4 days
have gone by and still no James. We aren’t sure what he said to them to make
them go away, but they took him and never came back. Rev has been trying to
find a way to override James’ locks, but it seems like they are unbreakable.
They cleaned out Ron’s room as if he never was there. I have been watching where
they are keeping my dad, but I haven’t reached out. I know they’re holding him
in his room, so I’m working on a way to get him out. No more people need to
suffer due to me.
“There
has to be another way out of here.” Rev tells me like she hasn’t searched this
whole house 10 times already. “How much food do we have?” Rev shakes her head
at my question. “Enough to last us a few months.” I eat my fruit and walk back
down stairs. We don’t close the door to the screen room, if we did we would
never be able to get back in. I sit at the screens to keep watching my father,
who is now back at work. I think my dad knows I’m watching. He looks at his
screen in his office every time and shakes his head right as I want to say
something to him, as if he’s telling me not to. I can hear Rev trying to break
the front door again. She is persistent, you have to give her that. Rev comes
running down the stairs. “That’s it we are going to die here. Let’s face
facts.” She throws herself on the floor hitting the door. It slams shut with us
inside the screen room. She jumps up and tries to open it but it has locked. “I
agree we are going to die in here.” I tell her. She rolls her eyes at me. “Try
the screens, maybe they can unlock it.” I shake my head at her. “The screens
are connected to a server that isn’t here. They are not linked to anything in
the house.” I sit down. Rev stops and thinks for a while. She is so silent I
partly think she fell sleep. “Do you know what Nano bites are?” I shake my head
no. I had never heard of them. “Do you trust me? I have a theory.” A theory?
What does that even mean? I’m a little afraid to ask. “Yes I trust you.” She smiles and walks over to the lock pad.
“Come here and give me your hand.” I walk up to the key pad and give Rev my
hand. She pulls her knife out of her boot and cuts my hand and puts it on the
key pad. The door unlocks for us. How does my blood keep unlocking things? This
makes no sense. “What was your theory?” I ask Rev. “That you have Nano bites in
your blood. That might be why your mom kept hiding you. Maybe you have always
had them in you and your mom knew that any blood test would show that.” I look
down at my hand. “But what are Nano bites?” We start to walk back up the
stairs. “Nano bites are little micro computers that are programmed to do things,
but that is just my understanding of them.” She shrugs like that should be good
enough. I don’t think she has the answer
but at least her theory worked.
We are
done packing all our stuff and we head for the front door. When it unlocks on
its own and James comes walking through the door, Rev pulls her gun on him.
“Where have you been?” James walks right
past Rev as if she and the gun weren’t even there. “He is coming to speak to
you.” James says as he gets a glass of water. Rev follows him with the gun.
“Who is coming?” I ask. “Erick.” Is that where James has been? “Too bad we won’t
be here for that. We were just on our way out.” Rev pushes me toward the door.
“He says he wants to help you Ava. He knew all about you and Rev.” How could he
know about me I don’t even know about me. I put my hand on the top of the gun
and push it down for Rev not to shoot James. “How long until he gets here?” I
ask. “Something tells me not long.” I hear a voice from behind me at the door.
I turn and there is Erick. I bow my head out of habit. “Hello Erick.” He
laughs. “Hello Ava.” He walks in and closes the door behind him. “Traitor! You
sold us out!” Rev yells at James. “Rev, James didn’t sell you out, not that he
would even know what that meant. I took the flyer down and I cleaned up a few
things for your journey.” Erick walks over to the table and sits down. He
motions to the seats around the table for us to sit. I sit down first. “What
can you tell me about why I am different?” I ask him. He laughs. “Before I tell
you, there’s a reason I’m here, something I have to say. Maybe everyone should
be seated and without weapons.” He looks at Rev. What is a weapon? He must mean
the gun. Rev put the gun on the table. “I am putting it down, but I am not
putting it away. I don’t know you and I owe you no kind of respect.” James sits
in the seat next to Rev. “Fair enough, but I am not your enemy. I am just here
to help. Ava’s mother is a friend of mine.” My eyes widen, I can feel it. He
knows my mother. How?
