The Program

Chapter Nineteen

Of all the things to be expected after something like that, John's reaction wasn't one of them.

"Promise me that if we ever survive this, you won't mention that to Annie." He demanded, running his hand through his hair and practically shooting away from me and standing up. He looked nervous, really nervous.

"You kissed your brother's girlfriend and you tell me not to tell Annie. Why?" Hold on a second. "Wait, is there something going on between you two? I mean, ugh, don't answer that. How could you kiss me?"

"I don't know. It just h-happened." He yelled. "You don't seriously think I would willingly kiss you, right?"

I got up from the ground. "Well, you did!"

"No, I didn't. I-I mean, I did but..." He trailed off. "Just please can we never mention this to anyone?"

"What do you mean you didn't? You obviously did. I know, I was on the receiving end of things." I basically screamed.

"I-I thought you were...someone else." 

I crossed my arms. "What in the heck is that supposed to mean?"

He looked nervous, and I knew instantly the look plastered on his face; confusion. I'd felt it multiple times before and never knew how to explain it. John seemed to be in the same position.

But that didn't change the fact that he kissed me and won't tell me why.

I didn't have much time to question it though, me spotting something before I could speak again.

Behind John, near a tree that was no longer glitching out for some reason, stood a bear with shovels and other various tools sticking out of it's chest, also not glitchy and broken looking like the test had been before. But there wasn't exactly time to focus on that.

John must have seen the wide look I had, turning around. "Crap."

I slightly reached for his arm. "Don't move too much. We don't need it to charge at us." My words came out in a whisper.

"And if it does?" He hissed. "I'm not Jack, I don't know how to kill these things. And I would shoot it but Natalie or something took the gun I came in here with and-"

"Would you shut up?" I snapped. "I don't need a long drawn out explanation. Just back away slowly, we don't have time to fight it."

"And yet, you had time to chew me out for kissing you." He mumbled.

I stopped moving, planting my feet where they were and glared at him. "You had the time to start that kiss." I said it louder than I intended, me hearing a sudden growl from the direction of the bear.

Slowly, it made its way over to us. "Now look at what you did." John said. 

"I swear to god! I'm gonna smack you!" He opened his mouth at my harsh words, but I stopped him. "Don't. Speak. Not a word, you hear me?"

He only nodded. But then became more of an idiot and said, "Can I just-"

"No. I don't wanna hear it. Let's move-" I cut him off only for him to cut me off.

"Disrupt the freaking thing, Lexi!" He screamed. I gulped, taking in a large breath. I was afraid he was going to say that.

"I can't." I pulled on him arm, watching as the bear came even closer. "Come on, like you said, you aren't Jack; you can't kill it."

He yanked me back, the beast making a loud noise not that far away. "But you can. Why are you saying you can't?"

"You don't understand. Disrupting, it takes a lot of effort and emotional horribleness I don't want to deal with especially right now. If you want it disrupted so bad, you do it."

The bear took that as its cue to officially charge, its teeth looking sharp and aiming right at John as he said, "Fine." and let go of my arm. 

"Wait, what?" I asked. But he was already next to it.

It's claws came down on him and split through the flesh of his arm. He screamed and I fell to my knees. This wasn't like when Jack was attacked, it was different, my emotion not clouding my judgment. Yet still, I felt that feeling again, the weird one I felt when John's lips were on mine.

He yelled again, me seeing him fall to the ground.

Again the feeling grew stronger, yet the bear stayed.

What was it about John that made this feeling emerge?

And then the answer was staring me in the face, many of Natalie's talks about disrupting coming back to me. It was around the same time that I noticed a gash in the bear's leg, the same one Luke gave it the day of the first attack.

Because, I realized, this was the bear from the first attack. And somehow, just as Natalie had said, it was no longer deleted from the program.

The program has revived itself.

I felt random pain in my arms, it stinging me all over, gashes appearing out of nowhere. John still continued to scream until finally something clicked and the beast disappeared. But I still just stayed focused on one thing.

That's why the test doesn't look so glitchy anymore.

John wiped at one of his bloody arms with his hand and then started walking to me.

If I was right, this was a very bad thing.

I took a few steps forward, wanting to make sure he was okay.

Yet, it could be the answer to our problem too.

He winced as I lightly touched his wound. He then noticed my own, more confusion on his face.

It has to be the kiss, it somehow forced us to disrupt. Except it did the opposite of killing the test. It even went so far as to retrieve a problem that was deleted long ago.

I looked directly at John, the words leaving my mouth before I could even tell if my theory made sense. "John, I have a plan. And it's stupider than my last one."

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OMG GUYS! THE TEST WON A WATTY AWARD!!!

THANK YOU ALL!!

And i've been meaning to ask. What do ya'll think of the matching covers I made for this kinda sorta series? I'm not the best cover maker in the world but I think they turned out alright considering i'm not very good at it, right?

Anyway, I don't even know if this chapter made much sense to you guys and sounds EXTREMELY confusing but trust me, all will be revealed and explained carefully soon. Let's just say that John and Lexi have this special.....connection between them, and it will be brought out more in the next few chapters.

As always, vote and comment if you like this chapter, maybe recommend it to someone. and....FREAK OUT ABOUT THE WATTY AWARD!!!!!(I know I am) Bye guys :)

(chapter is unedited, will do so later)