Subject 116

22

I hate to say it, but I agreed to Hallie's time schedule. I didn't really have a say in it to be honest, she was persistent when she wanted to be. And whenever that happened, she was stubborn, but not really in a bad way. She just wanted to prove what she thought was right in the moment, and the idea wasn't all bad. We just weren't prepared.

Monica and Hallie were the ones to spread the news first. Carson did not react well to say the least. He completely lost it, calling both of them crazy. Abby was in shock too, but she managed to calm him down. I wanted to get involved, but again, Hallie was stubborn. I was still feeling shaky, and she insisted that I took it easy for the rest of the day. Yet I still didn't feel much better by morning. They really must have increased the chemicals in my last session, because it had gotten so much worse so quickly. I thought I was doing a decent job at hiding it at this point. I didn't want to be a burden, but it actually didn't turn out that way. Word was spreading fine without me, and our cover wasn't blown. Some kids would slip me glances every now and then, knowing that I was one of the first to find out about the truth. I think they slightly relied on me, but were too afraid to talk to me. That was fine, I didn't have much to say to them anyway.

It felt like a blink before the day finally arrived. I was prepared, or at least I was in the right headspace. I wasn't exactly confident, but this was the best course of action. If we didn't get to work, someone else was going to die, and I would be too weak to figure out what to do next. We still didn't even know how we were going to run away once we were out, all we had right now were our legs. But that was the least of our worries right now, we had to actually get out of the building first.

I was working with Abby on that right now, she and Hallie were both looking carefully at the rope that she had constructed over the past few days. It was tight, and the material was thick enough to hold. I had my doubts, but their enthusiasm washed it away, even if it was just a little bit. I believed it would be able to keep Monica from falling, and they did too. So for some reason, I wasn't worrying so much anymore. She had the guts to take out the guards downstairs, so there wasn't an issue there. Everything was in order. Now Hallie just had to wait to get the key card and we were ready to get out of here. That's how it was supposed to go, anyway.

Hallie had been hiding the rope underneath her bed, nobody ever really checked in here, so it was a decent hiding place. She was holding it carefully, keeping most of it still hidden, just in case anyone walked in. "It looks really sturdy, how did you manage to tie knots like these?" she asked Abby, getting more curious each time she moved further down the view of the rope.

Abby looked a little flustered at the over the top compliment. "It wasn't all me, I asked around, since I'm pretty shitty with knots, so I got a lesson or two."

"Either way, I'm impressed. This will definitely hold. Thank you so much for doing this!" she snapped her mouth shut once she realized how loud she was being.

"Don't worry about it. I want to live too, y'know."

Hallie glanced over at me for a split second, and I knew exactly why. I still wasn't keen on the idea of leaving, but she had convinced me. Hallie was strangely excellent at negotiation, even if it was always rushed and shabby. I just felt like I had to listen to her sometimes, because I did feel like she was right about a lot of things. Although if it was up to me, I would still stay behind. I was... afraid of the outside world. I had no idea what to expect, what kind of people I would meet, where I would live, how I would make a living, everything was just so overwhelming. Hallie told me I was going to figure myself out eventually, along with my emotions, but so far, the only major ones I had felt were bad. Fear, exhaustion, and sickness. I did not enjoy any of them, so if whatever lied outside was anything like this, I wanted nothing to do with it. Though, I suppose nothing could be worse than a certain death trap, waiting to cave in on it's targets.