A Slice of 'The Gap'
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“...I dropped the tape.”
Whit blinked once, twice, face growing redder each time. “What?”
“In the ocean! I dropped the tape!” Skipper frowned. “I’m sorry, I just, I panicked! I saw the flashlights and I wasn’t thinking—”
“No—No, just—” Whit sighed, “You know what? It’s fine, it’s not like we can’t go back and get it, we’ve left food here before...it’ll be fine.”
Skipper looked unconvinced. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” Whit pointed at Skipper’s head. “I’m more worried about you bleeding out. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“How are we going to get out of here? The security guy saw me—they’re probably looking for us,” Skipper rubbed his eyes.
,“...We’ll just have to wait, I guess?”
Sometimes, Skipper hated when Whit was right.
It was hours before there was a decent gap. They occupied their name playing I-Spy with the various props and ‘First to Spot someone wearing THIS color wins’ as carefully as they could. But they were getting irritated, to the point where Whit was considering just going for it and hope no other rider said
anything. But almost as if the ride heard his thoughts, there was a long gap and they ran for it.
The ride ran like normal, in order. As they approached the Sea Base scene, Skip looked carefully at the pile of tools next to the tinkering boyfriend. “...Whit, the tape’s gone...”
Whit tensed but sighed. “They probably chucked it, or something...or maybe it didn’t fall there.”
“No, dude, it was there. I know it was,” Skipper insisted.
The rest of the ride was tense. Not just worry about the lights suddenly going on and there being a dozen red lasers aimed at their chests, but also there was something still off about the grandmother animatronic.
“...She’s looking at us.”
Whit wanted to insist that she was looking at all the riders, as she should. But it was the final scene, a birthday party, and all other animatronic eyes were on the birthday boy. “We’re paranoid, man. That’s all.”
—Ipper! W—It!
“...P-Paranoid. Sure...”
As they stepped off the ride, they still were not met with resistance, even with the girl from the boarding area giving them dirty looks as they walked away. They had made it.