Chapter Text
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Silence.
Lights flicker.
A distant ringing.
And a slight headache.
The tan-skinned girl gasped awake.
She looked to her side. There was a lone typewriter.
She stood, a painful drum in her skull. She looked ahead, disturbed at what she saw.
Two other people. Teens. A redheaded girl and a boy with blue streaks in his shaggy cut black hair. Lying on the floor.
She gasped, looked around. Four stone white walls, concrete floor with a drain, flickering light overhead…
A single vent. At the very top of the wall across from her. Far out of reach. She stared at it, heartbeat drumming.
She looked at the boy with the blue streaks, bending down for a closer look. He wore a teal jacket with vibrant green sleeves over a white shirt, along with black fingerless gloves and a pair of black pants with pink stars towards the bottom.
“Hey, you okay?” She asked the unconscious body.
He didn’t respond. Obviously.
The dark-haired girl reached to touch the boy’s shoulder but retracted her hand, opting to speak louder instead.
“Hey!” The girl leaned closer.
The boy grumbled, waking up. He noticed the tan girl above him, screaming and backing away on the floor.
“I was just trying to make sure you're okay,” the girl explained with her hands up like she had been caught at a crime scene.
Maybe she had been.
“Keep it down!” They were interrupted by the other girl in the room. She had pale skin and was lying on her back. The girl wore a white quarter sleeve shirt, the sleeves were blue. She wore light blue jeans and brown boots.
“I’m trying to sleep here,” the redhead continued, rolling onto her side which revealed two blue zeros on the back of her shirt.
“Who are you? Where am I?” The boy with the blue streaks asked the tanned girl, almond shaped eyes jutting around the empty room. The girl had dark curls pushed back out of her face and she wore a dark gray t-shirt with a triangular spiral design. She had on a pair of dark green jeans with a silver chain hanging from the belt loops and white sneakers.
“I don’t know. I woke up here too, just like you,” she responded.
A louder voice interrupted again.
“Hey! Who are you? Where am I?” The girl with the red hair was now facing them in a poor fighting stance, her fists waving through the air. She looked around cautiously, reasonably on edge.
“Yeah those are the top two questions,” the girl with the curly hair said flatly.
The pale girl’s fists paused their movements, her face softening into a more worried expression.
“Put the fists down, dude. We’re all in the same boat.” The taller girl tried to calm the other down.
The redhead raised a brow. “We’re in a boat?” She asked skeptically. She walked to the wall, pressing her ear against it to listen for waves.
The other girl and boy looked at each other.
“So all three of us woke up in this place?” The boy held his head as he spoke, looking around confused like the rest of them.
“Uh, yeah. That’s what it looks like.” The tan girl looked up at the ceiling.
“Uh, This is definitely not a boat.” The shorter girl looked at the boy, “I wouldn’t trust her,” she whispered loudly.
The boy scoffed, “Says the other girl I’ve never seen before.” He raised a brow at the pale girl. He turned back to the dark-haired girl. “So, where are we? And why are we here?” He asked her.
“No idea,” the girl responded, crossing her arms and leaning back. “Can you guys think back to the last memory you had, before you woke up?”
The three looked around. Nothing.
“Me neither,” she admitted.
The redhead gasped quietly. “Do you think we’re—”
“Dead?”
“I was gonna say being pranked, but thanks for putting the ‘dead’ thing in my head!”
“We’re not dead,” the boy cut in, “We can’t be dead… Are we—”
“Woah! An old typewriter!” The short girl held up the machine, inspecting it curiously as she spoke, “People used these before computers and smartphones.”
“Great. How’s that gonna help?” The guy tilted his head with a bland tone in his voice.
“You could type up your last will and testament,” the pale girl suggested, “So, any idea how we can get out of here?”
“That vent?” The tall girl pointed to the air vent way up high.
The three stared.
“We’ll never reach it,” the boy said.
“We have to try,” she responded. “Hey, what’s your name?” The girl pointed to the redhead.
“Uh, It’s…” The girl picked her own brain. “I don’t know.”
“How can you not know your own name?” The boy questioned.
“I don’t know, okay!?” The girl repeated. “I can't remember.” She looked down at her feet shamefully.
The dark-haired girl looked away for a moment. “I can’t remember my name either,” she admitted.
“You’re both weird.” The boy looked between them.
“Okay. So what’s your name then?” The pale girl asked, a little irritated.
The boy backed up. “It’s… It’s…”
Oh god, he couldn’t remember either.
His back hit the wall. “What is going on!?”
“I don’t know, but we have to try to get out,” the taller girl said before turning to the shorter one. “Come on, I’ll boost you up.”
The tan girl clasped her hands together and hoisted the other up by her feet, both of them grunting in the process. The redhead stood on her shoulders, leaning into the wall. The dark-haired girl held the other's feet to her shoulders and squinted at the boy. “Okay, your turn,” she said.
The shorter girl's hands slipped from the wall and she fell backward, waving her arms around uselessly. “W- Whoa!”
Just in the nick of time, the tall girl caught her by the waist of her pants. The girl’s triangular nose just inches from the floor.
“Impressive,” the boy said, awed.
“Maybe I go to the gym?” The girl guessed.
“Thanks. Now can you put me down?” The redhead asked, prickly.
The girl dropped her quickly and the pale girl’s face hit the ground. “Oof, awesome…” The girl said weakly against the concrete floor.
“Okay, seriously, how do we get out of here?” The boy asked.
The short girl stood up. “Maybe we can loosen these cinder blocks somehow,” she proposed. The girl grazed her hands over the wall, examining it closely. “Anybody got keys or something to scratch with?” She inquired.
The tan girl dug through the front pocket of her jeans, pulling out a slip of paper, she raised a brow.
“What’s that?” The boy leaned closer.
“A name. ‘Addy’.” The girl read.
“Is that your name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hey…” The two turned their heads to the paler girl when she spoke. Her paper read ‘Kaiya’. “‘Kay-a’?” The girl tilted her head. “Or maybe it’s pronounced ‘Ky-a’? Yeah I like ‘Ky-a’ better.”
The boy pulled a slip from his pants. “‘Milo’…”
“Someone must’ve put those in our pockets,” Addy said.
“Okay, very funny, whoever you are!” Kaiya cried out to the ceiling.
“Shouting won’t get us anywhere ‘Kay-a’.”
“It’s ‘Ky-a’! I think. And if you’re so smart, how do we get out of here?”
“I think we might need to use the typewriter.”
“Oh, good idea!” Kaiya rushed to the typewriter. “I’ll smash the wall open!” She held the machine above her head.
“Not what I meant!” Addy lunged for the typewriter, her fingers landing over the keys.
Click.
A loud scraping sound came from the wall. A cinder block pushed itself out, creating a ledge. Everyone stared at its independent movement.
“What did you just do?” Milo gaze transferred to the girls. Addy looked back at the typewriter.
“I guess I typed ‘E’.”
The tan girl set the typewriter down and the three crouched over it. “Should we type it again?” She asked. Kaiya shrugged and clicked the ‘E’ key again.
The brick pulled back in.
“Great now it’s gone.” Kaiya shrunk.
“It’s some kind of puzzle! I think we need to type the right word,” Milo said.
“Okay, but what’s the right word?” Addy asked.
“It must start with ‘E’.”
“Elephant!” Kaiya piped up. The other two stared judgementally. “It starts with an ‘E’!” She said defensively.
Milo pulled the typewriter to face himself. He tried ‘escape’.
‘E-’ the block stuck out. ‘S-’ and pulled back in again.
He tried ‘exit’.
The same thing happened.
“Time to smash the wall!” Kaiya reached for the typewriter. “No!” Addy swatted her hand away.
Kaiya resorted to just screaming for help like it was instinct.
“That’s not helping!” Addy covered her pierced ears.
“Wait! Maybe that’s it!” Milo exclaimed. He typed.
H-E-L-P.
Four cinder blocks pushed out of the wall with each letter like steps.
Addy chuckled. “You did it!”
The three stood up. “Okay. So I’m Milo. And I’m good at puzzles,” the boy said.
“Uhm, guys?” Kaiya’s voice drew the other’s attention. The drain in the middle of the floor started emitting a vibrant green gas. They coughed, the gas contaminating the air.
“We gotta go!” Addy yelled. She leaped for the cinder blocks, effortlessly climbing to the top, displaying miraculous agility. She did like, three backflips. The other two teens stared up at her with astonishment.
“Holy shit,” Milo mumbled.
“Big deal, I can do that too.” Kaiya rolled her eyes. “I’m just not a show-off.” She jumped to the first cinder block with a grunt, her hands barely managed to grip the edge and her legs wiggled uselessly.
Milo snorted and ran to help her up. “Hey! Watch the hands!” Kaiya yelped.
Addy turned her attention back to the vent, pulling on it while the other two managed to climb up. She looked at the edges of the grate. “It’s screwed in,” she reported.
“Okay, we just climb back down to the typewriter, bend one of those key thingies into a screwdriver and—” Kaiya’s ramblings faded into the back of Addy’s mind. They couldn’t backtrack now, it’s way too late for that. But they couldn’t move forward if this grate was in the way.
She felt angry. She hated that this was a problem she couldn’t solve.
In an act of poor judgement and frustration, Addy punched the grate.
And it caved in. Like it was made of the flimsiest material in the world. The screws popped out of their holes.
Maybe her judgement wasn’t so poor.
Addy tossed down the now broken grate. The vent system inside looked old and dirty, but what did she expect? Milo raised a brow looking up at her.
“Who is this girl?” He thought.
Kaiya leaped to the next cinder block, landing on her stomach. “Oof!” She groaned.
“Kaiya,” Addy called. She didn’t respond. “Kaiya!” “OH! Right, that’s me,” she finally replied.
“Jump over and I’ll catch you.”
“No way! I won’t make it!”
“Just do what she says!” Milo butted in, coughing from the gas.
Kaiya huffed. “Fine!” She jumped, her hand just missing its grip on the ledge.
“Welp, I’m dead.” Kaiya accepted the inevita—
A hand caught her wrist.
“See, you made it.” Addy smirked down at her. Kaiya chuckled awkwardly as she was pulled up. Milo sprung to the block Kaiya was previously standing on.
“I’ll crawl in first. You pull Milo up and follow me,” Addy said.
“Uh, I’m not going in behind you,” Kaiya protested.
“Why not?”
“‘Cause I don’t wanna stare at your butt! I’ll go first.”
“Hello?” Milo interrupted. “Let’s get moving!”
Addy pushed past the other girl. “Sorry, Milo. I’m ready.”
Milo grunted when he jumped, making it to the edge of the final cinder block. Addy helped pull him up before crawling into the vent. Kaiya let out a short sigh before crawling in after her backwards, then Milo followed, and so did the gas.
The three crept through the vent system.
“There’s something up there,” Addy said, “Looks like another vent.” She stopped moving and Kaiya’s rear knocked into hers, and Milo’s face knocked into Kaiya’s. They were like a stupid looking human centipede. Kaiya chuckled awkwardly when Milo looked at her funny.
Addy rolled her eyes and kept crawling. When she hit the vent at the end of the tunnel, she literally hit it. Well, kicked it actually, and it fell down the newly discovered chute. Addy watched it crash against the metal walls, sending little sparks flying.
“There’s a ladder!” Addy called to the two behind her.
The three managed to make it to the ladder and climbed to the top. Addy pushed open the hatch cautiously, peeking through the opening. It looked like there was a dense forest surrounding the hatch and it was dark out.
“Is it safe?” Kaiya asked from below her.
Addy looked around. “I don’t know…”
“She said she doesn’t know.”
“Well I know it’s not safer down here!” Milo responded.
Addy climbed out of the chute and the other two quickly followed. Addy shut the hatch, one last puff of smoke escaping and making her cough.
“You okay?” Milo asked.
“Yeah. Let’s go,” Addy said definitively.
“Go where? Where are we?” Kaiya looked around.
“I don’t know. But, maybe, we can find a road and get a ride outta here,” Addy replied.
“Okay, so…” Milo started. “Which way?”
An owl hooted in the distance and Kaiya flinched way too hard. She whipped her head around. “I vote this way!” She shouted, rushing in a random direction away from the noise. Addy’s eyes watched her flee into the bushes and took a step to follow her when she noticed Milo’s attention remained on the sky.
“You coming?” She asked.
“He’s just lonely,” Milo said, trailing off.
“… Who?”
“The owl. He’s lonely.”
“Oh…” Addy was a bit weirded out. “Okay…”
“Why do I know that?”
“Uh… You’re Milo, you’re good at puzzles and you speak owl, I guess?”
“Huh.. I’m pretty cool.”
“We should probably go before Kaiya realizes she’s all alone up there.” Addy gestured to where Kaiya ran off.
And like clockwork, “Hey! I’m all alone up here! Guys!?” Kaiya shouted.
Addy and Milo laughed, following after her.
They caught up quickly. The moon was high in the sky and Kaiya had a slight tremor in her hands. “It’s really creepy out here, huh?” She said, “Like, really, really creepy.”
They crouched walking under a fallen tree. “Like really, really, really—” “Creepy?” Milo finished for her.
“Kaiya, just try to relax, okay? There’s gotta be a road nearby,” Addy reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. They continued walking while a gust of wind wisped by, making Kaiya shiver.
A twig snapped.
“What was that!?” Kaiya jumped.
“I stepped on a twig.” Milo gestured to the ground.
“Oh. Right. Obviously I knew that.” Kaiya kept walking, trying incredibly hard to seem incredibly calm.
They hiked through the forest in whichever direction they were heading. Kaiya remained frightened by every sound she heard.
“So, why us?” Milo questioned.
“What do you mean?” Addy inquired.
“Why us three? We obviously don’t know each other, so what other connection do we have?”
Kaiya tripped behind the two.
“There must be a reason,” Addy replied, “What if we are connected and just can’t remember?”
They hopped across stones in a shallow river. Kaiya’s foot slipped into the water and she frowned. She hated getting her clothes wet.
“Without our memories, it’s pretty much impossible to know,” she continued.
“But how can all three of us not remember anything?” Milo asked.
“Maybe we have insomnia,” Kaiya joined in on the conversation.
“I think you mean amnesia,” Addy corrected.
Kaiya chuckled. “Uh, no. I slept really well, so I definitely don’t have amnesia,” she said, “Somebody needs to buy a ‘theesorius’.”
Addy blinked. “Thesaurus.”
“Bless you!” Kaiya replied from up ahead, struggling to get over another fallen tree.
Milo and Addy looked at each other before Kaiya spoke again. “Guys?”
The two rushed to see what Kaiya was ‘guys?’-ing about. They looked over the large log to see…
A barbed wire fence.
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