Agony

23

"So the problem isn't just your fathers..." Ellie trailed off, looking between the two half-brothers.

"It's Ashely Romano." Ace finished for her. "And she's Lorenzo's mother. I remember the name Ashley."

Lorenzo. He'd been the guy Ace went to school with. If we knew where to find him, we'd likely be able to find Ashely too.

"Do you know where Lorenzo might be?" I asked him, perking up in hope.

Ace shook his head. "No, but we can start looking for him."

"First of all, how are we leaving this place?" Ellie asked. "And how will we know who we can trust with the vault?"

The three of them had taken seats beside me. We all stared out at the dark abyss of the ocean before us. It was scary thinking about how if we smashed the glass, or even made the smallest hole in the walls, the whole place would be flooded. And we'd die.

Happy thoughts, Cher. Happy thoughts.

"Well..." Dallas had a glint of determination in his eyes as he caught my gaze. "How hard could steering a submarine be?"

"Uh..." Ace chuckled. "Pretty hard."

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?" Dallas spoke, addressing me mostly.

I nodded. "We don't have a ship, there's no signal. I think this submarine is the only way we'll be able to leave."

Ace sighed. "Okay, well, let's get all the stuff we want from the house and then start learning." 

"How are we supposed to get out of here?" Ellie asked.

"Good question." I snorted.

The four of us got up and headed towards the door we came from.

As we approached, it pulled open automatically.

We stepped towards the tarp, looking for some way to climb back up the fifty feet that separated us from the house.

"I could always throw you two like shot-puts." Ace joked, looking between Ellie and me. "I think at least one of you would land safely. And whoever doesn't, will land safely on the tarp."

That earned chuckles from all of us.

A tempting idea, considering there was seemingly no other way up.

"I'm sure my parents had to leave this place, there must be some simple way out of here." I thought aloud.

"Look!" Ellie pointed. We all turned to look where she indicated.

A ladder which hadn't been there before, it surely hadn't, suddenly appeared.

"Let's get this show on the road." Dallas grinned, beginning to climb.

* * *

It had been three hours. We hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out how to start up the submarine.

After getting back up into the house, the four of us lugged the vault to the edge of the opening in the floor. The ladder had disappeared so we had to go down the same way we had the first time.

Ellie and I went down first. Then the boys, once we'd moved to a side, tossed the vault onto the tarp. Ellie and I managed to drag it onto the ground, allowing the guys to drop without smashing their faces into the vault.

We'd also packed some of the clothes. Ace and Dallas took clothes from my brother's rooms while Ellie and I took some from mine. The few remaining granola bars and juice boxes came along with us, as well as the canned food.