Day 3 in August 17, 2017
Time: Unknown

Like the grumpy, pissy teenager he was, James woke up with a thump on his head.

"Hey-- what the fuck?!" he spat, his arms shielding his face from someone he couldn't see. He couldn't see because he refused to open his eyes, keeping it tigthly closed in rebellion. Another thump came and he had enough. He wanted to sleep more and that fucker, whoever he or she was, was keeping him from getting the beauty sleep he desperately needed and he or she was pretty persistent in battering his head with that foreign thing he couldn't grab a hold onto.

"Quit it!" he yelled and he opened his eyes just in time for another thing to hit his head. It came flying at him, struck his head and when it fell, he saw that it was a piece of hard styrofoam and everyone in the room were taking turns in throwing it at him.

He let out an agitated scream, his fingers harshly digging into his scalp as he scratched his head in a fit. They were staring at him with bored, blank eyes like he's some kind of a free loader or something-- which he was not. From the side of his eyes, he saw a glimpse of Mark and he was   planning on throwing another one at him.

"Don't you dare!" he yelled at him and he just hid the damn styrofoam behind his back, whistled in the air and pretend it didn't happen.

"Who thought of this?!" he asked, a growl forming in his throat, his hand flailing in exageration, still cranky from his disturbed sleep.

"We all did," Josh said. " President tried to wake you up several times and so did Fei. You were unresponsive and we almost thought you're dead."

Dead? He scoffed. What the hell? He ain't kicking the bucket yet and he's not an old man to die on his sleep, he'd rather die fighting those freaks.

"So, we thought, 'hey, if waking him up gently doesn't work, how about doing it the hard way? Let's piss him off into oblivion, maybe that'll wake him up,' and look..." Josh raised both his arms, openly pointing at James as if he was  some revolutionary discovery. "It worked!" Josh laughed and James threathened to throw a vase at him, making him ran out of he room in a hurry.

Seriously, he could kill that guy.

He let out a few curses under his breath and rebooted himself back up again.

Now that he scared the hell out of someone, he was finally awake. It's better than any coffee in the world and he loved how it proved that he still got his intimidation skills. He let out a sigh and looked at Fei right in the eye. She had been standing in front of his bed this whole time, shaking in laughter that never registered on her face. Geez, can't this girl let out even an ounce of her emotion?

"Hey, what's happening around here?" he asked, pointing his head at the open door. He slept in darkness and he still woke up in darkness in the the night version of this world. Did they even got a chance to sleep?

"Sammy want us to wake up before daybreak. She said she wanted to check things out. She's currently in the hallway."

He grunted. So it's real, none of them had a descent sleep. This better be good. He he tilted his head side by side, feeling his veins popping before hopping out of bed. He searched for his knife but remembered that he left it back in their freaky classroom. It was probably part of that monster's face by now and there's no getting it back from there.

They all left the clinic, all the beds they've used were left thrown about and filled with creases except for one, a reminder of the abscence of one of them. Fei's eyes flickered towards it before she closed the door behind her.

"Hey," Sammy started, her face illuminated by the soft, green, nightly light of this world. "Sorry for waking you all up in the middle of the night. But I just have something in my mind that we had to try."

"What is it, prez?" James asked, voice monotoned and uninterested.

"As of now, we don't have any more weapons with us. Let us go back to the cafeteria's kitchen and get ourselves new weapons and while on the way I wanted us to check all the rooms we had used earlier and check if the casualties were still there. We need to determine the reset time of this world and we must pinpoint the extent of it's resetting capabilities. Like for example, the students-- were they part of the reset, too?  Because if they were, then we just fought for nothing and they just comes back unscathed the next day. Another thing was the building itself, does it really rebuilds itself everytime this world retracks on it's loop? Or does the damage stays and only the date was the one considered eternal? Lastly is us. What roles do we play in this reset phenomenon? Are we just bystanders who cannot change anything in this world? Will all of the things we moved or touch return to it's rightful place when the reset start or will it stay the way we made it to be? If it stays, then that means we have the ability to alter the things in this world permanently."

"And if we didn't?" Josh asked, raising a hand.

"Then it'll be much harder for us. All the weapons we've gathered will disappear from time to time and it may leave us vulnerable for attacks. We can't even create a barricade that will last because this world will tear it down once everything returns, we would be left with nothing but ourselves and the things we brought from our world may be the only things that could help us when push came to shove. So, for now, we need to find as much information as we can."

"Will splitting up be a go-good option now?" Fei asked, her voice rang seriousness, understanding that their life depended on what Sammy had said.

Sammy nodded.

"I think it'll be a good idea around this time. No other students were present and we have the glasses just in case. Just keep it on all at all times, okay?" she asked and everyone nodded.

"Alright, I'll divide us into three groups. Me and Fei will go around the school and look for the backpacks that we dropped earlier. Josh and Laine will be going back to the kitchen to get us new weapons and--"

"Wait a minute!" James cut her off. "You're trusting that trator bitch to get some weapons? What if she killed the nerd and just ran off with everything?!" he protested, his anger making his voice sharp, making it hard not to show a flinch but Laine, knowing that she's the subject of his mouthful, flinched harder than anyone as the words reached her ears.

"No, she won't do that." Sammy met Laine's eyes with hers, sending a message across it's lenses and Laine understood it clearly. She's giving her a chance to prove herself again and the words that's coming out of her mouth were direct orders merely disguised as an answer to another.

"She and Josh will get weapons for all of us and will return here safely," she said, her voice hard, highlighting each words as she never broke eye contact, it's intensity making Laine nod, becoming submissive without noticing it herself.

James didn't argue anymore and Sammy continued. "James and Mark-- I know I'm asking too much from both of you, but can you please retrace our steps back? Please look and see if the damage to all the previous rooms we've entered were still there. Just look and report back to me. Especially in our own classroom-- do not engage." She made her voice clear with her every warning, not wanting anyone of them making a mistake that could endanger their lives and the others around them. She was a bit nervous sending the most capable members of their group in one go. The quote: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket," echoing in her head as she thought about it. But it had to be done. They would need each other should anything happen and she can't afford having someone there that had a low physical capabilites. It was hard to say,  but that one person may just be a dead weight to any one of the boys should she chose to separate them. So, their pysical capabilities were a big check to this assignment, but their patience though...

"And you two..." she added quickly just as when James and Mark were starting to turn their stare into daggers. "Please don't fight," she said and they thankfully stopped it before it escalated. She concluded her speech to them with encouragimg words and a sort of begging "be safe" farewell that had now became a mantra in her head. It played on repeat like a broken record and she knew it won't stop anytime soon. She's anxious about them splitting up for the very first time and it's now right at this moment that she realized that that mantra needed to be a prayer. And she did prayed as she and Fei walked  the enormous field of their school, their shoes rubbing off on the well-maintained grass, leaving a trail of footsteps behind them.

Fei ran towards the first bag she saw. It was Mark's and she lifted it up with not much ease, her expression getting sour as it lifted from the ground slower than she intended to.

Sammy giggled at what she saw. She looked like an angry chipmunk, with her cheeks puffed out in exertion like that. And she had been a little extra when she opened her legs wide in a struggle to lift it off as if she's carrying a barbell.

"Let me help you with that." Sammy finally ran over to her and put a hand underneath it dividing the weight for them both. Her eyes blinked at how abnormally heavy it was and the bag was too big for Fei to carry, so, she took it upon herself to carry the bag on her back, slidding it swiftly that Fei didn't have time to protest and asked her to let her carry the bag for the sake of politeness.

"Sammy, it's alright I c-can carry that," she said after everything was done and ready to go, her hand tugging at it. Sammy shook her head and took her hand off it's straps. It was really heavy that merely adding a touch on top of it was enough to pull her towards the direction the added weight was put on to. She straigtened herself, her hand grabbed both of it's straps and she jumped on her spot, feeling it rumble with it's contents inside. Gravity went back again and it pushed her down on her kness, making her bend slightly off ways normal and Fei held her arm.

She let out a small laugh. My, my her knees were getting weak. The heaviness of the bagpack reminded her of her camping days on the high mountains but her body couldn't keep up with the memories anymore. She wished she could experience it with everyone this time around. Her mind wandered to camping trips and peaceful nature nights, her imagination providing her the picture perfect set up: them, all wearing coats and maybe knitted scarves as they sat on a circle, a campfire illuminating their smiling faces. The backdrop of the night was nothing but a background, no danger lurking, just a place to be explored.

"Are you alright?" Fei asked and she cleanly filed away the plan in her head, left closed and to be opened when the time comes.

Sammy grinned. "Do you think this has any weapons in it?" she asked lightly, humor evident in her voice.

"Forget about l-looking inside--  the bag itself was alraedy a weapon of mass destruction," she jabbed jokingly with her low mumblings and Sammy let out a laugh.

"That's right! You did used this to fight off monsters ealier," she said, her body shaking in laughter.

"Yup!" Fei stood proudly, chin up high and hands on her waist. "Proven and tested," she added and just like that, Sammy fell to the ground, both her laughter and the bag's weight keeping her down.

In contrast with Sammy and Fei's group that's filled with laughter-- Josh and Laine's group were stuck in a cycle of silence. They were back in the kitchen now, nothing but the clanging of silverware and utensils were heard. Their eyes were trained on the things in front of them, nitpicking what they can bring back to others as weapons.

"Hey, I found another knife!" Josh said, desperate to break the thick blandness that surrounded them. Laine looked up from her position on the floor. "That's good, then," she said simply before scanning the floor of the kitchen again.

"Oh, here's an ice pick, you can have it," Josh said again, his voice was exaggeratedly happy that it was nothing but a headache.

"You can have it," she said, her enthusiasm low.

"Oh, how about this butter knife this is good too--"

"Can you please stop giving me weapons that I could easily kill you with?!" she cut him off, this time she turned towards him, her face fully visible and he can see now that she was stressed and her face displayed agony for something only she could think of. Her brows were furrowed and her lips were formed into a thin line, desperate to hide it's tremors, her eyes were avoiding his own-- something he noticed she does whenever she starts feeling vulnerable and when things hit a little too close to home.

Laine can't handle emotions. She didn't know how to show it nor contain it and it was now breaking her apart from the inside. She knew Josh felt bad for her but she didn't really know what to do with that. It just made her feel more pathetic. Every look he gave her: the openness, the willingness to listen, the unjudging-- it all ended up the same, it twisted and turned until it came into her eyes and became the one word she hated the most: pity. It made maintaining eye contact with anyone hard. It's all she saw and it would break her even more if she heard her name be partnered up with that word. And her new realizations wasn't helping either. She thought what James had said earlier didn't get to her but now, it obviously did. She came here with Josh having no intention of touching a blunt object that could make her look even more sinister to the others. She's affected and she tried to compensate for it.

"Hey, you won't kill me. I know you won't," he said, pointing at himself, his pace slow as he walked towards her.

She didn't answer him. She just stood up and turned her back towards him.

"But if that's what you want-- I respect that," he added, his eyes found a pan and he took it. It was a bit oily and was clearly used, maybe by Fei earlier. His hand grabbed the loincloth beside him and began on rubbing at it profusely.

"Here. You can have the pan," he said and he poked her with it. She looked back and took it reluctantly.

"Mae used to have a pan as a weapon," she said, her voice low.

His face twitched at the sudden realization. Oh right. Mae used a pan, too. He was trying to make Laine feel better but here he was now, reminding her again of what happened. She might thought he was sending her a message through it. But he really was not. He internally cringed and the urge to slap himself in the face had never been stronger.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." He took it back again and as he was placing it back on the kitchen isle, his nose happened to get a sniff on it and his face contorted in disgust and mystery of what used to be on that pan.

"What the--" He whisked it away from him as far away as possible. "What did the president and Fei used this for?!" he said, disgusted.

"Yeah. It smells," Laine said. He could see her smell her own hand.

"But the outcome was pretty good though. The discount pizza," Josh said.

Finally, Laine turned towards him and smiled.

"Yeah. It was."

"Then why didn't you complimented their cooking?" James stared at her, curious.

"I could've but they wouldn't take it nicely, especially James."

"Yep. James." He nodded in agreement. Even he can not get through to that guy.

"They hate me, you know," she answered, her hands rubbing the  sides or her arms as a means of comfort. The words that came out of her mouth were painful like her guts were being pulled out while she talked about it. But she couldn't do anything about it. It was a fact and it has to be addressed now.

"Yeah. What you did was wrong." Josh nodded his head, solemn and not to be taken as a joke. His eyes were soft  but for Laine-- it came off different to her.

"I fucking know, okay?!" she yelled all of a sudden and held the knife that that she just found up onto the air. Josh yelped at her swift moves and he covered his face with his arms.

Laine sighed, realizing what she had just done.

"Here. Sorry about that," she said rotating the pointy tip of the knife towards her and offering the handle to Josh. He peeked his head out of his arms and grabbed it slowly, wary of her movements.

"Maybe, it was a good idea not to give me a knife as a weapon."

"So..." Josh raised both his brows and scooted closer to her, trying out something. "You'll take the pan, then?" he asked.

"Not the pan, man." Laine threw her head to the side in exaggeration, a grimace crumpling her features. "I'd rather have that dinner fork than that smelly pan," she said and soon enough, a burst of laughter erupted from the two of them.

"You know, if you could also be like this to the others I think they'll not hate you that much. Maybe if you could make them trust you again--"

"I can't." She stopped him. Trust is the thing she wasn't good at. She wasn't good at buliding it with others and she wasn't even sure if they ever trusted her in like... ever. There's no ground to support that there's trust that needed to be fixed between them. So why would she even try? "They never liked me to begin with and there may be no trust to fix," she said, her eyes serious and looking at the empty space between them.

"Then, we could start with that. Let's get them to like you first, only then can we rebuild their trust and if they didn't trust you from the very beginning then we could build a whole new one." A smile formed on Josh' face and it prompted her to look at him. There was something about his expression now that exudes excitement, an invitation to something new.

"You're gonna help me?" she asked, a snicker left her lips, her voice unbelieving but when she saw his face filled with nothing but sincerity, she couldn't help but to drop the doubt off her chest and believed him.

"Yes, I will," he said simply, unflustered like his usual self. He was in control and he turned his back towards her with a smile on his face and he started rummaging for things again.

"Thank you, though." The clanging sound stopped and she continued. "Thank you for not ignoring me and trying to engage in a conversation with me. I could've been nothing but a ghost without you."

Josh looked back at her and renewed his smile. "You're welcome. But we probably should get as much weapon as we can. "

Laine moved all of a sudden, a new energy forming inside her. "Oh! Of couse. Oh, and..." She pointed at him. "Let's take that pan with us. I want to see who the unfortunate owner will be," she said and they resumed their search. She finally started enjoying this task. A weight had been lifted off her chest making everything light and easy, she didn't even realize how heavy the weapons she was carrying right now.