The Program [Book Two of The Test]

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Really?" The way John's face lit up with hope made me smile brighter for a moment.

I nodded again. "And she also said the plan will work. But we're gonna have to kiss."

"What, just shoot me now then." 

"You're a real jerk."

"Freak." John shot back.

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"Okay, let's revive this thing. I wanna go home." I snapped my fingers.

"Doing that isn't going to make me anymore excited about this. Lexi." John snarled.

I stared blank faced at him. "John, I already said we could try it your way first. We have to kiss but we do both have to at least hold hands and disrupt at the same time. If that doesn't work then you know what plan two is."

"Again, not making me any less nervous." He growled.

"Give me your hand." I demanded him. He didn't listen so I force-grabbed it. "Now, close your eyes. And don't worry about looking like an idiot or something, trust me, you already are one."

"Hey!"

"Eyes closed," I said again. He huffed as I too closed my eyes. "Okay, now focus on a thought. Mine is sad memories so just find what triggers your disrupting power and go with it. Stay calm and focus on just it. I'm going to quit talking and focus now."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Shut up." I snapped.

My thoughts ran wild a minute later. Memories of Jack, all he had to undergo.

That dream about the fire was playing in my mind and I couldn't get it to stop. I saw him, little boy, happy with his parents. Then, the fire was everywhere and engulfing everything. Jack's crying and I can't help, i'm too small and helpless. It's as if the dream is literally happening again, me wanting to tear my eyes out as I see it.

Then, I feel it. A tear rolling down my cheek. John is squeezing my hands now I can practically hear the pain from him.

But in a minute it's all over. I'm afraid to open my eyes and see nothing has changed. But when I do open them, the sky is blue, the grass the vibrant. Everything looks alive.

Everything is alive.

I wipe the tear from my cheek and suddenly i'm bent over, laying on my side in pain. Everything hurts and something tells me it's because we just disrupted something that again was suicide on both our parts.

"We did it." I said. "I'm in pain, but we did it."

John grunted and fell to the ground too. "Yep, dang terrific."

"Sorry," I apologized. "First time hurts the worst if it helps at all."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He grumbled. "Now we aren't gonna die but we need to keep going or Reid will use this moment to his advantage. We aren't gonna die now, so we need to shut down the test now."

And John instantly tried to, only for his to fall over in pain again.

But one more thing, no matter what you think, you'll have to kiss John tomorrow there's no way around it, it's the only way it will work. Do you understand?

Annie's words came at the right time. I tried, for the sake of John and me both, I tried to make it not come to this. I turned to him, grabbing his hand and making him stop. We revived it by working together instead of connecting. But now both of us were weak after putting our all into it. Only now were we slowly reviving because the test was.

That was the combination. Us dying plus test dying equals death. Us reviving the test so it would revive us too, that equaled life as long as we gained enough strength to shut it down completely afterward. Or we could stop kidding ourselves and end the pain once and for all now. Plus, who say we wouldn't have to kiss later anyway?

But my head was cloudy, and pounding hard. My hand was still in John's and he too was wincing from the pain. "We don't have to do this, Lexi."

"You don't know how hard it was to shut it down the first time, John." I was crying, sobbing. I knew I was but I didn't feel it. "John, I don't want to do it either. But Natalie told Annie-"

"Oh yeah," He shot back. "She might be wrong."

I was going to say more. But it was no use. "The test isn't reviving itself fast enough, John. It's because we did everything we could to get around connecting when we brought it back to life. If we had done it right, we wouldn't be so weak right now."

"You don't understand, Lexi." As he said it, the shaking of trees I could hear and claws clashing with bark. Monsters were now being revived. "He loves you so much. I can't do that to him again."

I knew he was talking about Jack. "And I love him too." I croaked out. "I know he'll forgive you for this. Because, John, if we don't get out of here, not only will we die, everyone else will still be in danger too and we won't be able to help get them out of it. Don't you see, Reid wanted us to revive the test the way we did it. And we're idiots for doing it that way. He wants us to die in here so this place is up and running for more tests. We are the only people that could fix the program, and now we have."

"Lexi." He pouted.

"People are going to be sent back in here. Whether Annie told me that or not," I heard growling near by. "Whether Natalie told her to tell me that or not, we're not stupid, not that stupid. Reid will never stop."

"So, what you're saying is," He panted, sweat dipping down his forehead and a small smile showing on his face. "we're gonna save humanity?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Come on, John. Let's save the world."

John leaned in and so did I. 

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Triple update today because I wanted to treat you guys and because I did this thing where I forced myself to write and worked out the kinks later. 

Please vote and comment.

(not proofread fully)

This is update 1/3