It really did not help that Alto's first words, as soon as he entered the room, were "don't freak out, okay?" That kind of clued Johnny in that he should be freaking out.
He didn't freak out, though.
That was because he was looking at a tree. A real, alive tree that wasn't dehydrated to death or covered in that damnable snow. Honestly, he could almost cry. Johnny wiped his eyes, just in case. He knew he could've seen trees on the drive over, but he'd... really been trying not to look out the windows. The world rushing by made him feel motion sick.
Of course, there was always bad news. He'd been expecting something awful the whole time. Hell, Johnny had known his boss would be coming. He'd known, at least logically, that it wouldn't take very long. But if Alto was doing something now, that meant the time frame was extremely short.
He felt faint. His heart hammered in his chest, thumpthumpthumpthump.
Johnny didn't know why Alto was doing this for him. He couldn't focus well when the guy showed him an example of what'd happen with the candy bar, he almost dropped it when Clef handed it to him. He didn't recognize the label, so he simply shoved it into his pocket. He had more important things to focus on. Like his bosses upcoming visit.
"To-" he squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to panic. "Tomorrow??"
Tomorrow was the day of reckoning, the day he either went back to his personal hell, or the day he merely extended the expiration date of his freedom. Johnny had no doubt that the boss would find out in some way. He's gonna know, he's gonna know, he's gonna know.
No, he had to stay calm. Alto had a plan. He was going to touch this tree, and then his clone would take the fall for him. He tried not to think about the ethics of that, tried not to wonder, what was it like to be someone else, a copy sent to Die in his place?
He tried not to think about it. He really tried. "Okay."
He placed his hand against the tree and hoped that this would work. It had to work. He didn't want to go back.
