Riddle Middle Two

Chapter 7: The Rescue

Phil (1st person)

Pico was definitely unconscious. He was sweating a lot, and I figured if I dragged him through the vent and into Lauren's room, he'd cool down. I slipped his jumpsuit back on and held him under his shoulders. I dragged his wet body through the vent. "Is he okay?" Lauren asked. "I can't say yet," I said. We waited as Pico slowly regained his consciousness. "Lauren, you watch him, I'll go check on Zack, okay?" I said. Lauren nodded. I went to Zack's room, which was a while away from where I was. I could open his door. "Crap," Zack said when I came in. He was reaching under his bed. He had a bunch of red stripes across his face. "It's alright, it's me, Phil," I said. "Phil? How do I know you're not a humanoid trying to make me look like an idiot?" He said, not saying idiot. "I guess you don't. You can come see Lauren, if you want," I said. "Okay, I'm gonna trust you..." he said. I decided not to ask him about the stripes.

If it was important, he'd tell me. I led him to Lauren's room, and the door was still open. "Lauren?" Zack asked. "Hm? Oh, hey Zack," she said. "Is this really Phil?" Zack asked. "As far as I know, yes," she said. "Okay... Is Pico okay?" Zack asked. Pico wasn't unconscious, but he still looked a bit dazed. "Yeah, he'll be okay. He was-" I was cut off by a distorted feminine voice from behind me. "Phil?" They said. I turned. I didn't understand how they knew my name. "It's me, Smiley," she said. "Smiley! How'd you get out? How do you know who I am?" I asked. "It automatically showed your label, and it said 'Phil'," she said. "I got out by convincing my humanoid," she said. "What? How?" I asked. "I just begged them to let me out, and they did. I don't know why," she said. "That's weird. Well, I'm glad you're out!" I said. "Yeah. I gathered everyone else in the security room," she said. "Really? That fast?" I asked. "It's been over an hour," she said. "Oh. Well, we'll go over there too," I said. "Alright," Smiley said, leading us over there. Pico was better, and he started asking about what happened.

I told him he overheated, and he told me about hearing a gunshot and his ventilation being blocked. When we got to the room, I noticed something that wasn't there before. Two boxes. One had all of our clothes, and the other had the variants weapons. "Can we change now?" Joy asked. "Yeah, I guess," I said. All of my friends took there clothes out of the large box and changed, spreading out into different rooms so we didn't have to see each other. In a few minutes, we all met back in the room. The variants didn't need to change, since their robot suits couldn't be removed, so they just took off their jumpsuits. I realized Phred's variant wasn't anywhere. He hadn't been on the cameras or had a cell near us. I gave Smiley's variant her sword, Zack his flamethrower, Pico his acid-gun, and my variant already had his knife hand. "Okay, how do we get out?" 5 asked. "I don't know, but first we need to get Phred's variant, wherever he is," I said. "Phred's variant?" 5 asked. "Yeah, he's a robot. You guys stay here, I'll go look for him," I said. I went outside and found a large vault-looking door after exploring the rest of the building. I was far from my friends, but I figured I could use my map if I got lost.

Pico (1st person)

Phil didn't come back for a while. I waited as long as I could, assuming he was just taking a while to find Phred's variant. After an hour, I started to get worried about him. "I'm gonna go look for Phil..." I said. "Can I come?" Smiley asked. If anyone was coming with me, I assumed it'd be Lila, but she hadn't said anything. "I'm not sure..." I said. I didn't want Smiley to get hurt. "If we run into any humanoids, they probably won't suspect anything, since I look like one of them," she said. I would've just put on a humanoid suit myself, but I couldn't get in, since it had a pad thing next to it. "...Please?.." Smiley asked. "Alright..." I said. She didn't really need my permission, but she was asking, so I just accepted. We walked around for a while, and eventually, we found a large door. Smiley was able to open it. It led to any area that was outside. We clearly weren't in the desert anymore.