Silence

Escapists?

No... they wouldn't have left him there alone, and they would have triggered the alarms. Justin knew they hadn't escaped, but where could they be? The boy was only gone for 15 minutes max. He sat in the corner of the room and thought of escaping. He couldn't understand why people weren't smart about it.

     There are 4 exit doors riddled with alarms, if a runner opens one, they have to be  prepared to run. They have to run a quarter of a mile before they reach the fence. The fence is 12 feet high and the runner has to climb that distance. Once they successfully climbed then they have to jump off and run into the woods to look for the game master. Oh, and they are being chased by predators the whole time.

     Justin was more frightened about escaping than staying. So he stayed, he stayed in the corner of the room curled up into a ball. The boy waited for his friends to get back, he was too scared to do anything else. It was still early morning so they had the whole day to come back. 10 minutes grew into 30 minutes and that grew into an hour of just waiting. A normal person would go crazy but not Justin; he liked it. It was now close to mid day and his pact had not come back, he knew they would come eventually. Everyone's stuff was still neatly placed on the side.

     What to do while waiting? Well he could always sleep, that passes time and preserves energy. The boy took a pillow from the bed and put it next to him. Only moments later he fell asleep. The only thing that could wake him up were footsteps. Almost as if the universe didn't want him to rest. The footsteps of multiple people trailed up the stairs. It could be his pact! Justin sat up straight and fixed his hair, he was so ready for them!

It... wasn't them. Some other group managed to find their hideaway. Justin slumped back down and started to write. He handed the strangers the note,

Hello there. My name is Justin, I have a pact already and this is our base. I'm sorry if you have been traveling for a while but you cannot stay.

The people nodded and left with a hurry. It pleased him that they didn't put up a fight. He went back to his nap hoping that when he woke up his pact would be there. He dreamed of being back home away from all of this. God, the boy didn't even know where he was, all he knew was that he was in some sick game. He dreamed of being home with his mom and sister, cooking and getting ready for Christmas, and inviting the family over. Christmas was one of the only times that Justin saw his father. His mom says he's away in the Dominican Republic working as a doctor.

     Hours had passed, but to Justin, it felt like 10 minutes. He woke up to more foot steps, the teen shot up out of bed and made himself look presentable. It was them! His friends! They came back! Justin ran to them and hugged his teammates tightly; they hugged back. It was a wonderful reunion, they all felt love. Everyone sat down and started asking questions on what happened. Justin didn't even know what happened to him, he just frozen and started to shake. Mathew grabbed the notebook and started to write two words,

Panic attack

     It finally clicked for him. He had a panic attack. it had never happened before, so why did it happen know? Justin didn't understand much about himself anyways, he didn't understand why he was nervous and scared most of the time, he didn't understand why he got fidgety when in class. He didn't bother looking into himself, the more issues he had the worse it was for him. The group disregarded the writing and they celebrated being together again. That seemed to cheer them up a lot. They started to eat the can of chef Boyardee meat raviolis. The food wasn't horrible, but it wasn't the best. Once the team had finished they talked about a game plan for tomorrow. They needed to get more food so they wouldn't starve to death.

In the middle of their plan they heard banging on the door. It was hard and loud. Noah grabbed it bat and walked slowly to the door. The banging only increased in volume; it became more frantic. You could hear screaming from the end of the hall. There were multiple people under attack. Noah opened the door and yanked the person inside only to close the door again. The screaming down the hall continued and the sounds of fighting. A crash in the kitchen followed by more banging. Noah ran up the stairs with this stranger and put them to the side. He motioned Matthew over, the two men carried the desk down the stairs and barricaded the door.

Multiple screams could be heard from the hallways now; the growling of predators was apparent. Their teeth sank into their victims and they tore those people apart. The cracking of bones make Justin flinch, it was the worst sound in existence. The screaming slowly came to an end after the slaughter. Blood was everywhere. The porous wood could only take in so much of it. The blood pooled around, what is now, unrecognizable people. Their faces had been chewed off and their bodies were scraps of meat on bone. They had been brutally scalped during the fight. The remaining pieces of clothing were black from the amount of blood on them.

Noah and Matthew came back up to the main living space. They looked over at the person in the corner. It was a little girl around 14 years old. She had dark hair and dark eyes. Her skin was a lighter tone which made her freckles more apparent. She hand glasses as well. The little girl was scared and stood in her corner. The only thing that could come out of her mouth was

Thank you