¶. We were all together, I felt the happiness and excitement we had just moments ago vanish. No one said a word. I could see in everyone's eyes they were asking so many questions none of us had the answers too. "Now what", I kept asking myself, repeating what Evan asked. Do we search this decayed city for answers, do we go back to the boat and live our lives out on sea searching for the truth, or do we walk beyond the city and hope to find something that remains? I stared at the floor and lost myself in even more questions.
¶. Before I had time to answer even one, Jack broke from me from my trance by grabbing my shoulder and lightly shaking me. "Whatever happens, we're all together, I know we'll all be fine". I shook my head and took a look at my friends, I felt a small smile form on my lips, "you're absolutely right".
¶. We had nowhere in particular to be so we all sat ourselves in a circle, and I started talking, "Meredith what do you think we should do"? Lucas scoffed, "Reeling, for the love of, stop acting like a love sick puppy. We need to all be at one hundred percent. we can't just ignore the situation and blindly follow the leader"! I felt my cheeks burn as I mumbled, "I just wanted to know what she thought". Meredith's cheeks were a slight shade of red, "I think we should settle down here make a survival camp of sorts and slowly explore the outside world".
¶. Jack vigorous objected, "that would mean giving up"! Jamie interrupted him, "what do you mean give up, what are we even supposed to do? Some person or thing just randomly dropped us here. The rules of reality are constantly being broken! When I was in the elevator, we all started by going down, but when the hatch opened I was on the surface outside the library. What can we possibly do"!
¶. I've never heard Jamie raise her voice especially at Jack. The small window of silence, Jack grabbed the ridge of his nose and took a deep breath, "look, we can't just sit here, we need to fight, we need to find him and get answers, we need to do something". Evan stood up, "he's right". I let out a sigh, "Fine. Let's think about something that sticks out to us, something that screams pay attention to me". Lucas gave me a puzzled look, "didn't we already have this conversation"? I took a second then let out, "oh yeah, that's why we came here. The tree". Evan shouted, "then that's it we'll climb the tree".
¶. We all stood up and with renewed vigor, determined to find answers, but when we made our to the doorway we saw a clear substance that looked a bit like gelatin oozing down the stairs. Meredith asked, "what is it"? No one had an answer. It was illuminated by the red hazard light, but we thought nothing of it. Evan walked straight to it and slowly placed his hand hovering over it, "I'm gonna touch it". Right as his hand pierced through the skin, his hand was dissolved by the clear substance.
¶. He fell back and tried crawling away from the monster. However it jumped on in the air and consumed our friend right in front of our eyes. Without hesitation Lucas pulled Jack and I back into the room and shut the door. The image of Evan's skin dissolving into nothing, his muscles decomposing, his bones turning into something less then dust, was seared into my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that scene play over and over again.
¶. I felt myself getting ready to puke, but before I could, Jack let out a gasp. When I looked at him, he let out a hushed, "run", then fell on his knees. Well, he would have fallen on his knees, but a small puddle of ooze leaked into the room from the seems of the door. I was maybe a foot away from Jack, so I had no time to linger on my best friend's death. The others had a head start on me, but Lucas was slowed down by Ancel, so they were still relatively the closest to me, the girls meanwhile were already half way across the room, not that I could blame them for running.
¶. When I caught up with Lucas and Ancel, I quickly pulled Ancel's arm over my shoulder. The girls had already reached the end of the room, but they had no where to go. Lucas and I ran as fast as we could, but there was no point in delaying the inevitable. We caught up to the girls, but the ooze was about six feet away from us. Jamie shouted, "there's nowhere else to go". I responded, "no"! Then I pointed to the top of the shelf, it would probably buy us a couple minutes at most, but what would be the alternative? Lucas hoisted Jamie up, while I lifted Meredith. Ancel could barely move his legs, so both me and Lucas lifted him. We were quickly running out of time. The second Ancel was safely on top, I fell on my knees, and I positioned myself to hoist us Lucas.
¶. He shook his, "let me lift you". I shouted, "theres no time"! He clenched his jaw and accepted my decision. There was still a bit of time left, so he put out his hand. I tried to grab it, but when I did, I felt the whole weight of the shelf begin to topple forward. Everyone fell to the ground, directly into the ooze. I felt a surge of adrenaline course through my veins while I struggled with holding the shelf, but it was a pointless endeavor. The ooze quickly swallowed me whole. While I clenched my eyes shut, I felt my my skin burn away. For a brief agonizing second, I was able to feel my every nerve burn away. Once that second was gone, I somehow opened my eyes and I was safe.
¶. The pain was gone, I was in a completely different pure white room, and my friends were all safe laying on the ground along side me. I quickly pushed myself up while panting like a maniac. Meredith woke up seconds later, with a petrifying scream, which quickly woke everyone else. I saw all my friends die, but we're all here, safe. I genuinely don't know if what we just went through was real at all.
¶. I hastily ran to help Meredith up, I tried to tell her how happy I was she was alive, but I could barely let out a breath. Tears began to swell from the corner of my eyes while she wrapped her arms around me. It only lasted a moment before we both came to our senses. She broke away from the hug and turned her head towards Jamie, while I sheepishly kept my eyes fixed on the ground. Then when I heard Jack try his hardest to hold in a laugh I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. That's when he let out the quietest laugh I've ever heard. I think he stopped breathing. He kept hitting his chest like he was trying to manually force his lungs to breathe again. His laugh was contagious, soon everyone, even me, started laughing in pure relief.