I fell next to her on my knees. She's never actually slept. When we were in the vents, in the closet, anywhere. She never slept, she must have just been relaxing.
"You were trying to protect us weren't you?" I said softly. Being careful not to wake her. "You were afraid of going to sleep and never waking up, weren't you?"
I leaned back and for the first time being here, I actually felt relaxed. She laid there and was asleep for what felt like an hour. It must have been habit, because when she woke up she jolted and stood up really fast.
"I'm still here, you're fine." I said reassuringly.
She just looked frightened. She touched her face and pulled at the skin on her arms. That's when I noticed, she was sweating and was breathing frantically.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Maybe she had a nightmare. Why would she be pinching herself, could it be she thought she wasn't real? Could she has dreamt that she died? Or could it be she dreamt she was an illusion?
She sat down and held onto her knees. I sat down next to her and hesitantly wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She relaxed, her breathing slowed down, and I let go of her, I put my hands on her shoulders.
"You're fine, okay, I'm here, you are real, you are alive. I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you." She looked down, and then swallowed, "We need to get something to drink, and eat, or else we are gonna die of starvation and dehydration, we also need to get out of these horrid clothes. They're hot, and sweaty, and who knows, maybe there is a tracker in them."
She looked up at me, and then back down at her a. She ripped off the sleeves, and ripped off some of the pant legs, she now had on a tank top and shorts, her boots didn't look too great with her new outfit, but hell, I'm sure she felt relieved.
"We also need to go find the other people." She looked back up at me, used her sleeve to wrap up her arm, the wound had started to bleed again, and I'm sure it was very painful, she tied it and kept moving, "It would also be great if we could find a place to sit and relax, to take a break." At this she stopped, and crawled another foot, and then stood up. We had crawled to a place where we could stand, she walked, acting like she knew where she was going.
We walked for a while, until we reached the end of the vent, Number 1 grabbed the screwdriver from her boot, and dug it straight into the vent wall, "Number 1, isn't that making too much noise?" She scraped down the side, and made a door of her own, she looked out, and then jumped, I heard the sound of her hitting the ground, I ran over and looked down, I couldn't see the bottom.
"Number 1?" I whispered. No answer. I turned around, guess there was nothing else to do now but jump, I run my fingers through my hair, and sigh, "I'm coming down, get out of the way." I jump, feeling like it was endless, but I soon hit the bottom, it felt like I hit cement, I stood up, my leg ached, I groaned and reached down to it, we were almost out and then she decided to jump, and go deeper, then again, it was my idea to go looking in the first place.
I felt someone grab my arm, I jolted and jumped, it was pitch black, nothing like the other vents, this was so dark, I was being pulled by Number 1. I saw a little light, it looked like a candle. I was pulled and thrown against a wall.
"Geez Number 1, do you have to be so forceful?" I say, rubbing the back of my head.
"Who the hell are you? And who the hell is this Number 1 person?" I hear them ask. Who the hell was this, and where was Number 1?
"I'm Alex, and she's the person I came down here with, wherever here is."
"Why are you just roaming around, I don't believe you. Eve, bring the candle, I need to see his face!"
Eve? I wonder who these people are, if this is like the area where we came from, there is probably like four people here, "Where's my friend?"
"You're the only one I caught." The light got closer, and so did the girl named Eve, she was wearing the same clothes, and had the number 11, the light glowed, and showed the person who had me pinned to the wall, he had the number 17.
"He looks human, but then, how did he get here?" Eve asked.
"I have no clue, speak!" Number 17 yelled at me.
"My friends and I escaped, we have been climbing through vents searching, there was two more of us, they are dead..."
"Dani let go of him." Eve said, Dani let go of me and she handed him the candle, she walked right in front of me and stuck out her hand, "Hi, I'm Evelyn, but Dani here calls me Eve, his name is Daniel, but I call him Dani." This moment was all too familiar to me, it reminded me of Emma introducing us to Number 1, she was kind like Emma too.
Evelyn noticed I was staring at her, and she let go of my hand, "I'm sorry, you just remind me of one of my friends. Her name was Emma, she was one of the group of people I escaped with, she didn't make it."
"Oh, I'm sorry, but if I remember right, you said that someone else was here with you?"
"Number 1!"
"Number 1?" Eve asked, Daniel scoffed.
"Yes, Number 1, she doesn't speak, but we call her Number 1, because that's the number on her shoulder."
"Wait, let me get this straight, this Number 1 person, was the first person taken. That's impossible, how is she still here?" Daniel asked.
"I don't know, I've asked her that, but like I said, she doesn't talk." I heard footsteps coming from behind Daniel, he turned around and faced the candle out, Number 1 was standing there, her face glowing in the candlelight, Daniel dropped the candle, and the light went out.
"Dani!" Evelyn yelled, it was pitch black now, you couldn't see a thing.
A bright light illuminated from the ceiling, showing the broken table, the plates fell down and shattered, the forks fell and crashed to the floor, the tubes came down, but the food didn't just come from the tubes, it fell from the hole in the ceiling, where me and Number 1 fell.
"Now is our chance, let's try this one last time Eve!" Daniel yelled out, facing the tubes.
"Let's go Dani!" Evelyn and Daniel ran towards the tubes, jumping on them, "What are you doing, don't you wanna escape?" She asks Number 1 and I.
We looked at each other, and then ran and jumped. The tubes flailed, trying to shake us off. "Have you ever reached the top!" I yelled out in the frenzy.
"No, we never got that far, but judging on that's where you fell, I'm hoping that they're not up there! That's what you're worried about, right?" Evelyn cries out, hanging on with her arms and legs wrapped around the metallic tube.
I didn't answer, I just concentrated on not falling, Number 1 had began to climb up, "What is she doing, these go back up on their own you know!" Daniel yells.
"I think she's climbing because, they won't go back up, with us on them, that's why you never got any farther."
"That's absurd, we aren't that stupid!"
"Trust me, she's never been wrong before." With that, I began to climb.
"These people are gonna kill us Eve!"
"Just do it Dani, what else can we do." Evelyn was already climbing.
Daniel had began to climb, but we had to go carefully, moving one limb at a time, making sure not to be thrown off, the higher we got, the more ferocious the tubes got. Number 1 moved her leg, and lost her footing on the other. She dropped a couple feet before grabbing back on.
When we jumped down it seemed a lot shorter. Daniel almost gave up, but Evelyn persuaded him to continue. Number 1 reached the top first, I continued, but Evelyn and Daniel stopped. I think they were waiting to see if it was safe. Number 1 jumped off the tube, and grabbed the edge of the vent, her tube went back up slowly, Number 1's hands kept slipping because of the food, but she pulled herself up.
Her head peeked over the edge, and she waved her hand up. Evelyn and Daniel looked at each other and continued, I was about to reach the top when I was thrown from my tube.
I reached my hand up, and barely grabbed the edge of the vent wall. I kept slipping, but I held my ground, and pulled myself up. I was on the other side of the vent from Number 1.
She looked at me, my tube went back up, crossing right in front of us. When the tube was out of my vision, Evelyn's body was instead, I grabbed her hand, and pulled her up.
Daniel looked unsure, but he climbed higher than the rest of us, and Number 1 grabbed his hand. As he stepped from his tube onto the vent floor. The tubes all disappeared and we sat across from each other for a few minutes, when Evelyn and Daniel started to scream in joy.
"We made it, we actually made it!" Evelyn cried out.
"I know I can't believe it! We actually did it Eve!"
"Whoa, wait just a second, we haven't escaped yet." I felt bad bursting their bubble, but seriously.
"Of course we have, we escaped the little room of hell!" Daniel then began screaming again.
"Hey! Both of you shut the fuck up! You do realize where we are, and that me and Number 1 have been wandering these, vents, for days. We are not out yet. We have a long way to go. So stop yelling, because they do come into the vents, and they will kill us."
They stopped yelling and nodded, "Good, now which way should we go, Number 1 and I came from that way, so you and Daniel need to cross over the hole and come over here, me and Evelyn will get out your way."
Daniel and Number 1 came over to our side, and we crawled, again, I'm getting so tired of crawling.