Radical-9

Intermission IX:

FEBRUARY 24^th, 2022

6:00 AM

I crash onto the side of the bed, letting my legs dangle off of the side. I didn't realize how tired I actually was, the excitement of it all must have kept me going. Athena comes in beside me and sits down.

“If I had a list for the craziest introductions, you would definitely top it,” Athena says.

“I'm sure.”

“Dex...I mean, Andy's spoken of you, he was definitely worried about you and your mom out there.”

“We were sure worried about him. Thinking on it now, my mom's still worried, she's back at home.”

“Does she know that you're in here?”

“She doesn't. Truth be told, I didn't think I'd have gone at all if anyone else had asked me, other than Jake, that is,” I say. “And once I saw what they did to him, what his own father did to him.”

“It's okay, you don't have to talk about it if it makes you feel any better.”

I shake my head, “It happened. I cannot change it, but I can work to make sure that what he lead me here for is worth it. I can save Andy, we're both going to get out of this alive and we're going to get even for Jake,” I say.

“Sounds a little bit much, right? I mean, what can you really do?”

“It does, it all sounds insane, but at the same time, so does this, a huge world inside of a giant castle? Just because it sounds crazy doesn't mean it is. I'm not one for all of this technology, to be frank.”

“You must really love your brother then, coming in here,” she says, she turns towards me, a half-smirk crosses her face.

“Yes, I do very much.” I say. “And...coming from experience, if you like someone you should tell them how you feel before it is too late.”

“What?”

“You...like him, don't you?” I ask.

“I do, but I've been thinking that it's just me being young and stupid,” she says.

“I'm young, and guess what? I lost my chance. He told me just before, and I never got the chance to fully show him how I felt, it was only a moment. Yet, it was the most beautiful moment I will ever remember,” I say. “It isn't how long you spend with someone that determines your connection. Sure, you have to know them, but why waste your valuable life not saying what you could say? It just means you get to spend more time with each other knowing.”

“You're smart, like, really smart with this kind of stuff,” she says.

“Not really, I've only just been through this, I'm not even through it myself. I'm just telling you what is getting me through this right now.”

“You said you hate technology...”

“I don't hate it. It just confuses me,” I say.

“Okay, so, if so, what do you want to do? Y'know, when we do make it out of here,” she says, stretching out her arms and lying back alongside the side of the bed.

“I want to be a biologist. Trees and nature and stuff is kind of my forte.”

“Really? I wouldn't have pegged you for that kind of thing,” she says.

“What would you have guessed?”

“I was thinking maybe a school teacher,” she says.

“Really? With how schools are now?”

“I'm just saying I could see it is all.”

“I don't think I could handle the stress, to be honest. I don't understand how Andy could even stomach the idea of becoming a lawyer,” I say.

“He mentioned that, did something happen that made him lose his spark?”

“I don't know. He used to be a part of the debate team at school, he really seemed to love it.”

“Used to?”

“He stopped going, the group was run by two people in the year above him. They graduated and it kind of fell through once they did.”

“Oh.”

“What about you? What interests you?”

“Oh, well, I've always liked writing,” she says.

“Yeah? Like, an author or something?”

“Yeah, something like that. There are stories in everything, you know? Every little small event that happens can be its own story, even this.”

“That's actually really cool.”

“Speaking of being in here, I apologize for Klein's behavior. He's a little...”

“Desperate?” I ask, giggling.

“Yeah, something like that, but he's not so bad once you get to know him,” she says.

“I can guess, but if anything he seems to have a special sort of gift.”

“What kind of gift?”

“The gift to make light of our situation. I'm going to go out on a hunch and assume that he of course realizes the severity of our actions, what we have at stake, but instead of letting it crush him he acts as a relief for the rest of us. I'm almost certain him being desperate is his way of keeping us all level,” I say.

“I...never really thought of it like that,” she says.

“Of course, I'm sure he's as goofy as he seems on the outside,” I say.

Athena laughs, “I could definitely see it.”

I shift around on the bed, fully lying down on it as I stare at the ceiling. “Thank you for taking care of Andy. I owe both you and Klein.”

“Well, you are welcome, but at the same time, you also have to realize that you're going to have to worry about yourself here too. We can all do our best to protect those close to us, but we also have to watch our own backs,” she says.

“Right.”

“This isn't just a game, and we're going to show that to Jack as well. There's no way we're going to let him play with our lives like this.”

I nod my head.

“And...thank you for the advice, the next chance I get I'm going to tell him,” she says.

I nod my head again, my eyes feel heavy, “We're all getting out alive,” I say, and the warm embrace of sleep takes me over.

It feels warm, a little too warm. I hear a sort of crackling. It almost sounds like fire. I open my eyes and see a mixture of reds and oranges, leather and metal. The colors and sounds all mesh into one large and uniform being, fear. They separate once more and it comes into focus, I'm sitting in the backseat of a car. Taking a look out of the window it seems to have crashed, fire surrounds me and smoke as dark as charcoal bellows upwards. The smell of burnt rubber fills my nostrils, I begin choking. I try to cry out, but no tears come.

I see the body lurched over the steering wheel in the driver's seat. It is a man who looks considerably older than me. His blonde hair is cut short to his head. He's sustained a lot of wounds in the crash, but he seems to still be alive, if unconscious. He raises his head and looks around him, blood drips from a gash on the back of his head onto is neck. He faces me and looks instantly relieved, tears form in his eyes, “Oh thank god,” he says. His voice is hoarse, his face looks worse than he sounds. He has bright blue eyes, but a long cut runs down the side of his face with red.

He works his way out of the car seat and kicks at the window to his left. It holds once, twice, but at the third kick it shatters. Outside I can see that there is another car at the other end of the highway we seem to be on. I crane my neck to see a figure stepping out of the car very slowly. The bloodied man is working as fast as he can to worm his way out of the burning vehicle. He nearly collapses onto the ground outside.

I can't manage to move myself, only look around.

The bloodied man smashes in the window behind the driver's seat next with his elbow. I can hear him grunt in pain very loudly as he does so. If he's trying to get to me, why open that window? Surely the one next to me is easier?

Then I notice the infant sitting next to me in the car. Of course, I'm not really here, this must be one of those out of body experiences, and that must mean that the small child here is...me. But what would I be doing here? I don't...remember this. Does this make the bloodied man my dad?

I hear a loud noise like an explosion ring out. My sight returns and I hadn’t even realized I’d been huddled in the fetal position in the hallway. Andy is shaking me awake, his face is full of concern.

“Are you okay? Jen?” Andy asks, concern filling his voice.

Behind him I can see Klein and Athena. “I-It’s nothing, must have had a nightmare, I guess.” I reply, shaken up.

“You sure?” Athena asks. “Normal nightmares don't lead people outside of their rooms.”

“Must've been sleepwalking or something, I guess.”

“You don't sleep walk,” Andy says.

“How else would you explain it?”

Andy goes to speak, but doesn't.

“Okay, okay. We can worry about this later. Frankly, I don't want to be awake right now. We can continue this in a few hours, okay?” Klein says, rubbing his eyes.

“You really that tired?” Athena asks.

“Yeah, I am. And if it's all right with everyone else I'd like just a few hours, we can head out at nine, okay?”

“Okay, that sounds about right, another two or so hours to get our energy back, I'm down,” Andy says.

“Right, my apologies for waking everybody up,” I say.

“It's fine, you're fine,” Athena says.

“Alright, if that's just it I'm going to go back,” Klein says, walking back to the room. The poor guy looks like he's already asleep.

We all retire back into our rooms and sleep comes easy this time.