Hacker

Chapter Six

My heart was pounding as we ran away from the base. I heard people shouting, but I couldn't tell whether or not the officials had managed to subdue the members of The Alliance or not. Somehow we managed to escape unnoticed from the scene, and the shouts grew fainter as we ran. We turned down alleyways and ran past a few people, but luckily most people weren't up this early so we didn't draw too much attention.

Eventually after who-knows-how-long of running Noah came to a stop next to a trash can and I stopped too. He hadn't said a single word this entire time and when I looked over at him he seemed tense. We stood there in silence for a few more minutes before I broke the silence.

"Noah?" I asked tentatively. "Where exactly are we running to?"

He didn't make any move to say he heard my question so I opened my mouth to ask again, and that's when he replied "We're going to the Alliance safe house." His voice was strained and quiet as if he were in pain. He seemed so upset and I really wanted to find some way to help him, but I couldn't figure out how.

"We should get going." he said. "The sooner we get to the safe house the better."

I just nodded as we began to run again.

We ran for a few more hours, taking occasional breaks, and Noah remained silent throughout the entire journey. At last we reached a tall, abandoned looking brick house. The house itself looked fine, but the yard itself was over grown with weeds and looked as if the owner had given up trying to tame it.

Noah walked silently up to the house, took a key out of his bag and unlocked the door. He turned on a light switch as we walked in and I noticed that house seemed basically empty except for the kitchen which had a fridge and microwave in it. The walls were a plain white and everything seemed to be covered with a layer of dust. Finally I looked over at Noah who seemed to be thinking about something far away from here. After a moment he seemed to realize where he was again and looked over at me. His face was a bit pale and his mouth which was normally curled in a smile was pressed into a firm straight line.

"You've been staring for a while now. You know, if you take a picture it'll last longer." he said, attempting to lighten the mood. He even tried a small smile but it was obvious that he was worried about the others. I can't say I wasn't worried either.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"For now we're going to wait here a few days to see if someone comes to get us. If no one comes to find us in three days we go back to the base." He replies as he reaches into his backpack and takes out two cans of soup and places them in the microwave. While he does that, I'm hit with a wave of exhaustion. I guess the fact that we were running all day finally catches up with me.

"Maybe you should rest a bit." I jump and notice that at some point while I was thinking Noah had walked up to me.

"I can wake you up when dinner is ready." Noah offered.

"No thanks." I reply. "I'm fine. Besides, who knows what sort of perverted things you could do to me while I'm asleep."

"I would never!" he said, pretending to look offended.

Suddenly a "ding" inteerrupts our converstion as we both look over to the microwave. Noah walks over to get the soup while I check in his bag for spoons. In a few minutes we're both sitting on the floor and silently eating our soup.

"Do you think the others will get arrested?" I ask Noah.

"I don't know." he says honestly.

Soon the soup is all finished and we clean up after ourselves. By then I feel like curling up into a ball and sleeping for 10 days.

Noah must have noticed my exhaustion because the next thing he says is "There should be a few bedrooms upstairs. You should go to bed."

Normally I would protest, but I was honestly exhausted and worried from today's events and I couldn't wait to fall asleep. So I trudged slowly up the stairs and opened the first door I saw, which luckily had a bed. I took off my shoes before collapsing into bed, wondering what would happen tomorrow.