II

It's as if half of my entire day was lucky, and the other half was just complete unluckiness. I had been able to escape the A-S and get weapons and other things, but now I'm locked inside some kidnapper's apartment and have been tricked into thinking he was one of the escapees.

There probably weren't even other escapees, knowing that everyone else was clueless people who were being controlled. 

What even happened in this room? The room had an almost deafening smell of dead people. There were even some stray, dark red stains on the desk, and red spots all over the notebook that was lying on it.

  Huh. I hadn't noticed it before.

I opened the notebook. 

Everything was blank, but it was probably because the guy had either used some secret ink or because the janitor had erased everything. 

Still, this would probably be some good information if it did have a secret message somewhere, so I slid it into my backpack just in case.

The only place that the body would be was in the closet, and out of curiosity, I wanted to open it. I don't want to open it, but at the same time, I do. Do other people get this feeling? Something is dangerous and shouldn't be done, but I just do it. Or at least not good, not always dangerous.

My body tingles with electricity as I open the closet, but as the closet door creaks open, there is nothing in there. There are only some clothes that would perfectly fit your average twenty-one-year-old male.

Fine. The kidnapper wants to play with me, does he? It's under the bed then, it's the only other place.

This was starting to become a game, but once I took a peek under the pitch-black bed, I remembered all the times I was afraid of monsters being under my bed when I was six years old. My parents were still alive at the time, but they always checked for me. Most kids were probably like that. 

Except this monster was not a monster and was a victim. 

Under the bed, lay multiple trash bags that were very badly tied, and had a dark red liquid oozing out of all the bags. Easily, those would be the severed body parts of whoever the hell decided to team up with this guy. He must have been a psychopath and just wanted to leave the A-S to kill other people for fun. What a psycho.

My gaze turns away from the dead body and onto the room.

The room was all made of wood, but the walls and ceiling were made out of concrete. The white concrete was rough to the touch. How thick were these walls? I guessed about the thickness of my head. But no really, it was probably that much or less. 

I had a great idea, get my multitool knife out of my pocket and try to break the wall. A dumb idea, but worth a try.

The blade gleams in the darkness of the room with only a hint of light creeping from under the door. There are no windows in this room too, how weird. 

I stab the knife into the wall. The blade sank into the concrete like it was nothing, but when I pulled it out there was barely really any damage to the wall. Only a ray of light from the living room came in. 

Oh how dumb I was, there was a door that was probably the easiest thing to break. 

First, I tried to throw myself at the door, but it didn't do anything. Other than making my entire body hurt, of course, that is. Next, I try to kick the door open. I close my eyes and focus around me. I smell the rotting body. There is no point in concentrating really, so I throw the act and kick at the door with all my force.

The door was quite literally splintered after the kick I had done. There was a huge hole in the door now. I kick the door with all my might two more times, and it's just enough for me to walk through. First I threw my backpack through of course, because it wouldn't fit with my backpack. I also do the same with my two katanas.

The backpack lands with a thud, and I follow. Of course, I don't drop to the ground though, I can move on my own, but the backpack is not alive. I would not be using these two katanas until it got important or dangerous. I put the sheaths on my back and slid the katanas in.

Mr. Janitor had already left the scene, but he had probably called the police to frame me or something, so I decided to get out of the apartment and stop getting sidetracked. I had to get to the library or I would be wasting my time dealing with some guy who went crazy. 

At last, it seems like the day will finally be peaceful. The walk to the library was good.

Until I arrived at the library. There was a paper on the schedule of the library and a little sign that hung over the entrance to the library that said the words, CLOSED. 

I was fuming mad. This guy had wasted my time until the library was closed, but he wasn't going to stop me.

There were no more games to be played, and I was done with everything. Done with life and all the things they were going to try and hide from me. I was going to be fierce and disobey laws if I needed to.

The knife slid into my hand as if I had done this a thousand times before, and I shattered the glass with the other end. There were no alarms that sounded, since of course this wasn't some jewelry store, but I needed to get in and out of there fast since someone might notice a library's entrance being shattered into millions of glass pieces. 

It was almost as shattered as my heart when I thought that the library had thrown away the computers and exchanged them for books, but luckily I found them, sitting on some desks somewhere in the right corner of the library.

The computer was old and dusty.

I blew the dust off and reached around the computer until I felt a power button. 

There was a little chime and the computer turned on. 

Quickly, I opened my email and went to the documents containing the information on where my teachers lived. I was going to have to memorize it for now, since the printers were all broken. 

That's weird. All of the information was blurred out other than Gary Francis's information, who was the teacher who taught us about weird stuff and weapons and fighting. 

The address was 127 Sussex Lane. That was close to the library. Thank god. 

I quickly get out of the place before I get caught, and decide to sleep behind the library. The library has an alleyway at the back with dumpsters and stuff, and nobody would ever come here for sure. 

Well, it's been a crazy day, and I'll need to get a good night of sleep to continue tomorrow.

My vision darkens as I fade into a dream. 

- - -

"What's up, pal?" My father asks. "I hope you're feeling good because we're going on a road trip today, and it's going to be super fun! We have to drive halfway across the country and play hide and seek with some people, what do you think?"

He is asking me a question, but my attention is focused on something else. The fact that this was the last day that I would ever see them. I was confused, why was I dreaming about this? For the past month, I always had the same dream. I always had to remember how they died.

"Honey, come downstairs! We have to go now!" Mom yells at us from downstairs.

"We're coming!" my dad yells back. "Listen, we have to go, I'll give you more information on the way there,"

"Okay," I say.

I get ready and my dad helps me put my small, brown plastic suitcase in the trunk. They both have large suitcases.

"Why do we have to pack so much stuff?" I ask them.

"We're going on a long trip," Mom says.

I think about this for a second. Why would my parents even want to run away from the government or whoever is chasing them? Why were they killed?

The leader of the Consensus probably wanted to kill them, and they are either people who are extremely petty and kill people who get in their way and people who are witnesses, or people who kill people who are trying to do things against them. 

That probably means my parents were against the Consensus because I doubt they would get mixed up in an argument or some mission by the Consensus. 

Either way, they eventually died after the car crash and I was left alive. 

- - -

Birds are chirping in the background, singing a beautiful tune. Rays of sunshine get into my eyes and I turn away and blink. 

I stretch and yawn. 

Well, it's finally Halloween. It is also time to go to the teacher's address.

As I walk, the town seems peaceful. There is the slight sound of car engines passing by and the wind blowing into my face. 

Ryan, it seems to be calling me. 

The wind wants me to stop, it wants me to embrace nature and just stop. It wants people to do what they want to do, but I won't let them. I'll keep going and take them down.

I arrive at the address. It has a stone paved walkway and a decently mowed lawn. Although most of the grass was yellow and dying. 

People could call it a mansion, I call it a house of someone who has at least a million dollars. A mansion isn't well, this small. A mansion is something with an oversized lawn with those black, metal gates. They also have like fifty rooms. This house, some people may call it a mansion, but overall was mostly just a bigger house than most.

The walls are made of white wood, and some parts of the house are decorated with shining rocks. Kind of like brick walls, but they used rocks.

Even if that guy isn't home, I should at least intrude into his house or get ready for him to come home.

Of course, I don't ring the doorbell. Their side door has a gate that leads to the backyard of the house. Oddly enough, they even have plants and flowers growing in their backyard. Maybe this guy was living with his family?

I jumped over the fence. They probably added this to make sure deer didn't eat their plants, but a little fence can't stop me. 

My plan was simple, to kill two birds with one stone. I was going to ask this guy for information and search his house. Well, technically it's still one bird. But I'm double-checking.

Peering inside the back yard door, I could make out a white sofa and a hallway with some fancy glass wall blocking the sight of the staircase to the second floor.

The back yard door was made out of a flimsy glass material, which I didn't even have to break.

I turned the handle of the door. 

Gary was a pretty stupid man who didn't care if someone was going to break into his house. 

I doubt he even had security cameras in his home.

I cautiously stepped inside the house. Dirt was being scattered all over the floor and specks of the ground could be seen everywhere I stepped. 

The sun shone light onto the floor and created a bit of light where there was only shadow. 

This place had to have some kind of trap right?

The carpet looked like it probably cost more than I'd ever received in my life, so I gladly stepped all over the carpet, leaving dirty stains that were set in stone. 

If this Gary guy was expecting me, he definitely had a bird's eye view of me from some hidden camera.

For fun, but also stupidly, I smashed the glass divider in the middle of the living room and the staircase. 

With a crash, the glass came tumbling down.

Now that I think about it, that was probably a dumb move.

Anyway, I had to advance now. 

To the left of the living room was the kitchen and the dining hall which was just a kind of place that looked like a bar with bar stools. 

There were a couple of drawers, so I pried my way through all of them.

Some drawers quite literally had nothing in them, like actual kitchen materials and stuff, but some had weird things like wires. 

This guy probably liked engineering in addition to all of his weird hobbies.

I finally reached a drawer that contained a lot of notes. I pulled one of the notes out.

It read; 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Gary, you are on thin ice. 

If you don't get rid of them fast, we are going to fire you, and not only fire you. You know what happens to staff that get… retired.

Well, that was weird.

Opening up more of the notes and going through his things, they were all mainly about him not getting rid of somebody or something.

Maybe Gary was being blackmailed by the Consensus or something.

There was a sudden creak of one of the steps to the stairs.

I turned my head around and stared. 

He was just standing there, wide-eyed and pale, looking at me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me.

"I'm here to get information," I tell him. "If you don't respond or answer dishonestly, I'll take something from you. It'll be your life if you're lucky."

The past few days, I've been trying to sound more serious and menacing, but in reality, I've never really listened to any of the teachers and how to be a gangster or someone who kills someone. 

That student that I had killed was the first time I had ever taken action.

It didn't feel good of course, and I still remember the blood caked in between my fingernails, and trying to desperately wash it off. 

But I had to kill him, it was my only choice. 

In my current world, the way things go is to kill or be killed.

He still stands there, staring at me blankly.

Oddly enough, that blank stare turns into a grin, and he dashes up the stairs.

I quickly chase after him and try to skip the stairs by going up two steps at once. 

Gary turns around in the upstairs hall, and presses a red button which causes the floor to collapse, leaving a hollow space with nothing in it.

He's really unprepared, because the gap was only about three feet long, and was easily jumpable.

As I ran in his direction, I got ready to propel myself over the gap.

The edge of the gap was coming closer, and as I finally stepped near the edge, I threw myself to the other side and kept running.

"What's the point in this?" I yell after him.

Still running, he turns around to look back at me and then gets even more startled as he realizes I am gaining on him.

I flash a sincere smile at him, and he seems even more afraid.

The key to making people capitulate to you is to make them afraid. Although it still feels very weird. Until now, I've just been using what the Consensus has taught me.

Finally, he stops at the almost unending hallway of running. I look him in the eyes, and I see him twitch in fear. 

"Look, I'll tell you everything I know." he says, with a heavy breath.

"Okay, that seems like a great plan, so stop running." I command.

"Can we first just go outside, and I'll explain on the way?" he asks. 

"On the way to what?" I ask with curiousity.

"Some old hideout where your…" Gary starts to say, but pauses. "Your parent's used to operate some hideout, and there's some stuff there I could show you."

"Well that's great, lead the way." I state.

He walks past me, his shoulder brushing against mine gently.

This man seems like he has no evil intention, but he could still be dangerous.