Riddle Middle Two

Chapter 9: The Sickness

Phil (1st person)

I woke up surrounded by darkness. Again. I burst through the bag and looked around. I wasn't surprised by these dreams anymore, even if I wasn't sure what they meant. I was in the smaller cell, the one I'd been in where Pico had shot me in that dream. I looked down, and saw that four other bags were taking up most of the floor space. I assumed they were my friends. Why were we all in the same cell? I grabbed a random one and opened it. I figured this could go two ways. One, everyone was fine, or two, all of these bags were filled with blood. Pico was inside, and he appeared to be sleeping. I shook him. He yawned. "...Phil?" He asked. "We're having one of those humanoid dreams again," I said. "Cool," he said, climbing out. "...Why are we all in the same room?" He asked. I shrugged. I grabbed another bag. This one seemed to have something sloshing inside. I assumed it was Smiley, in a bag filled with her own blood. It wasn't. This time, it was Phred, and the stuff wasn't blood, it was an amber colored liquid. He was completely submerged in it. I carefully plunged my finger into the liquid. The liquid had a honey-like consistency, but it didn't smell like anything. My finger immediately became unresponsive, and I couldn't move it at all.

I yanked my hand back out and shook it, and my finger came back to life. I did the only thing I could think of; I dumped all of the stuff into the toilet, being carefully not to dump Phred out as well. I got most of it out and flushed the toilet. I lay Phred on the floor. I used his bag to get as much as I could off. His beg was felty, while the rest of ours were made of plastic. "Phred?" I asked, shaking him. He didn't wake up. I pulled him onto my lap and squeezed him. The liquid spilled out of his mouth and onto the floor. He coughed a few times, then he looked up at me, shaking. "Ph- Phil?" He asked. "Phred, are you okay?" I asked. "Y-Yeah, I guess... Are we dreaming again?" He asked. "As far as I know, yeah," I said. I leaned him against the wall and went to another bag. I opened it. Smiley. The outside of her bag was fine, but the inside was freezing. Smiley was curled up inside. I gently lifted her out, even though she was a bit heavy. She curled into a fetal position in my arms. She was shivering. I lay her on the singular bed in our cell. I went to open the last bag, which was most likely Zack.

I opened it, and he was in there, wheezing. "Zack?" I asked. He sniffed. He sounded congested. I yanked him out of the bag and lay him on the ground. He was breathing through his mouth. "Phil?" He asked. With his congestion, it sounded more like he had said 'hill'. I assumed he was sick. He sneezed, and his entire body burst into flames. The first time that happened was during the abduction, and it's happened a couple of times in class. He did nothing to cover it, and now I was covered in his snot. He sneezed again. I ducked out of the way. He sneezed for the third time in a row, and it got into my eye. I frantically wiped my eye. A sink would've been helpful, but all we had was toilet water, which I wasn't using anytime soon. I had an idea, so i grabbed Zack and hauled him to Smiley, who was still shivering. It took me a while, since he kept sneezing and burning me. He warmed Smiley up, and she eventually went back to normal. "Phil?" She asked, looking up at me. "Smiley, are you alright?" I asked, gently putting my hand on the side of her face. "Yeah, I'm okay. Where are we?" She asked, sitting up. "I'm guessing this is another humanoid dream, though I don't know why we're all in the same cell," I said. "Alright," she said. She sat on the edge of the bed. The door opened.

The shorter humanoid, who I'd knocked over last time, was there with some of that flavorless Jell-O stuff. I decided to run at him again. It occurred to me that we were all in the usual clothes we wore to school, rather than orange jumpsuits. The humanoid threw a grayish ball at me, which stuck to arm. Within a few seconds, it electrocuted me, and I fell onto the floor. The humanoid set the food down and left. I didn't know how it was doing that threw my hoodie. It only shocked me once, and after the pain faded from that, I was fine again. I pulled it off of me and threw it onto the ground. I was surprised at how quiet my friends were. Pico was sitting silently on the floor below Smiley, Smiley was looking around our room, and Phred was in the corner near the toilet, looking traumatized. Zack was sneezing on the floor. The door opened again a few minutes later, with a different humanoid this time.

He came inside, and the door closed again. He went to Phred. Phred's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," the humanoid said. This one sounded like a male. It sounded like that humanoid I'd talked two, who told me to take the night shift before. He took out a flashlight. It had a switch, like a normal flashlight, but it also had four buttons on it. He turned on the switch, with caused a bright light to come on. He pushed a button, and the light turned a grayish color. He shined it at Phred, and it revealed his organs. I jumped at first. It looked weird. He shined it near Phred's stomach and intestines. It was a bit gross, seeing whatever was in them. "Hm," the humanoid said, turning off the light. He stood and went towards the door.

"Wait! Umm..." I called. The humanoid turned. "...Why are we all in the same cell?" I asked. "It's more efficient," he said. "Why aren't we in our jumpsuits?" I asked. "More efficient," he said. He looked to Zack, who sneezed. He jumped. He opened the screen on his wrist. He started talking into it. His voice was muffled a bit, but I heard him say 'code S'. It seemed like numbers and letters were swapped here. A few more humanoids came in, and the looked the same, besides the fact that their helmet mask things were gas masks. They grabbed Zack and carried him outside of our room. He sneezed, but the humanoids didn't react. "What's going on?" Pico asked. The humanoid didn't respond, then he left the room.