Chapter 9

I am taken aback by Freddie's words. Everyone looks at Darryl.

"I carried it with me because Ryder said too," he says nervously. "I'm sorry."

Joe places his hands on Freddie's shoulders. "Calm down, Honey. Darryl explained to me what happened. When the lights went out, and Fallon screamed, he came out to see what happened. Of course, he wasn't thinking about the tablet! It's when he saw Ryder running down the stairs and Fallon on the floor."

Then Bell walks into the kitchen. She walks up to Ryder and begins to whimper. He picks her up and hands her to me.

"All right, Bell. Stay here with Uncle Joe, Margie, and Darryl. Mommy has something important to do," I say as I turn to Joe. "Do you mind?" I ask Joe, handing her to him.

Joe hesitates but then grabs her. "I was never great with animals, but I'll try." He begins to pet her gently. Bell licks his hand.

"Freddie, Sam, come with me. Joe, I need you and Darryl to cover Fallon's body. Stay together, no matter what. Margie, you're with them."

Joe smiles at Margie. He grabs her hand, and they leave. Darryl follows behind with his head down.

"I think I should stay with Margie. She doesn't look too good."

Ryder shakes his head at me as he grabs me gently by my arm. "We don't know who killed Fallon. You and Fred are the only two I trust without a doubt," he whispers.

I hate when he grabs me by my arm! I yank it away from him! Freddie looks at both of us in confusion.

Ryder looks at me, showing no emotion. He looks at Freddie and walks ahead of us. Freddie wraps his arm around mine, and we follow Ryder.

"What was that about?" Freddie whispers.

Freddie, Ryder, and I walk into the garage.

Ryder makes his way to the rental car and opens the trunk. He pulls one of the steel suitcases out and opens it. I walk toward the garage door when something catches my eye outside.

Looking through a small window on the garage door, I see what looks like a silver car. The front stonewall to our property covers the bottom half of the vehicle.

I'm barely able to make the back of it with the winds and rain, but I am sure it's a car.

Freddie walks up to me. "What's wrong?" He asks as he looks through the window.

"I'm not crazy, right? Is that a car outside the gate?"

Freddie squints his eyes and looks back at me. "Yeah! I think so. It could be someone that was already on the road and decided to pull over, you know? The storm is pretty bad."

That is true. I instantly forget about it as I turn around. Ryder is walking toward us.

"Let's go!"

We exit the garage and make our way to the basement. At that moment, I'm happy we don't have a handprint console on this door, or else getting to the main circuit board for the generator will prove impossible. We turn our flashlights on as we go down the stairs.

Freddie and I are so close to each other; we could easily be one person. Terrified is the only word to use, as we both hesitate to walk further down into the basement. We shouldn't be scared. Freddie and I have Ryder to guide us. If someone is indeed hiding down here, it'll be at their own risk. Ryder will shoot first and ask questions later. Exhaling deeply, we follow Ryder.

Once we make it down, Ryder turns to us.

Something then suddenly occurs to me. "Why are we in the basement if the generators are supposed to be outside?

Freddie looks at me. "They are outside. However, those generators are new and state of the art. There is no way to tamper with them. It may just be a glitch that we didn't account for with this weather."

"We're all actually in the middle of constructing a central grid for the house. I have the memory and backup stored in a laptop in the room we are heading into."

Freddie continues to talk as we follow a cautious Ryder.

"Why was I never told about this? More secrets, huh?" I ask in annoyance, looking at the back of Ryder's head.

He must've felt my gaze because he stops and turns his head slightly. Freddie quickly breaks the tension by clearing his throat. Ryder continues to walk, and Freddie continues to speak.

"We just never got the chance to put all the walls and palm scanner in place. I will hack my software to get into the system and find out what's wrong with the generators. Shouldn't take me that long."

"Okay, the room is this way," Ryder says, handing us both a gun. I tuck mine behind my pants, and Freddie holds his weapon under his flashlight like a pro.

"Are guns necessary?"

It is dark, but both Freddie and Ryder give me the same stern look.

"It is! We don't know if someone upstairs did it or someone else is in the house." Ryder's face turns to his eerie, unemotional look.

I hold onto Freddie's arm as we continue down the hallway. My mind starts to race.

I can't believe less than twenty minutes ago I was arguing with Ryder, and now Fallon is dead. Her lifeless body is lying on the foyer floor.

Now we are in the basement trying to figure out why the lights won't come back on.

Ryder puts his arm up, signaling us to stop.

"Do you hear that?" Freddie whispers to him as we move closer to the room. It sounds like there's a giant fan on in there.

"Yeah. What is that?" Ryder asks him.

I am confused. "What? What's that noise?

Neither Ryder nor Freddie responds.

"Stay here," Ryder says as he puts his gun and flashlight up. Freddie and I don't move or breathe. I can tell he is as scared as I am.

Ryder rounds the corner and steps into the room. Gun drawn, he disappears for a minute. He then steps out and calls for us to come in.

"Come and look at this, Freddie."

Ryder walks back in. We both rush in, looking behind us. I let Freddie's arm go as he makes his way toward Ryder.

"What? What is it?" I ask, examining the empty room. The walls are just four-by-fours and paper; there are tons of pipes lying on the floor. There isn't even a door installed yet.

I turn to them and point my flashlight at a huge metal box in front of them.

"How is that even possible? What the fuck, Ryder?" Freddie asks, stunned, as he touches a big box.

It is making a noise like a car radiator. It's as tall as Ryder and wide as a dresser.

"Okay, someone please tell me what's going on! Was it is?" I ask, agitated.

Freddie examines the entire thing. He then walks around it and grabs a big cable that hangs from it and into the ceiling.

"It's a generator, Sam," Freddie says with panic.

What? Who in their right mind would place a generator inside a home? We would all be dead in a matter of hours.

"Ryder, isn't this supposed to be outside?" I look at them both in horror as I quickly realize what is happening.

"Turn it off!" Freddie yells at Ryder.

"I don't see any buttons or panels, Fred!" Ryder says, frantically shining the light on the generator. "Check the other side!"

"Nothing! How is this thing on if there's no power feeding it?!" Freddie asks in a panic looking around the room.

Ryder places his hand on a piece that looks out of place. He tries to claw it and realize it isn't going to move.

"I'm guessing whoever installed this didn't want us hitting the off switch. The door to the panel is welded shut."

"What do we do?! We need to shut this thing off or drive into the storm." I ask, terrified, looking for something to pry the generator door open.

"Wait, wait, wait! Again, how is the electricity out, but this generator is on?" Freddie asks with his eyes closed, hitting his head. "This doesn't make sense!" He yells in frustration.

"Think, Fred!" Ryder says, walking up to him. "You helped design this room. What are we missing?"

Freddie looks around the room. "The laptop! Where's the laptop?!" He asks in a panic.

Both Ryder and Freddie begin to look around, desperately looking for a laptop.

"I found it!" Freddie yells, grabbing it. I am stunned. The laptop's outside looked like two pieces of four by four glued together, and it's against the wall, sitting on a milk crate. What a way to disguise something!

Freddie sits on the crate, turns the laptop on, and begins to work, typing furiously. "All right, I need to hack my system. No biggie, right?"

"I thought you only needed your username and password?"

Ryder looks over at me. One of his eyebrows goes up as he crosses his arms over his chest.

I just asked a stupid question.

"No, not with this system. I don't have it set up. This is like trying to hack into the Pentagon. No worries, though! I almost have it," he says, typing furiously and with a smile.

I turn and look at the generator in horror.

Is someone really trying to kill us?

"Got it!" Freddie yells.

Ryder walks behind him and crouches down.

"Okay, the lights should be coming on any second. Now, let's see what's powering this baby in front of us," Freddie says as he types something on the computer.

Both he and Ryder stare at the screen.

"What the hell?" Freddie asks in shock.

"What?! What is it?" I ask, taking a step toward them.

"Someone had turned the generator on while the system's power was down," Freddie says, looking at Ryder. A look of horror on his face.

Ryder gets up and walks to me. "Which means they tapped into our secure network, compromising us."

"That's not even the worst part," Freddie whispers.

I look from him to Ryder. My heart begins to beat fast.

Ryder pulls out his gun and aims it at the door. "Whoever is doing this is still inside the house."