In These Walls

Chapter 3

I stare at him blankly. Does he understand what he's saying? "Gramps..." I start but don't finish.

"I'm not just an old bat you know," he replies. I'm so confused...is he saying what I think he's saying? I'm basically speechless, but luckily Caleb steps in for me.

"What do you mean, stop it? Stop the truth? Is there even such a thing?" he asks.

"Surely that's not what you meant, Grandpa." I say.

"Oh it sure is. I've had to pretend to not be able to hear, and a lot of other things as well. You don't understand how hard it is to sit back and let all this happen.

"I was 18 when it happened. Everyone was so confused and scared. People basically ran around screaming at each other. Previous conversations were cut off by insults to each other like 'I hate you, why am I even talking to you?', and 'You are so stupid you can't even figure out the directions to your own house.' What no one knew was that I helped this happen.

"I, of course, could never tell anyone of my job. I worked at a secret facility at the Pentagon. We were the only people on Earth that knew every single person's lies and secrets were kept in one single room. It was definitely not your average room. It went 2,000 feet underground and was the size of Florida."

I cut him off, "FLORIDA!? You can't be serious?! Grandpa, are you sure you know what you're talking about right now? Do you need to lie down?"

"MELISSA" He yells at me. "I'm fine. Let me finish, we don't have enough time for you to question me right now"

"And, yes, Florida. On the day that the truth started coming out, they told me what they were going to do. They said 'It's an experiment, that's all.' How was I supposed to know that it would last this long?"

"They wanted to see how people would react if there were no secrets. No lies. I thought it was a good idea at first until I saw what was happening over the news. I didn't think people would react so harshly. It was chaotic!"

"I confronted the higher management, and they told me to keep my mouth shut otherwise they would lock me up. So, I kept my mouth shut for 40 years. And here I am now, telling you the truth."

Both Caleb's jaws and mine were hitting the floor.

"I don't understand. How were you able to lie when everyone else was telling the truth?" I ask him.

"Ah. That. Well before they even told me about releasing the secrets, they had designed a separate room. This room is where all of the employee's secrets and lies were kept. This way, the government would know that we would definitely be keeping all of this a secret."

"So what you're telling us is that you were basically a secret agent working on a secret project that made the world the way it is now?" Caleb asks him, eyes wide with fright.

"Yes."

"That's-" he begins, but I cut him off.

"That's crazy! Like, seriously? That's legitimately what happened?!" My brain is spinning! My grandpa is one of the people that started all of this. And now he's telling us, but why?

"Gramps, when we first came in here you asked us if we wanted to know how to stop it. Do you really know how to stop it?" I ask him.

"Before I answer your question there's one more thing." He pauses for what seems like forever and then says, "I have a friend that still works there, and he just informed me that someone's trying to find the room."

"What do you mean find it?" Caleb and I ask at the same time.

"Well, that's the thing. After we let out all of the secrets someone on the inside stole it." He tells us very slowly waiting for our response.

"You just said that it was the size of Florida! How could someone just take it like that?"

"Like I said before, someone on the inside was able to get it. And the only way he was able to do that was by stealing a weapon that the army was working on. We called it prototype 487921625521. Probably should have found a better and shorter name, but that's not the point. The point is, it was a gun the army had been working on for over 20 years. It could shrink anything! Of course there was no specific size that something would shrink to; it always depended on the size of the object. That's why we couldn't believe it actually worked on the room."

"Ok. So a guy that was working in the Pentagon with you used this prototype 487-whatever to shrink the secrets room. And now nobody can find it?" I ask.

"We have had our suspicions over the years, but the guy who took it hid it really well."

I don't say anything until he continues again.

"Three years ago we found Arnold, the crazy lunatic who had the guts to do this, shot to death near some old railroad tracks in Alabama."

"He's dead?!" Caleb asks.

"Sadly, yes. We believe that the man who's trying to find out where the room is now, was interrogating Arnold about where it is. And there are only two possible outcomes. One: he didn't give up the location so this mystery man shot him anyway. Or two: He did tell the guy the location and he shot him anyway."

"What would happen if this guy eventually does find the room?" Caleb asks slowly.

"My sources and I doubt that he wants the room so people will be able to have their lies again. No, we think he wants it to gain some type of power." Gramps replies.

"Arnold was such a lunatic that he actually left behind clues for the Pentagon to try and find the room. As you can see, they never were quite able to figure it out. Until now."

"KIDS! ARE YOU READY TO GO?" my mom yells to us from outside. I'd forgotten she'd even existed for a few seconds. This was just too unreal.

"YEAH!" Caleb and I yell back at her.

"Ok, we don't have much time but you have to go. Come back here in two days. I'll have all the information you need by then," Gramps tells us.

I slowly nod my head. I'm still so confused so this is all I can do for now until I can absorb all this information properly.

"Oh, and kids?"

"Yeah?"

We wait for him to respond. When he does, it is not what I was expecting to come out of his mouth.

"Don't tell your mother about any of this."