Are You Worthy?

Day 11

I look at Alex, waiting for him to possibly answer me.

He stares back at me, his eyes burning holes in my soul. He finally answers. "No."

No? "Why not?" I ask.

"Because I said so. I hardly even know you, and that's kind of a big deal for me."

This is stupid. It can't be that bad, I mean, obviously he got over it.

"Besides," he begins again. "I haven't ever told anyone. I can't trust you yet."

"Ok," I lie, putting on my best understanding face. "No, I get it. It's totally fine." I smile a friendly smile, one that says I get it, but it has just a sarcastic hint of oh my God I can't believe you won't tell me, I thought we were friends.

We sit, once again, in silence. Oh my God, I might actually die of boredom.

"Well, we should get going," he says as he tries to stand up. He must have forgotten we're in a vent, because he lightly hits his head on the top of the vent and lets out a small yelp before crouching down. I chuckle a little, and shoots me a friendly glare. I learn from his mistake, and crouch right from the start.

We crawl on our hands and knees through the dark vents. Good thing Alex is in the front, because if I was, we'd be lost.

"So, uh, what are we trying to accomplish by crawling through the vents?" I ask.

"We... are trying to... get out of here," he says between pauses of concentration. "Maybe... the vents lead... outside... or something."

"If the vents lead outside, how come no one thought to escape?"

Alex stopped, causing me to almost run into him. He turned his head back at me. "I don't know, but at this point, we have to try everything we can think of," he said. I could almost see his words floating from his mouth, outlined with "passive aggressive."

After what felt like two hours snaking through the vents, we reach a dead end.

"And... this probably goes outside," I say.

"Fuck!" He suddenly yells out. "Maybe... maybe we can push it down. Th-there has to be a way."

He starts pushing against the metal end of the vent. When he can't push it down, he starts kicking it, making loud crashing noises.

"Alex, stop it! You're going to hurt yourself!" I yell over the sound of him kicking the metal. He keeps kicking at it.

"Alex, stop!" I pull him away from the end of the vent by his arms. He slowly stops kicking at the air, and eventually he stops. I still have a tight grip around his arms when he stops.

Out of nowhere, he starts crying, a side of him I never thought I'd see.

"I just want to go home," he sobs. "And... and be with my family."

I don't know what to say. Sure, i want to see my family too, but i havent been here as long as he has. I couldnt imagine being seperated from everyone i love for as long as he has.

However long that may be.
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It takes a while to calm Alex down. As soon as he's settled down, we head the other way, hoping to find a new way out.

This time, im leading the way. Its a good thing there's only one possible way to go. For now.

It makes me uncomfortable knowing that if i stop, Alex's face will literally slam into my butt. So i dont stop.

"What's your biggest fear?" Alex asks me completely out of nowhere. It creeps me out for just a second, before i realize he's just trying to start a conversation.

Losing my family, I almost say, before remembering what happened earlier. Probably shouldnt say that.

"The dark," i say, which is partially true.

I hear alex snicker behind me.

"Whats so funny?" I jokingly question.

"Nothing, nothing," he says while trying to stop laughing.

"What are you afraid of?" I ask.

Before he answers, i burn my hand on the metal of the vents. "Agh!" I scream, clutching my hand.

"What happened?" Alex worriedly questions.

"The metal... it's... hot!"

"Don't go any further!"

"Duh!" I hiss. "How are we going to get across?"

"How is your hand?" He asks, ignoring my question.

"I'm fine. How are we going to get out of here? That direction is a dead end, and this direction is all hot!"

"I have an idea," he says.

He takes his shirt off. My eyes widen. What the hell is he doing?

He rips his shirt in half. Ahhh, ok. He hands me me one half, and keeps the other for himself.

"Put this under your hands, and crawl on it. When you get to the vent cover, pull it up, and jump out," he hurriedly explains.

"Okay," I answer, skeptically.

I place my hands on his shirt, and crawl. I start sweating as I inch closer and closer to the vent cover.

"Alex, is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?" I ask.

No response.

"Alex?"

"Morgan," he finally answers.

"Jesus, Alex, don't-"

"Hurry! Go go go!" He suddenly shouts.

I turn around to see what's wrong. Behind Alex, a bright orb is racing towards us. It looks like a ball of fire.

"Go, please, go!" Alex pleads.

My mind spins as I speed up, hurrying to get to the vent cover, the heat rising with every movement.

I see the vent cover ahead. Yes! I crawl as fast as I can to get to the vent cover. I lace my fingers around the edge of the cover, and pull it up. I jump through, landing on the hard linoleum floor of the hallway.

I roll over, and Alex falls through, landing right where I was, the rushing noise of the fire ball above us. Good thing I scooted over.

"What the hell was that?" Alex asks once the rushing noise stops.

"It looked like a damn fireball. Why was it in the fricking vent?" I answer.

Once again, we are in dead silence.

Alex breaks the peaceful quiet.

"I think I need to tell you how I got here."
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Omg I finished this chapter last night and uploaded it, but there was some stupid conflict or something and it told me to click the version I wanted so I clicked the one closest to the time I edited it last but it was the VERSION THAT WAS NOT FINISHED so I has to re-finish it and now I'm re-publishing it and I swear if i have to do this for a third time I just won't update sooooo lets home it works. 🙃