"yo dude, you okay?" you jokingly ask the phantom-human like thing that was strapped up against the wall in a claustrophobic room.

"miss. l/n, we would like for you to try and interact with the infected." someone says from the other side. you turn to the voice and see a speaker by a window where a pair of men were sitting on the other side.

and maverick was standing there, you knew he wasn't a doctor.

you look at the mirror dumfounded since you knew that they were seeing you, "hard no bro." you make an x with your pointer fingers.

"alright miss. l/n. we want you to try and interact with the infected. talk to it. try to touch it. it can't harm you with the restraints." the guy says. 

you look around confused, "uh, did you hear me? i said no."

he ignored you. "we'll be keeping an eye on your brainwaves during the process to try and see why the fungus has been affecting you differently." he informs and types something on his computer.

you look at them disgusted, "touch it??? why don't you touch it since you're so confident in the restraints? or is there a reason why you're choosing to stay behind that window?"

you then cross your arms sassily, "anyways why am i here? ash is the leader basically so why didn't you ask her??" you tilt your head. "she's currently asleep." he replies, not saying anything else.

"..." you think about it for a few seconds befor letting out a groan. "fine, fine! but if i do it can you at least get me a real doctor? maverick sucks and he doesn't talk to me, i get bored." you pout and look away.

maverick freezes up at your words, he doesn't talk and that bores you???

the man in front of the microphone sweat drops, "...sure, we'll get you a new caretaker." you look back at them and huff. you turn to the infected person and slowly walk up to it.

it was smiling at you creepily while trying to break free from the restraints so you pinch your nose at the smell. "you smell dude." you tell it and it lunges at you so you step back.

you look at the window, "i'm not touching it, this is super (stupid). don't be super (stupid)." the man in front of the microphone sighs at your words. "release the restraints." he says sternly.

maverick's eyes widen and he looks at him. "...what are you doing?" "there are guard posted outside. if things get to dangerous, they'll step in." the man replies with a small shrug.

"and if she dies there's still six others. i doubt they'll be any more willing than her to touch it considering she acts out of pure adrenaline, so might as well get it out of the way." he says with no filter at all. 

maverick glares at him, "what about the ginger one? or the blonde one? why do we need l/n specifically?" the other man's eyes widen slightly as he turns to him slowly. "maverick, don't tell me you care about miss. l/n?"

"...no. of course not." "... release the restraints."

you look at the infected guy and see that his restraints came off so you dodge its attack it sent at you. you yelp and run towards it, wrapping your thighs around its head as you try to choke it.

"what the fudge?!" you look at the window while grabbing the infected guy's hair in hopes of being able to control where it should go, you tug its hair forwards and it walks forwards. bingo.

you look at the people on the other side of the window.'it's her..' you see the familiar girl standing next to maverick, the girl from the sorrel weed house.

'it's her, why is she with them? maverick.... when i catch you i swear.' you snap the infected guys neck and then run towards the window. the lights start flickering and you ready your swing.

you throw a punch at the window and it cracks. you smile, not your usual smile. your smile looked exactly like a phantom's would. you throw another punch and the window cracks more. (cringed ngl)

but when you almost broke the glass, instead of throwing another punch. you rest your palm against the glass and smile at them.

before your collar turned on again and shocked you.

⋆.˚✧────────✧˚.⋆

the camera for your room was still working but the cameras for the others malfunctioned at the same time you were with the infected. the last shot the cameras catched before crashing were photos of the six of them staring in the direction you were in.

ben was in his bed sitting up, staring in the direction you were in while the others did the same. the difference was that ashlyn was coming out of the bathroom when she looked in your direction.

tyler and taylor were on the bed (seperate rooms) while logan was by the table, also looking at your direction. aiden was laying on the floor next to the bed with his legs on it, and you guessed it, looking in your direction.

alex (your new doctor, phew) had come in and told you that aiden had physically attacked him, asking who was hurt. and when alex told him that you were fine he forced alex to tell what happened.

and he did, he explained what happened with you and the infected. he told the others too, and suffice to say none of them were pleased. though he did inform them that you were unharmed except for your knuckles.

the people who were most angry were ashlyn and aiden. ashlyn had asked alex why they didn't choose her instead and alex couldn't give a proper answer. aiden however asked for alex's keycard.

he didn't get it.

when alex went into ben's room he was immediately met with ben throwing everything around. he had took off his glasses and put in contacts instead in case he got hit in the face (poor guy was ready).

aiden had written a note where it said not to hit him so alex showed it to ben and said brunette calmed down, with a chair in his hands, ready to throw it across the room.

but after alex explained everything, maverick came into the room and asked to chat for a bit. and that was all the information you got from alex because he had to return to his duties.

by the time the clock striked twelve you were quick to walk out of your room through the gigantic hole you caused the other night and into tyler's room.

"so this maverick wants to help us?" tyler asks after ben had explained what maverick told him. "DON'T TRUST HIM DAMN IT!" you screech as ashlyn holds you down, "he's been my caretaker for the past days and first of all- he sucks!"

"second of all he was the dude standing next to the girl from the sorrel weed house, we can't trust him! all he does is smile and ominously watch us from the corner! he's a total edge lord!" you yell.

you growl, "he wants to use us! ash-" you look at ashlyn who was holding you down, "you know the guy who caught me when i fell in the hallway?! that was him!" "...really? he screamed mafia boss or something."

ben glares at you and starts aggressively typing on his phone that he somehow got, "...it doesn't matter. if we join him and destroy this place, we'll have our freedom back and we can deal with them later."

tyler shrugs, "he never mentioned our freedom though, did he? just that his group wanted to take the facility down." he comments which made you look at him with stars in your eyes.

logan leans against the wall with his arms crossed, "alex offered to do whatever he can to help us escape... but escape and taking this place down are two different things." he says.

"this is the government. we'd have to leave the country or something and even then we could still be tracked, as well as we likely wouldn't be able to escape and free our parents at the same time."

aiden nods slowly, "i agree with ben and logan... we join this group, take the facility down, and if maverick turns on us then we deal with him." he comments. you look at aiden, "i say we tie him up, stick a guide (gun) down his throa-" ash covers your mouth.

ashlyn then looks at the others while sitting down beside you because you stopped struggling to get out. "so, what exactly is he wanting us to join him for?" she asks.

"he thinks that we can potentially open rifts between our two dimensions. that if we can figure out how to control it... then we can mess with their systems like what happened with y/n earlier." ben explains (his phone).

"but it wasn't just y/n, all of the cameras in our rooms blacked out except y/n's since she was in that other room. the only reason our lights didn't stay off was because there was a backup generator for them."

"but it takes a bit for the camera system to reboot. at least that's how he explained it." ben shrugs and turns off the text-to-speech on his phone. 

tyler disappointedly and blankly stares at nothing, "so basically, he's saying if we all hold hands and believe in the power of friendship, we'll make a rift large enough to completely screw over their system?"

you chuckle, "okay twilight sparkle."

taylor leans against her brother with a sigh, "...i just want to go home." she mumbles. the entire room went silent at that. until ashlyn spoke up, "...let's take a break for tonight."

──✧˚.⋆

"aiden- i saw you this time. stop taking from the bank!" tyler yells at aiden. aiden looks at him with his hands up by his chest in a dramatic matter. "i'm not, i'm only taking what i landed on." "you took 200 more extra than you were supposed to!"

you look at aiden's little character. "you landed on my property, you owe me 1200." "WHY IS EVERYONE ATTACKING ME?!" "it's the karma from cheating."

in case you were wondering, you five were playing monopoly.

taylor and ben were making bracelets. taylor holds up her bracelet where it stood SBG on it, "the school bus graveyard.. i figured it was where we all hung out the most, so it felt right adding it. like a group name or something."

you tilt your head confused, "are we in a gang or something?" she deadpans at your question. "no... it became a safe place. a home for all of us, i guess. i miss it." she looks at the bracelet sadly.

you blink and rest your cheek on your hand, that rested on the table. "we'll make it back, don't worry." you smile, "i mean.. we've been in a bad situation since savannah anyway."

logan nods at your words, "what made it bearable wasn't really where we were but more that we had company during it...i also miss it too though." you gently hold his hand under the table and he blushes.

aiden leans back with his arms supporting him, "basically we've just got to make this place entertaining till we can get back to the graveyard." tyler side-eyes him, "how are we gonna do that??" "dunno yet."

ashlyn looks at the bracelet tay was holding and points at it, "..how about we each add a color to those and we can remake them when we wake up too." "oh, sure.. here."

we'll get out and find a way back home. but until then, we'll make the best with what we've got.

ben was leaning against the wall with taylor leaning against him. you, tyler, ashlyn, aiden and logan were having a cuddle puddle by ben and taylor's legs.

tyler was nearest the wall, which meant that he was closest to taylor since taylor was leaning on the wall too but her leg was up between the wall and tyler so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable up against the wall.

you were laying next to tyler, his face was nuzzled into your hair and your face was slightly leaning towards his side. you were holding his hand that was wrapped around your waist. 

aiden was next to you, nuzzled into your shoulder and almost all of his limbs were connected with yours. your legs were resting on top of his curled up ones and he was resting his head on your outstretched arm.

your arm led to ashlyn who was on her side with her left hand holding yours. she wasn't big on physical touch but she was okay with holding your hand at least. her legs were forced to curl because of logan.

logan had curled up his legs, almost spooning ashlyn in a way. he was resting his head on ben's thigh and said boy had a hand on his back. logan's arm was under ashlyn's head and his hand led to taylor's leg.

you're actually.. pretty happy you went on that field trip.

⋆.˚✧────────✧˚.⋆

a/n: dam y/n must be strong as hell if she can tolerate SHOCKS to her NECK

chapter published. january 14, 2025