"Out of bounds..." No matter how much I repeated it, it didn't make any more sense than the first time I read it.

We crowded around the metal, Antoinette running her fingers along the surface until stopping at what looked like a handle.

"What is this? Some sort of door?" she muttered, tugging on the handle. "... Sebastian, open it."

"What? Why me?" Though I had to admit I was incredibly curiously.

"Because if it's dangerous, you can scream and give us a headstart to run away."

I scowled. At least she was upfront about it.
I stomped down onto the ground and took the handle, digging my heels into the dirt as I pull with all my strength, until...

I fell back, my grip slipped. My head collided painfully against the ground below and I immediately take my head. "Ow! Sonofa- did it open? What the hell... why would they even make pain a thing here?" I mutter, sitting back up.

"To simulate the real world," said Antoinette. "But isn't it weird?" She turned back to the door, completely ignoring my pain. "What's an underground room doing all the way out here?"

"Maybe it's a trophy room for the winners of the race!", said Claire with a clap, looking too enthusiastic of her idea.

Antoinette got up and pointed at her. "I don't think so, otherwise it wouldn't be called out of bounds."

I deadpan. "What is this, some mystery thriller? Don't pull stupid poses like that," I say, crossing my arms. She lowered her arm, flustered.

"In that case.." Claire crouched down next to the trap door, suddenly having lost all interest. "Maybe it's just some storage room," she suggested, tilting her head.

She may well be right, but I felt like there's something more than just that. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about that door... called me. I had to know.

I tried forcing the door open a few more times before eventually calling it quits on account of my head hurting from falling back so much.

"If that's that, then come on, let's gooo," said Claire, leaning back. "I'm getting bored and it's gonna get dark and then we'll really be lost. Plus, I still gotta find Kristi."

Antoinette is still crouching next to the trap door -she seems to be deep in thought. But eventually, she stands up and closes her eyes, turning her head up. That seems like a weird thing to do, she can't even see so why is she looking up at the sky if-

"Let's go," she said, interrupting my monologue. "I don't think we'll be able to find anything here unless we can open this door."

"Well... duh." I raised an eyebrow. Wasn't that obvious? Antoinette frowned at me.

Wait, so we're leaving just like that? No, I want to open this thing. Now that it's here, I can't just ignore it.

I try heading over to the metal again, but Claire grabbed me the collar, promptly choking me. "You can't open it, Sebby," she said, dissapointed, like I wasn't just here trying that. "And it's getting dark soon. We'll just ask for help later! Surely there's gotta be someone that knows about this."
I massaged my pained neck and cough as they start walking, continuing downstream. Tearing my thoughts away from the door, I'm forced to follow them.

We continue to walk for about five minutes, and during that time we still haven't gotten any closer to finding the way back, but at least I've managed to somewhat stop thinking about that door. Antoinette did say that the race takes about at least ten more minutes to finish, so we have that going for us.

Despite her harsh and rough attitude, she's actually quite smart. It's something I'd have never realized at first glance.

Claire suddenly hit me on the back after I realized I was staring at Antoinette's back for far too long. "Why are you staring so much in silence, Sebby?" she asked. "Like undressing her with your eyes," she added in a whisper.

"What? No I wasn't! If anything, I'm adding more clothes," I say, in what is possibly the smoothest comeback ever.

I shook my head, moving that thought away, and turned to Claire, who's giggling like a third grader. "And what's with you? There isn't really a need for conversation, is there?" I ask, a bit more hostile than I would've liked.

She puffed her cheeks out at me. "So rude! I wanted to talk to the new kid, is that wrong?"

"Stop calling me that. I'm not even the new kid anymore, I got here like, a month ago," I said.

She nods, but I can tell she doesn't care... "Well compared to me, you're still the new kid" she says smugly, like dying earlier is something to be proud of.

"That's not exactly something good, you know?" I say. "It just means you weren't able to see all the advances the world got."

"Yeah I can. That's what the Life Sphere's for, silly," she said. Life Sphere..? I feel like I've heard it before... "You know, that huge sphere that lets us see what's going on on Earth at all times."

Oh right. She makes a point, but I can't afford to care. "That does exist, but it doesn't compare to actually experiencing it first hand. This place might have just about anything you could wish for, but it doesn't beat real life. I'm firm on that."

"That's just cause you haven't been here for as long as I have. You'll understand when you're older."

"How much older can I get in a place like this?"

"Well I've been here since last year!" Claire nodded to herself, counting on her fingers. "And facing immortality is a crazy thing, y'know? I get to be 15 forever."

I grimaced, walking a little faster. "You mean you haven't even aged in that time? At all?" When I thought about that... "What the hell...? That's so messed up!"

She didn't care, she just looked at me with an apologetic smile, and giggled as she put her hands together in the form of an apology. "Sorry to drop that bomb on ya, Hiroshima, but don't think about it too hard!"

"First of all, that's offensive-" I frowned- "Second of all, how can I not think about that? This place isn't even letting us age, physically or mentally, and you're all okay with that? It's- It goes against all human nature!"

Maybe I was looking too deeply into it. Or... not deeply enough? Either way, it wasn't right.

"Sebastian, drop it," said Antoinette from ahead. "You're going to stress over something you can't do anything about, and I'd rather have a teammate who isn't having an existential crisis while we're trying to find our way back."

"But Antoinette, you can't seriously expect me to be okay with that. I get we're in Paradise and everything, but even then it's just... it's wrong."

"Wrong or not, we kinda still have someplace to go, and I'd appreciate you keeping your thoughts to yourself at least until we get out of this godforsaken forest."

I fumed in her direction, but knew she was right. I'd just have to talk with the screen about it later... I had to force myself to not think about what happened last time I talked to him, and shook my head- a terrible idea, the throbbing pain in my head from before returned as I did that.

The three of us continued walking, now with the occasional small talk. The atmosphere had lightened up only slightly from before, which was better than nothing, but I couldn't get the headache away and I couldn't get that thought out of my head. Was it right to halt all of that just because we were here? It didn't make sense to me.

A minute later, as the headache started getting unbearable, Antoinette broke into a sprint and rushed ahead of us, pushing past leaves and branches and looking from side to side.

We follow her with our gaze, curious. "Where's she going..?" asked Claire, but we didn't even try to catch up. I shrugged, and held my nose in an attempt to ease the pain.

"Guys, get over here, I found something you might like!" Antoinette announced, standing ominously in front of a giant pulled back leaf
"Is it jellyfish?" Claire asked immediately, with way too much enthusiasm.

Antoinette shook her head but didn't look back. "No."

"If it's not a goddamn aspirin, then it's not worth my time," I said, holding onto my head.

I noticed Claire pouting childishly and Antoinette turning back to us, deadpanning. "No. Why would either of those things be in the forest?"

So, Claire and I begrudgingly walked to where Antoinette is, feeling highly disappointed in her findings.

We reach her, and she moved the leaf to the side, giving us a better view. The first thing I notice is more rushing water, then the fact that we're at the edge of yet another raging river.

"Wow... it's..." I look to the left, water. To the right, water sloping down. "Incredible! It's... another fucking river!" I glared to Antoinette, who smacked my head in retaliation.

"How about you actually look at it before throwing a hissy fit?" she said, pointing down the river slope. I looked over, where I saw it make a sharp turn and then a straight line towards...

"The finish line! Kristi's gotta be here," said Claire, running off. "C'mon, let's go! Look, everyone's there waiting for us." She jumped down onto the path next to the main river and turned back to us.

Antoinette joined her, stumbling on the landing, but I was somewhat more hesitant. I looked in the other direction, but couldn't see any trace of other boats coming, which brought up another point!

"We don't even have a boat, are you sure this is legal?" I asked, looking back to the finish line. That's when I noticed not only the fact that there were no other boats there at all, but that the finish line wasn't even on the water. The river was cut off by a small wooden dock, and the actual finish line was at the end of a dirt path, currently surrounded by people who had come to watch the race, or the end of it.

I was astounded to see so many people, enough that it left me motionless at the sight of them. It couldn't have been more than a hundred, considering where we were (but no doubt it was being shown on the screens) and yet it felt overwhelming to see so many people.

Antoinette took hold of my wrist and pulled me down by force, nearly making me fall on my face a second time.

"Sebastian, quit your daydreaming. We have a race to win," she said. I glanced at her, then at Claire who was already running towards the finish to the general cheering from the public. "1-A!" I could hear them cheer, which made me grimace. Antoinette pulled me along as I watched the blank faces of the crowd turn into people and some faces I could recognize. Pen was there, that one girl with the scar on her face was there, even the strange kid that stared at me before was here.
I wasn't sure what to make of it all, of the cheering as we grew closer to the finish line.

When we crossed it, I could hear fanfare. We'd won.

We'd won, but Kristina wasn't here. We were missing a team member, and they treated us like the victors.

Was that... really okay?

...

As Sebastian wondered about their victory, Kristina woke up with a jump in her own bed, lying in a cold sweat.

She brought a hand to her chest, feeling as it rose with each deep, shaky breath, and sat up. 1-A was empty except for her, but the silence had never seemed so suffocating before.