The Program

Chapter Twenty-Three

John's body was covering mine enough to keep anything from falling of me like it had Riley the last time the test broke. 

"Maybe you should be protecting yourself, John. Cover your head or something." I suggested.

"How about you shut up? I'm nervous as it is, Lexi." I went still. "God, I hate countdowns."

"Then, quit counting down and just do it." I hissed. "Listen, the faster we get this over, the faster we wake up. Don't you wanna wake up? See your family again? Be alive when they see you again? And what about Annie, huh? She came in here to give me that message and now we're going to just throw all that away-"

John lips landed on mine before I could say another word. His arms hesitantly, and stiffly made their way around around my waist. 

And if it's even possible, this kiss was worse than the first. One, because it was John. Two, this time were we both aware of who the other one was. Which yes, made it awful.

And I was going to pull away after there way already three seconds of nothing, then I remembered that when we kissed we revived, so I needed to disrupt while this was happening so I could reverse it. I hope John was thinking the same thing.

I closed my eyes finally and did the one thing I for sure thought I would never do, I kissed John back. But in the back of my head, I used the distraction of thinking about Jack lifeless body to make me disrupt and to make me try to forget what was currently happening.

I heard a snap. And it was evident that John heard it too, both of us suddenly still. "What? Did you imagine I was Annie or something?" I asked.

He nodded and pulled away fast. He even went as far as making a gagging sound. "God, ew, Lexi. It didn't work. Just, I-" He stopped mid sentence and turned around. "I can't look at you right now."

"For the love of god. Quit whining, I thought I was the girl here." 

I heard another snap, and the a pop. It was almost rice krispies but there was no crackle. And that's when I saw it, the sky break in half. "Oh crap." John hissed. 

"John, it worked. It's not happening fast enough though." John's eyes grew wide as I said it, but I don't think it was from my words. His stare was faced behind me. I turned cautiously, still feeling weak. Sitting there, wet and slimy like the one other time I saw it, was the strange monster from the lake, no longer in the lake, it's teeth shooting electricity. I snapped my head back to John instantly. "Kiss me again."

"What? No. Lexi-" I gave his no time to object further, pulling his by his shirt and down to my level. I had no time to explain that I was still too weak to disrupt the dang thing myself, I just wanted it gone and to shut down the test. Which happened in both ways as I heard the thing shriek behind me as I focused again on a sad memory, the sky also falling like it had last time.

My eyes were open, so were John's. But he couldn't see what was coming down all around us. 

And he couldn't see what was coming right at us.

I pushed him away but it was no use. By the time we weren't connected anymore, everything was crumbling around us and a large pixelated cube was heading for John's head.

Without thinking, I rolled him over, now protecting his body from harm as it fell on my head and the test became a blur.

And soon that blur became nothing.

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Everything was dark but I could feel someone picking me up.

"It's okay. We shut it down, Lexi." The voice was John's. Ans as I slowly and painfully opened my eyes I saw him.

"We did it." I half cheered as I held my head. "What happened?"

"You saved my life." He grinned. "Not like it would have mattered much in that circumstance anyway, but it's the thought that counts."

I looked around, still clinging to John when I realized, "Um, one more question. Why are you holding me in your arms?"

"Maybe I wanted to kiss you again." He answered straight faced. My jaw hung open as he laughed. "I'm kidding, Lexi. Take a joke." He then put me down. "You just looked hurt and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Thanks." I smiled. "So, where's the tree?"

"What tree?"

I stared at him. "You know, the tree. The memory wipe tree except it's a different color. Come on, it was here in the last dream we had before we left the test."

"You are the only when that had that dream then. All I did in my dream was crawl out of a hole and the next thing I know i'm in a hospital bed."

"Oh." 

"Don't worry though." He responded. "There's a hole over there we can jump into, I think it's the way out."

"But you just said that last time crawling out of the hole was the way out, not in it." 

He ran his hand through his hair. "Come on, we've got nothing to lose, there's no where else to go." He quirked his head. "Don't you trust me?"

"Yeah, kinda. It's Reid I don't trust. Last time he played a mind mind on me in here. For all we know this is a trick, John." I explained. "Let's try to find another way out."

But he grabbed my hand. Hard. "We're going down the hole."

And then it hit me, "You're not John, are you?"

"Wow, took ya long enough." He snarled. "You know that term, beauty and brains? Yeah, you don't have either."

"You're Reid, you're messing with my mind again."

"Bingo." He paused. "Except for the Reid part, no. I am his boss."

My eyes widened. "Where's John?"

"Laying in a hospital bed. To bad the nurses in the room are trying to get assistance because his heart just stopped beating." 

I was on the verge of tears. "What did you did to him?"

"Oh, that doesn't matter, Lexi. What matters is how to make it stop." He turned toward the hole again. "You're choice." 

"How do I know you're not lying to me?"

"You don't." Then, he walked away, pixels fading as he went.

I had one choice, especially if this John was right and my friend was dying.

With that thought, I jumped.

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Dedicated to @just_magpie for being the amazing reader that you are.

(not proofread fully)

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