THE KEY (book one)

|three|

Hours have passed and it's time to go now. We make our way back to the lobby where we meet our teacher. "Eli." I say loud enough for only him to hear. He turns around and is by my side a second.
"I'm staying...here." I blurt out grabbing his shoulder and he laughs.
"I'm serious." His smile quickly fades.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
He yells and whispers simultaneously.
"Eli I have a bad feeling about this place. Do you not?" He frowns and looks at me like I'm crazy. He we are again.
"I have a bad feeling about this place." He repeats in a mocking tone.
"No ... no I don't, I feel just fine Erra. And even if I did so what? I'm sure a lot of people do but you don't see them risking their lives because of it. " He rants emphasizing the "just".
"Okay maybe I'm overthinking but maybe I can find something on my dad." I explain hoping it'll be a good enough excuse for him to cover me. He bits the inside of his bottom lip which means he's considering it.
Instead he sighs, looks me dead in the eyes and gives me his famous look.
The "really" look.
"You're crazy...No!"
"Maybe I can find his memo chip E! Do you understand how helpful that would be."
The memo chip is a two pair system. One part being eye contacts that we're obligated to wear. It's connected to the Coms that we wear on our wrists. Allowing us to take pictures or record anything or anyone at anytime, and with a click of a button it can stop. Though anyone before the age of eight don't get that freedom because they are not old enough to have coms for whatever reason. Everything we see all of our memories are connected to a chip that is stored in the coms. You can take it out and watch that persons memories or yours either on a hologram, or you can personally put their lens on and watch every memory from start to finish like a dream. Our court system usually uses it to solve cases. Of course I didn't get mine until the year after my father passed. So if I can find my his I can play it and see who killed him.
"Yea also how dangerous... oh yea and Illegal. Errana you can get killed. That stuff is highly classified." His words literally mean nothing. Once I get the yes I'm good.
"Calm down." I hiss, pulling him to the side. "Look we're wasting time it's either you back me up or not. I'm still staying and looking for whatever I can find." I say as confident as possible. He looks me dead in the eyes, and straight up glares at me.
After wasting what feels like forever just glaring at one another he gives in.
"Damn it." He huffs out and rolls his eyes.
I already know what that means. A smile grows on my face. He huffs out, throwing his hands up, and shaking his head.
My smile grows wider.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I sing gripping onto his shirt.
"I'll see you tomorrow. I know you feel this bad feeling too." I mock and he shakes his head. "Okay go before I change my mind Erra."
"Okay...bye." I watch as he jogs to catch up with the class then I take my own course. I don't even know where to start and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared shitless. I look up at the building and people around me. This place is extremely secured.
"Piece of cake." I whisper to myself. I mean they'll literally shoot me.
I'm gonna need to find a way to get an I.D.
I scan around the large lobby to find a short brunette lady with her badge on the loop of her pants; an easy target I hope. I begin to walk towards her at a steady pace. Slowing down as I get closer I mentally praise my clumsiness skills and fall onto her.
"Oh gosh!" She blurts out dropping her papers.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry I didn't-" I take hold of the badge, and quickly pull it off.
"No it's okay...your fine." She laughs a little, too busy to even look up. That was easier than I thought. I make my way to the side emergency door swiping the badge, and walk inside to the staircase. If anyone's gonna have anything on my father it's gonna be this place. I just need to find the file room. My thoughts drift to the screams I heard from the lab. I wonder where it was coming from, and what was happing. I'll have to make a stop there too. If I'm gonna risk my life might as well go all the way right. I wonder if this card works for the surveillance room. Stay focused.
There has to be a map somewhere in here. Looking high and low I spot one on the wall literally right next to me.
"Room five and eight." I whisper to myself.
"Five, eight, five, eight." I begin to jog up the stairs my feet making an echo with every step. As I get to five I look around, and quickly swipe the badge. I peak my head in to make sure it's empty; all clear. The room is just like every other room, painted white with grey, but this one filled with metal black file holders all around the room. I quickly start to look for my families bin. "P,p,p,p. P!" I squat down type in our name and click on the file. My fingers tremble as I swipe through and find the exact date he was shot.
I multitask printing the file and keeping a lookout. Quickly I snatch the papers and begin reading through them.
"Home invasion on leading to deadly shoot out. Vernon Paxton shot in cold blood in his home by The Vi-" Before I could even continue to scan the papers I jump and drop them at the sound of the doorknob turning. I swear I can feel my heart in my stomach.
"Crap!" I whisper to myself. The door swings open, and I make a run for it leaving the damn file. Pulling the emergency door open I run through, and fly down the stairs.
"Hey! Hey!" A guard yells and my heart begins to pound against my chest. Running down the stairs I can hear their loud footsteps behind me.
"Hey you! Get guards at all corners we have another runner!"
He yells and I keep going. I hault at a door I didn't noticed before. Without another thought I run inside and close the door behind me. I'm gonna puke. I rest my forehead on the wall and try to catch my breath. "What was I thinking." Great now I'm talking to myself. I always do this; think of a crazy idea without considering the repercussions, and when I get busted immediately regret it. There's a word for that, right impulsive. I can feel my soul trembling and sweat begins to break through the surface of my skin. Once I catch my breath I peal my sweaty palms off the door and slowly open my eyes.
To catch myself in an even higher state of shock to see what's in front of me: robots.
Robots?
What would The Pexagon need with robots? There has to be more than a thousand of them. Black smooth steel, with a strong structure, machine guns and of course The Pexagon symbol right on the center of the chest.
They look terrifying.
This room is huge like some sort of garage. The floors and walls are smooth concrete and grey of course with bright white lights on the ceiling.
I need to get out of here before the guards find out where I am. I tap my wrist com taking a quick picture of the robots and scurry out.
"Hey, hey! There she is!"
He must love his job. I turn my com off and run out the door into the lobby. Workers stare at me with confusion and yell but I keep running. I turn to see guards charging towards me. I can't let them catch me but I also can't breathe. Turning back around I stumble through a group of people.
"Sorry!" I apologize. Most of them curse me out in return. Almost to the exit I trip over myself but I don't meet the floor. Opening my eyes I find myself in someones arms. Unfamiliar honey brown eyes meet mine. His arms hold me up by my lower back and waist. I realize I'm gripping onto his shirt harder than intended so I let go and hit the ground harder than I thought I would. He quickly helps me up with no words exchanged.
"Hey! Hey get her!" Guards yell from the distance to the man. He looks away from me and at the guard then back at me and frowns. "Run." Is the only thing he says. I waste no time and quickly and sprint out the entrance. School's definitely over by now. How the hell I'm I gonna get home. Remembering the short cut to the train by heart I turn a corner that leads me through a street that's lit only by street lamps.
Gasping for air I fall to my knees and unfortunately puke up whatever I ate today.
I wonder if the guards are still running after me. Not even five minutes later someone grabs my shoulder and something tells me it's not Eli. Unfortunately it's not. I turn to see not just any guard but an old friend; Jai.
"You've gotten taller." I try to lighten the mood and he scoffs. "Damn it Errana here we go again. You didn't think you'd get away did you?" He steps into the light and stares down at me with his piercing grey eyes. Jai graduated early last year. Top of his class training to be a guard. He helped me a lot throughout school with my combat training and classwork. Eli hates him but he could never muster up a real reason why.
"No, but I didn't think your guard buddies would be that desperate catch me." I joke in hopes he'll let go but he keeps his grip on my arm.
"Well when I heard a female was on the run with your exact description I thought I'd help out." He says trying to deepen his voice. I can't help but laugh and he surprisingly joins me.  "You're so full of shit. Can I go home now?" I ask shaking my arm free. "Oh your going home. I think you'll need an escort though." He says and I roll my eyes. "Sorry but I don't have any cash on me."
He doesn't engage with me and I know I'm screwed. The sounds of the city grow louder, advertisements, civilians, mobiles flying, and I'm here in an alley just waiting to get grounded. "My mobile's this way."
I open the door and sit in back. "Sit in the front." He demands.
"Why?"
"Because."
"Why?" We argue with our eyes for a moment and I give in. I always do.
"Still stubborn." He bucks his seatbelt.
"Yeah and you still don't listen." I plop down in the front seat, and look out the window.
"Hey."
"Hu-" I can't even finish a word before he turns to me and steals a kiss.
"Ew." Is the only word that comes out, but I let my smile win. He laughs and kisses my cheek. Jai and I did more than studying from time to time but it never went beyond friendship. His dominance makes me feel like a child at times and wherever I brought up my father he'd react like my mother does. "What were you doing in there?" He asks reaching over and buckling my seatbelt, then starting the engine.
"School field trip."
"Don't play stupid." He frowns. I'm not in the mood to be scolded right now.
"Can you not." I turn his head back towards the control panel.
"I was on a school field trip."
"You were in the file room running-" He starts but I cut him off.
"It was my personal file."
"I understand but it's Confi-"
"-dentail? Right I figured."
There's so many secrets. I choose not to bring up the Robots and save it for another time. The mobile takes off into the air.
"South border right?"
"You already know." I say looking out the window and into the city.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing... my mom's just going to kill me."
"No she-"
"It's just not going to end well okay."
Jai takes hold of my hand.
"You can't keep throwing yourself into trouble Erra. It'll find you if you keep looking for it. Face it something's are just better left unknown."
I don't respond because I know he's right. He just doesn't understand. I watched that man murder my father. For reasons I need to understand.
"Yea...okay." Is the last thing I say and we sit in silence for the rest of the ride.