I felt it would be rather fitting to make the ninth chapter from Trent's POV. Don't you agree?
-X-
TRENT
10:45 A.M.
SMALL OFFICE
-X-
"…Aren't you done yet, man?"
"No."
"Dude… how long have you been…'venting' anyway?"
"I'd tell you, but I wasn't keeping track."
"What are you even typing about?"
"Things not meant to be seen by mortal eyes."
"…Okay, dude. Get away from the typewriter."
"No."
"Cody?"
He looks up at me. "Hmm?"
I frown. Cody had been lost in thought nearly the whole time we were in here. He barely spoke at all. And I think I know why…
Dude… You gotta get over her, man.
I know that's not the best thing to say (why do you think I'm not saying it?), but it's true. He needs to move on. Maybe he'll find a relationship in one of the other girls? I hear Beth likes him… and Sadie mentioned him a few times…
"Dude?"
My thoughts are broken by his voice. "Uh… Can you get Noah to stop? We probably should start going."
"Yeah, Izzy's so bored right now, Izzy wants to throw typewriter at Trent's large head," Izzy replies, scaring me a little with that last part.
"Alright, FINE! I'm done!" Noah growls at us as he stands up. "Sorry I was such a damn inconvenience to each and every one of you."
"Hey, man," Cody starts, "you're not an inconvenience. You just need to chill, dude."
I cringe slightly, waiting for what would possibly be another explosion of pissed off from the brainiac, but instead he loosens his shoulders. "You're right."
Wow… How the hell did Cody do that?
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Gwen inquires. "Let's get out of here!"
None of us hesitate to oblige.
(The door opens and shuts quickly.)
"Guys? Oh, thank God!"
My eyes widen. Duncan?
"Duncan!" Gwen shouts happily (perhaps TOO happily?) and hugs him tight (perhaps TOO tight?). I roll my eyes. Okay, so I'm a little jealous. But still… can you blame me? I mean, they have a lot in common, and it scares me.
It really scares me…
"Where's your team?" Cody suddenly asks. Huh, I didn't even notice he was alone.
Duncan frowns. "Courtney and I… we're the only ones left…"
…W-What?
"NO!" Gwen shouts. "Bridgette…? Geoff…?" He nods, and Gwen just breaks down. She's not even making any sounds.
Quickly, I wrap my arms around her. "Gwen, shh… It's okay… It's okay…"
"N-no… No it's not. They're…" She can't finish her sentence. God, why did this have to happen? Why?
Cody suddenly seems to pop up out of nowhere. "Look, there's nothing we can do about them now, but we can still make it out of here." He tries to smile at us, but I can tell it's fake.
But somehow it works. "Okay," Gwen slowly nods, still sobbing silently. She doesn't smile, but I can tell she's in much better shape.
First Noah… now Gwen…
Damn, Cody, how do you do it?
"Wait… You said Courtney was still with you, right?" Noah asks, and I mentally slap myself in the forehead for not noticing that either. "Where is she?"
Duncan sighs. "Courtney… doesn't know about the zombies. She thinks I'm making it up to scare her, and she ran off to look for the case herself."
"Why didn't you go after her?" Izzy asks.
"Are you insa—nevermind. Look, I'm not armed. I can't defend myself against zombie attacks if I don't have something to fend them off!"
"That's no excuse," Izzy says, waving a finger at him.
BANG! BANG!
HOLY CRAP!
Gwen, who was already terrified before, is now shivering up against me… not that I don't mind. I just wish it'd be under different circumstances.
I hear doors open—the doors we had entered through earlier.
Gwen's the first one to react. "Leshawna!" She breaks free from my grasp, and the two embrace each other in a hug. Of course, I smile—Gwen's happiness is strangely contagious.
"Now, c'mon! Let's get out of here!"
"Not so fast, Shawnie."
The sound of a gun cocking erases the sudden burst of good mood we just had.
"I don't know about you guys, but I ain't leavin' without Princess."
Oh, man…
Duncan explains to Leshawna about Courtney and reveals he's going after her.
"Duncan, you're not going by yourself, are you?" I sigh inwardly. There she goes again… right into his arms, practically. Or at least she might as well have. Ugh! Gwen, you do realize he's in a relationship, right? And you are too?
…Damn it! I gotta stop thinking like that… They're just friends. She's just concerned. This… damn place is just getting to me, that's all.
…At least… I hope so, anyway…
Besides, she's right. Courtney may not be the nicest person in the world, but to leave her here would be just plain cruel. So I agree to this rescue mission. Heh heh… Rescue mission… That sounds pretty cool… or at least it would if our lives weren't at stake.
Chef then hands us weapons, and thankfully Izzy doesn't get one. I don't know much about guns, really, but I could tell the differences between certain types. Like, I knew what the shotgun looked like, and I could see a notable difference in the handgun Chef gave Cody and the other handguns. I assume ours are… more common? I don't know, honestly.
Chef gives us a small pep talk about ammunition, and soon we are on our way.
We come to a fork in the hallway, and decide to go left first. There's only one door, and it's a restroom.
So we go the other way.
Near the end of the hall, there's a door going right and a door heading straight. Chef quickly checks the door to the right, and tells us it's another restroom. Then, we head through the door ahead of us.
(The door opens slowly, creaking softly.)
It's a stairway leading down.
Chef goes first, followed by Duncan. I follow, and judging by the gentle hands on my shoulders I can only assume Gwen's right behind me. I smile. "Don't worry, Gwen. We'll be fine."
"Hmm?"
Hmm? I turn around. "What do you mean 'hm'—Izzy?!"
"What? What did I do?"
"Please give me my shoulders back, Izzy."
"Oh, sorry."
We reach the end of the stairway, and enter through the door.
(The door opens slowly, creaking softly.)
We're in a circular-shaped room. Taking up most of the space in the room is a large cylindrical machine.
The door behind us opens again, and Chris, Cody, and Leshawna appear. "What'd we miss?" Chris asks, while Cody and Leshawna gape in awe at the strange contraption in the middle of the room.
Harold offers to inspect the machine, and leaves us by the door. About a minute later, he comes back. "Apparently, this machine controls the switches on the above floor. I'm assuming it's referring to the doors in the entryway, but I could be wrong."
"Makes sense to me," Leshawna says.
Harold continues. "Also, I noticed a door to the right and a ladder on the other side of the machine. I'll check out the room first. If I'm not out in sixty seconds, just go on without me. I'll catch up."
With that, Harold separates from the group, and we wait.
…And wait…
…And wait…
…And wait…
I could tell Leshawna was getting more and more anxious. Hell, so was I! Harold said he'd be back in under a minute. He didn't.
"LOCKDOWN PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN ACTIVATED."
What the hell?!
"TWO HOURS BEFORE LOCKDOWN PROCEDURES TERMINATE."
…You're kidding, right?
Dammit…
-X-
11:16 A.M.
CIRCULAR ROOM
-X-
We can't wait for Harold any longer, so we decide to go on without him, just like he told us to do.
As Harold explained to us before, there's a ladder on the other side of the room, and we use it.
(Clink, clank, clink, clank, down the ladder we go…)
We're in another small room, with yet another typewriter.
And Noah heads over to it right away.
I groan. There's no time for that!
Duncan apparently agrees, as he leaves the room, with the majority of us in tow.
(The door opens slowly, creaking softly.)
"Alright, so we're down a few people… no big deal," Duncan says. "And they would've held us back anyway."
Leshawna quickly replies to Duncan's statement.
The door behind us opens. "W-W-Wait up!" It's Cody and Izzy. "Don't forget about us. Noah says he'll be right behind us. Just give him a few minutes."
Then Duncan, once again, leads us into another argument. Ugh… great… Gwen, how do you deal with this guy?
…
I really need to stop thinking like this…
In the room behind us, Noah uses the typewriter…