Rising Dawn (Willy Wonka X OC)

The Break-In

"What are those?" Will asks, moving to walk around the grave and stand beside me. I rise from the crouch and dump the peanut shells into his palm. "Peanut shells?"

"Yeah, and who do we personally know that deals in nuts?" I prompt.

"Rupert Salt..." He looks down at the shells in his hand and then at me, realization dawning on his face. "We need to go home."

I nod quickly and lead the way into the elevator. Will gets in and is awkwardly silent for a few minutes before clearing his throat and forcing himself to look at me.

"Getting home...it's going to be a bit more difficult than walking in through the front door."

"What do you mean?" I ask absentmindedly as the world soars by underneath us.

"It's on lockdown," he admits.

I furrow my brow and turn to him. "What?"

Lockdown? What does that mean? Did he have Wilbur lock all the doors? The elevator doesn't even need to go through a door. There are openings all over the factory for it, the least of which I would call a door.

"I'll explain when we get there." Will sighs and refocuses on directing us over the city. "It'll be easier if you just see it."

And see it I did. It was hard to miss to be honest. The factory definitely wasn't the way we left it. There were neatly weled sheets of metal encasing the entire structure within the walls with no noticeable openings.

My mouth falls open, and I look at Will with wide eyes. He purses his lips and nods slowly.

"What did you do?" I ask him.

"It was a security measure that I put in place many years ago in the event there was an intruder," he begins to explain, setting us down in the vast yard in front of the encased factory.

"And you're counting cops as intruders?" I step out of the elevator and gaze up at the impossible structure.

It's probably hit the news already, I saw a couple news vans outside the walled in property. I turn to look at the front gate. Slats have slid into place over the gaps so no one can see in. That wouldn't stop anyone from using a ladder to climb it and hop over the walls or gate. I look at the tops of the walls, expecting to see cameras or people there, but there's nothing. No, not nothing. I squint and see a slight shimmer of blue that disappears in the light. I move my eyes straight up and can barely see a lattice made of thin wire, electricity sparking along the wires.

"There's an almost invisible opening just big enough for the elevator and it couldn't conduct since we weren't touching the ground," Will answers the unspoken question on my lips. "The system was designed to keep everyone out."

"So why did it let the police in? How did they open the front gate anyway? It's locked." I pick up the bag with my personal items and start walking toward the place where the for-all-intents-and-purposes front door used to be.

Will grabs his bag and jaunts after me. "Someone inside must have let them in. My father knows about the security cameras, he probably saw the police and opened the gate for them. The security lockdown system only goes off after the intruders have left to prevent reentry. What good would a security system be if it trapped the intruders inside with us? It's more effective after they've left the property."

"I guess that makes sense. A bit extreme, but it makes sense."

"Yes, well, of course, when I designed it, I assumed I'd be inside when the lockdown went off," he explains. "I never imagined I'd have to scale the side of my own factory and climb to a possible entry point in order to get it."