The Arcade || Lee Felix (rewritten version)

[34] - Step out of clé

At least there was no traffic. Chan was driving our car, a big van with plenty of room for Changbin to be laying down in the backseat. I sat beside him and made sure he was still alive with Felix on my other side.

In a car behind us were the rest with Minho driving.

I still didn't understand how they could have even survived that explosion. I'd been thrusted back quite far, the pressure in there must've been huge.

Felix kept telling me the explosion was higher up and they had a big chunk of cement in the way to hide behind. Changbin had gotten hurt because of the ceiling falling down on them after the explosion.

Felix wasn't looking too good either though. Even if Changbin had taken the bigger damage, Felix was far from spared.

Chan was speeding down the streets, I didn't really know where he was heading, but he seemed to know where we were going. He didn't hesitate at the intersections and kept pressing the gas.

"Where are we even going?" I asked Chan after he took a turn.

"Back to the beginning" he said.

I frowned at first, then it hit me.

"The beginning?" Felix asked. He didn't seem to get it.

"Back to where it all started" I said.

"But why does it seems like we're leaving the city then?" He asked.

"Not back to where this level started, back to where it all started" I said.

"You mean back to the fields?" He wondered when he realized.

"It was all about the journey, everything the journey has taught us is our treasure" I said. "Like in that book you read, isn't that correct" I said to Chan. I'd thought about it for a while now and that was my guess on the message of the Levanter.

He nodded. "The book ends with the protagonist traveling back home again when there was no treasure, but taking with him everything he'd been thaught during his search, because that was the treasure itself" he explained. "This whole journey throughout the game have taught us to be ourselves, and that's the treasure we're taking with us, that's what the creator wants to show us by doing this" he added.

"Wait, we haven't found the last key" Felix then suddenly remembered with panic.

"The treasure is the key, meaning there is no physical key, the key is to realize the lessons we've been taught" I said with a shrug.

"But how are we even going to find the beginning here?" Felix asked. "We're in the middle of a city and that was out on endless fields, that could be anywhere" he argued.

"Let's just hope Chan knows what he's doing" I said.

I looked at Changbin who was laying down. His face was pale and he seemed to be in more and more pain for every minute that passed.

"We need to go faster" I said, knowing we were already going very fast, definitely faster than the limit. That didn't matter though since nothing living except us was here. No traffic, no pedestrians, no animals throwing themselves out in the road. We didn't even need to care about red lights.

"This car can't go much faster" Chan said.

I didn't say anything, but Felix noticed how worried I was.

"It'll be okay" he said with soft voice.

"Changbin can't die" I said, but my voice was trembling and I noticed how my sight was getting blurry from the tears forming in my eyes.

"He won't" Felix said, trying to keep me calm even though he didn't seem to believe his own words much more than I did.

"I... I should've-" my voice broke because of a sob.