Trenton

Kylie lies on the couch, sleeping. Dawson and Eric are talking about who knows what. I sit in the chair, mapping out what we might do once we escape this time-lock. I pull out the pages, shuffle through them, and lay them out on the table. According to the game, we still have three pages left. What to do with them, I have no clue. Maybe if we put them all together, something would happen. I glanced at the clock. The same time. Every second of every hour, it was always 5:02. I secretly hoped that once we all died in the dream world, the time-stasis would collapse. The problem is, we all try to stay alive, so it could be an interminable amount of time. I guess we might as well gear up.

“Okay,” I say to Eric and Dawson. “I’m going to find food, water, and other stuff in the hotel we could use. Tell me if anyone wakes up.” They agree and I set up a mental connection. I leave and walk down the hall to the lobby. I find the kitchen and look for water bottles. I count out the right numbers and sit back, depression seeping in. Seven. So many have died. I shake the fog out of my head and continue looking for water. I find a pitcher of it and filled all of them up. I scrounged around for food and found some snacks to bring. I fill up two backpacks of food. I grab a few big kitchen knives and a cleaver. A couple mallets and frying pans complete the arsenal. I continue looking in the kitchen when Eric contacts me.

“Nathaniel’s awake. We got him out of his bonds, and he seems to be doing well. That makes one more.”

“Thanks for letting me know. I’m heading back up now,” I reply. I trudge up the steps to our room. I step into our room and see Eric, Dawson, and Nathaniel talking around the table. Kylie is just waking up. I walk over to Nathaniel and say it’s good to have him back. Kathryn comes out of the room and I make eye contact with her. I walk over to her and give her a hug. She walks over to Kylie and sits down next to her on the couch. I walk to the device in the center of the room. It’s starting to wobble like a top about to fall. One tentacle remains. One more death.