Chapter 19: Return!
"A search team? Does that mean there are more of you?" For once, Pablo stopped eating and looked at Alex, intrigued at what he just heard.
"Yes, there should be around 12 of us; with you, we're 13." Alex confirmed.
"Hmm... Alright." Pablo was initially worried but after thinking about it, he'd rather go than stay. He was strong headed enough to refuse to leave at first, but now, after everything he went through, he'd rather get as far away from the staff room as possible.
"Shall we go?" Yu, looking behind him, asked the group. Zen looked at him and then at Pablo, who had just finished eating.
"Yes, we should." he agreed.
Pablo got up, dusted himself, and scanned the area around him, Looking to the sides, he was shocked when he couldn't find what he was looking for.
"What's wrong, man?" Max asked.
"The corpse... It's not here." Pablo replied with a low voice; fear could be felt in his tone.
"What corpse?" Yu heard this and got worried as he asked.
"The corpse of the first survivor to get out of the room, normally, or at least from what we've seen so far, the first to get out of the room, is always purged from existence." Zen replied.
"It should be right here. What's with this maze? What's with this hell? Why? Just why were we sent here?" Pablo once again broke down, as his heart was far too hurt to take anything more.
"Calm down, Pablo. Let's not think any further and move on." Alex came closer, patted Pablo's shoulder, and spoke, trying to ease his mind.
"Yes, let's go; we have no more time to waste over here." Zen also agreed with Alex's words, but this time he actually moved, not waiting for the group.
Seeing this, Max and Yu moved behind him, and Alex, looked into Pablo's eyes, nodded, and the two followed the trio.
The group had to once again walk through the maze and skip over all kinds of traps. Zen, of course, led the way forward, and whenever they came across a chest, he was the one to open it.
Throughout the way, Pablo managed to gain a shield as a self-defense tool, and the group managed to hold enough food to last them quite a while, so their minds were more at ease as they approached the last room where they left their teammates.
After walking for hours, the group had no energy to move any further, so they sat on the ground once Zen found a relatively safe area.
"Pablo." Yu, who was sitting on the other side, right in front of Pablo, called.
"Yes?" Pablo replied, looking at him. The other three looked at them, intrigued by what Yu was going to ask.
"Why did you remain in that room? Didn't your spawn mates ask you to come with them?" Yu posed his question. Hearing this, a shiver ran down Pablo's skin as he was reminded of what happened then.
"Ah, I'm sorry; I shouldn't have asked." Yu, seeing Pablo's reaction, apologized.
"No, it's fine." Pablo shook his head.
"You see... When I just appeared in that staff room, I was too scared; I didn't know where I was. and then 2 guys and 2 girls suddenly appeared. I don't know what got to me before I found myself hiding under a table. It was like magic. One second they weren't there, and the next second, they just were." Pablo explained, his eyes looking widely at the floor as he recalled the scene vividly.
"Those four looked around and then spotted each other. They quickly put distance between themselves and looked cautiously at the others. Some of them knew that they couldn't be anywhere else other than hell, while others just didn't know what was going on." He continued, looking back up at Yu.
The group started remembering scenes of when they just spawned as they attentively listened to what Pablo was saying.
"So, one girl, looked at the other three, and asked them to introduce themselves. One guy rose his hands up on the sky and said, 'I'm not an enemy, I don't even know what I'm doing here.' his name was Cartillo, the other guy also followed suit, introducing himself, and then the other girl did so before the first girl to ask introduced herself."
"The group started talking to themselves and wondering if there was no one else there, but even then, I couldn't get out. And that's when that damned mysterious voice spoke, telling us that this is some kind of trial and that we can see our traits if we call out our status." Pablo added. Suddenly, he caught his head as his eyes looked at the floor once again. He shivered uncontrollably as he looked terrified.
"One guy suddenly jumped up, shouting, 'I knew it; this is a fantasy world!' but none of them spoke of their traits. All it took was one look for them to understand that nobody there was a good person and that they couldn't fully trust one another. The first girl to speak told them that she had a useful trait that might be of use and that they should move now."
"And that's when it happened..."
"The guy who was excited puffed his chest and stated that he was going to lead the way; he went towards the door, opened it... And- and he was sliced in half..." Pablo shivering got worse; his eyes opened wider, and tears fell out.
The group looked at him worriedly as Alex, next to him, tapped his shoulder.
"This is hell, Pablo. There's nothing we can do." Zen, Max, and Yu nodded hearing these words, but Pablo didn't.
"No, that wasn't the worst thing that happened." He continued. The group was confused and intrigued, how could it get worse.
"Yeah, it wasn't his death that scared me... It was the reaction of the other 3..."
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