Minds: Book One

Chapter Seventeen

        I woke up to Alice kissing me. I placed my hand on the back of her neck so I could hold her there for a second and kiss her back. When she pulled away she smiled at me.
        “I knew that would wake you up. I’ve been trying to shake you awake for five minutes.” She said as she stood up. She let a big yawn. I sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Milo climbed down from his bed and threw his around Alice’s waist.
        “Please be safe.” Milo said with tear filled eyes. Alice kneeled down in front of him and put her hands on his face. She whipped away a few tears that had fallen down onto his cheeks with her thumbs.
        “I will sweetie.” She said in a sweet voice. She kissed the tip of his nose and pulled him in for another hug. They hugged each other for a few seconds before letting go. Milo gave me a hug.
        “You be safe too.” He said after he let me go. I smiled down at him and ruffled his hair.
        “I will bud.” I said. Alice took my hand and we walked towards River’s bunk. I shook River awake.
        “Come on man we have to go.” I said ignoring the angry look he gave me. River sat up in bed and his face dropped as if he remembered what was planned for today. He put his shoes on and followed us out to the two black SUV’s that were parked in front of the Safe House. Richard was talking to Kayla in front of the first one and Nick was sitting in the driver’s seat of the second SUV staring at the steering wheel. We walked over to Richard and Kayla.
        “Hey guys.” Kayla said when she noticed us walked up to them.
        “Hey.” Alice said.
         “The three of you will be riding with Kayla and I.” Richard said with his confident voice. A couple minutes later we were ready to go. With Nick, Piper, Bentley, and Adam in the second SUV Richard got into the driver’s seat and Kayla got into the passenger seat. Alice sat between River and I. The engine roared to life and Richard started driving towards ROIM. I put my arm around Alice and she leaned her body into mine.
        Has that girl tried talking to you again? Alice asked.
        No, I think she got to weak to talk to me. I said. I noticed Richard holding Kayla hand in the front seat.
        Look. I said discreetly pointing to the front seat.
        Hmm. I never noticed that. Alice said. The rest of the ride was silent until we got to our stopping point. Richard turned off the SUV and climbed out. The rest of us followed suit. Nick pulled up behind us a couple seconds later. Richard walked around to the back and pulled out a large gun with extra bullets for everyone. Everyone except Richard and Nick held the gun nervously at their side.
        “Okay it’s only about a mile walk to ROIM from here. Everyone make sure you complete your task as soon as possible once inside of ROIM.” Richard said. “I have faith in all of you.” He looked at all of us with a slight smile on his face. He turned around and took Kayla’s hand and started walking towards ROIM. River, Alice, and I exchanged nervous looks before following Richard and Kayla.
        According to Kayla we were only about fifteen minutes away from ROIM. River looked over at me.
        “Hey man, if anything happens to me in there just know you are the best friend I could have ever asked for.” River said with a shaky voice.
        “You can’t think like that. We are all going to fine.” I said fighting back tears. Alice’s grip on my hand tightened a little.
        “I know, I just want you to know.” River said in a quiet voice. I smiled at him and patted him on the back.

        ROIM was in view now. We stayed in the woods so we could stay hidden for as long as possible. Everyone took their gun off of safety and was ready to shoot. When the tree could no longer hide us we all paused. Richard turned around to look at all of us.
        “Kayla is going shape shift into Maddox. Once she is inside we are going to wait ten minutes, then we are going to go inside.” Richard said in a raised whisper. Kayla and Richard shared a quick kiss causing everyone to exchange confused looks. Kayla shape shifted into my father and started walking towards the back door of ROIM. Kayla unlocked the back door and walked inside. The door slowly closing behind her. We waited exactly ten minutes before sprinting over to the back door. Richard opened the door and everyone rushed inside all going in different directions. With Alice and River behind me we quietly ran towards the Records Room. There wasn’t anyone in the hallways, so I guessed that Kayla had been able to successfully complete her task.
        We turned down the hallway that lead to the Records Room. River pulled his old name tag out of his pocket and scanned it to open the door. The door opened after a few seconds and the three of us rushed inside. Thankfully it was just us in the room. I closed the door behind us.
        “How are we supposed to destroy all of these files?” Alice asked as she looked around the room. River ran over to the computer and pulled out the hard drive.
        “Like this.” He threw the hard drive on the ground and smashed it to pieces with his foot.
        “But what about all of the paper files River, how are we supposed to destroy those?” Alice asked in a slightly annoyed voice. “There are hundreds of them.”
        “There are four shredders underneath this desk, both of you grab one and start shredding.” River said as he took a shredder from underneath the desk. Alice and I grabbed one for each of us and went over to a section of the wall. I grabbed several files at a time and put them in the shredder. The shredder was impressively fast. After about ten minutes the three of us had managed to destroy about one quarter of the files. The shredders were starting to fill up so River emptied them into a huge trash bag. We continued to put several files into the shredders at a time when we heard loud blood curdling screams coming from somewhere in the building. The three of us exchanged horrified looks and returned to the task at hand. Alice grabbed three files off of the wall and stared at them for a moment. I looked over at her and her eyes met mine.
        She folded them and put them under the waist band of her pants and covered it up with her shirt. Since her shirt was a little baggy you couldn’t tell they were there.
        I can’t destroy those, they are my family’s files. She said as she returned to the destroying the rest of the files. I just nodded my head and returned to putting several files at a time into the shredder. Suddenly the door burst open and a man walked inside.
        “Kayla what are you doing still in Maddox’s form?” I asked.
        “It’s cute that you thought that little water boy would be able to kill me.” He said with an angry voice. My heart dropped, that wasn’t Kayla, that was my father. He raised his gun and aimed it at my chest. I raised mine in response.
        “I wish I would have just killed you as soon as I found out about you.” He said through his teeth. He stepped a few inches closer to me with his gun still aimed at my chest. I saw Alice raise her gun out of the corner of my eye.
        “Why didn’t you? I mean you killed my mother so why not kill me too?” I asked with a harsh voice.
        “It wasn’t my decision to kill Emily, it was Aiden’s.” He said. He stared me dead in the eyes. “Isaac, I loved Emily.” He added with a slightly softer voice.
        “Yeah I’m sure.” I said with a stern voice. “If you want to kill me so bad, why not just kill me now?” I asked. I noticed the muscles in his arms tense.
He didn’t show any sign that he was going to shot me, but he also didn’t lower his gun.
        “You won’t kill me because I look like her.” I said. I thought about shooting my father right then. But for some reason I couldn’t do it. I know he is responsible for my mom’s death and thousands of others. But I couldn’t do it. I let out a slow breath. I lowered my gun.
        A gun went off.