Chapter 60.

Positivity.

Melissa Embers.

Time/Area: August 4th, 2013. Queens, NYC.

12:00 PM

“Girls, listen”… The ‘oh so wise’ Ron begged.

We were in the medical wing, Jason’s stretcher only one of tens of tens on the tile of the main corridor while actual medical office rooms themselves were being used as barricades from windows.

Apparently people were starting to throw rocks…

Lorica cursed from beside me, her voice echoing off the constantly shaking walls,

“What the heck do you mean ‘listen’?!” She screamed, stomping her foot impatiently as she motioned around the area. All of Ember was currently darting about the facility, grabbing whatever they could before proceeding towards the emergency exit route near the far end of this floor.

People on the stretchers were just being…left.

The evacuation was in full swing, an alarm blaring through speakers paired with a loud artificial voice declaring,

“All personnel, please commence Evacuation Route 1 unless ordered otherwise…”

I tried to ignore all the commotion, practically squeezing the life out of my boyfriend’s limp shoulder as he lay on the stretcher in front of me. Ryan, the little boy Jason had somehow saved, was also next to me- standing close to my leg while shaking of fear.

“Y-yeah!” I tried to pitch in, my focus torn between Jason and the current issue,

“We can’t just leave!”

Ron, my dad’s chief security dude, tightened within his extremely uncomfortable looking Kevlar vest, turning around for a moment to yell into his earpiece before spinning back to face us,

“Look,” he said, his voice almost drowned out by another earth-shaking explosion,

“I’m only going to say this one more time, so shut up and-”

“THEY’RE INSIDE!”

My blood ran cold as we all turned to the masses of employees swarming the escape route, a seriously wounded man limping past everyone towards Ron.

I backed up involuntarily, using the hand that wasn’t gripping Jason to find Ryan’s shoulder to pull him back as well.

The man took a deep breath, blood soaking through his clothes as he tried to speak, “They…they’re in-”

“Where!?” Ron interrupted the man, supporting his form as he lost balance on his legs.

The man was dressed in the same Kevlar, Ember imprinted vest as Ron was, the only difference being the fact that it had been torn to bits. Deep gashes were on the man’s thighs, arms, and exposed chest, blood beginning to pool on the white tile of the floor as I felt the urge to scream.

What was happening?

“F-first floor…” The man muttered, his eyes beginning to wander, “Escape route one…blocked…”

Then he went limp.

I jumped when he stopped moving, a cold shiver running up my spine as I witnessed everything about the man just…cease.

Even with the wounded, battered way he spoke, I was still able to see…life in his eyes. Now, there was just…nothing.

Someone had just died…in front of me.

I shook my head slowly, feeling Ryan’s small hand squeeze mine as I transferred the squeeze over to Jason’s unconscious body.

Ron rested the still bleeding husk on the tile, standing up just as quickly before turning to us,

“Let’s go.” He said, narrowing his eyes, “Now is not the time to rebel.”

I gulped, giving a side-eye to my older sister.

She was in college…she should know what to do.

But in her eyes I saw only fear, confusion, and hopelessness,

“I…” Lorica looked back at Ron, “Wh-what about Dad?”

He took a deep breath, as if he was expecting, no, dreading the question, “He- he has to take care of some things-”

“WHAT?!” I broke out of my trance.

Ron turned around again to address the masses, ignoring my outburst,

“EVERYONE!” he shouted over their screams and curses, “You all know me!” He started, “And I’m telling you now that the conventional escape route has now been blocked-”

This was met with numerous cries of fury, disbelief, and…and more hopelessness.

“We will now revert to route two…the metal lift exit on floor ten!!!” Ron yelled.

My eyes drifted downwards to the body still collapsed next to Ron’s shoe,

“Where’s Dad…” I muttered.

“M-melissa?”

I looked down at Ryan, who looked just as scared as me…as all of us.

BOOM!

Ryan stepped closer to my leg, which scared me because I was in no way able to comfort anyone right now…

I was just fourteen!!

I was in middle school barely even a year ago!!

Why…was this happening to me?

“GET IT TOGETHER.” I tried to tell myself, letting go of both Jason and Ryan before performing a silent scream,

“Stay…positive.”

“Sir!!!”

Another Kevlar-outfitted Ember guard came barreling down a hallway to our right, interrupting Ron’s grand speech with terror in her eyes.

“Morgan?!” He hissed to the lady, “You’re supposed to be guarding route two with Michelson and Toby!”

“Michelson is dead, sir.” She gritted her teeth, watching Ron’s eyes go wide, “Those things….I’ve n-never seen anything-”

“What about route two?” Ron pressed onwards, a semi-silence washing over the entire floor as the crowds of employees were left without instruction.

The woman spoke again, “I-it’s holding.” she breathed, “Thalia and Toby’s group are guarding floor ten’s main corridor for now…a-and Michelson had gone down barricading the corridor’s back hatch to floor one…but-”

“But it won’t hold for long.” Lorica stepped into the conversation, gulping, “I know about that hatch…it connects to a pipe all the way down to the first floor right?”

Ron turned to Lorica, “You two finally ready?” He asked, producing a pistol from his holster at his waist.

Even considering all the time I spent in this building, I had never actually seen Ron use a gun before…

Something told me that was about to change.

“O-okay what about Jason?” I asked Ron, already trying to pull Jason away from the strap on his wrist measuring his heart rate, “W-we can’t just-”

“Leave him.” Ron said, sending splinters into my heart, “Look around, Melissa…we can come back for the wounded.”

“That’s a lie!” I shouted at Ron, still trying and failing to control my emotions, “Everyone who doesn’t make it out this place…i-is going to die…”

“HEY, What are we supposed to do!!!??” Someone from the crowd yelled, echoes of the same question following suit from other individuals.

Ron looked at Lorica, “I…I can’t do this on my own,” He admitted, “All other personnel are not on this floor…”

Lorica gulped, slowly walking over to the front of the crowd.

“Lorica, what are you doing?” I asked her, still not sure as to what to focus on.

“I-I’m going to help lead them through Evac 2,” She said, taking off her Queens cap and tightening the hoodie tied across her waist, “I…I know where it is, and I can help Ron-”

I shook my head, “But-!”

She interrupted me, “Melissa, this is what Dad obviously wants!” she yelled, “And we both have to leave!”

Before I could say anything else, Lorica went full ‘evacuation-specialist mode’,

“H-HEY EVERYONE!” She shouted, getting everybody’s attention as another explosion rang through the building.

Most faculty didn’t really know our faces, despite being the children of the director of Ember, but Lorica was technically an adult, and the look she had right now didn’t provide any room for questioning,

“ROUTE TWO IS THIS WAY, SO UH…COME ON IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

She began marching towards the right end of the hallway, the hordes of employees lucky enough to stay over last night following her trail as Ron turned back to me.

“Make yourself useful too,” Ron nodded at the crowd, “Bring the little kid and let’s go.”

“Please…” I looked down at Jason, “We can’t just-”

Ron reached for my arm, “Let’s go-”

“AH!” Suddenly, Jason shot up in the stretcher, gasping wildly as his eyes darted about the scene.

We hadn’t had time to change him into anything, so he was still dressed in his blood-soaked shirt and ripped jeans.

But…he was awake.

“M-melissa-?!”

Just as quickly as Jason had awoken, we were both- along with Ryan- dragged to the crowd moving towards Evac-2 by Ron.

“Great, yay,” Ron said unenthusiastically, “Now shut up and join the Evac…I’m going towards the front with your sister.”

I barely registered Ron seep through the tens of people moving through the hallway, only focused on Jason as he dizzily walked with our evacuation party.

“Jason!” Ryan cried, leaping at him as the whole group rounded a corner.

I found myself half smiling as I kept my feet in time with the moving evacuation, watching as Jason struggled to do the same,

“Wh-what’s uh…what’s happening-ugh.” Jason rubbed his head, “My head is pounding…why are we moving so fast? Where are we even going-?”

“Don’t you remember?” I asked, absently grabbing Jason’s hand to help him move faster, “You got knocked out, but you managed to make it to Ember-”

“Yeahh…” Jason sounded like a drunk, “But like…” He pointed at some guy to our left,

“Why are we all leaving then?”

I narrowed my eyes, “Jason…” I muttered, “Monsters. They broke in. We need to get out.”

“Oh.” Jason said, grunting, “Oh.”

He rubbed his head again, this time apparently shrugging away the cobwebs over his mind,

“Shoot…where’s my ax?”

“That’s your question?” I snorted, “No ‘thanks for saving my life from a freaking spider monster’?”

Jason shrugged, “Aren’t we about to die anyways?”

I rolled my eyes, “I threw it away.”

“You what?”

“Well,” I coughed, “We were in the moment…I was running with you leaned against my shoulder…and like it was covered in guts-”

“Melissaaaa-”

“I know I know, okay?!” I groaned, “But like…it’s gone. Deal with it.”

Ryan was still clasped onto Jason’s hand as our party approached the stairwell to floor ten, the group moving considerably slower now as everyone made their way through the doors to the staircase.

I could hear Lorica and Ron giving orders from all the way in the back of the crowd.

Jason cleared his throat,

“Thanks for saving my life by the way,” He nudged me, “You’re the best girlfriend ever.”

I stared at him for a moment.

He coughed, “What?”

“Oh, nothing…” I turned back to the moving line of people, “Just thought that was gonna sound a lot more satisfying.”

“Wow-”

“Oh, I’m kidding…” I smiled at Jason, “I’m just happy you’re alive.”

“Me too!” Ryan said.

I smiled at him too, but part of me couldn’t help but feel sad. I didn’t know how Ryan came to be with Jason, but I knew it was nothing good.

This was all just so much to handle…

Jason read my expression, giving my hand a squeeze as if to let me know he was still there.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Our turn came to pass through the stairwell, and as soon as we stepped through the door it hit me.

The smell of blood, smoke, and corpses.

I could feel Jason’s hand begin to sweat as Ryan walked between us both, making sure to stick close with the rest of the group as we all made our way down the staircase.

Floor ten was only one flight down from the medical wing, but the staircase itself went all the way to the first floor.

I peered over the red handle-rails of the revolving, descending metal steps, eyeing the orange reflection of flame shining from the very bottom of the building as the sounds of screams reached my ears even from up here.

Each step had its own fear to it, and the entire evacuation party must’ve felt the same way based on the lack of noise protruding from the group.

I kept glancing across the railing towards where the front of the line was, making sure Lorica was safe before continuing onwards.

I couldn’t lose her…especially if Dad was…

Dad..

What the heck was he even doing?!

He should’ve been here with us!

What if he wasn’t able to make it out in time?!

Mom…mom was all the way in Greenland, a-and…and this was freaking Dad!

“Positive thoughts..” I reminded myself as we hit the last step before floor ten.

The door was being pushed open by whoever was in front of the last person to push the door open, creating a chain that ended with me as Jason held it open before closing,

“Let’s catch up.” he said, now sounding fully awake as he dragged me and Ryan back with the quickly moving evacuation party.

I gulped as every light panel on this floor seemed to be broken.

Glass littered the floor of the halls and bodies of Ember guards were…scattered about.

“J-jason, this-”

“Just keep going.” He said, almost sounding numb to the sights.

I frowned at him, then at Ryan who had a similar disregard.

Had one day…no…one morning really done all this to people outside?

The thought made me both sick and guilty.

This place must’ve seemed like heaven to some people…but here it was now, almost just like everywhere else.

“ALRIGHT EVERYONE!” I heard Lorica yell, “WE’RE…UH…WE’RE HERE.”

Ron’s voice took over, “Listen up!” he called out, “The lift down to the back alley exit of the building is just behind the second conference room…”

He continued to talk as Lorica jogged to the back of the group with us,

“Hey Jason!” Lorica grinned upon seeing him, “Glad you’re back with us.”

Jason smiled, “Glad to be back…kind of.”

Lorica slowly nodded at me, “I…I was kind of hoping dad would be back here by now.”

I gulped, looking back towards the staircase door.

I was trying to picture Dad busting through it, screaming something like ‘Sorry I’m late- had a meeting’ or something stupid like that.

He always did stuff like that…

Nothing happened.

“Look, Melissa,” My sister took hold of my shoulder,

“We’ll get out of this…we’re New Yorkers,” She tried to smile, “Crazy is kind of our specialty.”

I smiled back, “Yeah…right.” I agreed, “It is.”

BOOM!

The walls shook violently as commotion stirred towards the front of the line to the lift.

I couldn’t hear much over the screaming, but I could make out one word…

“Hatch…” I whispered, staring wide-eyed at Lorica.

Jason coughed as he held onto Ryan, “What hatch?”

Lorica cursed, turning to Jason, “There’s a hatch on this floor that goes to this huge pipe leading all the way down to the first floor.”

Jason shrugged, now trying to get the dried blood out of his black hair, “Okay-?”

“Jason, the first floor is filled with monsters by now.” I explained.

Lorica added onto that, “And apparently they had been trying to climb up the pipe before one of the Ember guards barricaded it.”

“So if they’re talking about the hatch up there…” Jason began putting together the pieces, his expression morphing into that of fear, “Oh gosh…how long until we get out of here?”

“HURRY UP PEOPLE!” Ron shouted from up front, “The faster we get you all on the lift, the better-”

“RAAAAAAGH!”

“HEEEEELLLO?!”

“LEEEET ME INNN!”

“SIR!” A lady’s voice ripped through the crowd, “THE HATCH PIPE IS-”

Swoosh!

Even from back here, we all could see the wave of red that had just been launched into the air, tracking the Ember Guard Morgan as her head left her body and was sent into the roof.

Two seconds.

That was how long it took before the first person screamed.

Then it was chaos.

“AAAAARGH!”

Immediately, flashes of brilliant shaded light burst through the hatch on the far left wall of floor ten’s main corridor, five…horrible…twisted-looking creatures stretching to unnatural positions as they crept and forced their ways through the otherwise small square opening.

One’s skin was burnt to the point where it resembled charcoal, contrasting heavily with a much too-wide smile displaying sets of white…razor sharp teeth.

Another was almost as tall as the eleven foot ceiling, its arm inverted and broken into a shape mimicking a spike as if its own bone and flesh had been turned into a sword.

The other three were all different, but each still sent chills down my spine.

It was exactly what I had seen outside when I ran for Jason. Except…this was inside.

Happening…right now.

In front of us.

Lorica was going through a similar trauma, but this was her first time actually seeing one.

“Oh…my…gosh.”

We all backed up significantly as the monsters wasted no time, my eyes physically unable to track their swift movements as they tore through our evacuation party.

Mountains of blood, organs, and body parts were being flung across the space like a human blender, the sprays of blood reaching us as splatters of red began staining my shirt.

I was covered in other people’s blood….

That thought kept me paralyzed, no matter how badly I willed myself to move.

Why wasn’t I moving?!

“Melissa, we have to go… now!” Jason yelled over the screaming, hollering, and crying,

“HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!”

Then Jason froze for a minute, turning his head slightly at the charcoal looking creature.

It was laughing…like a child, except its voice sounded like it was speaking through a broken speaker.

Jason shook his head, as if he was trying to forget something, before simply grabbing my wrist and taking off the other way.

Lorica followed, all of us making a bee line for…wait, where were we going?

“Where are we going!?” Jason asked, Ryan dashing alongside us.

I tried to ignore what was happening, letting go of Jason’s arm before swooping down and lifting Ryan up on my shoulders. He wouldn’t be able to keep up with us for much longer.

“What do you mean where?!” I screamed, “You took off first!”

“Would you rather I have stayed?!” He shot back, maintaining his pace.

“Just shut up and follow me!!!” Lorica took charge, running ahead of all of us before taking a right at the staircase.

This hall on floor ten was a lot more torn up than the main corridor, an actual corpse of a monster laying in the middle of it with three ember guard bodies laying on top of it.

The monster’s body looked like it was slowly…disappearing?

Like its body was disintegrating into ashes.

We curved around the site, “Lorica!” I called out, feeling Ryan squeeze his legs around my shoulders, “Where are we-”

“There’s another lift!!!” She called back, skidding to a stop at the front of a separate conference room.

The Ember building had several conference rooms in its layout, and while conferences didn’t happen all the time, each one also served some kind of emergency purpose.

I had no idea, however, that there was another room that had an emergency lift,

“I…I didn’t know…this place existed!” I panted, all of us taking huge breaths of air over how fast we had just run. Adrenaline had my heart beating faster than I thought possible, my senses on overdrive as I kept glancing over my shoulder.

We could still hear the roars and screaming alike from down the hall..and the sounds were only getting closer.

The monsters had almost finished up over there.

“That’s because the lift in this room only transports three…” Lorica caught her breath, opening the door by its metal handle to reveal a neatly organized room with absolutely nothing inside of it,

“This place was just made,” Lorica explained, “that’s why you don’t know about it, sis.”

I just nodded, now focused on another door to our right. We had gone down a hall parallel to the one the monsters were in, and it was only separated by an equally long, sort of thin wall with a door leading to a connecting-closet. Hopefully the monsters didn’t notice the shortcut.

“Let’s just get in the lift,” Jason breathed, walking towards the room, “Ryan’s small enough to fit when we all get down.”

It was a bad time, but I couldn’t help but wonder what happened after that.

Ron was probably dead, and we had no way of knowing where my dad was.

Where were we supposed to go?

Wasn’t like any place had ‘supernatural’ defenses that could hold up to an army of mostly bulletproof, contagious, overly-buff monsters.

Wait…

“Hey Jason!” I got his attention as Ryan slid off my shoulders, all of us beginning to step inside the conference room, “Where the heck is Damien?”

Lorica echoed the question, “Yeah what the what?!” She threw her hands into the air, “I don’t know much from what Melissa told me…but can’t he like…deck these suckers?”

“H-he’s preoccupied.” Jason said, “We split up to get everyone.”

Lorica frowned, “No offense, but you’re kind of just like us in this situation…”

Jason rolled his eyes, “I know that,” he said, “But we split up so that I could tell you two that our house, for whatever reason, seems to be monster-proof.”

“What?!” I jumped.

Lorica looked bewildered, “H-how?”

“ I just said ‘for whatever reason’,” Jason muttered, shrugging, “We have no freaking idea.”

BANGG!

We turned over our shoulder as one of the five creatures came barreling down the hall.

It was the laughing one, which seemed to cause Jason to freeze as its piercing call caused my bones to shake.

I cursed as Ryan and Lorica backed up inside the conference room.

Jason was still not moving,

“J-Jason what do we do?!” I gulped.

His eyes were in a sort of trance.

Had he seen something like this before?

“The neck…” he muttered,

I instantly glanced at the charging monster.

It would be here in five seconds.

I squinted at its chin, looking directly below it at the blue, dimly glowing scar etched onto the base of its neck.

I remembered how I saved Jason when he was pinned by a different monster outside the building.

It had a scar just like this one.

“So those are their weak spots…” I pieced together the information, looking around for something…anything.

I gritted my teeth,

“I-I don’t have anything to use!!” I shouted in frustration, pulling Jason by the arm to get inside.

He didn’t budge, “You go down the lift with everyone else,” he said, glancing at me, “…I’ll distract it.”

I almost slapped him, “The heck?!” I cursed at him, “No! Not the time to be a hero!”

“Guys, the lift is taking a long time to respond!!!” Lorica shouted from inside the conference room.

I glanced back at Ryan and her.

She was messing with the emergency controls located by the back wall, rapidly keying in digits our father forced us to memorize while disregarding the “loading” sign on a screen directly next to the console.

I looked back at the monster,

“We aren’t going to make it.”

BANG!

Me and Jason both looked to the right at the connecting-closet, exhilarated when it wasn’t another monster that had come out of the door.

No, instead, the one man that now stood between us and the monster was none other than the chief of Ember security.

“RON!” I shouted, “You’re not dead!!!”

The creature stopped in an instant, disregarding Newton’s laws as virtually no lashback could be seen when the monster shifted directions towards Ron.

I barely even noticed the black blur whisk by our line of sight, screaming when the laughing monster had pinned Ron to the wall with its non-spiked hand,

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

“NO!” I shouted, watching as Ron’s pistol fell to the floor right between his suspended body and the alignment of the monster’s electric blue eyes.

Its whole form was glowing the same blue color, reverberations of static electricity bouncing off its coal black skin and into the broken light fixtures above us.

“MELISSA, JASON, DON’T STAND THERE! GET IN HERE!” Lorica shouted.

But I couldn’t process her words over my thoughts.

The monster wasn’t moving this fast earlier…

That thing…it could’ve moved that fast when it was running down the hall.

If it had, we would’ve all been dead.

It was just….messing around.

I gritted my teeth, anger beginning to replace where fear definitely should’ve been as I continued to ignore Lorica’s voice.

I was so…sick of this.

But Jason had beaten my thought process by one second, dashing for the pistol Ron dropped with me trailing a foot behind him.

Ron was being choked slowly, even though I knew the smiling monster could’ve just gutted him with its sword-like limb.

It was having fun.

“I’m going for it!” Jason yelled, diving for the floor.

The thing was so massive, it hardly noticed when Jason slid underneath its head, grabbed the gun, and pointed it upwards at the exact spot on the monster’s neck.

…

Hardly.

In an electric blue flash, Jason’s body was smashed against the same wall that Ron was pressed against, except this time the monster did it with its foot, the gun still held tight in Jason’s right hand as he hollered out in agony.

Blood shot from Jason’s mouth as his eyes went wide, and it took everything I had not to scream.

The only reason I didn’t was because the monster had been so occupied with Jason and Ron’s movements that it had completely forgotten about me.

…

Completely.

I kept my mouth shut, not daring to slow down as I mimicked Jason’s actions and slid under the monster's elongated, overgrown, mutilated leg, meeting eyes with Jason even as he was pushed against the wall with the same limb.

At that moment, I was aware of two things.

I was aware of Jason’s left arm, making numbers with his fingers as they counted down from,

3.

2.

I was also aware of Jason’s right arm, which was bringing back the clenched pistol ever so slightly.

1.

Gosh…I hoped that was going to be loaded.

Just as I felt the momentum of my slide fade, and I clearly had the view of the monster’s blue, glowing, scar…I reached my hand out, full trust in Jason as he released the gun from his grip.

The monster noticed too as the firearm flew through the small gap of space between its outstretched leg and me, landing near-perfectly within my grip as I instantly aimed upwards.

It had noticed, but it had noticed far too late,

“AHHA-?!”

BANG!

I coughed as a spray of black-colored blood ejected from the scar downwards like a geyser, rolling back out from under the creature as it began to stumble back.

“AHAHAAHAHAH…AHHHahhahargh-”

Thump!

It fell to the floor, the electric blue light running along its joints fading into nothingness as it joined the other monster corpse in the hall.

I took another deep breath, my hands shaking as I dropped the pistol to the floor and turned around.

Jason was helping Ron stand.

I ran over to Jason, unable to stop myself from wrapping him in a hug.

“Are you kidding me?” Ron grunted, still massaging his neck, “How do teenagers find the time…when there’s freaking monsters-”

“Okay, okay, gosh!” I huffed, pulling away.

Jason was still shaking from pain, but I could tell he was relieved based on how tight he had hugged me back.

We almost died.

“But we didn’t.” I realized, helping Jason into the conference room with a small smile.

Ron followed, picking up his gun before entering the room,

“Nice thinking…all of you.” He congratulated us as we closed the door, “This room was new…I didn’t think you girls knew about it yet.”

Lorica turned around to face us, “Well I always keep up to date…even in college.”

I rolled my eyes, “L-Lorica,” I was still having trouble catching my breath, “Did you just see what I did?”

Lorica slowly nodded, “Glad you’re not dead, sis.” She smiled, “I got the lift working…so let’s get out of here, yea?”

Jason just lightly chuckled, which proved to be more damaging than humorous as he began coughing again, “Yeah, let’s do that.”

BEEP!

We all watched the back wall of the conference room as a fake bookshelf slid back mechanically, revealing a small, elevator-looking metal cart that fit no more than three individuals.

“Kids first.” Ron nodded at the enclosed, unlit area.

Melissa, me, Jason, and Ryan all stepped on the metal, the feeling both terrifying and relieving at the same time.

Now that we weren’t in literal imminent death, my mind was right back to where it was before.

Dad.

“H-he’ll be fine, Melissa.” Lorica read my expression, “He’s dealt with worse.”

But I wasn’t so sure that he had.

“We’ll…We’ll see you at the bottom.” Jason stuttered, slowly getting his voice back.

Ron nodded, “Y’all have been a brave bunch…keep it up.” he said, watching as the pad began to descend, “If I’m not down ten minutes past the time you hit surface level…just run!”

That was the last thing we heard before the cramped, barely breathable elevator was submerged in total darkness, the slow and scary trek down ten stories beginning as I was left to my own thoughts.

“Are you going to tell Ron about the whole ‘monster-proof’ house thing?” I heard Lorica ask in the darkness.

Ryan was wedged somewhere between mine and Jason’s leg, and I could feel him moving around.

“Probably…Kind of have to, seeing as he’s kind of like an adult.” Jason admitted.

Lorica snorted, “Hmph,” she said, “I’m an adult.”

I shivered, joining the conversation, “Don’t remind me.”

We all shared a small laugh, but it felt so short.

I didn’t even know if we were going to make it down all ten stories, and I definitely didn’t know if Ron was going to last long enough for the lift to go all the way back up, retrieve him, and descend again.

But here I was…trying to laugh.

Trying to stay positive.

And…I wasn’t going to stop.

I didn’t know how long we would last, but I wasn’t going to give up without a fight. I didn’t think we would make it out…much less kill a monster while we were at it…but here we were. With our lives.

That had to be worth something, so there was no point in simple depressing thoughts, right?

M-maybe Dad really was alright. Maybe he found another way out and would meet us wherever Ron suggests. That way, we could all rendezvous at Jason and Damien’s house if it really was some magical safehouse.

I found myself smiling, happy I was able to see light at the end of the tunnel no matter how improbable the light was.

We were able to come this far, so what was stopping us from going farther?