Chapter 61: Onward and Upward

~ Takyle stood biting her lip and staring up at the hatch in the ceiling.

"Well hell. What are we supposed to do now?

Andrew lay still on the floor, studying the rest of the room. Jaden finished writing down a description of the artifacts that they had cleaned in a log book that he assumed was there for cataloging.

"Are we going to finish up here or move on? Votes?" asked Takyle. Jaden set down the log and joined Takyle beside the second table.

"Well maybe the least we could do before we decide is hop up there and take a look at what's on the other side of that door," he said.

"Good suggestion, Jay," said Andrew. "My vote is for doing that." Jaden nodded and picked up four goblets, moving them to the first table. Takyle gathered the remaining few artifacts from the second table and cleared them out of the way. Jaden slipped his pack off, jumped up on the table and stood to slide the panel above his head up and to the side. He placed his hands on the lip of the roughly two by two foot opening, testing its strength. He hoisted himself up far enough to look around, then dropped back to the table.

"Just looks like a crawl space. It's a couple feet high, maybe two, two and a half feet wide. Wooden panels, insulation, exposed beams in a couple of places."

"Shall we take it?" asked Takyle. Jaden knelt on the table, looking back and forth between Takyle and Andrew, who was still on the ground. No one said anything, so Jaden finally broke the silence.

"I don't like the lady. Let's go." Andrew sat up.

"Well I'm not opposed to doing that, but I can tell you one thing." A soft groan escaped his lips as he stood."I'm not going to be able to pull myself up into there like Jaden just did."

"What if we stacked a chair on top of the table?" asked Jaden.

"Yeah, that might do the trick, but there are no chairs in here."

"I'm sure one of the other rooms on this hall has a chair in it," offered Takyle. Jaden jumped down from the table.

"I'll find one." He moved to the door and opened it a crack, peering out into the hall. Seeing no one, he slipped out and and strode over to the next door on the hall. He listened at it for a moment, heard nothing and so tried the knob. It was unlocked and the door opened silently. The room looked to be some sort of bedroom suite and next to one of the windows were two heavy easy chairs. Jaden forwent those ones and instead took the small chair from in front of a vanity which was a good deal more compact.

After he got it back into the room he lifted it up and set it on top of the table.

"How's that Andy, think it'll work?"

"Yeah, I think it will. Shall we go then?" Takyle stepped over next to Andrew and touched his hand. He gazed down into her eyes.

"I'll only ask you this one more time Andrew, I promise. Are you sure want to go on with this?" He bent his head and pressed a light kiss to her temple.

"Yes babe, I'm sure. Let's not lose this now," he murmured. He picked up his pack and began to put it on.

"Might as well not, Andrew," advised Jaden. "The space is small enough that we'll need to go single file and push our packs in front of us. Want me to take point?" The question was directed at Takyle. She nodded.

"Yeah. Andrew, you go after Jaden and I'll take last." Andrew smiled a little.

"So you guys can protect me?" Takyle began to open her mouth to respond but Andrew held up a hand. "No, it's ok. I appreciate it. I actually really do... Let's get this show on the road."

Takyle handed Jaden his own pack from the ground and he hoisted it up and pushed it through the opening. He gave Andrew a hand up onto the table and then pulled himself through the trapdoor. Once in the narrow passage he actually managed to get himself turned around to take Andrew's pack from him, and help to pull him up.

"Hey, thanks," said Andrew. The two of them edged further up the passage to give Takyle room to crawl in behind them. Once she had, she slid the hatch panel back into place.

"I'm not sure why you did that," said Jaden. "The chair on top of the table right underneath the trap door is kind of a dead give away, isn't it?"

"Yeah, well when you put it that way I'm not sure why I did it either," agreed Takyle. "Let's move out." ~