ᴏᴜʀ sᴏᴄɪᴇᴛʏ| ʜ. ʙɪɴɢʜᴀᴍ

fifteen

The waiting room was full that day, not with patients but with friends, carers of Effie, people who only wanted the best for her and most definitely people who wanted to see her wake up one more time. "How long has it been?" Harry asks, his voice drained of emotion. "Five minutes." Kelly checked the watch on her wrist. "Just be patient, let him figure this out."

It had been hours since Effie passed out, the strangest part was no one could identify the problem, Harry had to have faith in Gordie, faith that he was really trying to have. He slapped his knees as he stood up, heading off on his journey to pace the room once again. Kelly only watched, nothing she said would ease him anyways.

A slam on the door caught both of their attention. They looked from the door, to each other, and to the door once again. Kelly instantly rose from her seat, running to the glass door and pulling it open. There stood Millie, a class mate of theirs, draped over her shoulder was Alex, her best friend, completely unconscious and in the exact same state as Effie. "Help!" Millie cried out, her voice cracking from complete fear. Both Harry and Kelly ran to her side to help carry the boy. "I-I don't know what happened...he-he just." She broke down crying, unable to comprehend the situation.

"Please tell me he's going to be okay." She looked at Kelly, eyebrows furrowed and eyes glossed over with tears. Kelly just stared back in guilt, feeling just as helpless as Millie. Without a word, she rushed off to join Harry's side by the next hospital bed. "He's breathing?" She asked. "Yeah, yeah." Harry assured, pulling his body away from the boy. "Same as Effie." He gulped.

The curtain behind Kelly pulled open to reveal Gordie. He looked at the bed below, noticed yet another patient, then looked back at the pair. "I think it has something to do with the shift in universe." He explained. "How?" Harry asked, barely giving the boy time to breathe.

"Well, when we fell into this universe, things changed for obvious reasons but lately, I've been questioning whether this is even a parallel universe at all." Gordie unloaded on the pair. "What?" Kelly's voice cracked. Harry only watched, observed and listened. "This place shows signs of an alternate reality for sure but I was thinking, what if it's more obvious than that."

"W-wait what are you saying?" Kelly stuttered in fear. "What if this is just some program we're trapped in." He stated. "Yeah 'cause that makes total sense." Harry rolled his eyes. "Look, think of it as a computer that we're all trapped inside of." Gordie continued. "Like 'wreck-it-Ralph.'?" Harry asked. "W-well, sort of." Gordie nodded.

"We're the only game and so far, only New Ham has been programmed. What if sending a bunch of teenagers on a 'school trip' is a type of experiment, maybe for a new home for humans or..." he gulped. "Or?" Kelly and Harry asked in unison. "Or it's a game of survival."

The pair looked at each other for a moment before Harry scoffed. "No way." He shook his head. "That's absurd, how is this a game of survival wha-" He began thinking things over, the journey here, the suspicious bus driver, the enclosed town, limited supplies. Soon everyone would be killing each other the same way Dewie killed Cassandra, Allie would be overthrown and everything would turn to shit. The fear that Gordie's theory could be correct began to set in. What if that was true? That this entire time he'd been fucking around taking drugs and partying, getting married at 18 - who was he joking, marriage at this age? That's not even something he would've thought about until he was at least 30 in the real world.

"Fuck." He ran his hand through his hair like he did every time he was stressed. Swiftly, he grabbed his jacket, pushed aside the curtain and headed for the door. "Where are you going?" Kelly followed after him, her voice raised however he did nothing but kept walking. Soon he was outside, tears threatening to escape his eyes as he crouched down on the side walk, his head in his hands, grieving someone who hadn't even died yet, grieving the real world, grieving himself and the person he didn't even know he was.

———

Ten hours had passed since Effie collapsed, almost five hours since Harry had disappeared. Everyone began to give up, Becca took Eden home and soon Grizz and Sam followed. Kelly began to feel tired too and Will had already left an hour ago. Now it was just her and Gordie, as well as Effie and Alex in their beds. A part of Kelly was scared by what Gordie had come up with, the idea that none of this was real, more so just a shared dream between a bus full of students. The day was late, conversations between the pair only got deeper. "Do...do you think there's a way out?" Her voice shrunk, scared of the reality of the answer. "Maybe, I guess, we'll never know for sure." He shrugged, almost annoyed that he didn't know the answer.

A shuffling sound came from within the room and the pair paused, staring at each other. "Was that you?" Kelly whispered despite knowing it was neither of them. The boy shook his head in response. Kelly quickly got up, hesitantly walking toward the pair of beds hidden by the blue hospital curtain. Gordie followed, making sure to stand a fair distance away from the girl in fear of what hid behind there.

Moments later, a blood curdling scream erupted from behind the curtain. Both Kelly and Gordie paused, covering their ears with their hands. The scream was less of a cliché one from a horror movie and more of a scared child. Kelly instantly pulled open the curtain, revealing an awake Effie in tears, a horrified look on her face. The screaming only continued, despite being met with the comfortable and familiar faces of her friends.

Effie screamed until she could no more. It burned everyone's ears including her own but Kelly didn't care - relieved she finally woke up and Gordie wanted to confirm his theory correct. When it ended, Effie could hardly breathe, she must've snapped her vocal chords or Kelly was sure she'd still be screaming. "Go get Harry!" She ordered Gordie and he flinched for a moment before running for the door. "It's okay, Effie." Kelly assured. "Everything's going to be okay."