Chapter 23

         Dreams is what everyone loves to escape to, for they're nothing but dreams. An image made by your mind. Even the most gruesome and horrifying dreams are nothing but images we call nightmares. Everyone loves dreams, because you can wake up from them. But no matter how long I dream, I still have to wake up to the reality of this horrible life.

          When you first open your eyes, it's always blurry. I always believed it was because your eyes have to adjust to this harsh reality. Then you blink, where your eyesight is properly acknowledge the difference between reality and your dreams. Whether I blink again, doesn't matter. Reality is here. And Hannah is dead.

          "I can't tell you where we were, but I can tell you that we must have been in the nest of all the monster. So the moment we saw all the monsters, we started to run!" Mac said in a shaken voice. He was sitting on top a desk with Conner on the desk beside him. Everyone was listening to them, well, almost everyone. Callie and Addison were off at the Conner, were they were talking softly. It seems as if Addison was trying to comfort the weeping Callie.

          Conner continued the story that Mac was saying earlier, "Not everyone ran though, stupid Zack and Geoffrey were staring right into that hellhole. It was like they found a goddess or something. The looks on their face was as if the didn't even noticed the monsters that were in there!"

          Mac laughed weakly, "yeah, and that's what got them killed. They were just snatched by the monsters, and killed right there on the spot. After that, those two monster, the frig'en shadow and one-eye armor dude, came after us! They just came out of the room and started chasing us."

          Conner looked away in sadness, "That's when they took down everyone one of us one by one�"

          Mac looked angered, "Some of us stopped and shot at them, you know, trying to take them down with out guns and bombs. Even though, none of it did anything to them. It didn't even slow them down."

          Chris asked, "So how'd you escape?"

          Mac looked ashamed, "Well, we didn't stop and try and shot those monsters down. We just keep running, and soon enough, we were the last ones alive. It was then that we found the door to the gym, and made it back to safety."

          Jenn looked at them, "Go figures that you guys were the cowards." Some people laughed. Mac and Conner started to argue back. I just got up and walked over Callie and her brother.

          Callie was now crying on brother, he had his hands around her, trying to comfort her as much as possible. I approached and asked, "What's wrong with her?" Addison looked up at me, "It's about Hannah's death." Hannah? I always thought that Callie hated Hannah that she wouldn't mind if she died or not.

          I just stood there. Surprised, but above all, confused.

          Callie cried as she said, "I didn't mean her to die�" I sat down beside her and patted her back, "It wasn't you fault that she died."

          Callie looked up at me with her tearful eyes, "Yes it was! I was the one that pushed her behind me while we were running! I pushed her right into that monster! And watched as she died �" And she went back to crying on Addison shoulders.

          I couldn't believe it� I mean, I knew that Callie and Hannah were competitive, but � during a time like this?! Callie was never accused of poor sportsmanship before, so did she push Hannah behind? � Was this truly the Callie I knew?

          I couldn't do anything helpful for her, so I just sat there. I didn't want to leave and make her feel guilty even more. So I sat there, and waited.

          ________________________

          Callie went to sleep after a while. And Addison said that he'd look after his little sister. So I got up and walked to where everyone else seems to be. Chris was writing in his notebook, no doubt about the monster that attacked us. He was talking to Rick a lot while writing things down. I'm so glad those two have become friends.

          Everyone was sitting there, talking about the things that will happen to us if we go back out there. Jenn said, "I bet you anything amount of money, that their just waiting for us out that door!" Chris said while writing things in his notebook, "Yeah, they might, but what about the time factor?"

          Brent looked confused, "Time factor?" For the first time I noticed, Rick spoke out-loud, "I believe what he means is that there might be a different time between this room and the halls. So it might go faster out in the halls and slower in here. But it can also work the other way around." Chris responded, "Mean that it might be slower out in the halls and faster in here, making it so that the monsters could be waiting out there for only one hour, and a whole week could have passed in here. Exactly, Rick."

          Everyone was silent for a while, not knowing how to respond to this. I said down between Jenn and Brent, when Jennifer said, "So what do we do? Stay here? Or go out in the halls?"

          Mac and Conner haven't said a word since they calmed down. Kayleigh didn't seem to know what's going on, but was glad to see us. She seems to have a big smile on her face all the time, "Why don't we just wait here? I mean, it's not like there's anywhere to go out there."

          Brent looked at her, "Actually there is. If we can get to the gym, than we'll at least be with everyone else." Kayleigh looked confused, "What are you talking about?"

          "The gym holds all the people who survived. We have elementary kids and high school people working together. We've created a hospital to help the wounded and sick. We've created a lunch line to feed everyone. We even have our own mini military, in which we're most of. It's a great place, the high school girls take care of the young elementary kids, and it's like a nursery where they baby-sit the kids. Talking about nursery, we have some students who know how to perform first aid taking care of things in the hospital. We have people who know how to make food using the chemicals from the science office making food for us. And we a leader, who keeps order and hope within the gym in which we call 'Camp'. It's amazing what we can do in order to survive. I mean, from what was first a gym, we created a city."

          Brent spoke with such hope in his voice, that it uplifted all the depressing thoughts we had earlier. Kayleigh seemed so happy to hear that, and Jennifer was crying. She said to Jenn, "We'll make it there, won't we Jenn?" Jenn looked down with a smile on her face, "Oh course we will! And I'll make sure you get to see this small little city of ours."

          I said to Brent quietly, "That was so sweet of you to do that." He smiled and whispered back to me, "Anything for you guys. I promise you we'll find your brother and make it back to your other brother, so you can be a family again." A tear fell down my cheek and Brent went to wipe it off. I looked at him with a smile on my face, "Oh Brent, you have no idea what that to me." And with that I hugged him. I looked over to see that Rick was looking at me, but with no expression on his face, no anger, joy or jealousy. Nothing.

          "Ahem, enough with the hugging, people." Connor said. We all then look around and see that Brent and me were hugging, and Jenn and Jennifer, and Mac and Kayleigh as well. We all then blushed. How embarrassing. Connor looked at Chris, "Yo wise-guy! Do we have a plan to get the hell out of here, I don't want to stay around here anymore. If we don't get out of here soon, I might have to kill all the guys in this room."

          Chris looked up with annoyance at Connor, "Actually, I do have a plan." He slammed his notebook closed and looked up at us. "What we'll do is go out in the halls. But before we race out of here like psychos," He looked directly to Connor, "we'll use a smoke bomb to distract the monsters. That's when we make our way out of there."

          Chris lays back, "Oh course, there is a big risk factor to it. Like the monsters might not be affected to the smoke bomb, or that we, ourselves get lost within the smoke or worst, bump right in the monster. If that happens, then we can't help that person out. It's basically, one for himself for that."

          Everyone was quiet about it, although Kayleigh said, "I say we take that chance! I mean, it's better then dieing in here!" She smiled as she brought her book bag upside down, "We're out of food."

          Mac looked at her, "But I saw all that candy bars and chips in their not too long ago!" She looked at him with an irritated face, "You guys ate them all, remember?" Mac muttered to himself, "But I thought I saw all that food there an hour ago�"

          Chris stands up, "Than it's decided, we go out the plan. We'll leave as soon as everyone has rested up. It's going to be risky out there, so we don't want to be exhausted when we're running for our lives." And with that he left.

          __________________________

          I was sitting in the corner by myself. Chris was having some words with Rick about the plan. They must have finished up, because Chris walked away to Mac and Connor, while Rick started to walk towards me.

          "Can I sit here with you?" Brent said. I didn't even see him coming, "Sure, you can." And I scooted aside as he sat down beside me, but I shivered as moved. He must have noticed, because he brought his hands around me, and covered me, "You must cold here against the cold wall. I would give you my jacket or sweater, but all I have is this old torn up t-shirt"

          "It's ok. I'm fine." I said as I laid against Brent. He whispered to me, "I won't let anything happen to you. I promise." And as I was about to fall asleep, I noticed Rick with that same non-expression� walking away from me�

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