Riddle Middle Two

Chapter 10: The Quarantine

Phil (1st Person)

"Did you hear him say code S?" Phred asked. "Yeah," I said. I had no idea what it meant. The door seemed to be jammed a bit. I was able to squeeze through the gap in the door. I immediately went to the room with all of the suits, but the door was closed and I couldn't get in. I went into the security room. There was a small paper. It had a bunch of letters with definitions on it. The codes. I immediately read S, which said 'Level three quarantine'. I didn't know what that meant. I went back outside and walked down the hall. I went to building A. I walked further down that hall, and there was a large doorway. I peeked inside, and there wasn't any humanoids there. There was a large thick glass wall separating the room into halves. I was on one side and Zack was on the other. He sneezed every few seconds. I walked to the glass. "Zack?" I called. He didn't seem to hear me.

I didn't see any doors or ways to get into his side. I noticed a small control panel, and I went over to it. There were a bunch of buttons and switches, but I didn't immediately do anything, since I didn't want to accidentally hurt Zack. Nothing was labeled. I looked to Zack again. At first, he didn't seem to be breathing, but then I noticed the subtle rising and falling of his chest. I had to get in there. I pulled a switch that looked like it could've been helpful. When I did, part of the glass wall sunk into the floor. I didn't hesitate to run inside to where Zack was. Zack's sneezing had calmed down a bit. I walked up to him. His stomach growled loudly. He curled into a tight ball. I walked up to him. I placed my hand on him. He jumped and looked up at me. His stomach growled again. "...I'm so hungry..." he said. I could barely understand him. A humanoid came in. "Hey!" They yelled. I didn't recognize their voice. They ran to me and grabbed my arm firmly. They dragged me out and back to building C.

"Why aren't you feeding him? What's 'level three quarantine'?" I asked. The humanoid paused, then stared at me. "How do you know about that?" They asked. "What? Level three quarantine? Um..." I said. "You know too much," they said. They walked me past the cell with my friends in it. The door had been fixed by then. "Isn't my cell back there?" I asked. No response. He took me to a white room with a solid steel door. He pushed it open, and the door was a foot or so thick. There was a chair, also seemingly made of steel. It had things to hold your arms down, like an electric chair. It scared me. The humanoid shoved me into the chair and secured my arms. "Wh-What's going on?" I stammered. No response. He secured my legs onto the legs of the chair. The things holding my arms and legs were also made of steel. They secured one more around my neck. It was really tight. The humanoid left the room. I felt the edges of the metal against my neck. It was extremely sharp. If I turned my head, I would cut myself.

Smiley (1st person)

I'd been able to get out of the door while a humanoid was fixing it. I'm not sure how they didn't notice me. I hid in the security room until they left. The clothing room was locked. I was about to come out when a humanoid holding Phil's arm came down the hill. I pressed against the wall and waited for them to pass. "Isn't my cell back there?" Phil asked once further down the hall. The humanoid didn't say anything. I waited until I saw the humanoid pass again, then I went to where he'd dropped Phil off. There was a large steel door. One I couldn't open. "Phil?" I asked. "Smiley!" He called. His voice was a bit muffled, but I could still understand him. "Umm... How do I open this door?" I asked. "Just push it!" He yelled. I leaned against the door, and it started to open. It took some effort, but I opened it enough to fit through. Phil was secured to a metal chair by metal band things. I came in and examined him. "Smiley..." he said. "Umm... I don't know how to get you out..." I said. Phil looked up at me with large eyes. He looked scared. He's never really scared, he's always the one to get us out of this kind of stuff.

I looked at where the band connected to the chair, but i didn't know what to do. I put my hand on it and pulled. Surprisingly, it came off pretty easily. I didn't the same with the rest of them. Phil wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him back. "Thank you, Smiley," he said. His stomach growled. "Are you okay?" I asked. "I'm starving..." he said. "If you're that hungry, we should go back to the cell. Maybe there's more food now," I said. "Never mind my hunger, we need to find Zack," he said. He led me to a room separated by a glass wall. Zack lay curled in a ball behind the Zack. Even with his back facing us, it was apparent that he was crying. Phil opened the door and went inside. I followed. "Zack..." Phil said. Zack sneezed again, then his crying continued. His stomach growled loudly. Phil grabbed his arm and hauled him up. Zack barely seemed to be able to stand. Phil allowed Zack to leaned on him. Zack kept sneezing and burning Phil. Halfway back to our cell, Phil seemed pretty burnt. "Here, Phil, let me take him," I said, starting to take Zack. "No!" He yelled, backing away from me. "Okay..." I said. Phil was badly burned by the time we got back to our cell.

Zack's sneezing was getting worse. "Is Zack okay?" Phred asked. "He needs to eat something. Has any food been delivered?" Phil asked. "Um..." Pico said. "...Yeah, but we ate it. We didn't know when you'd be back," Pico said. "Ugh!" Phil said, clearly annoyed. Zack gagged, then he started coughing. He coughed a puddle of yellow onto the floor. He gasped. He sniffled and started crying again. The yellow stuff looked more like mucus than bile. Zack's stomach growled again. Phil was obviously stressed. A humanoid opened our cell door and carelessly tossed a tray of 'food' into our cell. They left without saying anything. Phil immediately scooped it off of the floor and shoved it into Zack's mouth.

Zack choked for a second, then he swallowed it. That seemed to stop most of his stomach growling. Zack sneezed again. He clutched his chest and let out a cry of pain. Phil watched him, panicking. Zack cried loudly, his breathing becoming more rapid. Eventually, he stopped. He moaned. Zack tried to sniff, but he didn't seem to be able to. He opened his mouth and breathed shallowly. It occurred to me that whatever disease Zack had could be contagious. I didn't say anything. We were all tired, so we decided to try to sleep. As much as I needed to, I didn't allow myself to use the bathroom with all of my friends around. No one else did either. We all agreed that Zack should get the bed, even if it wasn't that comfortable anyway. The rest of us lay scattered on the floor. I forced myself to stay awake until everyone else was asleep. I didn't want to keep them awake with my snoring. It didn't really matter, since I couldn't sleep anyway.