Dan's POV

I looked at Phil, standing beside me still holding Sam. He sunk to the floor and gently laid Sam on the ground in front of him. He covered his mouth with a hand and I noticed his eyes begin to water.

"I-Is that Mark?" Nate asked from behind us.

I pivoted around, feeling tears pricking at my eyes. Jason, Nate, Percy, and Tim were lined up staring at Mark and Thomas with a variety of different expressions. Jason looked ready to burst into tears, Nate seemed like any hope he had left had just been thrown on the floor and stomped on, Percy looked ready to murder someone, and Tim was frozen in shock.

I took it upon myself to check out Mark and Thomas. I walked over to the two, gagging as I jumped over a puddle of their intertwined blood. I kneeled next to Mark first, but before I did anything, I turned to face everyone else. "How am I supposed to check if he's alive?"

"Heartbeat?" Percy replied, tilting his head. "See if he's breathing? Do the normal things you'd do if someone was dying? This really is common sense."

"Sorry," I shot back, "I don't deal with dying people very often."

I looked down to Mark. The puddle of blood around his head was steadily growing bigger. He wasn't bleeding from his nose, mouth, or ears, which meant the bleeding was most likely coming from the back of his head.

I hesitated before putting my index finger under his nose. I froze before letting out a huge sigh of relief once I felt him breathe against my finger. I fell backward and laid on my back for a moment. "He's breathing."

"Yes!" Jason pumped his fist in the air before running over to me, nearly slipping in all the blood.

"Hang on!" Nate called, smiling. "I threw a bunch of shirts in this bag." He pulled out some of mine and Phil's merchandise, then threw a black shirt over to me.

I sat up and caught it while Jason lifted Mark's head off the ground slightly. I laid the shirt under his head and Jason set it back down. The two of us managed to wrap the shirt around his head well enough so that blood wasn't coming out.

Once we finished with Mark, Phil and Tim came over to us and gently lifted him up before walking him over to everyone else and laying him down again. Jason and I moved over to Thomas.

Jason started gagging as we got closer to him. Thomas had blood pouring out of a hole to the left of his belly button. His eyes were still slightly open and his chest was moving up and down shakily.

"Thomas?" I asked.

He turned his head to the side a bit before coughing up blood. He turned back to face us after a second. "Jack..."

"What about Jack?" Nate inquired as he walked over to us with Percy.

Thomas coughed a couple more times before Nate and Jason helped him sit up. He carefully wiped some of the blood away from his face before replying, "Robert took," he coughed again, but with less blood, "Jack's body."

There was a pause before Percy hesitantly asked, "Robert took Jack's body? Then, is Jack..."

"Don't know."

"You don't know if Jack's alive or not?" I questioned.

"Mark was crying over his body."

I exchanged a quick glance with Jason before he replied, "That sounds like he's dead."

"Not necessarily," Percy murmured.

"Explain your reasoning," I instructed, really wanting to believe that Jack was perfectly fine somewhere, but knowing that Mark wouldn't have just been bawling his eyes out over Jack being knocked unconscious.

"Well," Percy started, "the voice is making all the orders around here. Why would she tell Robert to bring the dead guy back and leave the two who were alive?"

"She didn't want any corpses laying around?" Jason suggested.

Percy narrowed his eyes at Jason before answering, "Though that's possible, it's not likely. It's more likely that either Jack isn't dead, or that the voice didn't want Jack to die. If Jack's death was an accident, they might be trying to do something to bring him back. It'd cause less suspicion once we all get out of here if you all survive. I mean, if one of you died, it'd make global news, and I don't think the voice wants the whole world knowing about this."

"You're suggesting that Jack is either alive or being brought back to life?" Nate questioned.

"He may just be receiving medical treatment," Percy responded, "which would also mean that Thomas and Mark were left because she thinks we can keep them alive."

"So Mark and Thomas should both be fine?" Phil asked. "Thomas has a hole in his stomach. How are we supposed to fix that?"

"Maybe there are bandages around here somewhere?" Tim suggested.

Jason sighed, "Until we get out of here and get him to a hospital, that's going to have to work."

"Before anyone runs off to go get something," I started, "we are not splitting up. We can't risk someone getting attacked without the rest of us there. At least this way, we have a bigger group if we get attacked."

"Alright," Phil agreed before anyone could oppose, "I also think we should find somewhere to sleep for a few hours. I haven't slept since we got here and I'm pretty sure it's been at least a few days for the rest of you."

"Let's try to find a room with bandages or supplies that we can use," Nate suggested as he got up and walked back over to Phil.

"Question," Thomas coughed out.

"What?" Phil inquired.

"How are you going to get this many," he groaned as he tried to sit up more, "injured people to a room without splitting up?"

Percy stumbled over to Nate. "We can probably hold Sam."

Tim gestured to himself and Phil. "We carried Mark over here. We should be able to walk him around a little farther."

I looked at Jason, then to Thomas. "You're stuck with us."

I put one arm around Thomas's neck and the other right under the hole on his backside. Jason grabbed his legs and the two of us hoisted him off the ground before walking him over to everyone else.

"Now how are we going to open doors to check rooms?" Percy asked, looking at me as he held Sam's legs.

I smiled sarcastically at him. "You just volunteered."

He groaned before he and Nate began leading the group of us. They walked to the first room they saw and opened the door.

Inside, wallpaper covered all four walls and there were two beds. One was completely drenched in blood, while the other just had thrown around sheets on it. Percy and Nate walked in and looked around. They set Sam down on the clean bed and Percy jogged over to the far wall.

He felt around the wallpaper near one of the corners for a few minutes until his fingers suddenly stopped. He grabbed the wallpaper and tore it away.

Behind the wallpaper, there was an old, beaten up door.

"What in the–"

"Less talking, more opening," I interrupted Jason as we walked into the room and set Thomas down on the floor.

Phil and Tim followed in next and Phil immediately nodded his head back to the wall next to the door. "There's a counter back here with stuff on it. Someone should check for bandages."

I walked over to the wall with Nate and we scanned over the counter. Most everything on the counter was covered in blood and seemed like the type of thing you'd use for torture.

I inhaled sharply. There was a pretty good chance someone we knew was in this room. I looked around the room again, but nothing really stood out other than the door that had been hidden behind wallpaper.

"Hey, I think I found some stuff," Nate announced from beside me.

I looked over to him. "What?"

He bent down next to the counter and opened a cabinet. Inside were bandages, gauze, and anything else you would need to clean out a wound.

"If they were torturing someone here, why would they bring supplies to keep the wounds clean?" Percy asked.

"Just like you said," I replied, "they don't plan to kill us."

A/N

Okay, I'm going to apologize right now for some stuff.

Updates are going to be weird for a while. I'm just super busy with the start of high school and everything and it's getting hard for me to put my ideas into words quickly enough to get updates out on time. 

I'm aiming to get at least one chapter out per week, and I'll try to post them on Fridays, but we'll see how that goes.

Also, thank you guys who comment and vote! I don't think I've ever said anything about you voters, but honestly, you make me feel so good about this story!!

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOS!

PS: TODAY (AUGUST 19TH) IS THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THIS BOOK