The typing ceases. The progress is saved.
DUNCAN
11:23 A.M.
SECOND BASEMENT HALLWAY
-X-
"You're just trying to scare me, Duncan. You don't want me to win the million dollars, do you?"
"Courtney…"
"You want Gwen to win it, don't you?"
"Courtney!"
"Don't lie to me, asshole! You wanted her to win the money all along!"
"If I remember correctly, I was on Team-Fucking-Owen in the final episode!"
"Only because I was on Team Owen."
"Well, there you go! You just poked a hole in your own logic, Princess!"
"How dare you! Hmph! I'm not leaving this place without that million dollars, and there's NOTHING you can do to stop me, Duncan!"
"…Dammit!"
-X-
I growl. The fucking bookworm was only holding us back anyway. I'm glad we left his ass behind.
Some people aren't too happy with this decision. What, they're afraid something bad is going to happen to Noah, too? Fuck it! Courtney's nowhere near as much of an asshole as Noah is, if that's what their problem is.
It's the same thing with Harold. He only said to wait a fucking minute, not fucking… what, ten? So much time wasted… and now they want to wait for NOAH?!
If Courtney's not alive when we find her, I'm personally taking these bastards out. I don't care! I've spent years in juvie—what difference is prison?
…Oh, great…
We're at the end of the hallway. There is a door on the left, a door on the right, and two doors ahead of us.
"Where do we go now, Chris?" Trent asks, and our "gracious" host taps his chin.
"Um… If I remember correctly, the four teams were supposed to disband here yet again," he says, and confirms it by pointing to the numbers on the doors, "1", "2", "3", and "4", of course. "I don't remember which one leads to the case the fastest…"
"We don't care about no case no more, Chris," Leshawna says.
"Yeah, we're looking for Courtney, dude," Cody adds.
"Oh, right. Yeah… I forgot…" I glare at the asshole in front of me as he chuckles nonchalantly. "Alright, we'll split up into groups. Chef and I will go through door number one, because I'm number one." I growl, and he quickly puts up his hands. "Kidding! Geesh! But yeah, we'll go that way, and you guys can figure the rest out on your own."
"…Alright, fine." I continue to glare at the host as he and Chef enter the door marked "1".
Gwen speaks up next. "Okay, so Trent and I will go down door number—"
"Hell, no!" I interrupt. "All that's going to do is cause some major fucking distractions. I told you that Geoff and Bridgette are already dead. Do you want his lips to be the nail on your coffin?"
I cringe at the death glare Gwen gives me. What can I say? She's pretty scary at times. Not that that's a bad thing, but I didn't mean to piss her off. We need to be focused if we're going to survive.
Luckily, Trent saves my ass. "It's cool, Gwen. Besides, I need to have a word with Duncan in private anyway."
She rolls her eyes, but agrees. "Fine. I guess I'm with Le—"
"I-CALL-LESHAWNA!!"
We all turn to Izzy, who smiles back at us. "What? I don't want to be the one to get in the way of Cody and Noah. No-sir-ee-bob. Third wheel never gets any attention. Besides! Cody's got a magnum. You should consider yourself lucky, scary lady."
"Ugh… FINE!" Oh, boy… This ought to be fun. Too bad I'm going to miss it.
…Ah, who am I kidding? I don't give a shit.
I suddenly hear heavy breathing from up the hall, and soon Noah appears. "…Dammit… I said I was coming, didn't I? Alright, now what's going on?"
It's at this point that I wonder why Trent and I are still fucking here.
"Come on, Elvis! Let's go!" I open door number four, across the hall from door number one, and we enter through it.
(The door opens slowly, creaking softly.)
We haven't even been down this hall for five seconds—"We need to talk."
"No, we need to focus," I sternly reply. "We need to survive. We'll have plenty of time to talk later."
"Not if we're dead."
I groan, but say nothing.
He continues. "Look, this is serious, okay? If I'm going to learn to trust you—"
I interrupt him—I see where this is going, and I don't like it. "Dude, if you have a brain in that big head of yours, you WILL shut up. Got it?"
I look away. Big mistake.
He shoves me down.
I fall to the floor, landing on my left arm. "AGH!" I turn onto my back and hold my arm in pain before looking up at my attacker. "What the fuck, man?!"
"Don't play dumb, hot shot! Now, I'm warning you. You better stay away from Gwen, or else."
I knew it. I slowly got up, still holding my arm. "Or else what, asshole?"
Big mistake number two.
He points his handgun at me.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" I hold up my arms defensively, though it probably won't help much. "Take it easy, dude." I admit, though, that I don't blame him. This facility is starting to get to me, too.
I think back to what I had thought before… about killing everyone that wanted to wait for Noah if Courtney was dead when we found her. Yeah. This facility really is starting to get to me.
But I realize now, with a gun pointed at my face, that killing the others would not solve anything in this situation.
I hope he realizes that, too…
Thankfully, he does.
He puts the gun away. "Sorry, man. It's this damn place! And Gwen's somewhere in this place without me to protect her, and…" He stops. At first I'm concerned, but suddenly he smiles. "Wait… Cody's with her, right?"
"…I think so."
"Oh, that's good then."
Alright, now I'm confused. The dude's a horndog in love with this guy's girlfriend. I thought that'd scare the shit out of him. "How is that good?"
He chuckles, confusing me even more. "Because I know Cody. He'd do anything to protect her. And besides, I'm not worried about him stealing Gwen away from me. Gwen's not even remotely interested in him."
"So what makes you think she's interested in me?" Sorry, but I really have to ask that after such a set of events. I mean, shit! He almost killed me because he thought I would do something to her, but now he's acting like it's no big deal at all!
"Well, you two do have a lot in common," he explains.
"…Okay, I'll give you that, but I still can't believe you're not worried about Cody. I mean, hell, you two aren't really all that different, you know."
"…What?" I turn to look at his face—his long, largely open mouthed, wide-eyed face. I wish I had a camera, honestly. It's pretty funny.
"Well, you two have an interest in music… and you both get hurt… a lot. And boy, do I mean a lot! I mean, damn, if Gwen's got some sort of weird schadenfreude-related fetish, you're screwed, my man."
"Okay, now you're just trying to piss me off."
"I'm just saying… you have no reason to be scared of me when she's with Sir Horndog, the First." I let out a good, long, hard laugh, my eyes shut and slightly watering. Sir Horndog I… Ha! That's rich…
I finally open my eyes when I finish laughing. My smile suddenly drops.
Trent is missing.
…
Oh, shit…
I hear a door slam far, far behind me. No doubt it was the door we came in through. I rest my hand on my head. Oh, shit. Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. What the hell did I just do? I already knew this place was driving us insane! If I just pushed him over the edge…
…Oh, God…
Now I face a dilemma. Do I trek forward and look for Courtney, or do I keep Trent from doing something bat-shit crazy?
…
Dammit! This is one tough decision to make!
Ugh! Duncan, why did you have to be Duncan?
…Screw it! I'm going after him!
Damn these delays!
-X-
11:35 A.M.
SECOND BASEMENT HALLWAY
-X-
…Oh, shit, that's right. We never stayed to see with hall the other two groups went through.
Well, I've got two choices. Door number two and door number three.
Well, there's only one way to solve this…
"Eenie, meenie, meinie, moe…"
-X-
11:36 A.M.
SECOND BASEMENT HALLWAY
-X-
"…My parole officer told me to pick the very best one and YOU. ARE. IT."
Well, looks like I'm going through door number two.
Here's to hoping this is the right one.
Or, if I'm lucky, Trent chose the wrong one, too, and I can still stop him from doing something stupid.
I reach for the door handle…
BANG
A scream follows.
They came from door number three.
Oh, shit…
I'm too late…
A few minutes later, someone in the facility begins to type…
-X-
Oh, crap! What the hell happened here? Did Trent snap and kill someone? Or did someone just shoot a zombie, making this event a buzz-kill? Or is Duncan just hearing things? Did he snap, too?
Or did something else happen here…?
I assure you, the ultimate nagging question of "What the hell happened?" will be answered… in due time. And who knows…? It may be what you think happened… but then again… it may not be…
…
And seriously, where the hell are they finding all these typewriters?