Ryan: I Must've Overslept...

Ugh... My head was killing me...

...Did I feel a breeze in here? Why was it so cold? I scrunched myself into a tighter fetal position, hoping to provide some warmth. I groped around for my blanket, but I couldn't find it. Why was the mattress so hard?

I finally opened my eyes and sat up, unable to sleep. What time was it, anyway? I rubbed my eyes before looking around the room.

What...? I snapped my eyes open, fully awake now. It looked like I was in... some kind of... metal... room? More like a metal hallway. The walls were WAY too narrow, I could barely fit in between them without having to scrunch up.

...Geez, it sure was freezing in here. I tried to pull my jacket closer to me, only to find that it had been sliced to ribbons, along with my shirt underneath.

What the...

At least my pants were still in one piece, thank goodness.

The question was, how did I even get here? And where exactly was "here", anyway?

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a sudden banging on of the walls.

"Hey, anyone in here?" A deep, gruff voice shouted from outside. It sounded a lot like... Kyle? What was he doing here?

"It won't open..." I heard him mutter momentarily before resuming to pound on the walls again.

After a couple seconds the metal door slid open, and there stood Kyle in the doorway, his fist raised in mid-air, obviously stopped mid-pound. Standing next to him was none other than Lucas, looking as calm as ever.

I assumed that Kyle wasn't the one who had opened the door.

"Ryan?" Kyle asked with a surprised look when he saw me. I imagine I must've been a pretty sorry sight, shivering on the floor without a shirt and all.

"Hey, guys," I managed to stutter through chattering teeth.

"What happened to you?" Kyle asked with a slight smirk, nodding towards my shredded shirt. "It looks like you fought a tiger or something."

"It appears," Lucas said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "that Ryan couldn't completely avoid the lasers."

Lasers? So that's what happened to me?

As far as I knew, we only had lasers in one place, and that was in one of the traps on the way to Guild.

So did that mean that we were somewhere on the route to Guild? Then where were the others?

Urgh... I was so confused...

Kyle chuckled as he started unbuttoning his jacket. "I'm guessing that you don't quite get what's going on yet. Here," he said, tossing his jacket to me, leaving only the shirt he had on underneath for him to wear.

"Thanks," I muttered as I shrugged my arms through the sleeves and closed the buttons over my bare skin. I felt a smile twitching at my lips, not that I would let it show.

Kyle usually tried to act all tough and heartless. But no matter how you cut it, he was just a really nice guy.

Even if he was an idiot at times.

Then he and Lucas told me about what had happened, how everyone in the Battlefront was on their way to Guild when they realized that the traps were still active. Not to mention that Angel was on her way down as well.

Geez, how could I not remember any of this?

So did that mean that Lucas, Kyle, and I died? Already?

Man, I was losing my touch.

If I was just a little skinnier, then maybe I would've been able to avoid the lasers...

"C'mon, Ryan," Kyle said as he and Lucas began walking through the metal hallway and out the door on the other side. "Let's get going."

"Going?" I asked as I hurried to my feet to catch up with the two of them. "Where?"

"We need to hurry," Kyle said, quickening his pace a bit, "if we want to catch up with everyone else."