━━ TAPPING ONTO THE LOCATION,
You were shown a map with a blue pathway to guide you, and a red dot as a representation of where you are. Looking back up, staring at where the brunette boy had previously stood before running away, you decided to walk away, trying to leave all your worries behind. Maybe you didn't get the clear-up you wanted with the boy, but at least you saw him before leaving.
╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮
UNKNOWN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Unknown:
I managed to turn down the
security cameras but only
temporarily.
Unknown:
the system around here is hard
to hack so we better act fast.
Unknown:
Put the map in guide mode so
I can easily show you the exit
You:
How do I do that?
Unknown:
Tap the red dot twice
╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯
You tapped onto the red icon and it quickly projected a man completely in red. His facial features weren't visible other than the fact that he had completely white eyes, but you could tell he had shortish hair but long enough to be tugged behind his ear and wore a long white headband under his hair, leaving two tails of the headband tied behind his head. Judging from his iconic forehead wear, no wonder Jschlatt called him 'the hippie guy.'
He waved at you, making sure to greet you despite not being able to speak.
"Hey..." you said, gazing at the figure in fascination. You tried to touch the hologram but as expected, your hand went through the figure and he looked at you, unpleased by what you have done.
"Sorry... I just wanted to know," you said.
You then heard footsteps coming your way and the both of you looked in the direction of the noise, alarmed by it. You could see a group of people walking towards the place you were as their shadows were seen on the wall. The holographic figure quickly grabbed your attention by coming into your view and lightly touching your chin.
'We have to go,' he signaled with his hands and he then went in a direction which you followed behind him.
There were hallways after hallways, rooms that lead to other rooms. It almost felt like you were in a never-ending maze while following a mythical creature to lead you out of it. Like in those folk tales where the spirit of the forest leads children out of the forest. Or...did they lead them further in? Either way, you continued to go through the seemingly endless buildings until you were met with an elevator.
"Fuck. We can't use the elevator. I don't work here," you said to the red figure.
'I know,' he responded, gesturing what he was trying to say through his hands.
'Just connect the reactor to the scanner,' he signed and you placed the reactor onto the scanner.
The projection of the figure disappeared and not long after, red sparks of flame began to appear. You pulled the reactor away from the scanner and the figure started to appear once again.
'Okay, now follow me.'
"What? I thought you were trying to hack the elevator?" You asked
'That's for a different part of your escape,' he said and you later followed him away from the elevator to wherever you were heading next.
Not long after, you heard an explosion from behind. You looked back to see the elevator you left not long ago had exploded and guards from the area had left their stations to help extinguish the blaze.
"Why didn't the automatic system put it out?" You heard one guard ask his peer. The other simply shrugged in reply, it was a mystery.
But you knew.
You didn't have enough time to think about how you probably just committed a crime, as the hologram was beckoning you to follow him into a room labeled 'Operation Room'.
When you entered the room, you were met with the sight of bright, white walls and tables filled with medical equipment. On the walls, there were detailed diagrams of humanoids and their anatomies.
The hologram got your attention and pointed at one of the tables where a pair of surgical scissors was placed. Once you had the tool held in your hand, he directed you to the vent on the far side of the room and made unscrewing gestures in the air.
'Oh, he wants me to open the vent with the scissors,' you realized and so you got to work undoing the screws on the corners of the metal plate until it fell off easily. You looked into the vent and saw a tunnel just big enough for you to crawl through on your hands and knees.
Before you climbed in, you looked around to see that your brightly colored companion was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was replaced with a miniature version of himself, gesturing for you to follow him through the vents.
You crawled through the complicated system of vents, following the tiny red hologram's lead, until you found yourself below another grate. Crouching on the ground, you pushed up against the metal until it came loose and allowed you to pull yourself up and onto the roof. You looked up at the dusty sunset sky, various pastel shades were painted across the fluffy white clouds which moved through the air. It was a beautiful sight, and after having spent however long inside RE:LIFE headquarters, it was comforting to see a sunset in person for once instead of gazing longingly outside a window.
After looking around the rooftop for the hologram, you leaned over the edge to see a bright red light on the ground below. Gulping, you realized that you would have to jump off the roof to get down. And you were four stories up...
Making a quick prayer to whatever God or benevolent force you hoped would protect you, you took a deep breath and jumped, aiming to land in a lake that was conveniently placed near the base of the building.
The cold water hit you after a few seconds and you gasped at the sudden drop in temperature. Before you got hypothermia, you scrambled out of the lake and laid down on the grass.
'Freedom... fucking finally.'
As you were catching your breath from the death-defying escape you heard a shuffling noise next to you and looked up to be met with the bright red hologram-man, now in his full-sized form.
'Congratulations on getting out, dummy,' he signed at you. You frowned but ignored his insult. He did just rescue you after all. The hologram then pointed at the jacket that you still had tied around your waist and signed another message,
'Don't say anything about RE:LIFE now that you're in the outside world. People can be dangerous,' you nodded, understanding how bad it could be for you if someone found out your connection to the company.
It quickly began to hit you that you were actually out. After all, that time desperately trying to escape, you were out.
'I thought I would have been happier when I finally got out... I mean, I did get kidnapped, but...'
"I..." you shut your mouth, eyes moving to your feet as you felt yourself starting to tear up.
Why are you crying, (Y/n)? You just escaped, didn't you? You should be ecstatic.
You couldn't find it in yourself to say anything, probably because of the giant lump in your throat that made it impossible to swallow. Somehow sensing your distress, the hologram proceeded to give you an awkward hug in an attempt to comfort you. Despite the fact that you couldn't actually feel him, you appreciated his care and that was enough to make you feel warm inside.
After a little bit, he broke the hug and signed for you to wipe your tears, which you did while giving a small laugh.
"I guess I'm just scared of losing my kneecaps is all," you joked with a shudder, imagining how scary Wilbur would look if he found out you'd left. But it would all be worth it once you met this 'Unknown' guy, right?
He moved to cup your cheeks gently. If only he had a mouth, you were sure he'd be smiling warmly at you. Despite his lack of a mouth, his eyes crinkled as if he really was smiling.
In a second, the hologram disappeared from your sight and you felt the reactor in your pocket buzz. You fished it out of your pocket to read the message.
╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮
UNKNOWN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Unknown:
This is technically like a new
life for you so you don't have to
be scared
Unknown:
Your smile is really pretty
Unknown:
Especially when you laugh. You
should do that more often.
Unknown:
Anyway, enjoy your time outside,
I'll wait for you to get here.
╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
MICHELLE'S NOTE:
Hello hello, this is Michelle ( michellechair )! As you all should know by now, I'm going to be assisting Hana with writing ERROR from now on. This is the first chapter that I mostly wrote (there'll be ones in the future that I'll write completely from scratch). I hope you guys are okay with my writing style and you'll still support this fic despite Hana being unable to write it all by herself <3 Anyway, you'll be reading a lot more of my writing in the future so look forward to that :) Thank you all for the continual support, I know it means a lot to Hana.
Until next chapter,
- Michelle.
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
Created on 5 July 2021
Edited on 31 July 2021
Edited by michellechair @hanamocha