A Deadly Trip (Now Available on Amazon!) (Unedited Version)

Chapter 15

"Well if someone's down here they can probably help right?" Avery asked eyeing the note. After everyone read it, it found its way to the floor and stayed.

Now I in no way believed in the stereotype that all blondes were dumb seeing as my best friend was a blond and she was a freaking genius when she actually gave a crap about something but right now Avery fit the stereotype perfectly.

"Avery if they left a note like that what makes you think they'd be down here trying to help us?" I asked already exhausted with the situation.

There was no way I should be going through this again. As if once wasn't enough.

"We already said that it's probably just someone from our class trying to be funny, so we should just try to find whoever it is and get out of here."

I was a nano second away from face palming.

Archer seemed to sense my exhaustion as he spoke up.

"Avery if somebody left a note like that, even if it was someone from our class, do you honestly think they'd stick around?" Archer spoke slowly and carefully like Avery might miss something if he spoke too fast.

Avery threw her hands up in the air.

"I don't know and frankly I don't care! I just want to get out of here!"

"We all do, but trying to find whoever left that note is a bad idea. If we want to get out of here we're going to have to do it on our own." Archer said as he stood up from where he had been crouched next to me.

He held his hand out for me to take and I did. Once I was on my feet he protectively wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me against his side.

"We don't know our way out of here though." Cade said. "We'll just end up getting lost again and then we'll never get out of here."

"Then what do you propose we do? You want to stick around and hope whoever left that note doesn't come back?" Archer asked with an edge to his voice.

I grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze trying to silently tell him to calm down.

"If we don't know our way around our best bet is to stay put." Cade said calmly, like he could sense Archer's temper. He was already on thin ice.

"Well I'll tell you what. If you and Avery want to stay here and be the welcoming party for whoever shows up, if they show up, then go ahead but I'm taking Gemma and we're going to find our way out. I'll be sure to send somebody back for you." Archer seemed to consider his last sentence as he eyed both Cade and Avery with a distasteful look.

"Well I might send someone back." He corrected.

Archer didn't give them time to respond as he started leading me back down the hallway away from the elevator.

I heard footsteps behind us and turned to see that Megan, Blake, Dawn, and Becca were following us.

Cade looked like he was stuck between deciding to follow Archer or staying put.

Apparently the first choice won out because he soon grabbed Avery's hand and started pulling her after him.

"What are you doing? I thought we were staying and waiting?" Avery whined as Cade continued to pull her forward.

"We should be, but splitting up is a bad idea."

Avery scoffed. "I don't care about splitting up from them. In fact splitting up sounds like a great idea."

I shook my head and turned back to the front. Avery was seriously a pain in the ass.

"Excuse me?!" Avery's shrill voice rang out.

Did I say that out loud?

Oops.

Archer turned to glare at Avery over his shoulder.

"If you're coming then you're going to have to keep your mouth shut."

Avery looked a little stunned and like she wanted to say something but simply nodded her head instead.

And so our journey through the creepy hotel basement began.

Again.

***

Trying to navigate the hotel basement was turning out the same way it did the first time we tried.

No one knew where we were or where we were going and we just ended up getting lost.

Again.

"Okay that's it. We need to stop."

We had just turned down another hallway which looked awfully similar to the one we had already been down when Cade decided to stop us.

"We've been down this exact same hallway at least three times now. We're lost and it doesn't make sense for us to keep going if we don't know where we're going." Cade said tiredly.

"No one asked you to follow us. You could've stayed back at the elevator." Archer shot back.

"But since you did follow us and all you've done is complain about how we're lost, why don't you come up with a better idea to get us out of here?"

Cade ran a hand down his face and sighed heavily.

"Look man-" Cade began but Archer cut him off.

"No you look. I get that we're pretty much blind mice down here but at least I'm trying to find us a way out of here. All you want to do is wait around and hope that somebody is going to come and help us. Take it from somebody who knows. No one is coming. We're on our own and the quicker you realize that the better."

Cade opened his mouth to respond but I held my hand up to stop him.

"Everybody be quiet."

Everybody turned to look at me with confused expressions.

"Do you guys hear that?"

Everybody went deathly still as they tried to listen.

There was this faint hissing sound.

Archer nodded his head.

"I hear it. Where is it coming from?"

Everybody started looking around trying to figure out where the sound was coming from when Cade's eyes widened on something by my feet.

I looked down and there was a small air vent in the wall, but the air vent wasn't the problem.

The problem was the white smoky substance coming out of the vent.

"What the hell is that?" Dawn asked as she took a few steps back.

I tried to use my shirt to cover my nose but it was too late.

Whatever was coming out of that vent was already in the air and we'd already been breathing it in.

The room suddenly started spinning and when I tried to take a step forward I lost my balance before falling to my knees.

"W-what's happening?" Becca asked as she stumbled and used the wall for support.

"It's the gas. Whatever's in it is-" Archer couldn't even finish his sentence before he stumbled forward and completely collapsed.

"Archer!"

I tried to get to my feet but the room seemed to spin faster and my vision was getting blurry.

I heard another thud and looked over to see Becca had collapsed too.

I tried to get to my feet again and managed to stand but it only lasted for a few seconds before the room seemed to tilt on its side or maybe it was me because the next thing I felt was the cold hard ground beneath me as I lay on my side.

I couldn't move even if I wanted to.

My eyelids became extremely heavy and I could barely look up as the rest of my friends collapsed one by one.

I tried to say something but all that came out was a pitiful moan and then darkness followed.