The Darkest Souls

The Seventeenth Chapter: Deduction

Michael and I sat at a table and he pulled out a copy of Vana's map that she had given him. Now we just had to figure out what all the attacked cities had in common. At first sight it just looked like a big jumbled mess, but I knew it had to be more important than just some places she wanted to control from.

"Got anything yet?" I asked.

"Nope," Michael answered shortly.

I sighed and let my head fall to hit the table. I was worn out. I couldn't remember when the last time Michael let me have a break from this thing was.

I just thought things could work if we went back to the base for World in Washington, but no. Instead we had to figure this complicated map out all by ourselves. Apparently there was 'no pride intended.' Yet here we were. Sitting in confusion by ourselves.

"We could probably solve it faster if we let somebody else try it," I stated.

"We don't have the time or safety precautions to go back there," Michael replied.

"What's up with you?" I asked, "Is this some sort of thing about Theo?"

"Theo has nothing to do with this," Michael answered.

"If you say so," I chimed.

Michael poured over the map and I was worried he was going to explode from thinking too hard. He had finally gotten into new clothes, and I eventually got him to eat something so he wouldn't starve to death. Once set on something, Michael was a pretty stubborn person to be around. I was still astounded at how I got him to side with me on the side of World. The best reason I can come up with is that he might have already been wavered between his choice on the decision.

"Lacey," Michael said, "Look here."

I scooted my chair forward and looked at what Michael was pointing at. "Mm. It's a town. How lovely."

"But look at this," Michael insisted, "They go in a pretty straight line. If you were to draw a line over all of them correctly if would make an X over Washington D.C.."

"But don't most people already assume that we're attacking there?" I asked. "It isn't like there's anywhere better."

"Well, yes. Most people should be able to assume the location, but there's something else odd about this. In recent times this country's population has dropped severely. Sometimes population counts don't even include people like you and myself anymore. We have to take special courses in school, get psychologists. You know how that works. The president has gone to great extents concerning the matter. Anyways. I added up all the populations of citizens written on here from each of the attacked cities. You follow? Now, when I did. I came up with an eleven digit number. Equaling the month, the day, the year, and the time. Every detail we could need was right here all along," Michael said. A smile of satisfaction crossed his face proudly.

"Wow," I commented, "I can't believe you figured this out... based off of the code you got- when exactly IS the attack on the White House?"

Michael laughed. "Too soon. If we want to make it there on time we'd better hurry. We don't need any delays. Especially since we can't exactly take a plane the whole way there."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because it would be dangerous for us, Lacey. I don't want to make State suspicious by taking half their savings to get us a ride there," Michael stated.

"Then, how WILL we get there?" I inquired.

"Many ways I would assume. We can take some busses, we can walk some. Maybe get a car. We'll just use whatever we can, as long as it isn't such a high security building like an airport. Country soldiers OR State could easily track us that way. We don't really want to be getting caught right now when we've got this all figured out. This could be the largest explosion our world's ever seen. No matter what happens, this is going to be a historic moment in time. When World rebelled against Country," Michael mused.