"Calm down! Calm down, everyone!" Yelled Chad who was on the second floor, wearing just a pink polka dots boxers and a white sando. "Trevor, get all the fire extinguishers from the mess hall," he added. "And everyone, turn on the faucets in your toilet. Go! No time to waste. Then leave the building at once."
There was a stampede in the hallways as soon as Chad finished instructing us. We could barely fit in the stairs. Especially on the second floor. We got through the third floor no problem as there was only one occupied room in there, the one nearest the stairs. The other two were empty.
"Help! Somebody help!" Cried a mother as she held her boy, unconscious, head bleeding. As a result of stampede, he was pushed to the side, fell out of balance, and hit his head in the corner of the door.
"Dandan, let's go!" And while I stared at the poor mother trying to stop the blood with her tee shirt, I let Kristina pull me away, and down to the open field.
And I'd like to grab this chance to tell you all that I'm not a good person. Some of you may think otherwise based on my past actions but let me repeat. I am not a good person. Because if I was, I would have helped her. I wouldn't have let Kristina pull me away. I am selfish, you see. And you will see why in the future.
Twelve people huddled on the field, three of which were injured. Trevor, Chad, and two more guys whose names I don't remember helped put out the fire using the fire extinguishers they got from the mess hall. And yes, there were sixteen people occupying the dorm.
At exactly 7:15, we watched there in horror as the building became a blazing inferno. Can you believe it? We were talking just fine a while ago and before we knew it, a sea of flames started to devour everything.
"Everyone, look!" Yelled Scott. The fifth person in Ms. Lydia's class. He was pointing in one of the windows.
I followed where his fingers were pointed at and through the window, behind the veil of scorching heat, two shadowy figures, three, four, lots of them. They danced a ritualistic kind of dance, if that even made sense. Their misshapen hands thrown over their heads, waving it side to side as they hopped around in circles.
"Cursed. This is a cursed place." I heard a grandma whisper. "We are cursed. We must repent." And she seemed to be losing her shits too.
After much effort, Chad and the other three finally gave up. The fire wasn't going away. It wasn't going any bigger nor any smaller. After emptying all the six tanks of fire extinguisher and a truckload of water, they must've realized the fire wasn't ordinary fire.
"The signal is down." It was Kristina. "Does anyone have a phone? Can you try calling the fire station? I think my phone broke."
"I do." I answered her. Then I pulled out my smartphone that never left my pocket, brought it to life, and attempted to dial the fire station but— "I… I don't have a signal either."
"Hmm… Weird. Very weird indeed." Zach sprang up between us. "We're having a commotion and all but the three didn't even bother showing themselves." He shot us a knowing look. "Ah! Don't get me wrong. But they must have an emergency measure or two, don't you think? After all, they're the founder of the camp."
And just like that, we convinced the others to search for the three. And by three, I meant Old Klein, Franco, and Lydia. Some agreed but some were still in so much shock they couldn't think properly. And I couldn't stand them, quite frankly. If they're gonna keep acting like that, they're only gonna drag us down.
Anyway, while they wallow in shock, Kristina and I, along with Zach headed to Old Klein's office. The others searched the makeshift classroom and the mess hall.
But there wasn't a single soul in the office. Not even the stacks of documents on his desk. They were all gone. Not a single sign of them anywhere. And the office looked like it hadn't been used before. It looked brand new.
"Dandan, look at this." Kristina told me. She stared behind the armchair Franco used to sit, aghast.
Zack and I huddled close to her to see what she was seeing. But to our surprise, it was the corpse from my closet, the one Betty took over. Except that it was nothing but a crumpled corpse. Exactly like what happened to the pig in my house.
Then two people entered the office. It was Kamil and Chad.
"We couldn't find them anywhere. And please look outside." Said Chad.
And we did. But to our surprise, the moon was no more. The outside became an endless expanse of void. And a somewhat muddy, gray dome encapsulated us all.
No signal and trapped. For reasons unknown, we became disconnected to the outside world.