Marin was taking a while in the bathroom. I’m not sure if that is just something I need to learn about women, but I was worried that if she took much longer, we’d have a crowd of people knocking at our door wondering why we weren’t at the morning meeting. I’m sure she has a good reason for it though, so I’m not going to rush her. She did say her outfit was much more about functionality than comfort.

It feels like we finally caught a break in this place by gaining what might shape up to be a very powerful ally, at least compared to each other, but I can’t help but feel a bit weird about how easy it was to get her on our side. I don’t have any reason to believe that Levi doesn’t know how vulnerable Jane is in this situation, and that she wasn’t exactly enjoying her time stuck here with the rest of us. This makes me slightly worried, but we did learn a lot about this place from her, as long as what she told us is true. There’s no real method to prove it either way though. Maybe I’m just overthinking things. I sure hope I am. Then I heard the bathroom door opening, and Marin came out in her regular attire I was used to seeing her in.

“I’m ready to take on the day!” she said. “Sorry it took me a bit. This outfit has a lot of steps to it.”

“It’s not a problem,” I responded. “I’ll go ahead and throw my stuff on now, so we can head to the meeting.”

“Sounds good!”

I went to the bathroom, and it smelled very girly. There was a slight spike in serotonin knowing that I was in the bathroom after a very pretty woman had just finished changing in it, but I quickly pushed those perverted thoughts out of my head and finished my task. I put on my regular outfit that Jane had washed for me, and folded up my pajamas. We’re going to have a lot to share at the morning meeting and I imagine I’ll have a bigger speaking role than I’ve had previously, so I took a deep breath to center myself, then the bathroom. Marin looked at me when I walked out.

“We’re going to have a lot of great info to give the rest of them, so this should be a very fun meeting!” Marin said.

She seemed to have more pep than she had even before we found out why we were brought here.

“Yeah, I agree. We should make sure that Alex doesn’t overhear that Jane is working with us though. I bet he would tell Levi and then we’d have many more problems than before.”

“That’s very true. Hopefully, we don’t have any blabbermouths that would put our partnership in jeopardy.”

Marin opened the door of the dorm, we left our sleepwear outside laid against the wall, and we made our way towards the cafeteria. The walk there was silent. It seemed like Marin was a little bit nervous too even though we seemingly had another card to play against Levi. I can’t help but shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen though.

Once we entered the cafeteria, we saw that everyone was present, and there were plates of french toast, scrambled eggs, and two slices of bacon on each plate. Hopefully ours wasn’t cold yet because I was starving.

“I’m glad you both decided to join us,” Keon said with his hands interlocked on the table. “Now that everyone is here, we should discuss our next move.”

Once Keon said that, some members that were at the table started to get up and walk towards the door. The first to rise was Cyrus, who was followed by Sienna, Maya, Miles, and Atticus. Robbie also got up, but he seemed to be going his own way rather than follow Cyrus’ group.

“Now hold on a minute!” Keon barked. “We need to discuss everything as a group!”

“We only agreed to do the nightly and morning headcounts, Keon,” Cyrus said. “We’re not going to get all buddy-buddy with you all and put ourselves in danger. We’ve got some sense.”

“Damn straight,” Sienna added. “Like we can trust you! We barely even know each other and I’m not going to risk my life by being near you all. I’m going back to my dorm where it’s safe. Atticus, you better not follow me there.”

“It’s just as much my room as it is yours. You have no privilege over me,” Atticus retorted.

“Like hell I don’t!” Sienna barked back. “I’m beautiful and the world needs my knowledge of makeup! Women everywhere will lose a lot in a world I’m not in, and I don’t trust you one bit.”

Atticus rolled his eyes.

“Do you see?!” Keon yelled. “Your difficultness is only going to put you all in more danger than if you work with us to get out of here!”

“I disagree,” Cyrus said. “I’ve got nothing against you all personally, I just want to survive. It’s human instinct to want to survive, just like how it’s human instinct to kill in order to survive. We’re only animals after all.”

“Your argument would only work if we were all wild animals,” Carmen said. “We’ve got much more sense than a pack of dingoes.”

“Sure, but only when our environments are giving us what we need to live our lives,” Cyrus responded. “Back home, we’re animals in captivity. We’re given resources in order to use the freedom we’ve been given by our society, but once that freedom is gone…we’re no different than a wild dog. I’ll be leaving now.”

“Yeah! Let’s leave these dumbasses to play house,” Maya said. “C’mon, Mia. Let’s go.”

“Actually…I think I want to stay,” Mia whispered.

“What?!” Maya yelled. “Stop joking around! C’mon, let’s go!”

Mia shook her head.

“I’m sorry…” she said. “You can stay with us if you’d like though…”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Mia was twiddling her fingers. She looked very nervous, like she didn’t disagree with her sister ever until now.

“MIA! LET’S GO!” Maya screamed in her face.

“She doesn’t want to go!” Marin yelled back.

“Yeah! She’s got sense unlike you!” Amber added.

Maya’s face was red, and she looked like she was either close to crying or exploding.

“FINE!” Maya yelled before she ran out of the room holding her face.

The only one of Cyrus’s group who hadn’t left was Miles.

“I-I’m sorry guys. I just really don’t want to die,” he said.

“Then stay!” Conrad barked. “Don’t be an idiot!”

“There’s way too much I haven’t done, so I’m just going to lay low,” Miles said. “I wouldn’t be any help to you all anyway…”

“That’s not true.” Keon stood up and put his arm around Miles' shoulder. “We need as many minds as we can get to outsmart them. You’re just as valuable as me or anyone else at this table.”

Miles put on a weak smile, then took Keon’s hand off of his shoulder.

“I’m sorry…I’m not smart, so I’d just drag you all down. It’s better for both of us if I just stay out of everyone’s way and worry about myself,” Miles said. “I wish you all luck though.”

He then left the cafeteria with the body language of someone who had their tail between their legs.

“COWARD!” Conrad yelled at him as he left.

“Poor guy doesn’t believe in himself at all,” Amber said.

“That’s just his sorry excuse for being a coward and trying to save his own skin,” Carmen said in an irritated tone.

“God…none of this is going how I planned at all,” Keon said with his head in his hands.

“Buck up, buttercup, or else we’ll put someone else in charge,” Carmen said. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and let’s get down to business.”

“You’re right,” Keon responded, taking a deep breath. “Alright, so we need a plan on what our next move is going to-”

Keon was interrupted by Marin who had her hand raised to the sky like a teacher’s pet waiting to give the right answer.

“What is it, Marin?” Keon said.

“Ryder and I have some very important news to share with you all,” she said. She looked like she couldn’t wait to break the news.

“Are you expecting?” Amber laughed.

“No! Be serious for a sec!” Marin yelled back. “We managed to convince Jane to work with us, and she gave us a lot of vital information about where we are and how to get out.”

“WHAT?!” Conrad yelled.

“How?!” Keon added.

“Shhhhhhhhhh!” Marin shushed them. “We can’t let Alex overhear us!”

“Oh! Sorry…” Conrad said, shrinking himself down.

“Let’s hear it, Marin,” Keon said. “Tell us everything.”

Marin then told the rest of the group quietly about the situation of our underground prison as well as the elevator on the top floor being the only way out. She also told them about the password only Levi has as well as the housekeeping quarters not having cameras.

“If this is all true, then it truly is worse than we thought,” Emma said.

“I agree,” Keon said. “If we’re that deep underground, then finding an open door or window is not going to be enough to get us out of here.”

“Being underground does make a lot of sense now that I think about it,” Conrad added.

“Why do you say that?” Carmen asked.

“The beams being used in the building are much thicker and more solid than what you might see in a building without the immense pressure of being encased underground,” Conrad said. “The amount of money to build the proper foundation to build a six-floor building underground is massive. There’s no way this was built by some puny organization.”

“About time your expertise comes into play, Conrad,” Emma said with a smirk.

“I was paying attention to the way this place was built the whole time! It’s just that I never would have thought for a minute it would be completely underground. You don’t see buildings of this scale built underground very often, if at all.”

“This sure changes things,” Keon said, putting his hand on his chin. “So, Ryder, Marin. How convinced are you that Jane is genuine in wanting to work with us? It almost seems too good to be true.”

“She definitely seems to be in a rough situation like the rest of us. Especially, with the way Andrea was treating her,” Marin responded. “I trust her, but we should definitely be careful.”

“I see,” Keon said. “How about you, Ryder?”

Everyone turned towards me to see what I had to say, and I could feel my face getting red. I haven’t been put on the spot like this in front of so many people since I first got here yesterday morning, and that felt like it was months ago. I had to say something, and it had to be helpful.

“I…Uh…I don’t really trust her,” I said.

Everyone seemed a little taken aback by my statement, especially since I partly disagreed with Marin’s opinion. It was true though; I don’t really trust her. At least not yet.

“Why do you say that?” Keon prodded.

“I-I just think it was too easy,” I responded. “It could be part of Levi’s plan somehow.”

“I agree with Ryder,” Emma said. “She could just be a good liar.”

“That could be true…” Amber said.

“I don’t know,” Marin added. “I feel like I’m a good judge of character, and she seemed pretty unhappy with her situation, just like us.”

“It’s true,” Carmen said. “I don’t see why she would want to be stuck here with us, but Andrea and Alex both don’t seem to be bothered at all at their situations, so it’s hard to say why her feelings would be different, especially since she is armed and seemingly trusted by Levi like the rest of them.”

“It really is hard to say…” Keon said. “I think our plan for now should be to work with her but not reveal too much about our plans until we can say for sure whether she can be trusted or not. We might have made a powerful ally, but we might also be playing right into their hands. Let’s exercise caution.”

Everyone seemed to agree, and we reached a consensus.

“Should we tell the others about what we learned?” Amber asked.

“No,” Keon responded. “They are proving themselves untrustworthy, so we should refrain from sharing vital information. They’re all on a need-to-know basis for now.”

“I agree,” Carmen said. “Until they join us in our discussions, they should be unaware of the cards we hold.”

Just then, we heard a familiar voice over the intercom.

Good morning, students! Now that breakfast has ended, I would like to summon you all into the gym for the special surprise! You all have ten minutes to arrive before I send Andrea to come collect you. Thank you for your cooperation!

“Dios mió. What could this be about?” Carmen said.

“Nothing good,” Keon said. “Let’s get this over with.”

Everyone got up and left the cafeteria, unsure of the horrible news that was awaiting them in the gym.