I am the storm

Chapter 34 | The weapons chest

Me and Patricia looked up at Sean both of us standing up ready for his explanation. As we waited I wiped my eyes to stop any falling tears.

Sean breathed in and out before he spoke "well on this map here there are two locations marked out," Sean pointed to two points on the map.

I cleared my throat and responded "yeah me and Shadow used the clues from the PTD to find those two points" I clarified.

"Yes but before the clues were stopped Shadow's running theory was that the next clue would create a triangle on the map and by finding the centre of the triangle he would therefore find the deactivation button" Sean explained his tone growing steadily more confident the more he put the clues together.

Lowering my head in shame I responded to Sean "but the clues stopped once whoever set up The end of days found out that I was working with Shadow. So there is no more clues" I replied rather gloomily.

"Well Shadow had an idea, he jotted an idea down that since the PTD aren't connected to the internet that thy must have some kind of transceiver!" Sean explained whilst he motioned to a piece of paper near the map what had lots of writing sprawling from the centre with many ideas all across it some crossed out and others circled.

Patricia interjected into the conversation next "well how did Shadow know that the PTD doesn't connect to the internet and how did he know that the PTD is a transceiver?" Patricia questioned.

Sean nodded ready to answer her question and he turned round and grabbed something from behind before replying "from what I can gather it looks like Shadow took a PTD apart!" As he said that Sean held up a dissected PTD (presumably the one that belonged to the woman who died in my arms at Flowers and Flora, the woman who I didn't even know).

Patricia responded first "so Shadow took apart that PTD and found that the PTD doesn't get sent messages? Is that right?" A slight confusion layered within her voice.

Sean placed broken PTD down before replying, "exactly, the PTD's themselves don't receive the clues, they receive a 'notification' of sorts and that triggers them to show a particular message which in this case is the clues. In the case of the recent messages we got it's entirely possible that the notifications activate different letters to spell different messages, meaning the clues are not on the PTDs themselves, unfortunately."

I replied first "so could he track the people sending the clues then?"

Sean gave a proud smile "well he did but he found out that the signal bounces of one location and onto another, but the second location can't be found but the first can!"

"So where is it then?" Patricia asked whilst crossing her arms in either intrigue or frustration.

Sean turned once again and grabbed a piece of paper before turning back to me and Patricia and responding "well that's the interesting thing it's the same place mentioned in this note," Sean showed me and Patricia, the note was the suicide note that my mother left for me.

Sean pointed to a word on the letter:
'To my darling daughter Alexis,
I hope one day you will read this letter and understand why I did what I did, I do this so to protect both you and your father who I love so dear. Even though I love our town, I must leave it as I fear that the dam holding back my secrets. Remember I love you Alexis'
The word he pointed at was on the sixth line and the third word on the line. The word was 'dam'.

As he held up the letter my breathing sped up, Shadow had violated the privacy of that letter only meant to be seen by two people: me and my father. But now Sean had read it and Patricia had probably skimmed over it both probably questioning the reasoning of my mother.

Patricia carried on the conversation "so the signal was coming from the dam?" Sean nodded in response.

"I'm pretty sure that's where Shadow has gone" Sean concluded.

"My PTD beeped near the dam" I mumbled causing Sean and Patricia to turn round to me with surprised looks on their faces.

Sean was the first to respond "what do you mean?"

I took a deep breath before responding "well after my father told me what happened to my mother I left and made my way to the dam to clear my head and while on top of it the PTD beeped. I readied my weapons but there was nothing there" I explained.

Sean folded his arms and placed his left hand up to his chin and began thinking. A few seconds later he responded "well maybe the PTD doesn't just beep for participants but maybe it beeps for the deactivation button as well" I pondered Sean's theory and it was as good as any I could come up with.

Patricia spoke up "we know where Shadow is or probably is, so what now?"

Sean replied his hand returning to his chin in contemplation "there must be a reason Shadow hasn't come back so we need to be prepared" he suggested.

Patricia spoke up next "one thing is for sure we can't stay here so let's collect what we need and call a taxi and go..." Patricia waited for one of our responses.

Sean spoke up "w- we can go my house, my mom and dad are away, since Elliot is out of commission and Tom is well not with us the house would be completely free!" My mind took me back to the first night of the killing game where Tom Anderson had attacked me and in self defence I killed him accidentally.

I hung my head in shame and we all agreed with simple a few simple nods of our heads. I gathered my messenger bag and everything that belonged to me that I left at The Bunker, meanwhile Sean grabbed a few things from The Bunker's weapons section and Patricia found what seemed to be a black chest: about three feet long, one and half feet long and one and a half feet deep with an double opening lid on top.

Patricia scooped the chest up in her arms and it was clear she was struggling but she showed no sign of fatigue. I walked over to her and grabbed the other end of the chest and she grabbed the other and we both carried the chest outside The Bunker and outside the warehouse and onto the street outside.

Sean called a taxi company to pick us up and within fifteen minutes a yellow taxi cab rolled up. Sean bartered with driver telling him where we were going whilst Patricia and I placed the chest inside the trunk of the cab. We then all clambered inside the taxi.

The driver started and within thirty minutes of pure silence and mind dulling driving down many streets and round many junctions. After the drive we reached Sean's slightly rundown house, Sean paid the driver whist me and Patricia removed the trunk and the driver flew off while Sean opened the front door.

We walked inside and Patricia placed the chest down in the centre of the living room. Me and Sean walked over to the chest and before we could ask what was inside Patricia opened it. Inside was various tactical gear like Shadow's armour and his weapons.

Patricia sifted through the chest and waved her hand inviting me and Sean to search also. Eventually, we pulled out what we each wanted, I grabbed: a black expandable baton that expanded to about twenty one inches long, a small black can of pepper spray, a new taser, a combat knife and a powerful LED flashlight. To carry all the equipment into a fight I also grabbed a thin backpack that barely stuck out from my back and had three straps two over the arms and the third around the stomach.

Patricia gathered what he wanted in her arms and Sean did the same. Patricia spoke up "alright I think we should go home and find Shadow tomorrow so were not tired, massively unprepared and hungry!"

Sean was the first to agree "yeah that seems for the best I will stay here tonight I don't think your dad would like me to stay another night!" Sean explained.

"Okay see you tomorrow then let's meet here at ten in the morning," I responded and Patricia and Sean agreed as me and Patricia left and both of us went home to prepare for tomorrow.