Tremble

Chapter 14: Intruders

"Which door is the escape route again?"

I turned to Margret. We were in the woods surrounding the Fransisco estate, me and her had volunteered to collect some food for everyone. I had learned that the abandoned mining complex was referred to as Base 34 officially, but most of its inhabitants called it Carbon 14. An inside joke really, not only was the place as old as a fossil, but the mine still contained a large amount of coal.

The Fransisco estate was huge, a full fledged living complex, with five separate garages, it was a nice setup. We were only allowed to "Borrow" food from certain homes nearby, the people living there had to be making more than a certain amount of money a week. The building was full brick and had gorgeous windows spanning the third floor. The back deck was within sight, but me and Margret had to wait for the signal, a place this large definitely had a state of the art security system. People back at the base, namely John and Squirt, were attempting to hack the system.

Unfortuently hacking is way harder than in all those spy movies, and plus technology is always hard to work with. Thankfully Squirt had some knowledge about electronics, enough to get us in.

The lights in the yard blew out, our signal, and me and Margret darted across the well kept lawn. I avoided being seen as much as possible, after me disappearing then seeing me breaking into a house, not the best message for my parents to see. The door lock was easy to pick for Margret, she had done this numerous times before. Inside the back hall shining tan tiles spread out across the huge area. The walls were lined with gorgeous paintings, Namely mountainous landscapes. Margret had told me that the kitchen was the third door to the left.

I was struck with the shear beauty of the place, I personally couldn't handle so much space to myself, and I really couldn't handle the stark white carpet in the room to my right that I would inevitably spill things on. Me and Margret advanced through the kitchen pilfering cans of food and other non-refrigerated goodies. We had stuffed our tote backs full and planned to leave ASAP, until we heard something. With all the magnificent science and technology in the world many over look the simplest of things, yes we disabled all security, but we hadn't planned on the most basic kind of protection. A very loud dog was barking in the distance, their echoing boom was heard all through the hall. We stopped in our tracks, trying despretly to control our sudden raspy breaths. Margret looked me in the eye and mouthed something I made out as:

"Window! Now!"

I inched forward and began to unlatch the window that hung above the sink, until I halted. I could hear footsteps. I hurried frantically moving, sweating. I had nothing to fear of when it came to most pups, but when a dog is specially trained to end intruders like me, I'm not to keen on playing fetch with them.

The door popped open and I could now hear the dog enter the kitchen, and without looking back, me and Margret clambered out the window, shutting it behind us. We bolted, you never know when there could be a doggy door. Our tote backs seemed to grow heavier the farther we jogged, we did so until we were deep in the cover of a pleasant grove of some dogwoods. I looked at Margret, then at my tote bag and I lost it. Crazy Hyena type laughter erupted. Here I was in the middle of the woods with a tote bag of canned food, after being chased by some rich persons guard dog in a house we broke into with some help from this secret organization in the wilderness that holds people with freaky powers. It was absurd, ludicrous, how did I even get here. Margret starts laughing as well, holding her hand over her chest in heaving giggles.

"Our lives have suddenly become very complicated." I say, taking a break from my giggles.

After a while of walking in the woods we find direction and head back to the base. I no longer feel on edge, I sort of feel free, like I can do what I want with no one judging me. Days passed and I was in a bliss, no worries. To be in such a loop of a fantasy is nice at first, but then life comes and punches you right in the face.