Nikki swiveled her head to and fro. None of the scenery had changed in the while Chett, her, and Jenna had been walking.
"Just how big is this room?" she complained.
"Big enough to spend an eternity working our legs off for nothing," Chett sighed. "Maybe we should try to the left?"
"But where is left?" Nikki stressed. "Everything is just around us, I can't tell where any given direction is! We might just be wandering in circles, and...and..."
"Calm down, will you?" Chett put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's just try it. I'm not saying it's the only way, but it might beat walking straight for eons." Nikki nodded, squeezing her arms against her chest. She felt as if she was about to burst into tears. The pressure of finding a way out was starting to get to her. Nikki stressed on the idea of perhaps never finding a way out, fearing that she would be stuck in this insane place forever. That and the burden of leading her friends onto the same path was enough to make a girl lose a bit of herself.
"If it makes you feel any better, I can kind of see some sort of figure up ahead." Chett squinted. Nikki didn't believe him.
"Really? Are you sure you're not just hallucinating?" Nikki asked dully.
"No, actually I think there's someone there." He started towards the imaginary figure. "Hey!" he called. "Over here!" Jenna tapped Nikki's shoulder.
"He's not lying," she said. "there's really someone there. Two people, maybe." Nikki turned to see what was truly happening, and was almost overcome. Two figures, blurry in the distance, were slowly making their way up to them. Nikki was so overjoyed, she broke out into a run to greet them. The familiar face of Zoe began to materialize, and without a second-glance, Nikki enveloped her in a tight hug.
"Whoa," Zoe chuckled, hugging her back. "I missed you too. Are you guys okay?" Chett and Jenna had caught up to them by now as they broke apart.
"Yeah," Chett echoed. "Just lost in wherever here is...er, if you don't mind me asking, who's the girl?" He nervously pointed to the eerie little girl in the pink shirt.
"Oh!" Zoe jumped, as if startled. "Don't worry, she's on our side! She led me to where you guys were, and she says that she knows a way out of here. I thought I'd offer a way out." The rest of them exchanged glances.
"Zoe?" Nikki spoke up after a long pause.
"Yes?" she seemed to be fairly absent-minded.
"I don't think you should trust what that girl says," she gulped. Zoe frowned, looking from the girl to Nikki. "Why not?" Nikki bit her lip. "Because...doesn't she seem to be a little...odd to you?" Zoe almost looked offended. "What?! She may look a little different, but what should that matter? I think she's a fine girl."
"Then what's her name?"
"We haven't gotten to that part yet." Chett cleared his throat. "Have you also not noticed the fact that she's hovering slightly?" Zoe blushed. "I thought she was light on her feet."
"Zoe!" All three of them chorused. She flushed a deep red.
"It's fine! She led me to you guys, didn't she? That has to count for something! Hey, girlie..." She bent her knees to get to the girl's height. "Don't you know where everyone else is, too? Couldn't we find them?" After a moments hesitation, there was no mistaking that the eerie girl slowly nodded her head.
"No...find..." her voice sounded like she had long forgotten how to use it.
"What? Why not? Wouldn't that be a better idea?" Zoe's smile faded. The girl shook her head, pointing to the right of her.
"Exit," she said, drifting off in that direction. Zoe was rooted to the spot. Nikki looked to her. "What do you propose we do?" she asked. She stared hard at the floor.
"Let's follow her. We don't have much else to do, right?" she giggled nervously, any amusement absent from her laugh. Nikki shot her a worried look that she never returned. Knowing that there was no other way they knew that led to freedom, Zoe, Chett, Jenna and Nikki followed the strange girl as she guided them to some other untold horror. 887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzXoDRH1dYt
They all came to a door. A gigantic, wooden, medieval style door that had splintering pieces of wood spouting out of it and a rusted handle that looked like it could break at any second. Nikki still didn't know what to think. This girl had led them to a door, sure, but the problem was they didn't know what was behind the door. 887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEqJYUE2EcP
"How do we open it?" Zoe voiced what they were all thinking. "It isn't locked, is it?" 887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo4Y96cTFR7
"I don't know," Chett replied. "but that handle looks like it could break if we pull it too hard, not to mention that this door is so huge that it might be impossible to budge."887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ1oYs6maqn
"Come on, guys," Nikki tried to be motivational. "We have to try something! Let's just see if it will open, okay? If there's a way out, it has to be this one!" They all looked uncertainly at her.
"Look," Zoe rubbed her arm nervously. "I'm not even sure of this anymore. I thought this little girl was going to lead me somewhere nice, but now I'm just more uneasy than anything. Don't you think we should call this off and get away from here as fast as we can?" Nikki's hands paused, they were already grasping the rusted handle of the door. "We have to try," she said this mostly to herself. Without further consolation, Nikki pulled on the handle with as much force as she could muster. The door refused to budge at all. Nikki felt her face go red with the amount of force she was using on this door.
"A little help, please?" She managed to breathe out to the others. They exchanged glances, but all laid their hands on the handle, pulling and tugging with all their strength. A sound, as if the two doors were glued together, came from in between as the doors separated. Suddenly, the door flew open in a flash, knocking Nikki, Chett, Zoe and Jenna off their feet, leaving the door wide open and peaceful once again.
Nikki sat up, shaking her head and rubbing her butt. That bruise was going to hurt in the morning...she looked up and felt a rush of excitement.
"It's open!" she exclaimed. "It's open, it's open, it's open! We can finally leave this place!" The other's faces split into wide grins. Regardless of any horrible thing that could be locked up in there, the fact that they had made progress to finding a way out was a marveling sight.887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqkbtjDmQpB
"What about the others?" Jenna spoke up. "Shouldn't we go and get them, as well?" Nikki's grin vanished. On the one hand, it would be great to get everyone they knew into this door and out of the endless white room, but then again, who could say that they would ever find them?
"Yes..." Nikki said hesitantly. She gazed behind her, the vast space of the room filling her stomach with unsettling butterflies.
"How could we find them?" Chett spoke for her. "It's because of this weird girl that we found this door to begin with. There's no telling whether or not the others will ever find her, but how could we just go back and probably never find this place again?"
Jenna stared at the ground. "That's okay. I can stay and look for more people and lead them here. If...if you would help me, er...what's your name?" She looked to the little girl.
"Wait, stay?!" Nikki interjected. "But we've come so far! You can't just leave and...and..."
"It's okay. I can always find my way back. Besides, if I have this little girl with me, well, she helped Zoe find us and a way back, maybe she can help other people, too." Nikki's eyes saddened as she gazed into her friend's eyes. She didn't know if she wanted to let this happen or not. What if they never saw each other again, what if she died looking for other people and was stuck here forever? Nikki couldn't let that happen. But she also couldn't stop Jenna from doing what she wanted.
"Are you sure?" Nikki asked pitifully.
"Yes." She offered her hand to the little girl. The girl made a motion for her to come closer. Jenna bent her knees, not having to squat down far. The girl whispered something in her ear, and a look of surprise crossed over Jenna's face. Jenna stood back up, and the girl took her hand.887Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4iDgfn0pSk
"She says that she'll help me find the others. But she won't let me tell you her name, it's top secret." Nikki felt puzzled.
"Only if you think it's right. And hey, don't get stuck here forever, okay?" Jenna smiled warmly, waving for them to go on ahead. "Go on, tell me all about it when I come back, okay?"
"Okay." Nikki, Chett, and Zoe watched until Jenna and the girl walked out of sight, lost in the endless room once again. Nikki still didn't want to believe that Jenna wanted to go back. She couldn't believe that she'd let a friend walk away all over again. She was too scared to do a thing about it then and now.
"Shall we?" Zoe cleared her throat, gesturing to the ajar wooden door. Nikki nodded, forcing her feet to be uprooted from the ground and taking a seventh-glance as she slowly disappeared behind the door.
The room they all had walked in was dark. Pitch-black, with nothing to be seen. They stalked ahead blindly, tripping over each others feet ("Ouch! Watch where you're walking, Chett!" "Sorry, Zoe! I can't see a thing...") and making their way through the awful haze that presented itself to them. Nikki could only hear her ragged breathing along with the other breathless panting of her comrades.
"Do you think we're there yet?" she asked Chett.
"If only I knew where 'there' was. This passage could lead to anywhere, you know. What if we're not even on camp borders anymore?"
"I don't know...we were knocked out for a while, but who can say how far we actually traveled in that time. Say, Jenna woke up and saw a bit of what was happening, did you see anything?"
"No," Chett answered glumly. "You?"
"Nada. The only thing I woke up to was Jenna shaking me. What about you, Zoe?"
There was no answer.
"Zoe? Helloooo? Where did you go?" A gasp from her left, and panic began to rise in Nikki's throat. "Chett?" her voice quivered. "Was that you? Hey, this isn't funny...speak to me!" But still, no answer came.
Nikki was alone. Afraid. Blind. There was nothing ahead of her or behind her, in fact, she wasn't sure that she was entirely there herself. All she could do was keep moving forward, even if her feet were icy and gluing themselves to the ground with each and every step she took. And then there was something grasping her ankle. A scream, loud, and petrifying, rang throughout the dark room. It took Nikki a moment to realize that it was her own, but it was already too late by then.
She was being dragged by her ankle. Behind, to the left, to the right, it all went so fast she could barely comprehend it.Suddenly, the thing on her ankle let go, and Nikki felt herself free falling. It was still dark, she hit a tunnel on her rump, still sliding down. Where was she? Some sort of tunnel? A shoot? She gained speed, accelerating downwards fast, and then there was light.
THUD. She hit the ground on her butt, hard. Now that was really going to hurt in the morning.
"Nikki?" Came a voice from above her.
"Wendy?"
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