Basil suddenly stopped in his tracks. "I've heard stories of people who were trapped in The Backrooms for years... I don't know if we'll be okay..."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Mari said. We'll find a way out, or die trying!"

"No one's dying." Hero said. "Does anyone have food?"

"Erm, I have candy and some water, but that's it..." Mari replied, slightly ashamed.

"Well, at least it's something. We need to ration it."

Mari reached into her back pocket and pulled out three small candies. "We can split these in half so we can all have some, but how?"

"...I have a knife." Sunny said, pulling out the knife.

Mari unwrapped the three candies, and aligned them all in a row, while Sunny made an almost-perfect cut down the center of them.

"Pick your favorite flavor." Mari instructed, picking up a half of a blue candy.

Basil took the last half of the blue candy, Hero and Kel took the halves of the purple candy, and Aubrey and Sunny took the pinkish-red candy.

They all popped the candy pieces in their mouthes, and then got up to keep exploring Level 1.

"This Level should be safe." Hero said. "While we're here, we can look around for crates of supplies."

"Wait." Aubrey said. "It is said to approach the crates with caution, in case it contains something dangerous."

Hero shrugs. "Fair enough."

After about thirty minutes of walking, Kel finds a crate in a dimly-lit room.

"Guys!" he called out to his friends. "I found a crate!"

Of course, this causes everyone to scramble into the room almost immediately. They drag the crate into brighter lighting, and open the crate to see its contents.

"Is this a box of blueberries? More food!" Basil exclaims. "We should save it for later, though. I'll put it in my backpack."

Aubrey reaches in and pulls out a can. "Almond water?"

"Oh! That's essential for us!" Hero adds.

"If you insist..." Aubrey says as she places the can into her backpack.

After a bit of digging, they also found a small box of batteries, a tarp, a baseball bat, a plain red t-shirt, and a bottle of cough syrup, all of which they decided to hang on to. They had also found items that were... weirder. They found a shard of glass, a box of crayons, a used syringe, a half-burned piece of paper, a neon green shoelace that was slightly tattered, 50 cents in dimes, and, strangely enough, a bundle of human hair, neatly tied together with a rubber band.

"Hair? Ew! Why we need this?!" Basil said in disgust.

"We're in The Backrooms. You never know when we might need it!" Aubrey shoots back, snatching the bundle from Basil and shoving it in her pocket.

"We should take the crate too." Kel suggests. "For extra storage space."

Just as Kel picked up the crate, a small shuffling noise was heard inside. Basil peeked in.

"It's a mouse! Can we keep him? Please?" Basil begged.

Mari saw the mouse as well. It was white with brown patches. "It doesn't appear to be hostile, so I don't see why not..."

"Yay!" Basil exclaims. "I'm gonna call him Sunflower Seed!"

Upon a second look in the box, another mouse was found. This one was larger and gray, but its body was lifeless.

"Poor guy... we should properly bury him." Basil said.

"We can't keep getting sidetracked!" Aubrey said, clearly frustrated.

"C'mon, let Basil bury the mouse. It won't take that long." Hero said.

"Fine! But I won't like it." Aubrey said.

"GUYS! We got what we came here for, which was the supply crate. Now, how do we exit this level? I heard hostile entities can appear if the lights go out, and I do NOT want to be here when that happens." Kel says.

"Right." Aubrey pulls out her phone, to look at the exits. "The easiest exit would be to Level 2. Any unlocked doors around here?"

"I saw one in the hallway a few minutes ago!" Mari pipes up.

"Lead the way." Aubrey says.

Mari leads her brother and friends over to the unlocked door. Sunny carefully opens the door.

"There's pipes everywhere..." he says, almost silently.

"C'mon, it's now or never!" Kel says. "Go!"

Sunny gave Kel a curt nod walked through the door, everyone else following behind.

~~~~~
WHERE IS EVERYONE AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER?

Everyone: Level 2