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print("Fourteen")

Lena

I sniffed, half-falling asleep in my seat. John had told me to sit down and wait, and he had left immediately after that. I wasn't exactly sure what I was waiting for. Looking down at myself, I noticed Raven staring at me. God, she could be really freaky.

"Nothing happened here, correct?" she asked me.

I hesitated and simply nodded, though I was very confused.

Paris came into the room and sat a few feet away from me. She blew out a breath. "Okay, here's the deal.

"A long time ago, a person - we don't know exactly who - noticed a break in the code of the Phantasm. The person, coincidentally familiar with code, realized the truth of the Phantasm and was able to program themself out of the Phantasm without the robots realizing with the vials, which is actually a program the person made. That person built this base and started rescuing people with the vials.

"Eventually one thing led to another, and now I'm here, Summer's here, John and Paris are here, and now you."

I stared at her. "Oo-kay."

Paris crossed her legs. "That break in the Phantasm was built on, and now we can move in and out of the Phantasm at will, which is how we got you out."

I cocked my head. "And what do the robots do?"

"They monitor that no one has escaped into the real world. Though, obviously, we sneaked right under their noses."

I nodded slowly, my bob gradually coming to a stop. "Why and how was the Phantasm created?"

"That, we don't know," said Paris.

"Of course you don't," I muttered.

Raven spoke. "We - well, technically, Summer - rescued you-"

"It was a group effort!" interrupted Paris.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Right. Anyways, Summer rescued you guys from the Phantasm because you guys already had access to the vials."

"How?" I asked.

"Well, Summer-" Raven glared at Paris "-did most of the magic. She puppeteered everything just right so that it would fall into the hands of someone who would sell it to someone that worked at her company and eventually to Arya, and you would discover it and open it and come here."

Paris stood. "Enough about that. We have some more pressing news.

"Summer did some research and found out that the robots are mutating pretty bad; they're more destructive than usual. It'll be harder to be safe. Arya is outside with Summer trying to secure the base."

"Mutating?" I asked, frowning.

She nodded.

Raven sighed and stood as well, her legs shoulder-width apart and her arms crossed.

"The robots are acting abnormally," she said, "which is what mutating is. More aggressive than usual. Occasionally they act up like this, but it's only when we rescue someone from the Phantasm."

Paris nodded. "We believe that it's a programmed reaction to track us down and prevent any more people from leaving. They don't know specifically what's going on, but they sense a change in the code."

Raven added, "We don't think that this is the full extent of the mutation. Something else may be going on here that we don't know about. Whatever it is, we're bound to find out soon."

I shuddered. "Let's just hope that it's not too bad."

Raven snorted. "With how these robots have been, it's not going to be good."

Eventually Summer came inside and told us it was getting late and we should head to bed. Immediately I noticed that Arya wasn't with her, though I ignored my curiosity and went to my room.

My room wasn't the greatest; it was dirty with stony gray walls and a rectangle that was more of a rock than a bed. I tried to get some sleep, but the lack of comfort was unbearable and I struggled to even close my eyes. The distant ch, chs and vrr, vrrs of the robot-monsters didn't help.

"Knock knock. I'm coming in and at this rate I don't care if you're tired and grumpy."

Before I could protest to whoever was at the door, it was already open. It was Arya. I wasn't surprised.

She sat on my chair and stared at me for a good minute.

I started to shift uncomfortably on my weight. "What do you want?"

"Sheesh. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." she says.

"You're the one staring at me!"

"Come outside." She says gently. She spoke oddly, lightly. It was strange; I was used to her phony, harsh tone.

"We can't go out," I said. "We'd have to take down the shield."

Ari glanced at me. "There's a little bit of room from where the entrance to the base is to where the shield extends. We'll be fine."

I groan, rub my eyes and groggily get up to follow her.

She opens the door.

end

End