Corruption

Break

Chase and Lily knew this area like the back of their hands, so hiding from the swarm of search helicopters wasn't too hard. TJ and Rebecca, however, struggled to throw up due to the smell. 

"Do we have to hide somewhere so indecent?!" Rebecca whispered, trying not to breathe in too much of the smell from the rubbish bin next to her face.

"Someone's coming!" Lily whispered back, clamping her mouth shut with her hand.

Normally, Rebecca would've protested, but since they were in a desperate situation, she had no choice. Also because it was Lily and not TJ or Chase. Is my heart in the right place, she thought. The confusion was successful at calming her down. When the search party had passed, they breathed a collective sigh of relief. Rebecca noticed that Lily still had her hand around her waist, for some reason, causing heat to rise to her face.

Shaking off the feeling, she and the others moved on.

Soon enough, the group found an abandoned home to collect their thoughts. Lily doesn't know what the others went through, so that had to be explained.

"Wait, so who got the info?" she asked.

Rebecca held up the USB. "I did" 

"How? Since when did you know how to hack stuff?"

"Since my father invents computers in his spare time"

"Never mind that" TJ interjected. "How are we going to get this information to the parents and carers?"

Silence sat within the group for a while as they thought. Lily's eyes suddenly lit up. "I have an idea, but I don't know if it'll work," she said, running her hand through her hair. "How about we just... wing it?"

TJ frowned. "We're trying to save our friends from an insanely dangerous, mentally unstable person that has the entire government looking for us and you want us to simply... wing it? Honestly, you people..."

Rebecca frowned. "Ok, got any better ideas?"

"I'm just saying that she's not exactly one to have good ideas and this proves it" he continued. Lily glared at him, causing him to fall back onto his words. "Well, not like that!"

"Give it up, TJ. We heard you loud and clear" Chase rolled his eyes.

"That's it! I know how we can beat Jackson!" Lily exploded after a moment. 

"How?" TJ asked, mentally praising her for changing the subject.

She led them to the of the windows, gingerly opening the dusty curtain. She gestured to the giant speakers on lamposts that lay on every street corner. "Remember when we read about what happened before? Those were used to warn everyone in the city about what was happening"

"So? What about them?" Rebecca asked, not getting the point.

"If the right info's in that USB, we're gonna need those speakers to raise one hell of an alarm"

Layla awoke to a bright colourless room, almost in a state of sleep paralysis. The grip of leather burned slightly against her wrists, ankles and neck.

"Welcome back, Layla" the muffled voice of Jackson calmly said.

What the hell have you done?!

"It's perfectly understandable if you're confused about where you are. Funny thing is, you're in my room" he cheerfully lied.

Where's my friends?!