"Which one?" he tests, trying to see if I actually did my homework.
"The one in San Francisco. Why?"
"Because there's 3. San Francisco, Seattle, Portland."
"I know that. I mean why do you want to know?" There's one in 3 corners of the US. California, Washington, and Maine.
"Cause I've seen this before, you go in head high and half-cocked with no plan and end up getting killed. It's happened more times than I can count and I am not letting the same thing happen to a teenager that doesn't know what she's doing." he stands straight, getting up from leaning on the bar table.
"Head high and half-cocked with no plan?" I take off my bag and take out my journal, slamming it onto the bar table with a challenging look in my eye.
Raising an eyebrow, he flips through it, seeing all of the carefully drawn out maps, notes, diagrams, and pages upon pages of careful steps, planning, and information on the Corrupted, the Root, and the S.E.E.D. Clearly surprised at the amount of thorough planning, back up planning, and research I had put together. With no help whatsoever.
Mouthing a silent, 'wow', he closes the journal, looking back at my challenging glare. "Alright kid, I'll bite. Say you get to San Francisco, what then?" he interrogates, testing on just how well I thought this out.
"I gather every piece of information they have on their doctors, scientists, chemists, and hopefully, the head of the organization. Then, head over to Seattle. They keep their files in San Francisco, and their records and lab reports in Seattle. It's a security method, they break up their information and materials into different buildings across the U.S so it's harder if anyone wants to steal their research. If I can gather up enough information, I know I can figure out a way to create a cure if I can just get a sample of the virus, and reverse it. Creating a virus like this takes years of failures and experiments, they had to have kept lab reports, if I can get my hands on those, I can figure out how they created it in the first place." I explain, looking him dead in the eye, knowing that I was passing his little test.
"Why do you need the information on their staff? Why bother with San Francisco if you need the lab reports in Seattle?"
"If I want to stop this then I need to know who I'm up against. I need to know who the head of the operation is, who founded it, who made the virus, what's their goal? I need information on who I am up against and just how far they're willing to go." my challenging gaze never leaves him, practically daring him to ask me another question. I didn't plan for 10 years to not have taken something into consideration.
He pauses for a moment, as if contemplating something before speaking once again, "Sewer system is blocked off, it was covered by a landslide back during the breakout. What's your plan now, kid?"
"I always have a backup plan. It'll take longer, but there's a cave not too far from here that lets out to the far left corner of the junkyard. Now if you excuse me, I have to meet back up with my friends so I can get going." I say, unraveling my arms from my chest and walking over to the door on the far left side of the room.
"Problem with that is, you don't know where you are."
"I can navigate. Don't think for a second that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going while we were running." I shoot back, not bothering to look back at him before I'm stopped in my tracks by a hand grasping my shoulder.
Off pure instinct, I kick my foot backwards, into his shin, skillfully turning around and using my left hand to push him to the floor in his unbalanced state as my right hand grabs the knife on my belt and puts it to his neck threateningly.
YOU ARE READING
Corrupted: The Pain We Feel (Book 1)
Kinh dịWhen Aella was 6 years old, her parents were taken from her by a deadly virus that poisons the mind and drives them mad. Known as the Root. Now, 10 years later, she stays with a medium sized group of survivors in an old church building, fighting to...
