The bubbly feeling in my chest didn't last long, as all of the exits of the house quickly shut. I heard what must have been the clicks of all the locks before metal restraints came down and locked as well.

"What the hell?"

Essence yanked at the restraints that covered a window. They didn't shift or budge an inch. Whatever was going on had to be serious for these kinds of precautions. I had never seen security this sophisticated.

"Something must be wrong," I mumbled while studying the restraints on the window Essence was taking on.

"Yeah," Cade agreed. "It's most likely something to do with The Town. How are we supposed to prepare when we don't know what the problem is though?"

He made a good point. All of these security measures were great and all, but I had a feeling it would stop the mind-controlled soldiers from The Town.

"What about that communication system that the woman that brought us here talked about? I feel like she said it was like in a wall or something?" Essence said.

"You are brilliant!" I exclaimed, running down the flight of stairs.

Cade and Essence followed as we searched for something in the walls. I assumed it would be some type of screen. Maybe if we found this we would be able to ask somebody what was going on. I looked and felt across the walls of the hallways praying that the communication device was near-by.

"Found it," Cade called from the room with the large couch.

I jogged to where Cade was to see him tapping on a large screen.

"Welcome to Comunicon," Essence read out loud. "Please enter your user name and password."

I groaned and stared at the screen. How in the world were we supposed to log in?

"How are we supposed to get on now?" I asked, hoping one of them would have an idea.

"Do we know anybody that lives here?" Essence pondered.

Cade's eyes widened and he started typing furiously on the small letters on the screen. He filled in both a username and a password, but stopped before pressing 'done'.

"I hope this works," he whispered.

"Well if you don't press the stupid button we'll never know," Essence sassed.

Cade rolled his eyes, "Shut up, I'm gonna-"

I leaned over Cade and pressed the button to stop their bickering. We all sat in silence as the little green bar filled up. The loading screen seemed to take forever as my anticipation built. The sudden sound of screaming and gunshots outside didn't help either.

"This better work," I said, my voice shaking.

"If it doesn't," Cade started, "We'll fight."

Essence flinched at a gunshot, "We'll fight even if it means we don't all make it."

"Yeah," I agreed, uneasily.

They both seemed so certain and unafraid of death. How was I supposed to tell them that I was terrified of dying? I was practically shaking thinking of having to kill again. It was safe to say I had many mental scars that weren't going to fade easily. I mean, unless I died today.

"Yes!"

My eyes flitted to the screen to see tons of message bubbles flying at the speed of light. They all seemed to be talking about what was happening outside.

"How did you sign in?" Essence asked Cade.

His eyes were glued to the screen, "I knew somebody that ran away from The Town. They said something about Pax so I figured maybe they were here and bingo, they were."

"That's great and all, but let's ask somebody what the hell is going on," I said moving over to the screen.

"Agreed," Essence said.

The messages in the main room were flying by too fast for me to read, so I decided a private message would be the way to go. I went to the category called 'recent messages' and looked at the names.

I turned to Cade and Essence, "Should we message them all and hope on answers?"

"That sounds like the best course of action," Cade agreed.

"But we need to pretend we're whoever's account we are in," Essence chimed in. "So, Cade, who's account have you so graciously hacked into?"

"Just a girl used to know. Her name was Biza Robinson."

So we had to write like some random girl Cade barely knew. This was going to be interesting. I wanted to veto the idea, but the continuing chaos outside motivated me not to.

"Okay, I'll type," Essence said.

I nodded watching Essence's fingers fly across the screen.

"I'm going to look for something we can use to defend ourselves with if need be," Cade stated. "Shortie, do you want to come?"

I knew for a fact Essence would need help sending out these messages. She didn't seem like the tech-savvy type.

"I'll stay with Essence," I said. " But please be careful."

He chuckled, "It's not like I'm going outside, but I promise I'll be careful."

I nodded and focused on Essence's typing. I could see that they were a few people that weren't online, so we shouldn't send the message to them. It would just be a waste of time. If nobody answered we'd have to result in sending it to the town-wide chat.

"Okay," Essence said, scanning what she had just written. "I read some previous chat she sent. Tell me if this sounds okay."

I nodded. She was smart to think of going into the girl's chat history.

Essence began to read, "Hey, just wanted to check in with ya. I'm not sure what's happening right now. Do ya know? If ya do please lemme know. Hope you're staying safe."

I was kind of startled by the amount of slang, but I figured it was probably how the girl typed normally.

"Sounds good. Now we just need to send it to everybody on her list," I commented, moving towards the screen. "I can take care of that. I just need to copy what you wrote, select everybody online, and send."

I quickly did what I said and sent the message off to everybody that was online. All types of notifications popped up on the screen as people opened the message and started to reply.

"Thank goodness this girl was popular," Essence sighed.

While we awaited reply anxiety reared its ugly head to me. I did want to have to hurt anybody, but I didn't want to die either. Would it ever be possible for me to live a happy life? It seemed to be wishful thinking.

Cade walked into the room carrying a bag. It was rather large, so he most likely found a good amount of weapons. As much as I didn't want to admit it, that was probably a good thing.

Cade poured the bag out onto the couch, "I found some knives in the kitchen, but there wasn't much else other than the knives. I also grabbed some clothes from Essence and you since neither of you got a chance to change."

I looked down at the dress that clung to my body. He was right if we were going to be fighting tonight a wardrobe change would be wise. But looking at the clothes Cade had thrown together, I wasn't going to be wearing the most aerodynamic fighting attire.

"I got some replies," Essence said, walking over to us. "It's pretty much just what we thought. The Town is attacking. They're massacring anybody in sight. We are in a level five lockdown right now, hence the security.

"So it's a mind-controlled army?" I asked.

"That's what it seems like, kid"

I could barely comprehend what Essence had just told me before a loud bang was heard on the window closet to us. Somebody was trying to get in.

"Be quiet," Cade whispered harshly.

More banging came on the window. It sounded like an elephant was trying to ram int's way into the house. I could barely keep myself from shrieking from each impact. My death-grip on Cade's arm proved just how terrified I was. The nagging kept going and was starting to dent the tough restraints.

"We can't get in, boss," an unfamiliar voice spoke. "We heard people in there though."

My heart was beating ten times the normal speed. Cade squeezed my shoulder and shoved a knife into my hand. We were going to have to fight.

"Yes, I know exactly who is in there. Go and get the mind-controlled. I'll wait here."

That voice belongs to none other than Elder Ryann. My breath caught in my throat.

"Message somebody for help," Cade whispered to Essence.

Essence nodded and crawled over to the screen. She did some tapping and gasped. She then frantically crawled back over to us.

"They- they're all offline."

My eyes widened with tears threatening to spill, "Does that mean-" My voice trailed off with unspoken words.

"Everybody is dead or taken as prisoner, boss."

I held in a scream at those words. Another whole town was massacred. A whole population of people was killed. The Jensen's were dead, the last people that reminded me of my old life in The Town were gone and there was nothing I could do but hide.

"We're going to die," I stated, almost choking on my words.

I had never been one to admit defeat but it felt real now. They were going to get in here and all we had to stop them were a few puny steak knives. How were we going to stop them when they had already killed thousands of people? Cade and Essence could be as determined as they wanted, but we were going to die. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I could see my parents again. I could see Nova again. My eyes watered at the thought. At this point, maybe dying would be better than living a life I would never be happy in.

"Wait," Essence said. "I remember seeing something."

She signaled for us to come with her as she crawled over to screen. Cade followed, but I stayed rooted in place. There was no reason to move. After whispering to each other feverishly they made their way back over.

"There's a safe house in the back of the house," Cade whispered. "It's pretty much impossible to find."

I rolled my eyes, not if they found the map. Simple then I'd have to make sure they didn't that's when an inkling of hope filled my body.

"Essence, you find food and get ready to get into the safe house. Cade, you grab weapons and more clothes. I'm going to destroy this and then make a run to the safe room. Got it?"

Essence grinned, "Affirmative chief."

Cade grinned too, "She's back. See? We're not gonna die shortie. I promise."

I wanted to tell him not to promise something like that, but I knew it would just waste time. Instead, I stood on the couch and grabbed hold into the curtain rod.

"Get going," I said, jumping from the couch.

Cade and Essence took off just as the curtain rod broke, sending my barreling into the floorboards. As soon as I crashed to the floor I could hear people shouting outside.

"Let's hurry this up," I said leaping off of the floor.

I grabbed the now bent curtain in my hands and prepared to shatter the screen. Balcony the bat over my right shoulder, I aligned my knocking knuckles. The mirror was perfectly lined up to the curtain rod as I swung it across my body into the screen.

My first swing left a nice crack on the screen, but it wasn't enough. I swung again and the screen cracked even more. Switching to a different tactic, I stabbed the screen with the rod until it was back and shattered.

Hearing banging on all of the restraints I dropped the rod and ran aimlessly realizing so didn't know where the safe room was. Why didn't I look at the goddamn map? I sighed in frustration rounding a random corner. Luckily I ran right into Cade.

"Let's go shortie! They almost have a few restraints down."

He yanked my arm and I fell into stride with him. We ran down a hallway I was sure I hadn't seen yet. I didn't keep track of what we passed as we slowed down near a brick wall. I watched Cade pull out a brick and type in a six-digit code.

"Nice," I praised.

He opened the door to reveal the Essence and bags of stuff. I walked in and Cade put the brick back and shut the door. He made sure to meticulously lock all of the locks and then slumped to the floor.

"We're finally somewhat safe. This room is soundproof so we can talk and I think they said there is something to contact another town with."

"Another freaking town," Essence groaned.

"Well, it's better than getting killed or starving to death here," I snapped.

"You did have to yell, "Essence whined.

I sighed, rubbing my hand over my skinned knee. I walked over to one of the bags of clothes and shuffled through it. I was able to find a slightly large black shirt, a pair of shorts, and some underwear.

"I'm going to change and then sleep. We should do watch shifts, but I'm not going first."

"Yeah, you quite clearly need sleep," Cade said snarkily.

"Whatever," I replied.

I signaled for them to turn around until I realized I could unzip my dress alone. Oh, how I wished I had long arms.

"Essence, can you unzip me?"

"I got you, girl."

I felt the zipper go down my back and mumbled thanks. I then slipped the dress and my bra off. I quickly threw on the new clothes and hummed at how comfortable they were. I still felt uneasy though.

"Do you guys think we're actually safe?"

Cade gave me a sad smile and pulled me into a hug, "I hope so."