Discord

Chapter ??? - Stupid Kieran

Chapter ??? - Stupid Kieran

I looked around the room, sighing. Practically empty, except for a broken looking computer setup and the portal held within a broken glass cannister at the end of the room.

Well, now what?

I glanced at Evan, checking his health and hunger bars. Health in pale green, hunger in deep orange. He panted heavily.

"What do we do now?" I said, wandering over to the computers and pressing them. There were lots of chunky monitors with old keyboards. I pressed a few buttons haphazardly, wondering if they were still functional.

"Wait here?" The boy replied, once he'd got his breath back. I heard his footsteps coming over to me and stop where I could see him beside me. "What is this?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's a control panel. But not important." I said, turning and leaning against the cool desk the monitors were thrown on. "We can't wait here for long."

"Why not? The door's not going anywhere, the others will come this way. With no other option, they'll come here, and considering you're the one with the key, they can only hope that you're here." He replied, turning and sitting against the desk, like me. When he realised he was too short to do it comfortably, he shuffled some useless junk out of the way and sat in the empty space on the surface.

"Well, because for one, we have no food. Elliot said you get hungry quickly, and you're already in the orange." I said, glancing at him. He shrugged.

"I'm okay. I just get to orange fast. After that it takes a while for me to starve." He said, looking around.

Jeez, there seems to be a reoccurrence of sitting and waiting with these guys. Are they lazy or do they have really strong faith in their companions? Or is it the complete opposite? Is Evan going to convince me to leave them after three days? I don't want to leave them behind.

Or do I?

They're pretty annoying. But, really. I'm not willing to sacrifice their lives for me.

I will not turn into Jordie.

I refuse to become inhuman.

I will retain my f*cking morals.

"Kieran?" Evan's voice brought me back to reality. Can I even say this is reality? Part of me is still praying that this is a dream.

"Sorry." I said with a weak smile. "Anyway, the other issue is that door isn't going to stay if the thing comes back."

"What do you mean? It's pretty sturdy." Evan looked at the door and the warped walls beside it. "Wait, you mean the walls? You think it's going to make a hole?"

"I... don't know. I hope not, but we can't eliminate that possibility. We don't know for sure that Brutes can't make holes in the walls, and considering that this... Mega Brute is double the Brute, it should have double the strength, right?" I looked at him for reassurance.

"You're smart." He smiled. I laughed.

"You should've seen my grades before I came here. All D's."

"That's a lie, I think you got higher grades."

I shrugged. "I've probably dropped grades, being here. I'm missing my GCSE's, for sure. Sh*t."

Oh well. No one cares about grades anyway. Right? It's all about experience.

"I'll probably still be able to get a job. Maybe." I said, stretching.

He chuckled. "Thinking of jobs at a time like this? It's nice to see you haven't lost hope of getting out."

"Hope's the only thing we've got in this world. Or any world for that matter. You've got to have hope in times of despair, or everyone will break down as soon as we hit the first bump in the road. The hope in each other, and that things will get better is usually the only thing empowering us to get through." I said, looking at him.