Wolves of Entertainment

12:00 p.m.

We came out of the room and immediately met with Tomas and Roberto right outside. They were holding five individually wrapped croissants, with Tomas having one hanging from his mouth. They saw our water and we exchanged items without saying anything.

"Did you find these inside a room?" asked Roberto after swallowing a mouthful. We nodded our heads as we took a bite.

"We found them in mine," answered Daniel, "Did you guys find a piece of paper with this?"

"Si. It was in my room, and said it was numero dos." Tomas held up two fingers. "After everyone left, we went back," he answered. "How lucky. I love croissants."

"Yeah, he does," Roberto confirmed. "This cabron can live off them. What about you guys? What number did you get?"

"I had number four in my room." Daniel gulped down the rest of his food. "Let's meet up with the others and see what they found."

As we walked, the twins and Brian came out of one of the rooms. This time the girls were wearing loose white shirts and old gray sweatpants, and Brian was carrying a box.

They spotted us and Desire waved. "Hey! Look what we found!" she pointed at her new found clothes. "They were inside a drawer here."

"Whose room was this?" I asked. Destiny pointed at her sister. Desire walked over and returned my suit jacket. I thanked her then looked at Brian. "And what are you holding?"

"It's a box full of- is that food?!" Brian dropped the box and took a croissant from Tomas, forgetting about my question. The twins' eyes widened and came closer. We handed everyone else the food and water. "Where'd you guys get these?" he asked with his mouth full.

"The water was found inside Daniel's room, and the croissants were found in Tomas's." I looked at Desire. "Did you find a note with a number written on it?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It was with the clothes. It said it was number 7."

"Okay, let's check all the open rooms for the supplies after. Looks like we were given some before the game started. How nice." I walked over to the box and opened it. It was full of old stethoscopes. Confused, I turned to Brian. "Did you have some sort of reason as to why you were carrying these, Brian?"

"Nah, just felt like using different ones to listen to my own heart, ya know? Or maybe play doctor for a bit," he answered as he finished his croissant. "I'm just kidding. Yeah, come." He picked up the box. "Follow me and I'll show you." Everyone filed behind him as he led us towards the eastern wall of the hospital. He walked up to a boarded window with a few cracks that let in sunlight. "Since we couldn't find anything to pry open the boards, I thought maybe these would work."

"You thought stethoscopes would work?" Tomas asked doubtfully.

"Ugh. Just listen to him, pretty boy," said Destiny. "I noticed that you like to think everyone is stupid." Tomas rolled his eyes.

"Okay," Brian drawled, "well I was thinking that we could slip one end of the stethoscope inside the crack and get it out from another." He took two out of the box and tied them together. "Then, we could tie 'em up together like this," he showed it to us like a sales person. "Afterwards, we pull the ends. If we pull hard enough, maybe the board will come off." The looks on our faces were unexpected to say the least. I was impressed.

"Not bad, Brian," Daniel congratulated as he stroked his chin. "But won't the stethoscopes break?"

"Probably!" he replied joyfully. That unexpected answer with an unexpected tone lightened everyone's mood. "Let's just give it a shot and find out."

The first thing we needed to do was to get the stethoscope through the cracks. This took us a while, and we took turns trying to get it through. The angling was always off, but it was Desire who got it through eventually. Once through, we started tying them together until we got about three feet of 'stethoscope-rope' on each side.

"That should do it," Brian said as he tied the last one. "Let's try it and hope for the best." The twins and my cousins took hold of one side of the rope while the rest of us took hold of the other. I wrapped the end around my wrist and forearm. "Everyone got a good grip?"

"Si," Tomas answered.

"Let's do it. On the count of three," Daniel instructed. Everyone lowered their stance and prepared. "One, two, three!" We all pulled for a few seconds, nothing happened. "Again. One, two, three!" We pulled again, but still nothing happened. This time, I felt part of the stethoscope-rope coming apart. "Okay, come on. Pull harder," he repeated. "One, two, three!" For the third time, we pulled. We kept pulling and pulling until the stethoscope I was holding snapped and detached from the rest causing me to stumble backwards.

"Shit!" Brian exclaimed, letting go of the stethoscopes and walking around.

"Let's make our rope a little thicker and stronger," I suggested. "Look, both sides are breaking apart." They examined them.

"Yeah, they are," Desire confirmed.

"Let's get another one through the cracks and make a second rope to attach to our first one. Afterwards, we'll try again," Roberto added.

"Okay, let's do it," I agreed. Desire, quickly this time, got another stethoscope through the cracks. We created another rope and attached it to our first one. Once everything was finished, everyone took hold again, but Roberto stopped us.

"Ah, hold on. Do not pull just yet," he told us. He took out a few more stethoscopes and began using them to tie together the two stethoscope-ropes we had. Once he was finished, I tugged it lightly and immediately felt it to be much more durable than our first. This time the ends of the rope were so thick that we had to hug them to get a secure grip.

"We'll count to three, but don't stop pulling like last time," I instructed. Everyone got a hold of it. "Okay, here we go." Daniel put his foot against the wall, ready to push off from it when we pull. Roberto followed, and everyone else repositioned themselves. Once everyone was ready, I started counting.

"One, two, three!" We pulled again as hard as we could and kept pulling. Our bodies kept getting lower and lower, putting our whole body weight into it.

"Come on, come on!" yelled Tomas. The girls were grunting, Roberto and Daniel had both of their feet on the wall now. The board creaked.

"Don't stop!" I commanded, "It's almost there!" We kept going until we were all screaming and grunting. I heard the board creak again, and then, without warning, it flung off the window. Daniel and Roberto fell flat and on their backs while everyone else fell on their asses. The board landed heavily and slid across the floor a few feet.

"Yes!" yelled Roberto triumphantly, quickly getting up and looking out the window. I looked around and saw hopeful smiles on everyone's faces.

"I can't believe that worked," I heard Brian say, followed by a short chuckle. "I'm the best," he declared.

Then, Roberto slapped his hand hard against the wall. "Ahh, seriously?!"

Our expressions quickly changed. "What's wrong?" I asked as I got up. Roberto walked away shaking his head, and I made my way to the window. I looked out and saw that it was barred from the other side. I looked down; if we weren't at the highest floor of the building, we'd be near it. I could see the road and the driveway that led to the entrance of the hospital. I looked ahead, and all I saw were trees as far as the eye could see. There was no way we'd be getting out through here. There was no way that anyone would hear our shouts for help.

I backed away and one by one they took turns to glance out the window. Brian was the last to go. "Never mind, I'm not the best."

Like ants finding salt, our newfound hope was quickly extinguished.