A Stroke Of Originality

“Victor, do you trust me or what?” Tommy had his hands up pleading with me.

I took a deep breath not knowing if I should trust him or not. Our last job he nearly got me caught because of the inaccuracies of his plans.

“Just give me the map!” I fussed back at him.

I could hear him smack it on the ground forcibly, but I didn’t say anything I just felt around and reached for the map instead. Even though Tommy and I fussed a lot, we worked well as a team. He made up for my shortcomings of being blind by 3D rendering everything that we would possibly break into.

I felt around on the map one last time before standing up and getting ready to make my jump into the pipe system of The Dragons Eye.

“I’m ready,” I said as I turned my head towards the direction I thought Tommy was standing.

“It’s about time!” Tommy had excitement in his voice as he walked me toward the jump point.

“Should I be worried that you’re the excited one and not me?” I had to ask.

Tommy ignored me as he kept the grin on his face, and continued to walk me to the jumping point. 

“You shouldn’t be worried at all,” Tommy mumbled under his breath.

As I turned to as turned around to address him, I was pushed over the dropping point falling quicker than expect into the pipe system. While falling, I could hear Tommy’s laugh getting distant. What an asshole I thought as I suddenly impacted the cold hard steel of the pipes. I prepped for this for weeks, and now it was time to execute. I felt around on the walls of the pipes and counted my steps. I needed to go four hundred and fifty steps until I reached the vent that would let me descend into the museum. At step three hundred I felt what appeared to be appeared to be a vent. 

“Tommy, somethings not right. I’m at step three hundred, and I feel a vent already.” I radioed through my ear comm. 

“Whatever, just drop down I might have been off a few steps.” Tommy came in.

I sighed. Something didn’t sit right with me, but there was no going back, so it was now or never. I kicked the vent just about as hard as I could three times before it opened. I felt around sizing up the hole of the vent before I jumped down bending my knees preparing for impact. 

“Ow!,” I muttered as I rolled and smacked my knee on something that wobbled.

I quickly recovered reaching out for the wobbling item trying to catch it. As I finally grabbed hold of it, it appeared to be some kind of stand. It was cumbersome as I strained myself to make it stand upright. I began walking away to feel around and gather my place when something fell causing a loud shatter. 

“What was that?” Tommy came through almost immediately after the shatter.

“Not like I can see what it was!” I sarcastically replied back.

“Smart ass.” Tommy snapped back.

When I finally got a feel for the room I heard someone open a nearby door. I reached around as fast as I could and hid in between what should have been two covered pillars if our rendering served me right.

“Are you really going to act like you can’t see me staring at you?” A stern voice thundered.

My heart began beating intensely. I had to make a move, and it had to be now. 

“Your render better be right Tommy!” I snapped through the ear comm.

“It is! Grab and go I’m monitoring you!” Tommy snapped back.

I pushed off the wall hard running towards the voice trying to count steps, so I don’t run into anything.

“Stop!” The voice shouted a final warning.

That gave me his last indication on where the man was as I did a spinning jump kick knocking the security guard to the ground. Still counting my steps, I busted through a door which caused the alarm to go off.

“Shit!” I shouted as I got closer the artifact.

Finally, in the room of the artifact, I grabbed it from its pillar. I could hear the nearby doors closing thanks to the alarm locking everything down. I made a run for it sliding for where I thought the door would be, but I slid into a wall nearly knocking the wind out of my body. I got up as quick as I could and did another slide on where I thought the exit would be. This time I smacked the closing gate. Improvising was the only way I was going to get out of here. I listened as hard as I could to all the closing gates, and I heard one just beginning to close, so I ran towards it. Reaching around as I ran I tripped and fell out of a window tumbling down a hill and getting caught on something. 

“I’m stuck, but I’m out,” I told Tommy.

“Gotcha location, I’m on my way. Just stay put.” Tommy said to me as if I was going anywhere.

When Tommy arrived at my location, he burst into laughter.

“What’s funny?” I asked kind of annoyed.

“You should see yourself.” Tommy continued. “Good job on getting the artifact.”

 

Happy New Years Everyone!!!

I begin writing this to get out of my writing funk. I know it has been a while since posting a flash fiction, but I am going to do more this year from here on out. Hope everyone likes it!