•| Nefarious |•

28

Alex came in again, this time holding up a sign that said 'Don't kill him. -Aiden".  I looked up at him, he didn't seem like he was trying to play any tricks on me so I nodded slowly.

"I came to tell you the truth, I want to help you guys."

Alex slowly sat on the end of the bed, his elbows on his knees as he spoke.

"They tried to run a test on your friend Ashlyn. They wanted to see what would happen if she got close to the affected, well something definitely happened. She isn't hurt but she did kill the affected.

"She's not hurt at all I promise. I'm not supposed to tell you guys this stuff but I believe you should know, you should be trapped in here like monkeys."

I shook my head a bit in disbelief, I wanted to not believe him but I do know he's telling the truth.

"You were there when they hurt me, why didn't you help me?"

My voice was shallow, a slight whisper.

"I don't want to get in trouble then fired, I need them to trust me so I get information."

I nodded, he was right. He needed to be trusted so we can get out of here as fast as we can.

"I noticed you kids have stopped asking for each other, you've all been asking for ASL books too. You have a way to communicate...right?"

—————

"Guys seriously let me up!"

Ashlyn complained, she sat on the floor with Taylor and Aiden on top of her. Everyone was worried but they were especially. I sat on the bed next to Tyler, we both had fresh-ish wraps on while we relax into each other.

"So this man 'Maverick' wants to help us?"

Tyler looked down, thinking of what the man would want.

"Don't ignore me! And no I doubt it. By the way Ben described his looks, he was the man standing next to the woman who put us in this mess. It seemed as if he was her boss. He doesn't want to help us, he wants to use us."

Ashlyn struggled against Aiden and Taylor who weren't letting go any time soon.

"...it doesn't matter. If we join him and destroy this place, we'll have our freedom back and we can deal with them later."

Ben played over a voice over on his phone.

"He never said we would be free, though. Just that his group wants to burn down the facility."

I said, rubbing my fingers on the bridge of my nose.

"Ben, we're just as upset about this, but we can't rush into trusting this guy."

Taylor's voice was muffled against Ashlyn's skin.

"We can't rush into it...but do we have a chance? Alex offered to do whatever he can to help us escape... but escape and taking this place down are two different things.

"This is the government. We'd have to leave the country or something and even then we could still be tracked, as well as we likely wouldn't be able to escape and free our parents at the same time."

Logan spoke up from the wall across from me.

"I agree with Ben and Logan...we join this group, take down the facility down, and if maverick turns on us, then we deal with him. I'd rather go up against some vigilante group than the government."

Aiden's voice was full of exhaustion, he looks like he hasn't slept in days. As a matter of fact we all do, we all look like we've been dead.

"So what exactly is he wanting us to join him for?"

I groaned as I flopped back onto the bed, immediately regretting that choice from the stinging in my chest.

"...he thinks that we can potentially open 'rifts' between our two dimensions. That if we can figure out how to control it then we can mess with their systems like what happened with Ashlyn earlier.

"But it wasn't just Ashlyn, all of the cameras in our rooms blacked out except Ashlyn's since she was in that other room. The only reason our lights didn't stay off was because there was a backup generator for them, but it takes a bit for the camera system to reboot. At least that's how he explained it."

Ben informed us.

"So basically he's saying if we all hold hands believe in the power of friendship, we'll make a 'rift' large enough to completely screw over their systems? This is giving me a headache."

Tyler threw his head in his hands groaning.

"I need the aspirin more than you."

Aiden laughed out.

"I just want to go home..."

Taylor mumbled into Ashlyn. Everyone was silent trying to figure everything out, we all have been through so much that we can't move forward from frustration.

"...let's take a break for tonight."

Ashlyn said, we decided to play a big game of monopoly that Aiden had in his room.

"Aiden- I know I seen you this time. Stop taking from the bank!"

Tyler yelled, his back leaning against the wall next to me.

"I'm not! I'm only taking what I landed on!"

"You took 200 extra then you were supposed too!"

Logan laughed lightly at their antics,

"Aiden...I'll be the banker from now on."

"You landed on my property, you owe me 1200."

Ashlyn hugged a pillow.

Aiden yelled out, his hands on his head,

"Why is everyone attacking me?!"

"It's the karma from cheating."

Taylor laughed, Ben agreeing with her with a nod. They both worked on bracelet making stuff, making a bracelet that spelt 'SBG.'

"SBG?"

Ashlyn asked her.

"The school bus graveyard. I figured it was where we all hung out the most...so it felt right adding it, like a group name or something. It became a safe place. A home for all of us I guess...I miss it."

Taylor's head hung with sadness,

"We'll make it back."

Ben's phone said as he tapped her leg with his hand.

"..well I mean, we've always been in a bad situation. Since Savannah anyways. What made it bearable wasn't really where we were but more that we had company during it. I always miss it though."

Logan's head also hung low, they were losing hope.

"Basically- we've just got to make this place entertaining till we can get back to the graveyard."

Aiden leaned back onto his hands making Tyler scoff,

"...right. And how are we going to do that?"

"Dunno yet."

"...how about we each add a color to those. And we can re-make them when we wake up too."

I smiled at Taylor.

"Oh yeah sure."

She smiled back.

We all made matching bracelets deciding on a color, I chose a dark blue bead to add for my color. We decided to relax for the night and get some rest so we all cuddled up on the corner of the bed.

I had my head on Tyler's chest, his arm wrapped around my waist as we all tried to keep warm and get some rest.