Notes

CHAPTER EIGHT: Shelter (2)


I couldn't believe it, "He... he lied to us?" All the younger kids started yelling, "LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!!"

They threw tantrums until they got tired, "Feel better now?"

"YEAH!"

Ray then just started talking about how he tried accessing the data, I then remembered, that 'code' he talked about, "The pen will only show the next part once you bring it to a certain location."

"You mean..."

"Exactly, here in B06-32." They opened the pen, and there was an owl, except the circle around it, it was morse code, "First..."

"'Touch me'?" I read aloud, they touched the owl and it showed some numbers, "Page 45, line 3, 3rd word!"

"PAGE 108, LINE 15.... 'HISTORY'!!!" It showed... a map? "It's a map... there's an underground entrance! It's around that area! Go look for it!"

It then read 'WELCOME' and under it, it said 'UNLOCKED', we found the entrance, Ray opened it and we all went down, Emma went down first, I went after her, I helped some of the younger kids.

We went through a hallway, there was rooms, each door with a different number, we opened a door to find a man sitting with his feet resting on a table, he held a broken teacup, "Hi there."

"You've come a long way, congrats and welcome to shelter B06-32."

"Are you M-" I cut her off, "You're not Minerva," he took another cookie, "Correct, too bad for you kids, I'm not William Minerva,"

"Then please call him, we-"

"He's not here is he?" He took a bite of the cookie, "Correct yet again, he's not here." 'Man I'm on fire today!' "And I'm guessing you have no idea where he is, and know as much about him as we do, please correct me if I'm wrong."

He laughed, I genuinely thought he was a maniac, "You sure know a lot, don't you?" I paused for a moment, "So if you're not Minerva, then who are you? And why would you be in this shelter?"

"Who am I?! I'm your senior," he got out a pen, it looked exactly like the one Emma had, "Senior?"

"Yup, well, not from Gracefield at any rate," he lifted his shirt to reveal a tattoo, 'ETR3M8', "I come from a plantation called Glory Bell, I escaped it 13 years ago... with my colleagues, and thanks to this pen."

He continued telling the story about his journey, and Minerva's pen and shelter, I, being my stupid self, asked a stupid question, "So if you escaped with colleagues, where are they?"

"Dead, all of 'em, I'm the only survivor," I kept thinking about Minerva throughout the rest of his little speech.

I snapped out of my trance when I saw him put a gun up to Emma's head, he demanded we gave him the pen, Ray had the pen, he was about to hand it over.

"Wait," I had to think about how to get Emma out of that situation without giving him the pen, "Wait for what? He's gonna shoot her-"

"No, he won't." We hesitated before Emma hit him with her elbow, now that, looks really, really painful.

They started arguing and then he held his head in his hands and fell to his knees.

"Stop... that's not it... THAT'S NOT IT- YOU SHUT THE HELL UP LUCAS! No... no... GODDAMN IT!" He collapsed on the table, and they tied him up, Ray had told us all to go out and get information on Minerva.

That night, for the first time in a long time we slept on mattresses and not the cold hard floor, I actually slept well for once, we woke up and took a bath, I never thought that would happen again, and we actually changed into clean clothes.

Now we all sat down at the dinner table, we said our prayers and we ate, here we had everything we needed, Minerva wasn't a liar, but an ally, he went this far to help us.

After eating all the kids were just having fun, Nat started playing the piano, yet all I could think about was, 'Sal and the others would probably love to be here...'

Ray was going on and on about saving the others, and the shelter, and whatever else they were saying, yet I couldn't help but wonder what the others were up to, what would happen to Sister once Father finds out what she did?

"Emma and I will go find A08-63." Wait, what were they talking about now, "I'm going with you," why is Angel of all people in on this?

"Wait what?" He turned to me, "We've gotten this far, we might as well," is he crazy? "Alright, then, if you're going I'm going with you,"

"Wha-" Emma smiled, "Alright then! It's decided, me, Ray, Rosa, and Angel will go to A08-63!" Gilda and Ava then spoke up, "What about us?"

I smiled at them, "Why don't you stay and take care of the others? We can't leave the younger kids on their own completely, they know what they're doing, but they still need someone with them." Emma and Ray started explaining how risky this is.

"You're gonna get killed," I smiled, "Well, I got this far, didn't I?" He sighed, "Alright, fine, when are we going?"