The man answered in affirmation, but somehow, Cassie was just unable to untangle her extremely sore legs in time. With an extreme effort, she drew her legs beneath her until she was kneeing inside her coffin. Just gathering up her strength, she pushed herself upwards, in time to hear a choked off cry.
Cassie lost her balance, and settled back on her knees. Looking around to see who had made the sound, and saw someone holding the palms in front of his face, and seeming to be looking terrified. She, out of impulse, placed her own hands in front of her face, and ever so carefully, gingerly, touched her face again. It must be some type of fluke - she hadnāt been able to feel for a while, so her senses were acting up.
To no avail.
Her fingers touched putty, and she drew them away in disgust again. Cassieās attention was further diverted from the matter when a voice spoke. One that she hadnāt heard before. ā
Hey! Over here! Her eyes travelled throughout the room, before settling on the yellow glowing objects - were those the source of the sound? They seemed to be almost likeā¦ eyes, but she had never seen eyes that were that particular shade. ā
I would not be standing around here if I were you. The storage floor is comparatively deserted, but you still get a good few nasties running around this level that would hesitate to turn you into lunch.ā The onslaught of terror that came from that matter-of-fact statement propelled Cassie out of her kneeling position, and before she knew it, she was standing on the ground, legs slightly trembling from the exertion. The voice continued. ā
Your best bet is to get up to the accommodation floor. Then youāll mostly only have Palmira to worry about. You hang around storage too long someoneāll creep up on you. At least one of them are going to be on their way right nowā¦ you all better get yourselves together.ā
Cassie walked, half-limped, over closer to the voice. She had to ask it exactly what was going on with her, and felt her flesh moveā¦ almost jiggle. She stopped in her tracks when the man from before spoke. ā
How can we trust you? You could be one of those ānastiesā or whatever they are, just leading us into a trap. What reason could you possibly have to help us?ā
Some other male spoke again, but out of sheer impatience, Cassie focused primarily on the moving from her ā¦ coffin to the strange glowing eyes. She only caught a few words of what he was saying, but to her mind, they made no sense without the context of all his words. Things like ātutorialā and āstart menuā. If she didnāt know better, Cassie would have assumed that perhaps this was a game - but no game could ever capture the feeling ofā¦ her own skin.
ā
If I might make a suggestionā¦ā interjected yet another person. Cassie, once again, tuned them out, but when catching a word that caught her attention, paid full attention to what he had to say. Maybe he knew what had happened - ā¦ because despite all of her attempts, Cassie could not remember a single event in her near pastā¦ She could remember her friends and their faces, but how had she ended up in such a predicament. ā
help? I think if we stick together and help one another along, we can get out of here and find some answers, what do you all think?ā
She opened her mouth to add her own opinion, but then, remembering the horrible voice that had spilt out, thought better of it, and listened to the female. ā
Iām ready to go. There were some notes, she has them right now. I think he wrote them. If heās back to warn us again, weāre probably running out of time.ā Cassie narrowed her eyes, the movement feeling fluid, before directing her attention to the papers that the black-haired woman was holding. She wondered what they said, but, as traveling was so difficult, decided that perhaps she would figure out their contents in the future.
Dredging up the deepest extent of her courage, she opened her voice to speak. This time, her voice was different again - raspy like a catās sandpaper tongue. She meant to say something inspiring, something that would empower everyone else next to her, but what came out was a single question. āIs this real?ā Her eyes darted around the room, with her mind unable to stop the barrage of terror. Two deep breaths later, her startled state was exchanged for a facade of calm. āWeāre going to get eaten, arenāt we?ā she suddenly stated. She wasnāt an actress for nothing. āWell, if you people want to struggle for your survival, donāt count me out. What better way to die than to go out with a bang?ā