Lobster Food Inc.

He nodded, straightening himself. "You're right. They're bound to come see us soon. I'm surprised they're not here yet, actually."

Looking at a particularly sharp edge of the ice, and pricked himself, drawing blood again. He was definitely going to get more of those gloves, the first thing after eating. Working on a circle on the ice, it took seconds to transmute a path into a staircase with big steps.

"Best I can do when I'm hungry."

"It's perfect." Dwyrin smiled, happy to have a way out of the ice-hole, and began the climb as quickly as she could without slipping.

They got to the top unscathed. Before the final few steps, she poked her head above floor level to make sure no one was in the hall, then stepped onto solid ground again. She turned and looked at Zane. "Do you want to go find our stuff before we go to get what we came for?? Or is that stuff forfeit??"

"I think we should go find our things," he said a second or two of thinking. "The blueprint's there, considering that they haven't taken it. I'm just not sure I like the quietness in this place right now."

"Agreed," she said with a short nod, then propelled herself across the top of the water Zane had frozen. He's right. I feel like we should be running. Or like there should be alarms...Something...

Dwyrin wondered aloud, "Before we were detained after the last bout of quiet, you were shutting systems down. How far did you get?? And where are we headed from here??"

"About halfway," he replied and started walking, gesturing for her to follow. "But that shouldn't have completely disabled the whole system. I'd imagine some of the major functions. But this", he referred to the silence of the area, noticing a few items heaped on the ground carelessly. "-does not make sense. Also, the fact that the lights are on and they were able to operate our previous prison only shows that the system is still working, somehow."

Zane pocketed his hands, trying to remember the blueprint and the possible places their things could be in. "This place looks deserted. Why."

Not too far... Dwyrin imagined their confiscated things must be somewhere nearby. Various other prisons had given her that impression, so she saw no reason to abandon that line of ideas, now.

"They probably noticed your tampering - since they caught us," She said in an undertone. "But it's obvious one or two of the systems is still messed up. Otherwise I'm not sure we would have been able to get out."

"Wouldn't it make more sense if we see them going around the whole place, trying to fix the system rather than deserting it?" he said, musing. "And if I were in their place, I'd at least make sure to leave a guard or two to the perpetrators especially since the system is a bit messed up. Like you said, it's because of that that we were able to get out."

"Maybe they are fixing it," she suggested, before finishing weakly "from one room...and it's taking all their manpower??"

Out of ideas, Dwyrin glanced at Zane and shrugged, as they rounded the first corner in the hallway.

"Let's hope so," he said, still waking and keeping an eye out of anything that moves - anyone, really, just to kill the growing bad feeling in him. "We'd be lucky if that's so. And I'm usually a lucky man but I don't want to take chances. Do you?"

"Ha! As if. I like to leave things up to skill." Dwyrin stopped to look around for a moment and get her bearings, but to no avail. She would have to guess. "Do you know why I don't gamble?? I never win." As if to demonstrate her point, the door she had chosen to open - even though it looked like a perfectly normal, inside door - opened up to expose a side lot of some sort. Outside.

"Well," he looked out. "That is a lucky thing, Dwy," he couldn't help but grin. "At least we know one more way out aside from the front entrance and the back. We got one side now."

He took a step forward, looking around. Outside was all green grass. At a distance, low fences. Beyond that, more grass and the outline of trees.

It was so green outside. And it smelled different than the confines of the building. Holding the door open, Dwyrin took a moment to observe the surrounding grounds. It was nice, actually. Made you think of a place you would have a picnic near...If it wasn't for the fact that the people here would just as soon kill me as feed me.

"Now that we know another way out, why don't we carry on??"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Zane turned to walk and was met with silence still. He shrugged off the annoying feeling that something terribly wrong was going on because it was kind of obvious anyway. He eventually saw a door he remembered entering before.

"That's it, right??" Dwyrin murmured, somewhat unsure - all the doors looked the same! The one in front of them was familiar. "Or maybe...no." She threw a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure she hadn't missed anything.

Come to think of it, they hadn't gone anywhere helpful. Any door they had been through before wasn't going to lead them to where they needed to be now, was it??

"Shall we travel the path unknown??" she asked, dubiously.

"It does look familiar," he nodded at it and turned to the other doors across the hall. "But I can see what you're thinking. The architect of this building sure got lazy."

He considered it. But it was their best bet. "Better than aimlessly wandering around, I guess." Zane clutched the door knob and tried to hear anything from their side. Not a sound escaped from the other side. With a resigned sigh, he opened the door, surprised at how light it was.

A stairwell. How anticlimactic.

After a moment of listening to make sure there really wasn't anyone lurking around, Dwyrin stuck her hands in her pockets and looked down one set up stairs and up the other. They both turned after a small flight, presumably to another set.

"We might cover more ground if we split up for a bit. One of us could go down a floor while the other goes up??"

He nodded. "Dibs on going down," he said. "Water's likely down there, if there's any."

He looked up, trying to see where the staircase led to but he only saw more flights of stairs. "Be careful and good luck."