Chapter 45: Fresh Air

They were back to only hearing those strange bristling sounds. The immediate threat of The Red Priest finding them was gone, but they still didn't exactly have a way out. Chase was no longer really in the mood for storytelling, and nobody else really cared to listen.

In the end, they sat around for hours with a strange tension.

As for time, there was nothing that they could use to tell it. At some point, Nicole couldn't help but speak up.

"I don't have to eat, but I would just like to say I feel really hungry."

Chase took a deep breath.

"We should still wait. Just a little bit longer."

Sydney hesitantly spoke up.

"How long are we going to wait for?"

Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

"We don't exactly have the best measurement of time. The only thing we have is to guess."

Sydney stammered.

"S-So how long do we wait?"

Kairos shut his eyes.

"How about this? We will each take turns to wait, and when that person feels it is time, is when we have a small meal."

Chase hummed.

"But we also have to limit how much we consume. If not, it will naturally incline people to eat as much as possible."

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"I suppose we will just have to trust everyone on that front. We can use the alphabet and the order of letters in our names for this order. That means Chase will be the first, and I will be second."

Tori could not help but speak up.

"...What if we just all evolved and tried to fight against all of the things above us?"

Kairos lowered his head and thought about it.

"The only issue stems from how fast the red priest guy and his lackeys. I don't doubt that we would be able to clear whatever he referred to as minions, but the same can not be said for the others."

Tori sounded a little aggrieved.

"It can't be that bad, right? We are stronger now."

Kairos sighed.

"And they probably are too. If you remember what happened before, we all tried to fight against them, but each time they were far stronger than us. If they didn't just let us pass, then every single one of us would've lost our respective battle."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Then there's that strange ability that the red priest himself has. It seems to restrain us based on our mutations."

Tori muttered.

"So we just have to wait here?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"If it really comes down to it, then we can try that tactic. But regardless, we have to wait for now. That red priest is probably nearby."

Tori paused.

"I guess it can't be helped."

With that, a looming silence fell down on the group. More hours passed by as the only sound was the strange bristling coming from above.

Nicole began panting.

"I... I really want to eat something."

She spoke as though she was slightly drunk. As for Kairos himself, he was also feeling a little dizzy, but his willpower stat was enough for him to push through it.

But then, he recalled that Nicole's willpower was basically the same amount.

If she was really feeling this way, then it must actually be pretty bad.

After a moment of deliberation, Chase sighed.

"Alright, I guess we should start now."

He turned on the flashlight, making everyone squint due to the sudden exposure to light. And once their vision did clear up, it revealed Tori already eating something. When Chase saw this, he couldn't help but get incensed.

Kairos saw in his future vision that he would begin yelling, so he quickly grabbed onto his shoulder.

"We have to be quiet."

Chase had just taken a deep breath, but hearing that, he let it out slowly. Right afterwards, he began interrogating Tori.

"Why did you already start eating something?"

Tori blinked a few times obliviously.

"It was just a little snack!"

Chase clenched his fist tightly, until veins began popping out, but quickly relaxed.

"A small snack will essentially be an entire meal for us while we are down here."

Tori flinched.

"What? I thought we were rationing, not starving ourselves to death."

Kairos sighed.

"We can just say you started eating early, just don't do it again."

Tori nodded.

"Um, ok."

Chase began opening up the bags, taking out a few packages.

"If we want to go on a starvation diet, I believe you eat about six hundred calories a day. That way, the body is forced to slow itself down. However, since we obviously need more food than usual, that means a general estimate could be three times that, two thousand and four hundred."

Kairos scratched the side of his head.

"Guess we follow the labels on these things."

With that, the group began to eat their fill. Everyone more or less followed the guideline set, eating just two thousand and four hundred calories. However, nobody seemed even slightly satisfied.

Kairos felt a little better, but was still a little dizzy.

"...Felt like I just ate air."

Chase furrowed his brows and held onto the side of his head.

"Yeah, that's normal."

Sydney seemed to be holding back her drool.

"Can we... really not eat any more?"

Chase scanned the various bags.

"From what I can tell, unless we start eating raw rice, we are going to run out of food in three days. That is, unless we are willing to start a fire and sacrifice something to burn for the sake of cooking this rice."

He narrowed his eyes.

"And that is with how we are eating right now."

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"I didn't think our situation was this bad. Our bags were almost full..."

Chase sighed.

"It doesn't seem like we can wait it out. We will have to decide on either tomorrow or the day after to get out."

Kairos took a deep breath.

"I am pretty sure I can only make a relatively small hole above us to get out. So perhaps we should discuss how to deal with that."

With that, people began proposing various ideas, but nobody was into it. It seemed that the lacking meal they just had made it hard for anyone to feel enthusiasm.

Eventually, Kairos just sighed.

"Maybe we should just try to sleep the time away."

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It didn't seem like anyone was against it. Though nobody was too sure how long ago they had slept, they also didn't care enough.

Another few rough hours passed.

Kairos eventually woke up, but felt like he hadn't slept at all. It seemed that most of the others had a similar sentiment.

Nicole was breathing heavily.

"Has it... has it been a day yet?"

If Kairos was to say whether or not it felt like a day, he would say it felt like two. However, he didn't think a full day had actually passed.

"I don't think so."

Sydney began biting the edge of her thumb.

"But we have been sleeping for so long. If anything, it should be more than a day, right?"

Chase took a deep breath.

"I don't remember feeling this bad, even when I went on the starvation diet before. I must've miscalculated how much we actually needed."

Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.

"Then maybe we can eat a little earlier than usual."

In perfect honesty, he did not want to say that. However, he could also feel his own thoughts become muddled. Kairos felt like if he didn't eat soon, he would be teetering on the very precipice of death.

After a few moments of silence, Chase turned on the flashlight.

Everyone began eating once more, hardly able to wait. However, as they were looking at the various packages, the flashlight began flickering.

It stabilized a moment later, but soon died off.

Chase cursed, trying to flick the switch on and off. Though it would occasionally light up for a second, that was it. He began shaking the flashlight too, but in the end it didn't really work.

He sighed with a bit of frustration.

"Try to judge how much you should eat by yesterday's standards."

There was a moment of silence after he said that. It seemed that countless thoughts were rushing through each person's mind. However, everything felt relatively tame at first.

Yet, just after a few moments, it became clear that everyone was eating more than they should. Even Kairos couldn't stop himself, as he kept thinking that maybe he could just have a little more.

Chase eventually decided to try and stop this.

"We can't eat anymore. This is already too much."

Though he said that, there were still sounds of people eating.

Chase got incensed.

"I said... we have already eaten too much."

Sydney's breathing was heavy.

"But... Tori had already eaten more than me! Just after I get a little more."

Kairos clenched his fist.

"All of us already went overboard, that is something we can acknowledge. Let's just stop here."

For a second, there was no noise. But then, a soft sound of packaging being torn filled the air.

Chase began screaming.

"DID YOU NOT HEAR?"

Nicole screamed as well, for the first time in a very long while.

"I'M GOING TO DIE WITHOUT ANY MORE."

Her voice sounded hoarse, showing how unhinged she got. It was pretty clear that she was tearing her throat as she was saying this. Kairos normally would have stopped this, but he was simply too pissed off to do so.

It very quickly devolved into everyone screaming at each other.

Everyone seemed to forget that they were supposed to remain silent, and didn't even pick up on the sounds of bloody battle above them.

Eventually, through all of their screaming, another voice rang out.

"Hey, Kairos? Is that you?"

Nobody noticed this voice at first, but after a good few thumps on the ground, everyone seemed to notice something was different.

"Kairos? You should be down there, right?"

Kairos furrowed his brows, taking a few breaths with his hoarse throat.

The group collectively fell silent, and looked up with trepidation.

"Hey, why aren't you responding? You are there, right?"

Kairos felt a bit of difficulty believing what he heard.

Nicole panicked.

"Who... who is that? We were too loud!"

Tori began biting her nails.

"Shit! Shit!"

Sydney began trembling.

"No... No..."

Chase held onto the side of his head.

"I didn't even realize."

Kairos stood up and called out.

"Dad?"

A muffled laugh resounded.

"Ah, so you are there, Kairos. Can you guys get out of there?"

Kairos lifted up his red prism, hesitating for a moment. He took off his glasses and began creating a small hole at the top, keeping close watch on what he saw in front of him.

And... as is cleared, it was indeed the face of his dad, smiling confidently.

His face was covered in blood, but that was considered something very normal to everybody at this stage.

Sydney's eyes widened.

"Sam?"

Kairos' first reaction when he saw his father wasn't to greet him, but to question.

"How did you know we were here?"

His father, Sam, shrugged his shoulders.

"I got a pretty convenient ability that just told me."

Suddenly, his nose twitched.

"Oh god, that smell."

He took a closer look at the people underneath and raised an eyebrow.

"You guys are in bad condition, aren't you?"

Kairos sighed.

"Yeah, pretty much."

He picked up his backpack before throwing it up.

"Catch."

Sam caught it deftly and set it to the side. Kairos proceeded to do the same thing with the other backpacks as well as the black carapace. Everyone else also began jumping out. Though it was a little high, it was nothing difficult with their bodies enhanced by their stats.

Then, he jumped up as well, almost feeling blinded by the dimly lit room.

Kairos greedily gasped for air, basking in its freshness.

They were finally free.

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