CHUCK Now, are you all ready to search for Travis?” I asked Rabiya and Philip and Janvic and myself. The question was stuck in the air and it floated there for about more than a minute or two. It was not a bubble that would pop out naturally after a few seconds of staying in the mid-air. It was too different and they were way too far from each other. After a couple of minutes, every single one of us nodded, but it happened in unison and not individually. “So, what are we waiting for? Let us now begin!” I commanded. We decided that perhaps it would be better and safer if we search the same place, but divide the parts of the place in two sections. The section one, which is composed of the first foor, the second floor, the third floor, the fourth floor, the fifth floor, the sixth floor, and the seventh floor, will go to the first group in the names of Rabiya and Janvic. On the other hand, the

It was a tough time for me and Philip. We were done searching for the seventh floor and it took us approximately twenty minutes searching that floor alone. At least, it was shorter than expected. We expected it would take us more than thirty minutes each floor but thank God it did not. Another thing that we expected was that, there was no Travis on the seventh floor. It was, to me, either he was somewhere between one of the floors from first floor up to the seventh floor, or somewhere between the final floors or the uppermost floors of the building. He could not be here anywhere around the eighth floor simply because it would not make any sense. Time check, it was already three o’clock in the afternoon. I took a full glance on one of the tens of windows panes on the left wing of the lobby of the eighth floor and from there I watched and had my own view of what were the thing going on outside. There was nothing much, unfortunately. Other than the flock of b

PHILIP  There was nothing more important right now than the bond that I had established with Chuck. While I was in the peakest of my fear and trembling, he was on the calmest state of his mind. While I was on the verge of turning back, he was there behind me to make sure that I only had to take a step forward and not backward. He was at his bravest while I was on my weakest. He was at his fullest determination while I was at my emptiest. To simply put that, if not because of him being by my side, I would have gone out of this building already. I would have had returned to the protest area, or perhaps went to my dad to report that Travis was missing instead. Luckily, he got my back. As we arrived in the front of the door of the third classroom from the elevator, we stopped and halted for a minute one last time. I did not know why we did it, but I think, we did it unconsciously so I would have my time to think

RABIYA The moment I received the command coming from Travis Exposito himself, Janvic and I decided to take our actions right away. So, without letting another at least split of a second to pass, we began walking across the lobby of the second floor and into the stairways that led us to the third floor. It was an exhausting and severely energy-draining activity, but we had no choice but to move as fast as we can. To be honest, we already forgot that we were supposed to be careful because as what Travis and Philip had said, the killer might appear us along the way. None of us knew that he or she had weapons, but at least, at some point until we reached the fifth floor in at most twenty minutes, we had not encountered the killer yet. By the time we landed our feet to the staircase of the fifth floor, Janvic and I decided to take a short break. We were both exhausted by the time we sat on the first step of the s

There was nothing more humiliating that what Janvic had did. I mean, he was so out of his mind and out of his temper than he even thought of saying those kind of words right in front of Travis Exposito as if he was not there. As if he was just a mere particle of dust floating in the wind for a second and disappearing right away forever. I would have not said those things if he was me. Chuck suddenly unleashed a powerful sigh. Powerful enough that I felt how the wind coming from his nose ripped through the bareness of my own skin. “You know what, Janvic, it is not that hard to pass, you know? If you want to back out, then go. If you want to leave the building and betray us by reporting everything to the police and even to the Detective, then you are free to do so too.But just remember this, this is going to be the last time I will be talking to you if that really happens. Are you okay with that? Because to me, it is one hundred percent okay. I do not mind l