After seeing such a disaster of rage from Bassie, I can't help but feel the need to leave. And of course she forgot. And of course I forgot, too. We have a child here. If Bassie is going to be this harmful, I have to leave. And Peanut needs to leave too. I go to sit near Peanut. She's drawing on a small piece of cardboard. "What are you drawing?" I speak up. She flinches at my voice. "You scared me!" She says with her sweet, innocent voice. "I'm just drawing a little picture." It's a drawing of me. "It's me." I speak. She smiles. "It is! I'm glad somebody knows." She responds. I can still hear Bassie yelling at everyone else from the basement. "Peanut, we have to leave." I finally say. Peanut puts down her crayon. "Why?" She asks. "Bassie isn't... Feeling well." I lie. She should know damn well not to ask questions like this when she just saw what happened. "Oh. Okay!" Peanut responds. I grab her hand and get up. "Let's go." I say, adjusting my glasses. We quietly slip out while Bassie is still in the basement. "It's dark out here." Peanut says, holding my hand tighter. I quickly turn on my lamplight. "Don't worry, Peanut." We walk to the elevator together, and I make sure to keep watch for dangerous objects. We finally arrive at the elevator. "Where do you think we should go, Peanut?" I ask her, turning off my lamplight. She steps closer to the buttons. "Let's go to floor 25." She says, pressing the button. We wait in the elevator for a few minutes until it dings. I start leading her to another room labeled 'Staff only'. Thankfully, it's empty. Now we have it all to ourselves. "We're going to stay here temporarily, okay?" I tell her, bringing out tents and flashlights. Peanut nods in understanding, and she wanders down to the basement. "Careful down there!" I call out. I see the dim light from down there and I make sure to see if she's okay. "Look what I found!" She calls back. I start rushing down to the basement. She's holding a dog plush. Toodles' dog plush. Someone's been here. "Peanut, stay there." I say, moving past her to check the room behind her. I start hearing talking. It's a familiar voice. I gently open the door... "Looey?" Looey, Connie, Gourdy, and Toodles are all in there. "Brightn]ey?" Toodles asks, moving closer. "What are you guys doing here?" I ask, stepping into the room. "We were here for shelter. Here, take one." Connie says, handing me a rifle. "Where did you get these?" I ask, staring at the rifle in my hands. "We found them in a nearby office with loads of ammo." Looey said, holding his own rifle. "We've been training the kids to defend themselves if they ever get isolated." Peanut picks up the gun in my hands and points it at her eye. "How does it work?" she asks, almost pulling the trigger. "Wait, don-" "AAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Looey rushes over to Peanut with a bandage. "####!" Connie shouts, stabilizing Peanut.
art: by me song: fruiting bodies by RIProducer
