CHAPTER 268: 268-THE ODD IAN

Clementine:

I was honestly surprised to see Oriana this calm, but at the same time, I was more shocked that she had actually found the coal. The way she had run off earlier made me worry for her safety, but at least now I felt some peace.

But we still had to find Ian, and there was no sign of him anywhere.

"Guys, it’s been two hours since we started looking for Ian. Don’t you think we should just leave now? Maybe we’ll find him on the way," Haiden suggested, placing a hand on his chest and rubbing it slightly.

I noticed all of us feeling strange. Oriana stood silently, lost in thought, but every now and then, she’d start heaving, taking deep breaths like the rest of us.

"Yeah, we should leave now," I finally said after staying quiet for a while. "Once we rest a bit, we can come back."

I only suggested that because it didn’t make sense to stay in the tunnels when we were already running out of oxygen. I had a feeling I knew why, the Earth Eaters weren’t just attacking us, they were also breathing in most of the oxygen and releasing toxic gas into the air.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Troy agreed, nodding. "Haiden, you know the way, right? Come on, lead us out of here. I can’t take it anymore."

Troy grabbed Haiden’s bicep, shaking him slightly. The urgency in his tone made me worry for him. He had been the most active one, jumping around nonstop, so I figured he was suffering the most.

"Yeah, let’s go," Haiden agreed. But even he didn’t seem fine, maybe because he’d been alone for so long.

We started following his marks. It was clever of him. He’d used the one piece of chalk the Ringleaders had given us to mark the map, and he’d used it wisely.

Because of that, he managed to guide us out in no time.

Once we were outside, we all took deep breaths. Honestly, even the cold northern air of the house felt better than whatever we’d been breathing in those tunnels.

"Guys, we still have some food, right?" Oriana asked, taking deep breaths as she knelt down, her hands resting on her knees.

"Yeah, we can take a short break, then keep looking for Ian," I said, grabbing the bags we had left behind earlier.

We didn’t want to carry too much, so we’d only taken one bag with two bottles of water and a bit of food. But we dropped it the moment we ran into the first Earth Eater, that’s how scary it got down there.

Thankfully, the rest of the bags still had food.

We sat down in the living room of the house and opened one of the bags. I noticed that the Earth Eaters didn’t seem to come out here, maybe the air outside was too pure for them. That would explain why the last one died so quickly after leaving the tunnels.

We didn’t lock the door, worried that Ian might come out and need to reach us, but we did move a closet in front of it at a slant. We figured if Ian came out, he’d be able to crawl under it or at least call out for us.

"That was so hectic," Oriana said after drinking some water and eating a few biscuits.

"Yeah, it was scary," Troy agreed, still munching on wafers.

"Oriana, where did you go? And where did you find all that coal?" I asked, a little curious, mostly because I wanted her to tell her story, to realize that she could handle things on her own.

She didn’t need to be afraid or wait for someone to save her.

"I remember running away," she started, sounding a little too lost. I mean, it happened just recently, so why was she so forgetful?

"And then I remember feeling so defeated, thinking I couldn’t survive anymore. I dropped to my knees and gave up."

But then she paused, her eyes staring into the distance.

"Then I—" she stopped, scratching the back of her neck. "I think I spoke to someone."

The way she said it, so confused yet so certain, made my mates glance at each other, then at me, just to make sure we were on the same page.

"Who? Who did you speak to? Was it Ian?" Haiden asked since we’d told him that we’d all been together and the only person we hadn’t found was Ian. Maybe she had come across him.

But she quickly started shaking her head.

"No, no, no, it wasn’t Ian. It was some woman," she muttered, turning her face to the side before trailing off. "She was... I... she was... I don’t know, it’s—wow—I don’t know. I think... I think I passed out and had a dream. Yeah, that’s it. Maybe I dreamed it, because I woke up in the same spot, and the coals–they were right next to my bag, just lying there."

She grabbed her bag as she spoke, still looking puzzled.

"Maybe you were having trouble breathing, passed out, and didn’t realize you were already next to the coals," Yorick suggested, trying to make sense of it.

But she shook her head before slowly starting to nod.

"Maybe. I don’t know," she murmured.

Still, there was one problem. If she had been next to the coals, there had to be Earth Eaters nearby. Since she said she didn’t remember, there was nothing we could do about it. But she did say she spoke to someone. It couldn’t just be a dream, right? Or maybe it was. Who knows? Otherwise, she would’ve remembered.

None of us had experienced anything like that, and she was clearly shaken, so maybe she was just delusional.

"Anyway, we shouldn’t delay. Let’s go look for Ian, but this time, how about we—" I stopped mid-sentence as my eyes drifted to the side. What I saw stole the ground from under my feet.

Right in front of me, someone was walking down the stairs, freshly showered with a bag in his hand. He moved it slightly, making the sound of coals rattle inside.

"Ian?" Oriana was the first to call out, looking as shocked as the rest of us.