The 4th Subject

Chapter 30: Lost in the Smoke

Matt made a video telling our viewers that we were going on a short break to prepare ourselves for the foreseeable future. Sam, Woods and I sat in the front common area, casting nervous glance at each other.

"I've never not uploaded before," I whispered to them as Matt's door finally opened.

"Same," Sam said, grabbing the rig from the desk. "this is gonna be kind of weird."

"Samantha!" Matt called from MegaOffice. I giggled as Sam jokingly rolled her eyes.

She started filming and Matt explained to the viewers what was going on. Woods and I stayed where we were. Woods kept on looking at me. I knew why.

I confided in Woods about a lot. I don't know what's different about him, but there's something about him that makes me feel...connected to him. It confused me, but I didn't fight it. And since I told him more than I told the others, every other day, he'd give me a stare down about my latest problem I need to share with the group.

"Woods, please."

"We're about to go on a break." Woods said. "You're literally about to go home, which is on the other side of the country, for three months."

"Two and a half," I mumbled.

"Deb said you need to communicate with us. All of us."

I sighed.

"You're right, you're right. I will once we're done filming."

Suddenly, the power went out.

"My chair's dead," we heard Matt say moments before the sound of awkward shuffling. I peeked into his office to see him struggling to get out of his fully reclined MegaChairs. I laughed as he stood.

"Having some trouble over there?"

"Laugh all you want," Matt muttered before addressing Woods. "Let's make sure the editors are on backup power banks?"

"I'm pretty sure they've been backed up," Woods said, "they should be fine."

The weird feeling suddenly came back. The one that felt like Deja vu. I still didn't understand what it was, all I knew was that whenever I felt it, things went wrong.

A smell pierced my thoughts. I took a deeper whiff.

"Do you guys smell that?" I said, interrupting their conversation about the Nerf battle they had last time the power went out.

They all began taking deep breaths in.

"What is that?" Matt questioned, his face scrunching.

"It kind of smells like..." I took another smell. "It kind of smells like a campfire. No, no, that's not it, it's like..."

"Smoke." Sam finished.

"Yeah, like a weird smoky smell."

"No, I see smoke. It's coming from the vents."

I looked up to where she was pointing the camera to see a thin cloud of smoke seeping from the vent above Woods' head.

"Ok, if there's smoke coming out of the vents, we need to get out." Matt said, opening the front door. "Woods, check upstairs for anyone, Sam and I will check the back. Sarah, stay up here and help people find their way out."

We nodded and began our respective tasks. Matt and Sam grabbed lights and gas masks before venturing deeper into the smoke while Woods disappeared upstairs. I made sure the door was propped open and kept a keen eye out for others as they emerged from the fog.

Bailey, Kevin, Shenelle, Mike and Nico came out, coughing and squinting, but otherwise ok. But if this is everyone...

"Where's Woods?" I questioned aloud.