Just like that, a day went by, then two days, which spanned into a week, which continued to the second. They were still sitting on this pyramid, with no way to proceed. They were able to sustain themselves by hunting the Scurrilings and eating them. They all protested against the idea at first, but with the hungry tearing at them more and more with each minute they delayed it, they decided to go with Stone's method.
They also succeeded in making fire, the voice was not joking when it said that they had been given everything they needed because they found flint.
Eleven, Stone, and Purple had spent the days teaching Six how to swim, but his loss of one hand hindered their progress. It was hard for him, and with the very cold water, it seemed impossible.
By now they had used most of their clothes to make fire.
Slowly but surely, the other slaves that were with them started to die and the air was filled with the odor of decay. Some of them even turned out to be Seekers because each time they died, the voice rang out.
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. His spirit shall forever be remembered]
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. Her spirit shall forever be remembered]
Six looked at his hand too. It was starting to give off a weird smell and it hurt more than usual. At night he was unable to sleep, and eating was a problem for him. If he could turn back the hands of time, he would rather jump down himself than let those Scurrilings force him to.
"Bloody hell..." He groaned. Every day was a painful battle for him, but he had to endure it. It was surprising though that he was not yet dead but when it kept getting worse, Stone suggested cauterizing the wound.
Six objected but the others, with the exclusion of Thirteen, forced it on him. When he was distracted, they ambushed him and held him down. Using the chains that Stone had broken before, they carried out the process but they were a bit clumsy and he suffered some more for it.
***
Six sat on the closest terrace to the water with his legs crossed, staring at his hand. 'Am I going to be armless for the rest of my life?' He wondered.
While he was lost in thought, the unexpected happened. Thirteen who was usually shy and talked to no one else but Eleven, came to sit beside him. It was strange. He looked back and saw that none of the others were looking, what was this sorcery?
He had never talked to her before now except when asking a few questions so what was with the sudden coziness?
"Hi," She said, her voice sounding almost like a whisper.
"Uh... hi?" He replied, not knowing what else to say to her.
"S-sorry if I startled you. You don't mind if I sit here, do you"
"N-no, no, it's okay"
Following his words, Thirteen drew her knees to her chin and hugged them. "Thanks"
"No problem"
There was an awkward silence between them but Six did not want to just leave because that would seem even more awkward and rude. His brain worked like lightning, thinking of something to say to her, at least something they could just exchange a few sentences over and he would leave.
"We-"
"How-"
Apparently, they both had the intention to speak with each other and were forced to be quiet when the other tried to speak.
'This is awkward' Six thought. With the courtesy of a gentleman, he offered for her to speak first "You can go ahead"
"No, you can say what you wanted to say first"
"Don't worry about it, it's not like I had anything important anyway" Six said.
Thirteen slowly rested her chin on her hugged knees. Six could not help but admire how beautiful she was again. Her knees were exposed. They had to use parts of their clothes for fire and sometimes for Six's hand, hence they would be naked soon except they left this place or stripped dead people of their outfits.
'Stupid Purple, this is celebrity beauty right here' He thought.
She hesitated.
"How are you doing these days?"
He glanced at her and looked back at his hand.
"I've been fine"
She smiled.
"And your hand?"
His gaze was still focused on the hand. It looked so disgusting that he refused to believe it was his hand. Could it have been a phantom sensation? He did not know but for some reason, it felt like the hand was still there.
"It's been fine too. Still hurts a lot but it'll get better"
"I hope it does"
"Uhm... yeah, me too"
There was the silence again, and Six felt like he was going to explode but his mouth suddenly moved by itself.
"How long have we been here now, two weeks, three maybe?"
"Stone keeps track of it, we've been here for twenty-three days at least" Thirteen replied.
Throughout their time on this pyramid, Eleven, Red, Purple, and Stone had tried to scout out what it looked like under the water and see if there was any door on the second level that Stone showed them but their exploration was limited by sight.
Just like Stone said after he came back from his first venture, it was very dark under the waters and they could not come up with a solution for the problem hence, they were stuck there.
"Do you think we're going to make it out of here?"
Six glanced at her again.
"Honestly, no"
Her facial expression changed. Not because he told her what he believed but because there was no reason for her not to believe it too.
"You're right" The search was underwater, it was not like they could just trust their instincts and besides that, they had limited lung capacity. "It's not like we can use fire underwater"
As soon as she said those words, something clicked in Six's head 'Fire underwater, fire underwater, fire underwater'
"Fire underwater, fire underwater"
"Six, is something wrong?" Thirteen asked with a worried look on her face. Six did not know when he started to speak out loud, but it did not matter because a flower was about to bloom.
As he repeated the words she stared at him, but not once did he look back until the silliest idea came to his mind.
"May The Light guide your way," He said.
"What?"
"The voice, it said that before all of this started. It said 'May The Light guide your way'" Six replied.
Thirteen was confused. Was there some grand meaning to those words?
"Thirteen you're a genius"
Her cheeks flushed red as he said that to her. She had no idea what she must have done or said to make him say that to her but she'd take it.
Six turned around and looked at the other Seekers. "We should be enough, right?"
"Enough for what?"
Six rose to his feet and called to the others "You guys, if the way is too dark, then why don't we just light it up?"