Walls

Chapter 9

A delicious smell was wafting through the hallways as we walked back towards the stairs (me peeking over the railing more than a couple of times). Ducky was moving very fast.

'I wonder what's for lunch?' He said while turning and walking backwards to face the rest of the group. 'It might be pork. No no no, wait. It's gotta be chicken. Or maybe-'

'Maybe it's duck,' I chimed in. Liv snorted and Felix gave me a high five. Ducky frowned.

'You're already starting to fit in,' Said a smiling Felix.

We stopped and turned to face an-an elevator?

'Wait. You're telling me that I walked down four flights of stairs with Darius when there was a freaking elevator?'

Ducky turned towards me giggling. 'It's kind of his thing Maybe it's his idea of an initiation?'

'He did it to all of us. I guess it is kind of a 'welcome to your new home' thing.' Suggested Felix.

Did everyone get that?

'He said that to you guys too? 'Welcome to your new home'?'

'Yeah,' answered Liv, 'with the same happy-face-and-sad-eyes thing going on.' She pressed the 'down' button on the elevator. 'He hates saying that, you know. He hates taking us away from our families and friends.' The elevator door slid open and we all stepped in. It was only a little cramped, but that was probably because Ducky had put his feet on the railing and was laying across the elevator. 'But it's for our own good. We'd all probably be dead, or coming close to it, without Darius.' Felix nodded and Ducky grunted in agreement.

Liv pressed a button that had an 'H' scratched into it and the doors slid closed. The elevator lurched a little bit and we started to move downwards at a relatively quick pace.

According to the elevator, we had been on floor 27. I watched as the number steadily decreased all the way down to one, at which point the elevator lurched again and Ducky fell off of the railing.

The doors slid open and we stepped into the area I immediately recognized to be the hall at the bottom of the building. There was a small elevated round stage in the middle. Circular tables with five or six chairs each were littered everywhere around the large room. I looked around in amazement, then looked up to find the gigantic glass dome letting in weak sunlight. The rain had stopped during the meeting.

There were tons of other people milling around the room, sitting in tables or conversing with others. The slight hum of conversation was filling the room and echoing off the walls.

Surrounding the walls of the room were long tables built to fit the curve of the building, currently filled with food and drink of all kind. I noticed at least six roasts before Ducky pushed past me and practically ran towards a table filled with deserts. He loaded his plate while the three of us sauntered around the room, plates in hand, looking for something other than deserts to eat.

We all met up at one of the tables near the stage and sat down. I, particularly, was starving. I wasn't sure why until I brought it up.

'Well, you were out for almost three days. I'd be hungry.' Said Felix, playing with a piece of steak on his plate.

'Three days?' I coughed and almost spat juice everywhere.

Liv took a bite of her food. 'Yeah. Once you stabbed Ducky, we kind of realized that you wouldn't just walk out easily with us. So Ducky used one of the tranquilizers we're given in case of an emergency. Except,' she stared at Ducky with a face of annoyance, 'our good friend here used the amount typically needed for a two hundred-pound man.'

Ducky choked on the cookie he was devouring almost fell off his chair, and in the process, knocked his fork off the table. After waiting a moment, he looked up to face me.

'It was an accident, I was kind of panicking-I mean, well..' He added in seeing the look on my face. I wasn't at all mad, just really confused. 'You kind of stabbed me, so I just.. Uhm..' He fumbled awkwardly with the fallen fork, shrugged, then continued to eat in silence.

And then it dawned on me.

The bandage on his arm-

I stabbed someone. I stabbed someone. I literally stabbed someone called Ducky.

'I'm an idiot-' I facepalmed, 'Oh my god, I am so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing, you were grabbing me and I-I panicked. I didn't know what was happening or who you guys were or why you were-' Ducky put up a hand to stop me.

'It's fine, Blair. It happens. It's honestly not that uncommon. Liv ended up stabbing Darius with a piece of glass from the window they broke.' Ducky smiled at me, then continued to shovel food into his mouth. I smiled weakly and returned to my food as well.

After a moment of silence, I decided that, since I'll be spending a lot of time with these people, I may as well get to know them better. I was directly opposite of Felix so I figured I may as well start there.

'So, um.. Felix? What's your, um.. Story.. If that makes sense..?' God, that was awkward.

Felix put his fork down and smiled.

//Okay, so I think I'm just gonna do little chapters for each of their backstories, so it might take a little bit but I'll work as fast as possible :)//