Humans can only breathe underwater for an average of two minutes. The person who broke the world record for holding their breath underwater, held his breath for 24 minutes. It really intrigued young Juno. She took it as a challenge to hold her breath underwater longer. Young Juno went to her family's swimming pool, and jumped like she had purpose in her life.
"Cannonball!" She splashed hard into the pool and held her breath there. She was very determined to beat the world record of holding her breath underwater. "It's easy." She thought to herself. "I can do 30 minutes. I can do an hour!"
Her mother found her floating in the pool, motionless. She was quickly resuscitated by her mother, who forced the father to look up a resuscitation guide online. Thankfully, Juno was okay but she had to say goodbye to the pool she loved so much. For Kristen Juno, she thought that the one that definitely deserved a world record was her mom.
Juno wanted her mom to rescue her now; because she's inside a locker and holding her breath for more than a minute.
Father Ray's youngling was just right in front of her. The only thing separating them was a thin sheet of steel. The dark hallways were in Juno's favor, the youngling should think that Juno could be anywhere by now.
The youngling walked past by the locker that Juno was in. Juno listened for footsteps and she could hear nothing. She slowly opened the locker, checking if another psychopath is wandering around the halls. To her relief, there was nobody.
She slowly wandered around the empty hallways, always making sure if anybody was following her. She would always peek at corners at the end of hallways.
Her legs were now hurting. All that running put too much effort on her legs. They were about to give up. She came across another dark room, she was gasping for hair as she slowly opened the door. There was a person there.
"River!" She cried out to her. "I finally found you!" She cried out again, tears were clouding her eyes. She kneeled down right next to River. "Joseph's dead because of me, Riv. Help me. I don't know what's happening, but we need to find a way out."
River was kneeling right beside her as well, yet she wasn't answering her. River remained motionless.
Juno noticed this and wiped her tears away to see more clearly. River just wasn't moving. She was looking down on the ground, kneeling on the floor, moonlight was shining at her from a window. Her eyes were open, but they seemed dead. She was catatonic.
"River?" Juno placed her hands on River's face, she felt her skin was cold. Ice cold. Juno felt like she was holding ice cubes that weren't wet. "What the…what's wrong with you?"
"She been like that for a full hour." Juno almost jumped the second she heard the voice. It came from a man she thought was familiar. The guy was sitting down on the floor at the corner of the room. She couldn't see him at first because of the dark.
"Who are you?"
"A harmless person. Don't mind me. Trying to hide from all the looneys out there, same as you. I just happened to stumble upon…her." He pointed at River. She wasn't moving, still. Her eyes, dead.
"Is she dead?" Juno asked.
"I don't know, I didn't check."
Juno looked closer and her eyes were able to adjust enough to see in the dark. She saw that the guy had very curly hair. Juno had seen him before.
"You—"
"Yes yes, I'm the guy from that disaster of a press con. You may also know me as the guy that peed on Garfield's dead body! Now that…..was a good part of the show. The audience demands an encore from the modern Diogenes!"
Juno thought he has lost it. What can she say, really? This guy is an inmate/patient in the world-renowned Pink asylum. Juno wondered what he did to get here. "Your name is Diogenes?"
Diogenes grunted. Juno took it as a yes. She checked River's neck for a pulse.
"She's alive!" She blurted out.
"Good to know."
Juno checked River's hand, her neck, her forehead. Everything she touched felt ice cold. She couldn't wrap her head around why. "How long has she been like this?"
"I don't know. How long has anything been anything? How long has people still reject the ones that are different? How long has the same society that existed thousands of years ago, still be ignorant of what true value is? It's still the same, people know the price of everything but find value in nothing." A few moments of silence pass by with Juno being confused with everything that the man was saying. "So, to answer your question, yes. She's been like that for 4 hours."
"4 hours after that press con." Juno muttered to herself. "After what happened there, I turned around and saw that River was gone and everyone started clawing at each other. So I hid."
Diogenes saw a fly that buzzed down unto River's head and worked its way towards her open and frozen mouth. The fly stayed there for a few seconds before flying away again.
"She is a cynic." He said.
"What?"
"She remains ignorant of the world. She doesn't move against anything. She seems free. She is like me."
"What are you talking about?" Juno asked again. "At least help me get River to safety. We can't stay here for long. We gotta run!" Juno tried dragging River across the floor. Still, she remained in a kneeling position, she was still cold as ice. It was as if she was a frozen statue.
"The best thing we can do is stay here. Ignore what's going on outside. Let them claw each other apart. When the dust settles, it'll make no difference. Their values are nowhere to be found."
"We can't just wait until another looney arrives and kills us all! " exclaimed Juno. "I don't know what's happening to River but I can't leave her like this." She dragged River's catatonic body across the floor with all her might. She could only drag her for a few feet across the floor. She huffed and puffed, her legs still hurt, she let go.
"You can't. Just stay. We wait this out." Diogenes reaches his hands out to touch the moonlight shining through a window. "Beyond these walls, is a forest. A forest far from here, a forest full of fascinating wildlife. That's how they get our food. They grow it there. We can be safe there, until this all of this passes."
"How do you know this?" Juno asked.
"I just know."
Juno sighed. He took a deep breath and tried to process everything that happened and everything that's happened now.
Diogenes continued to touch the moonlight as Juno's cries echoed the room.