Immediately we all stepped into the tunnel, the shelf closed the entrance locking us in and almost immediately, torches lining the walls of the tunnel lit up, by themselves.
"This is starting to get creepy," Monica confessed and I felt so too.
"Let's walk down a bit," I suggested.
We had barely walked a meter when something like a snore could be heard clearly.
"What's that?" Olivia asked no one in particular.
"I don't know," I said.
"It's coming from behind that door," Kyle gestured to a door at the left side of the tunnel an inch away from us.
"Let's check it out," I said. I wasn't sure why but I just felt this urge that there wasn't something right in this school.
"Are you crazy? There could probably be a monster or a wild animal in there and you want to go in?" Monica questioned though I knew she was just concerned.
"Don't worry, I'm prepared. Trust me," I said and we made for the door, gradually.
Carefully I opened the door and walked in, the rest following suite. The door enclosed a brief hallway and when we followed the sound of the snore, we were led to a room.
"This place is just like an apartment," Kyle muttered out the words and I agreed with him. There was a living room, a bathroom, a small kitchen and here we were in the bedroom.
A single bed stood a distance away from us and on it was the silhouette of a sleeping figure covered fully by a white bed sheet. Made more sense as to where the snore was coming from.
"Looks like a ghost to me," Miles whispered mostly to Monica.
Slowly but carefully, I walked to the bed almost laying a finger on the sheets when Monica shrieked.
"Avril," Miles called giving me a no-no look.
"Avril, I know you don't like your life but I do," Monica compelled. I paused for a while to take in her last phrase; 'don't like your life but I do'? What was that supposed to mean.
Regardless of the warning signs and looks, I did what my instincts told me and pulled off the sheets. I looked at the unveiled mystery figure before me; this was no monster, it was a human. The rest came over to have a look.
"Alex??!" They all yelled.
"Who?" I asked confused not knowing who this person was while they seemed to have known him forever.
The 'Alex' guy who must have been disturbed from his sleep sat up and stretched for almost a minute or two before realizing he wasn't alone.
"Kyle, my buddy!" He exclaimed, his eyes darting from one person to the other.
"Music king! Monica, Olivia and...girl who I've never met in my life."
"It's Avril," I managed to say finding his comment a bit rude.
"Mental note," he said gesturing to his head.
"You all know him?" I asked the others.
"Yeah he's our classmate or he's supposed to be," Kyle answered.
"Classmate?" I repeated, "how come I've never seen him?"
"He disappeared a year before you came to S.S.H, no one's seen him since," Kyle said then added, "well not until now that is."
Disappeared? No wonder they were so surprised to see him.
"But one question," I said to Alex, "how've you been surviving because obviously you can't get out."
"The school authorities," Alex began, "they provided me with everything I needed; water, clothing, shelter, TV and...oh! Great Wi-fi."
I knew it! The authorities were hiding something or in this case, someone.
"How can you watch TV in this place? Where will the signal come from?" Miles asked.
"I don't know how they did it but they did a great job, trust me," Alex said and relaxed on the bed obviously comfortable with his 'new' home.
"What's in this tunnel? I found myself asking.
"Other than me, you don't want to know," he said making me more suspicious.
"Tell me something," I said, "why are the school authorities keeping you here? Why won't let you out?"
"We made a deal, they gave me what I wanted and I remain here," he said still making the whole thing puzzling.
"What did you want that they gave?" Kyle asked and from the look on his face, he too was suspicious, everyone was.
Alex sat up.
"No offense but it's sort of personal," Alex replied.
What could be so personal that would cost you your freedom?
"How do we get outta here?" Monica, who had been silent for a while, asked.
"You know, I'm beginning to feel like some great sage. Like in the movies, when explorers go on a suicide hike and they meet this wisdom man who tells them stuff they need to know; your load of questions make me feel just that," Alex said deriving pleasure in his sense of humor.
"How-do-we-get-out-of-this-tunnel?" I slowly put the words into his ears.
"Okay fine, your new friend's a bit scarybyou know," Alex paused then said; "you can't."
"What do you mean by 'we can't'?" Miles asked.
"Look, I know you know this tunnel like the back of your palm, so you must know the way out," I said.
"That is true," he said stroking his invisible beard. He was obviously feeling like a sage now but if it was our key to freedom, he could feel like whatever he wanted.
"Obviously you can't go through the front door....so you'll go through the back," he said.
The front door was the way we came but there was a back door?
"But I warn you, the back door's dangerous," Alex warned.
I pondered on what he said for a while. We had two options; go through to the dangerous back door or be stuck in here with this guy for the rest of our lives. I was read to take my chances, I wasn't born a prisoner.
"Back door's better," I said and the rest getting the message agreed too.
"Okay but don't say I didn't warn you."
Alex stood up.
"I'll be your your guide. From sage to your guide, what a demotion," he said.
This guy was so unserious, I concluded.
"Follow me," he said and we followed suite, as flocks did to a shepherd.
I had my suspicions about Alex but if it meant I had to keep them aside for the sake of my freedom as well as the others then I had to do it but with my eyes watching him.