Beyond What We Know [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 18 PART 2 - Seeing is Believing

//Hello, everyone! I know it's been a little while since I updated, and I apologise for keeping you waiting. The lack of engagement has been really demotivating for me, on top of me being busy with my personal life. I will keep uploading, though, so the story will at one point (hopefully soon!) be finished and categorised as such. I hope that will bring more attention to the story, as a lot of readers prefer reading stories that are completed rather than following the development and updates. That being said, I will still thank you guys for reading! Hope you enjoy part 2 of chapter 18! xx

Why does every trip seem shorter when you're coming home than when you're going out? We travelled the same path back to the farm, but we had no idea of what was to come, of what we were about to see. We parked the truck in the usual place, but there was no one outside. We found it weird, and commented on it loosely to each other, but just shrugged it off. When we walked inside the house, everyone looked just as grim as they did the day the storm hit. CK immediately stopped pacing around and walked up to us. Lee, Kayla and Rico looked at each other in silence and stood up from their seats. "Hey, where is everyone? It's quiet outside", I asked, pointing at the door behind us with my thumb and looking around.

CK brushed the back of his head for a moment before sighing and looking back at us. "Uh, they're... They're dead..."

"What!?"

"All six of them!?" 

CK nodded and sighed once more. The others remained silent.

"But what happened? Were you attacked? Are you four alright?"

"Yes, we're fine now. Just sit down, we'll tell you what happened", CK stepped aside to we could all take seats and then sat with us. "Two days ago, on the night you left, we found Jill dead outside. We think she might've suffered something like a heart attack because she was fine during dinner. We buried her outside and kept waiting for you to return. Yesterday morning, David turned and started attacking us. He killed Chris and Margret, but we managed to protect Zoe and kill him." CK paused and we all looked at each other. Just as we thought we were already living a nightmare, this happens while we're not even here to help... This can't be a coincidence. All of this is happening for a reason, and I'm one hundred percent certain that these documents and that facility have all the answers we need. We just need to dig them out. "We buried them too, hoping nothing else would happen. Everyone was ridiculously nervous, we flinched at everything, second-guessed everything, and we just wanted it to stop there. Yesterday afternoon, Zoe became extremely ill. We didn't know what to do, we had never seen anything like it. She looked like a madman, but she didn't attack anyone. In fact, she was really weak and could barely move. She died last night... Now it's... It's just the eight of us."

I let myself sink into the couch, completely baffled at what CK had just told us. Erica had her hands over her mouth, Diego's eyes were wide open in shock, and Locke had his arms on his legs to support his torso as he gazed the floor. None of us expected to come back to this. It was clear that we had to act fast if we wanted to find the source. And hell if I was gonna let anything stop us. "Erica, you and Locke take a closer look at the files we found, see if you find anything new. Rico, can we talk for a second?" I walked upstairs with Rico and went into the master bedroom. "I need you to tell me exactly what you saw that day. Just what happened to your brother's gun? And be as honest and precise as you can, I think I have an idea."

Rico sat on the bed and slid his hand through his own hair, taking a moment to start talking. "You're gonna think I'm crazy", I shook my head and he continued, "Alright, you're the boss. When I went to grab the gun, half of it looked fine, while the other half looked... It looked distorted, like it was on the other side of some wall. That's why I told you guys to be careful. The gun looked... Well, it looked unreal, like it a virtual item or something. It looked like it was made up of pixels, but only that half. Pretty sure it's still there, too."