Chapter Two:
I slept seven hours and woke up extremely agitated from a nightmare that I don't remember having. As I'm trying to calm myself down, I see a note on my nightstand.
"I picked up dinner for you because you fell asleep. It's in the fridge. Love you! - V"
I smile and say even though I'm the only one here, "You know, even though sometimes she's all about herself, and cute guys, she really is a great roommate. I'm gonna miss her when I leave." and then I realized what I had just said.
I grab dinner out of the fridge, reheat it, and sit at our little mini-table. I grab the map from the bag under my bed and just stare at it even though I'm staring right through it. Once again, my mind is in another world.
The possible consequences begin creeping into my mind, which is not safe whatsoever. I can't start doubting myself, so I get up and walk outside thinking that will distract me from thinking. I go down the hall into the dorm foyer. I bring my history book with me as an alibi in case one of the officers asks me what I'm doing out late.
Luckily they don't.
I sit in the foyer on one of the benches and scroll through the textbook. At night this place almost looks like an underground subway station according to some of the delivery men who bring us packages from the Outer World. Even though no one knows what that is, we call it the "subway station hall" just as a joke. All the dorm building's foyers look just like this one, but one day I'll know what a real subway station looks like and I'll be able to see the resemblance that those men see. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a man approaching me. He sits next to me. I cringe.
"Can't sleep, hmm?'' He asks me. I turn and see it's Mr. Elliot and I nod my head even though he obviously knows that I won't sleep at all, until I get to safehouse five.
"You're gonna be okay, you know. You're strong enough to make it all the way to safehouse five and into the Outer World. I have faith in you, but you have to have faith in yourself, and that's all that matters. If you don't, you won't make it, and you know as well as I do that I'm speaking the truth." I nod my head. All the talk about "believing in yourself or you'll die" is so over-spoken, but it really is true. Elliot begins again, "The snipers are good, the plants are toxic, and the people are evil, but if you listen and remember everything I've told you, and you'll make it through." I just nod my head again, unsure of what to say. Then he looks around to see if anyone's watching us, then leans in and whispers, "There's something I'm going to tell you that could help you tremendously. About fifty years ago some lunatic decided to hack into the main computers and glitch part of the battlefield so the snipers and the murders (that would be a horrible job, killing people to make money to provide for your families.) can't reach a small chunk of the battlefield. In-between safehouse two and three, there is a "mini safehouse" inside the Glitch that was holding about a hundred people at the left edge. Not many know about safehouse 2.5, as they call it, or how many are still there. This could help you, but you have to be careful. If the wrong person finds out, they'll fix the Glitch and everyone in there could die."
"How many people are there?" I nervously say. He looks away and says, "About a hundred. Most of them are older who had kids back in safehouse two. Some of their kids found out about the Glitch safehouse and were reunited with their families."
I wonder if my family is there.
"Should I go?"
"That's up to you, but don't stay too long." He says, staring at me like if I never listened to a thing he said before, I have to listen now. "If you want to get out of there alive, don't waste your time."
