PANIC ROOM

Thirteen

 Nick and the younger members light a fire in silence. James stands facing the wall, deadly still. Sam sharpens his knife with shaking fingers.

Kun bandages my open wound tightly, working alone without Will to help. He leaves me, not daring to look me in the eye.

Leaning against the wall with fatigue, I sink down to my knees. I don't recall exactly when I fall asleep. I just allow the comforting sensation to overpower my body.

~

"Gray, Alexa?"

The masked doctor looks up expectantly from his clipboard, as I step forward. The hospital is the same as last time, sickly pale walls reeking of disinfectant.

As we reach his office, I glance at the blue chair by the door, where the black-eyed man sat in my previous dream. It's empty.

"Did you watch the records, Miss Gray?" the doctor asks evenly, surveying my distracted face with interest. I nod quickly, still searching for the man.

"Yeah... is he here?" I ask, my voice sounding deranged. The doctor stares at me, incomprehensive.

"Who is 'he', exactly?"

"The Asian bloke. With black eyes. A-and kinda tanned-"

"Miss Gray, are you quite alr-?"

"G'DAY MATE!"

The Australian man has reappeared, in the blue chair. Despite being well within his line of vision, the doctor doesn't appear to see him.

"What d'ya want?" the man smiles crookedly, which looks slightly unnerving with his fully black eyes.

"Who are you?" I ask. He laughs.

"That's the complicated bit," he sighs, head bent. Suddenly, he grabs my arm, dragging me out of the office. Despite my awareness of the dream, his touch feels genuine. Too real.

~

"The name's Chris, candidate number 043." He pulls up his sleeve, revealing "HOST" emblazoned in black ink.

"I'm Alexa, number 020-"

"I know." He snaps, making me feel instantly dim-witted. Of course he knows who I am; he is literally psychic or some shit. An unpleasant thought creeps over me; he knows everything about me, of which I know nothing.

"So what does 'HOST' mean then?" I ask, covering up my previous error. He points to his black eyes.

"It calls itself 'Vision'. It cannot live in a body of its own, so it uses a host to carry out its mission."

"What's that?" I ask, an uneasiness sweeping over me. Chris grabs my arm again, walking through the wall as if it simply wasn't there. It isn't, because none of this around us is real, but that's beside the point.

The world beyond the wall is terrifying. Lurid pink water tanks line the walls of the warehouse. Each tank contains a body.

"To stop The Fallen. Panic Room is raising an army of 'em. They ain't tryna cure Alzheimer's. They're tryna to take over the world."

The warehouse doors unlatch, sliding aside as two new bodies are brought in on stretchers. I recognise Eric's vivid red hair, under the grime and blood covering his body. And, with a jolt, I recognise the second mangled corpse. It's Will.

Chris watches me, as masked people lift the limp bodies into two new tanks.

"How do we stop this?" I whisper, my voice weak with foreboding horror.

As Will's body is submerged in the pink fluid, his limbs are revived, thrashing wildly around in the tank, like a wild fish, restored back to health after the temporary drought of deathly exposure.  

"I need to get every candidate outta here." Chris replies shortly.

"You're still here?" I ask, stunned.

"For fuck's sake, Alexa, the Panic Room is huge. It's impossible to get through it in three days. Dozens of teams get trapped here."

"Can you get us out?" I ask, turning to face him.

He nods seriously, the warehouse dissipating around us. The world around us now is black, bleak and unnerving.

"Promise me you'll get us out!" I exclaim, eyes not leaving his solemn face.

He opens his mouth to answer. Before he can though, as my body shudders so violently I wake up.

"I THINK 020'S DEAD!!"