Hide and seek has always gotten my adrenaline pumping. Now, I feel as if I’ve had five double shot espressos.

The announcement had echoed around the courtyard. People paused, pulling out their earbuds and looking at the sky as if the voice had come from the heavens. I snorted at their foolishness.

Oh well. If there was anything I knew as a pro hide-and-seeker, it was that a head start was always an advantage you wanted to take. I hurdled a flower boz and began weaving through pillars, searching for the nearest entrance to the facility.

My movements caused a wildfire of chain reactions. People began flying around frantically, as if the information was finally processing in their brains.

I finally found the door, my hand closing around the latch. I slipped inside, shutting the door quickly behind me with a snap. In this game, every man was for themselves. Nobody would be hiding with me.

I ran down the hallway, my sneakers squeaking on the tiled floors as I took sharp corners. I could hear other people, occasionally, moving around in the building as they looked for the best spot.

My eyes searched the area around me as I ran, studying every possible hiding place. I examined every nook and cranny, until I found myself in one of the drab, abandoned science labs of the facility.

It was unassuming, situated in the left wing. Nobody was inside. I walked in, my gaze immediately locked onto the wooden beams in the high ceiling.

Without hesitation, I scaled the brick wall, using the shoddy building job to my advantage. Uneven bricks of different shapes and sizes provided my foot and hand holds.

I felt a lot like some version of Tarzan, crawling up the wall like a spider and then hoisting myself onto the center beam. Once I was comfortably situated on top of it, I inched my way along it to the middle.

From there, I stepped onto another of the beams. I walked its length to the wall on my left, where a broken vent was inlaid. With a good old kick, the cover came free. I slipped inside and shut it as well as I could behind me, watching the room through the slanted gaps.

Finally with a chance to catch my breath, I came to the reality of my situation. I was enclosed in a small metal vent, my heavy breaths taking up all the oxygen around me. A sheen of sweat covered my forehead and my heart was pumping. I was overcome by that all too familiar feeling you got right when you found the perfect hiding spot during hide and seek. The pains of the bladder.

“3…2…1,” the voice said. He must’ve been talking through the speakers.

“Ready or not, here I come.”