Hi there. I don't know if anyone in the Newsies fandom still remembers this story, because it hasn't been updated in... I guess it must be about three years now. Anyway, it was my beloved baby brother Charlie Bird's request that I write some more of this story as his 15th birthday present. Happy birthday, Charlie Bird. You're my favorite dood ever, even if you are getting unforgiveably old. (Incidentally, everybody should go read his story "Right Hand Man," which I have just read myself and which is awesome.) I've spent a few hours in the last couple of weeks on this, so I have a few short chapters in reserve, which will be posted over the next few days as I clean them up. After that, we'll see how far I can go before I wander off again... I'm kind of flakey like that...
So yeah. Comment, flames, requests, etc can go in the reviews or you can send them to me at Enjoy.
Jack found himself carried along in the tide of bodies, his eyes fixed on the back of Spot's head as it appeared and disappeared at the front of the roaring crowd. Something was niggling at his mind, through the rush of excitement that threatened to engulf all of his conscious thought...
Aha. That was it.
He gave a final mighty push through the crowd of bodies and reached Spot's side. Spot looked up as Jack crashed into him and grabbed Jack's shoulders, shaking him, clapping him on the back, grinning and yelling like a madman, but no words that Jack could make out above the din.
"We have to get to Snyder's office!" Jack roared, trying to make himself heard. "We're headed towards the gates, but we don't have the key!"
"WHAT?"
Jack gave up on complete sentences, leaned forward and howled in Spot's ear. "THE KEY!"
"Oh... yeah, good thought." Spot half-turned and looked over his shoulder at the hallway packed with shouting, mob-mad boys. A slight look of bewilderment passed across his face as it became apparent to him that, far from being the leaders of this crowd, he and Jack were being forcibly carried by it, and in the wrong direction. If they tried to turn around now and head in the direction of Snyder's office, they would be trampled.
Under other circumstances Jack would have had a good laugh at Spot's confusion, but there were more important things to be done. As they reached the next hallway Jack grabbed Spot by the collar and pulled him off to one side.
"This way, I know a short cut!"
They sped off together down the route that Jack had learned in his second week at the Refuge when he had been younger and stupider and inclined to leave dead mice on Snyder's desk just to prove that he could. He'd cut that out when he'd gotten caught and beaten for the third consecutive time, and it had been a while since he'd used the route.
They ran down two corridors and tumbled down a flight of stairs before bursting through a set of swining doors. Then Spot slowed up, looking at Jack angrily.
"This is the kitchen, stupid! Now we're two flights down from Snyder's office! What the hell are you playin' at?"
"You'll see," said Jack. Opening a cabinet in the wall next to them, he again grabbed Spot by the collar and shoved him onto the old dumbwaiter. Then he hopped on himself and began hauling at the ropes.
Spot caught on and began to laugh. "How come you never told me about this?"
"A guy's gotta have some secrets. Didn't want you stealin' all my best ideas. 'Sides, usually there's people guarding the kitchen, but I was bettin' they all heard the noise about ten minutes back an' went runnin' for the hills."
Spot laughed happily and lent him a hand with the ropes.
The platform on which they knelt creaked dangerously as they pulled themselves upward, and Jack had a sudden moment of fear as it occured to him that the old dumbwaiter was carrying about three times as much weight as it was probably designed for. He gulped nervously, but then glanced upward and saw, about six feet above them, the rectangle of light outlining the opening to Snyder's office. Spot saw it too, and began pulling harder.
In a matter of seconds they had hurled themselves against the inside of the clost door, and were tumbling out onto the floor of Snyder's office.
