Desolation, J. B. Everett [reading a book txt] 📗

breath of the fresh air. Just being outside makes me feel a lot better. After sliding the door shut again, I begin to walk around aimlessly through the jungle. The bright full moon from above the trees illuminates the ground, lighting up my pathway. Even though I should be scared walking through the jungle alone in the middle of the night, I am not. The chirping of the crickets in the trees makes me feel less alone.

I continue to walk around in aimless circles around the hatch, trying not to stray too far from it. If I do go too far, I know for a fact that I will not be able to find my way back.

Finally, I plop down onto the soft ground next to the hatch door. And that's when I see something that I can't believe I never saw before.

There, sticking out of the ground between two trees is a metal pole. Curious, I get up and walk closer towards it to see that there is a screen with a small keyboard attached to the top.

Huh.

I look down to see at the screen. It reads, "ENTER PASSCODE"

My fingers hover over the keyboard.

Well I guess it's worth a shot trying.

I type in "THE BLAIR INSTITUTE" then hit enter

The screen flashes and the words, "INCORRECT, TRY AGAIN" flash across it.

I then type in, "PASSWORD", just for the heck of it.

Again, the words, "INCORRECT, TRY AGAIN" display on the screen.

I then type "123456789" and hit enter.

But this time, the words "INCORRECT, TRY AGAIN" do not come up on the screen. Instead, two words pop up that make my heart stop.

"IMPLOSION INITIATED"

I jump back, staring at the screen with wide eyes. The words, "IMPLOSION INITIATED" continue to flash on and off on the screen.

What have I done...

Just when I about to try to reverse what I have just done, there is an a deafening boom. I duck down the ground, covering my ears and whipping around to see what happened.

And when I see what is in front of me, my heart stops beating.

Smoke and acrid ashes are billowing from the ground.

From the hatch.

When I register that I just blew it up, I nearly faint.

Curiosity does kill the cat. Chapter Forty-Six

I cannot move.

I cannot scream.

I cannot react.

All that I can do is stand there, frozen in a state of shock, as I watch the hatch explode in front of my eyes.

My friends are in there.

And I just blew them up.

It takes me a few moments to process this. And when I finally put it together, I nearly faint.

I want to run towards them, but I physically cannot. My heart has stopped and my legs have turned to Jello. I watch with wide eyes as dense, black smoke billows from the hatch door. Hot tears begin to run in my eyes when I realize that I have probably killed them all. All because I was stupidly curious and entered a password wrong.

And then suddenly, I hear a screams from inside of the hatch.

Some of them are still alive.

My legs instantly unfreeze and I find myself sprinting towards the hatch door and into the swirling cloud of smoke. My lungs immediately begin to run as I breathe in the burning air, causing me to violently cough. But I don't care. Even if just one person is still alive, I have to get them.

I kneel down, leaning over the edge and closing my eyes as the smoke billow out, burning my eyes.

"HELLO!" I scream.

Smoke immediately fills my mouth, causing me to hack up a lung.

Then, I hear a boy's voice.

"HELP!" the voice screams.

Bracing myself, I grab the ladder and climb down into the hatch. The acrid burning smell heightens as I descend, threatening to choke me to death. When I finally reach the floor, I open my eyes, only to be greeted by a swirling hurricane of smoke.

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!" someone shouts frantically.

I recognize the voice as Dylan's and my heart surges slightly when I realize that he is okay.

And I definitely do not have time to explain what happened right now.

"I...I DON'T KNOW. BUT WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" I scream, before going into another coughing fit.

"I CAN'T BREATHE!" I hear a girl's voice scream.

I can't tell if it is Nikki's or Eve's, but at least another person is still alive. My mind instantly goes to Ian and Tristan.

"IAN? TRISTAN?" I call out desperately.

No reply.

My heart sinks down into my stomach. If they died, I will never be able to live without the guilt.

Two figures emerge from the smoke. I squint to see that it is Dylan and Nikki.

"Go up! Get out of here!" I shout.

Without a word, they rush towards the ladder and quickly begin to climb up. Once they reach the top, they shout down to me.

"Tessa, you have to come up too!"

"I...I can't. Not without the others!" I shout up to them.

I have to find them. Adrenaline pumps through my veins as I run through the swirling smoke, searching from Ian, Tristan and Eve. My heart skips a beat when I see orange flames licking up the sides of the walls.

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"IAN! TRISTAN! EVE!" I yell, my voice cracking.

I hear someone's voice, but it's the voice of the person I despise the most.

Eve.

"What the fuck is going on!" I hear her yell from across the room.

Immediately, I begin to run towards her voice in hopes that maybe Ian and Tristan are by her too. By now my lungs are on fire and I don't know how much longer I can last. I finally find her sprawled out on the ground. She holds her hand out and I pull her up off of the floor.

"Tell me right now, what the..."

But before she can finish, I abruptly cut her off.

"Just get out here. Now!"

After staring at me for a few moments, she runs away.

Now it's just Tristan and Ian left. And of course, it has to be the two people that I care about the most.

"T...Tristan! Ian!" I shout.

By now, the flames have gotten bigger, stealthily crawling up the walls of the room. I begin to cough again; loud, dry coughs that rack my entire body. My head is spinning and have to lean against one of the couches to steady myself.

And then, the last thing that I remember is me blacking out.


"Is she okay?"

"I don't know...I think she's still breathing though"

Suddenly, I gasp for breath as my eyes flash open. I squint as bright sunlight shines down through the trees, blinding me temporarily. Before I can say anything, I begin to cough. My lungs are still burning; every coughs makes them feel like they are about to collapse.

And then, the horrifying memories of what happened come back to me.

The explosion.

The fact that I never found Ian and Tristan.

I instantly sit up and look around to see Nikki, Dylan and Eve, all surrounding me with concerned looks on the faces. All except for Eve of course. She doesn't look too concerned. In fact, she has no emotion on her face.

"W...Where's Ian and Tristan?" I ask panickedly, looking around at the three of them.

Nikki glances at Dylan, and pained expression on her face.

"What is it! Tell me right now!" I shout, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Sh...should we tell her?" Nikki whispers to Dylan.

"Tell me what?! Because if it's that they died, get it over with and tell me right now! There's no need to hide it" I exclaim angrily.

"Yeah, just tell her" Eve mumbles.

A lump has formed in the back of my throat, so large that I can barely breathe anymore. Nikki turns back to me and I see that there are tears glistening in her eyes. She swallows hard, then says,

"Well Tristan...he's okay. I mean he's banged up pretty bad, but he's alright. He's sleeping now"

The pit of dread in my stomach sinks even further. This cannot be good. Already, tears have begun to stream down my face uncontrollably.

"And what about Ian?" I whisper, my voice quaking with fear.

Nikki takes a deep breath.

"Tessa...I don't think that he made it"

It's as if one thousand bricks have just fell on top of me. Even though I knew it, just hearing Nikki say those words makes it a thousand times worse.

"W...Where is his body?" I sob, looking up her miserably.

Nikki begins to cry as well and turns to Dylan.

"We went back down and searched and searched, but we couldn't find him anywhere. We think that he was completely burned up by the flames" Dylan murmurs.

I begin to sob even harder, unable to fully wrap my mind around the fact that Ian is gone.

"Are you sure you searched everywhere?" I cry.

All three of them nod.

"We looked everywhere in that room Tessa" Dylan says solemnly.

Everywhere in that room...

Then suddenly, I think of something that I hadn't thought of before. Something that gives me the smallest glimmer of hope.

"Did you check the secret room?" I ask.

"No, we didn't" Eve says flatly.

I immediately stand up.

"Where are you going?" Nikki cries out as I begin to walk back towards the hatch.

But I don't respond. Instead, I continue to walk towards it. By now, most of the smoke has cleared, leaving only a hazy mist of debris. I arrive and quickly begin to climb down the ladder.

"Tessa, you shouldn't go back down there!" I hear Nikki shout.

But I completely ignore her.

With my heart racing, I jump down to the floor and begin to run towards the bookshelf on the wall. When I reach it I lean against it, using all of my body weight to rotate the shelf. It slowly spins around, creaking loudly on its hinges until it locks into place on the other side.

I reach down and grab the handle, closing my fingers around it. Before I twist it, I close my eyes and pray.

Hard.

When I am finally down praying, I take a deep breath and twist the knob. Slowly, I push the door open.

Maybe, just maybe...

Once the door is fully open, I finally open my eyes.

At first, I think that I am dreaming.

But then, I realize that it must be real.

He is right there, standing across the room from me.

Ian.

Chapter Forty-Seven

At first, I am so distracted by the fact that Ian is alive that I don't even register what he is doing.

"Ian!" I shout out, relief flooding throughout my entire body.

But then, I look