•| Nefarious |•

30

"Ashlyn??"

Mike quickly got off his daughter throwing his hands up, Aiden and Taylor didn't notice him so they went to attack but Ben quickly pulled them back.

"Kids??"

Mike looked at all of us in confusion.

"How...what are you doing here?"

Ashlyn was cut short from a large 'Help' screamed out from the hall.

"I don't know, but the others are here too. We need to hurry."

Mike helped Ashlyn up as we looked at him in confusion. We ran down the hall, Mike shooting away phantoms.

"Mike!"

Was yelled from the right as we emerged kicking down phantoms. I looked at the others and saw my dad with a crowbar, protecting the group.

"Logan, go ahead of us and use the card to find a decent room to hide in. Ben, Tyler and Y/n give the others flashlights and guns. Taylor, you're with me. And Aiden-"

Ashlyn stopped seeing the boy passed out in Mike's arms.

"What's wrong with him, why did he pass out?!"

"...never mind. Just put him back into the chair... Taylor help me and mom keep the phantoms at bay while the others work."

We eventually fought off enough phantoms to make it safely in a room, everyone was out of breath and shocked.

"That was too much."

I leaned back against the door trying to catch my breath.

"Okay...now that we aren't in the open anymore. Can someone explain what is going on here?"

Logan looked at everyone.

"No, we're the ones who need an explanation! Why is Aiden like this?!"

His mother complained, Tyler shoving his fist into his face to hold him back.

"Because refuses to listen to instructions."

I mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Look, we did the talking first last time. It's your turn to tell us what happened."

Ashlyn looked towards her dad,

"...well...we aren't sure honestly. But before anything, we just need to make sure you kids are okay."

Ashlyn's parents wrapped their arms around her, the other parents doing the same with their own kids. I ran over to my dad throwing my arms around his shoulder as he hugged me,

"I'm so happy you're alright, I thought I would never see you again."

He let out a sign of relief. We pulled away as his eyes went to the bloody bandage on my chest.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here to save you, I wish I could've prevented this."

"Dad no. It's not your fault so don't blame yourself, I'm okay that's all that matters, right?"

He gave me a nodded and pulled me in for another hug. Everyone sat around the room waiting for someone to start talking about our situation.

"...okay, we'll start off with what happened after I dropped you kids off at the school."

Ashlyn's dad went on to explain how he was attacked in the car waiting on Ashlyn, Ben, Taylor and Logan to finish finding the keys at the school. He tried to fight back but he was outnumber and they injected him with something that made him pass out.

He later woke up with Aiden's dad splashing water onto his face, Ashlyn's mom tried to fight when they showed up to the house but they were all out numbered and couldn't hold back.

We were taken away but lily was left with them, which she said is because they were scared because she bit them. But a man, named Charlie, from a different cell talked to them, he had a bird tattooed onto his hand and said they would probably never see us again. Because who ever goes up has never came back down.

"What a bunch of bull, they don't think we're mentally ill. They gave us some stupid excuse about a zombie fungus or whatever."

Tyler leaned forward as Aiden still rested on his shoulder.

"Everyone upstairs was either staff, infected, or in a coma. Us seven were the only exception. So I assume those they brought from downstairs...they did something to cause them to fall unconscious until they turned into infected monsters."

Ashlyn held her head in frustration.

"Wait, so how did you all get into this dimension?"

Ashlyn's mom questioned and continued.

"We don't know. We were downstairs for a couple weeks and weren't able to come up with a solid way to escape. But last night, everything was eerily quiet, and Charlie wasn't in his cell.

"So after an entire day, and some suspicious lock picking skills we were able to get out of the cell. Lying at the entrance of the stairs were the guard's guns and supplies, so we took some of those and found a utility closet to arm ourselves.

"Mike went ahead to scout, we got surrounded by those creatures, and then you kids came out of nowhere."

"Hey when did this happen?"

Mike grabbed Ashlyn's arm inspecting the pale scar.

"...months ago, when this all started. It's not a big deal, the others have scars too. Aiden took a picture of the map from the laptop on the phone we found, right?"

Ashlyn brushed off her dad and stood up going towards Aiden, I responded with a small 'Yeah.'

As she reached to grab the phone Aiden shot up and grabbed her arm yelling,

"Hello?! What's going on? Where we at?"

Ashlyn jumped a bit but then rolled her eyes,

"I'm looking at the map you took a picture of."

"Welcome back to the land of the living. Now get out of my chair."

Tyler kicked Aiden out of his seat causing him to fall on top of Ashlyn.

"Hey you brat! Don't push my kid when he's obviously injured!"

"Don't call him a brat when your child was the one who was reckless in the first place. He has his own chair and left it."

"Don't start fighting, it's annoying."

Ashlyn and her dad said in sync.

"...I was the one who pulled you guys in. First it was Taylor, Tyler, Y/n, Logan, Ben and Aiden at the Sorrel house. And now you guys. It was my fault."

Ashlyn looked down at the photo on Aiden's phone.

"It's not!"

"You!"

"Ashlyn it's really!"

All of us tried stopping her but Tyler spoke up.

"Don't be melodramatic. If you did pull us in, there's gonna be a way to pull us out and anyone else you decided to drag in here."

"I didn't decide to bring anyone here."

"Yeah, then stop acting like it, carrots for brains"

"Ash doesn't even like carrots you half-wit."

Aiden sat up.

"...the conversation is deteriorating."

"I kind of imagined you guys being a lot cooler."

"Welp, sorry to disappoint but you're way off."

I responded to Lily.