightly... creepy as if there's a hidden monster within him. He didn't mention how we were going to escape but I guess... it should be fine right?

Rose slightly loosened her grip and after a brief hesitation, she let go.

"Oh! Almost forgot" the kid said as he pulled a breathing apparatus out of the drawer. "You won't survive without this," he laughed.

I looked at him in the eyes while gripping on to the breathing apparatus tightly. Did he purposely not give this to me earlier or did he really forget? I can't see through him at all.

I walked out of the room and headed back to where we came from.

~~~~~

"Good job," I heard the kid say through the earpiece. "Now wear the mask and jump into the vents."

I did as I was told and approached the vents. Pulling the vents didn't work, one of the screws were still intact.

"Damn it, I can't open it!" I shouted. "Hey kid! One of the screws is keeping it from opening!" I transmitted over the earpiece.

"...shit."

The kid walks around in circles panicking. "Shit, shit, shit! How can I forget something like this... the vents are held together by screws..." he said to himself.

"Erm...? Hey? What are you doing?" Rose asked. "He's stuck out there! Quick give him your next instructions!"

She held on to both the side of his shoulders stopping him from moving. "Hey! I said he's in danger!!!" she exclaimed shaking him ferociously.

"What to do now!?"

The kid looked at CCTV 18, the emergency equipment room where he got the breathing apparatus.

~~~~~

The kid grabbed the breathing apparatus next to the tools kit. He looked at the kit but dismissed it afterwards and headed to the security room.

~~~~~

She turned and looked at the CCTV showing Hoots.

"RAYYYY!!!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

* * *

I panicked and looked at the vents again and again for a way to open it but suddenly, I heard a cracking noise in the mist of the loud fire. The noise got stronger and as I looked up, I realised what it was; the ceiling was starting to cave in.

The strings holding the lights up high started to snap and the lights dangling above made squeaky noises. It swayed sideways and fell towards the group in front of me.

I leaped away from the vents towards the shelf and covered the front of my body with my bag.

The long rectangular lights smashed against the vents and glass shards exploded everywhere.

Afterwards, the pipes in the ceiling followed it's trajectory falling towards the vents.

A moment later, I approached the vents again but this time, I noticed the crooked edge of the vent.

I searched around to see if anything could fit in to the gap.

"Lucky fucking me," I shouted while picking up the L-shaped pipe that fell a moment ago; I shoved it into the gap. Using it as a crowbar, I applied a torque[6] to it and managed to break the screw opening the vents.

I immediately jumped into the vents and ran towards the security room still holding the pipe.

"I guess all those engineering lesson saved my life after all. Medical Engineering for the win!" I screamed while running down the vent.

Surprisingly, the vents fit my height perfectly, the width was quite wide as well. The vents were about 2 metres by 2 metres in cross-sectional area.

"Hey... *buzz* R... *buzz* ...can *buzz* ...hear me?" I heard through the earpiece.

"Yes!"

"Good. *buzz* co... *buzz* ...ick."

I think he said, "come quick."

"On my way!"

* * *

After passing a couple of vents I finally reached the security room. As I excepted, the screws are holding it together here.

"You're back!" Rose said with a shaky voice.

I looked through my mask, through the vents and saw her face. A teardrop fell down the side of her face as she covers her mouth tightly.

"I guess not yet until I break this vent," I said with a laughing tone.

I started to bash the pipe against the vent bending the middle but fortunately, it loosened the screws and I was able to push the vent away.

Rose jumped at me and hugged me tightly.

"You... scared me." She looked at me. "You were in danger and... and..."

"It's alright now, I'm fine, don't worry." I told her while patting her head. She's acting strange. I... only saved her in the accommodation by chance but... am I missing something here?

Rose looked at the kid with a menacing look.

"Hey kid."

"Stop calling me a kid, I have a name you know?" he said rhetorically. "I'm Sam."

"Then... Sam. Why didn't you tell us earlier about the vents?"

"... I... erm..." Sam began to panic and his voice started to sound squeaky. His eyes began to water and he turned away wiping his tears.

"Rose, I'm okay now don't worry. I'm sure Sam didn't do it on purpose. Let's get out of here first. The fire's spreading fast. Look at the vent."

A bit of smoke started leaking out of it.

I took Sam's hand and we headed out the busted doors.

*****

[1] 'Hoots' a sub-section of Sevco that's basically a grocery store with a pharmacy section.

[2] 'BoS' is the 'Bank of Sevco'.

[3] 'L2' a sub-section of Sevco that sells clothes, shoes and other wearable outfits.

[4] 'Playable' a sub-section of Sevco that sells games and you can play Augmented Reality games on-site.

[5] 'Walkie talkie' is a small device used for communication, about the size of a smartphone but much thicker.

[6] 'torque' is when pushing down at one end makes the other end go up like a twisting/lifting effect.