"Kayla. You're up late." Andrew commented as I got up from my uncomfortable position, leaned over the table. I rubbed my eyes and glared at him- I was not a morning person.

"Where's Annie?" I said, thinking of my sister as soon as I said the name. It was like some author accidentally giving two characters similar names and deciding to work it in somehow. Okay, that seemed like a very particular observation from someone who had just woken up... Maybe the hacker was putting things in my head.

Speaking of the hacker... You there, bro?

...I guess not.

"Annie went outside... She was babbling on about endangered rabbits. That lady has lost her mind."

"Don't be hard on her. You'd be crazy too, if you were stuck here so long... Oh wait, you already are crazy."

"Haha." He said shortly, shoving a mug into my hands. "She left us tea."

I sighed and set it down on the table. "We should go soon." I said after a moment of silence.

"Wait, what? Why? She could help us find a glitch."

"But... The hacker told me, in my head, that she has a glitch ready for us- we just need to keep walking."

"I can't tell which one of you two is crazier. But for now, we're staying here. She has food, Kayla. Foooooooood."

For once, Andrew had a good point. He almost seemed like a normal kid- until he looked at me and I remembered that he's a stuck up kid I was forced to bring with me.

I missed Sim, Jess, and Mark... I hoped they were okay. I wanted someone else to talk to, someone else to be on my side and make us a golden trio. Or maybe a bronze trio- no matter who the third person would be, we wouldn't be all that great.

"Food sounds good. What's for breakfast?" I asked, picking up my mug and wrinkling my nose a bit at the liquid inside. I really just wanted milk- this didn't even taste like the limited tea I had tried before this. Which made sense, it was probably some kind of herbal brew... but it still tasted like it had milk in it, and where did Annie get milk?

Maybe the scientists gave it to her to help her cope with living here alone. To make her not want to die. But then why not just give her a mansion or whatever, with a luxury bed instead of the makeshift one in the corner. What was the point of keeping her safe if she was so unhappy?

In my deep thought, I realized I had missed Andrew's response to my question. He was looking at me as if he knew it. "I thought you were more interested in breakfast rather than just tea."

"Yeah, of course. Could you repeat whatever you said?" I asked absentmindedly, staring out the one dirty window next to the cottage door.

"I said that she didn't leave anything for breakfast, but there must be food somewhere here." He said, setting down his own mug and opening a small cupboard. The kitchen wasn't very big, of course, and there wasn't much to look through.

"Nothing." Andrew sounded quite puzzled as I looked up from my tea again. In the span of a minute he had searched her whole kitchen (and messed up all the drawers too, most likely) but somehow he hadn't found food.

"Maybe she keeps it outside or something. C'mon." I left my tea on the table and led him outside, around the back of the cottage. It was quaint, but it was dirty and left me wondering why the scientists couldn't give her a normal house with a bathroom, at the very least. She certainly hadn't acted happy yesterday, and a gross house wouldn't help with whatever inner turmoil she was going through.

I can't begin to fully imagine it. Being trapped here, not knowing when you entered this simulation that you would never see anyone you knew again. Never see your home again. Never even have something a small as normal tea again.

And to spend every day in the same woods, with nobody to talk to and no real purpose or goal...

I feel like I was going to make myself go crazy if I thought about it any longer. I smiled at her small garden at the back and peeked in the bins punched against the side of the house, but there seemed to be only firewood and leaves and... Finally, food.

"Here." I said, pulling out a small plastic container and reading the messy label- Meal for one, mashed potatoes and bacon. This definitely looked like a scientist supplied meal.

"That doesn't look all too appetizing." Andrew pointed out, opening the lid and look at the light brown mush. I rolled my eyes.

"It's probably the only food she has-"

"No, I've brought more! Don't eat that!" Annie's frantic voice made me jump as she snatched the container away and closed it, tossing it back in the bin. "Don't fall for their trickery."

"Trickery? Surely if they want you to stay alive here, their food wouldn't be a trick." Andrew said, echoing my own thoughts.

Annie's expression was pained. "It's a cruel joke of theirs. If I eat the food, it'll fill me up- but then it'll kill me and bringing me back certainly isn't painless."

"Oh." I said. I shot Andrew a look, guessing at his posh thoughts- he probably thought she as being crazy paranoid. "We should stay away from that then."

"Yes, please. I brought some berries inside." She said, ushering us away from the apparently deadly bin and out of the garden.

My stomach growled as we went inside and my eyes widened when I saw the food Annie had brought- it was a whole lot more than a handful of blueberries.

"Wow." I said as Andrew moved forward and shoved some into his mouth. I glared at his back but seeing that Annie didn't care I went in and did the same. Hunger doesn't leave room for manners.

And we were used to having plenty of food like this (Andrew probably more so than me). Our town wasn't overpopulated like I'd heard the world once was, so our supplies seemed endless. And this was even more impressive- Annie had gotten this herself. I'd never picked berries before like Jess had. She'd probably get along well with Annie.

"So... How are your Journeys going? After all, I suppose after this you must continue them..." Annie said, picking up my mug of tea from the table and setting it down in the kitchen. Andrew and I took a seat

"I don't really know what's gonna happen next." I said. I couldn't even fathom the thought of going back outside with all this food in front of me.

"Can't we just move in with you until our Journey time is up?" Andrew asked.

"You can't ask someone you just met to move in with them." I said, half jokingly as I kicked him lightly under the table.

Annie smiled and sat down with us. "I'd welcome you two, but I don't think the scientists would allow it. You weren't even supposed to find me."

"Why's that? I mean, I guess this cottage is not the most obvious thing... But it's not exactly hidden either."

"The scientists... They control a lot here. Remember, though they may paint this as a Journey of fate and discovery, it's still a simulation created by them."

"Makes sense. It's not really all up to our hearts guiding us. Even in the real world, it's more controlled than we think..." Andrew said. The way he said it hinted at some sort of backstory, but I didn't delve as Annie continued.

"That's right. And the scientists are supposed to make sure no one finds me. Specifically so I don't tell you things like this- I suppose they're afraid of the rebellion."

"The rebellion?" I questioned, thinking of the hacker. There had to be someone helping the hacker for them to talk to me undetected. Or maybe they had been found, considering they seemed quiet today.

"When I was... In the real world, there were murmurs in the shadows of a rebellion who knew a horrible truth about our councillors and our scientists. I guess it's faded by now, they seemed eager to put a stop to it when I was still alive- there."

Wow. So there might be some whole secret rebellion I didn't know about... Someone sparked in my memory as I thought back to a few days ago. It seemed like it had been weeks, but my dad had been warning me about something or other. Maybe he was still scared of the rumours he'd heard when he was younger.

"In fact, when I think back on it, the rebellion rumor was likely true. The scientists were so adamant about crushing it when they heard about it- almost as if there really was some horrible truth they wanted to keep hidden. Maybe... Maybe I shouldn't even be speaking about this horrible truth as if it's disappeared. For all we know... There's still something our higher ups don't want us knowing."

A/N- If anyone still reads this I'm trying to be faster I really am, but I don't do good writing when rushed. I just do it in sparks like just now where I was inspired to finish off this chapter.