It was quiet as Alex sat in his room, alone on his bed. He had his legs crossed, staying in silence as he observed the small phone he had gotten from the guard earlier. His brows were furrowed, and his expression annoyed as it began to ring.

RING.

RING.

RING.

"Hello?"

A voice boomed from the other side after a little silence, making Alex stiffen in his place. But then his brows once again furrowed, speaking into the phone.

-"..This is Alex. What'd you give me this thing for?"

-"To get myself killed probably.." The guard sighed into the phone, all while standing infront of the mirror and shaving his beard. His face hardened as he took a deep breath, talking to Alex in a firm tone.

-"Look- I'm gonna give you information, you're gonna give it to those kids, and them I'm staying out of it from now on. Understand?"

-"..And why are you all of a sudden a bleeding heart?"

-"I'm not. I just- I didn't really think things through when I got involved in all this mess, alright? Just shut up, listen, and be a good carrier pigeon."

-"I'll carry a foot to deliver up your-"

-"Keep talking and I'm hanging up."

Everyone circled around Ashlyn, wanting to see what the note in her hands said. Rylee, who was now currently out of the wheelchair was standing infront of her sister with Tyler on one of her side and Taylor on the other, the blonde behind them, who was talking. "What's it say?" Aiden had his hand on the shoulder of the brunette, trying to squeeze his way through, and making the girl loose balance. "Stop pushing, moron." Tyler snapped at Aiden, and held his hand which was on her shoulder by his wirst, yanking it off of the girl. She sent him a nod, and Tyler just scoffed, per usual. Ashlyn was annoyed as everyone circled around her, well except her sister. She took Rylee by the arm, pulling her next to herself, as she glared at the others. "All of you go sit down, now."

ANNOYED.

Alex and Ashlyn came up with a method of communication since surveillance is so tight. Alex will put his notes in the clean laundry, and she'll read them here at night. Then she'll put my own notes in the dirty laundry during the day, and he'll read them when he has privacy.

Now as Ashlyn was still standing, Rylee took a seat on the edge of the bed, right next to Tyler who had his elbow propped up on his thigh, his chin in his palm. Everyone else was either sitting on the bed or the ground. "He says they found our parents in coma in the cells."

. . .

We assumed that was the case..

..when they said they didn't wake up after seven hours.

Since that night, our parents have been going through files and information, while we map out and memorize the layout of the facility.

"Rylee, you just recovered.. should you-" A concerned Taylor spoke up, sweatdropping as she kept looking at the brunette doing a hand stand in the middle of the hallway. "-Should you be doing that?"

"I'm fine Tay! Look what else I can-"

THUD.

"Are you okay?!"

"What an idiot."

"I heard that Tyler!"

Rylee cackled like a maniac as she kept watching Aiden chase Taylor, running funnily. "Stop running like that!" Tyler gave her a look out of the corner of his eyes, before jogging after the two idiots. "Aiden, stop scaring my sister."

Ben got his whistle.

And we finally located and turned on the backup generator. We've also learned something.. strange about how the phantom dimension works since our parents are here constantly now. Things don't move around in the phantom dimension when we wake up in the human realm and time resumes. Instead, things stay the same until 12AM. Once 12AM hits, objects that were in one place before, will shift to another if it had been moved in the 24 hour period. But, just like we'd already figured out before, if we already messed with the item in the phantom dimension, then it doesn't move around anymore.

And we've found out that just because the lights are on now-

WHISTLE.

-DOESN'T MEAN PHANTOMS AREN'T STILL AROUND.

"Well that's just great.. So this is why we haven't been able to access the higher-level information anymore even with the card." Ashlyn spoke as she read the note, her brows furrowing. Taylor who was sitting on the ground between then brunettes legs- who was sitting on the edge of the bed, looked up at the green eyed girl. "What is it?"

"Turns out that with the previous head in come now, the Maverick guy is the one taking over his position. So all access to the information is now under his card instead. And not only is he a 'secret revolutionist' against this place, but a cult leader as well." Tyler straightened his back out as he sat next to the brunette on the bed, now crossing his arms. "Can't say I didn't see that one coming. He looks like a cult leader."

"What kind of cult is it?"

"Probably something about birds. They all have that crane thing going on, y'know?"

As the others chatted away, Rylee kept her eyes on her sister. Her brows furrowed when she saw Ashlyn's eyes widening as she leaned closer to the paper.

"Ashlyn? Is everything okay?"

"Maverick.."

"-is Mr. Thomas?"

Everyone looked at Ashlyn dumbfounded, and with raised brows.

Maverick is Thomas?

Edge Lord = History

?

Everyone was too shocked or dumbfounded to say anything. The girl sitting on the edge of the bed, with Taylor sitting between her legs furrowed her brows, just staring straight ahead as she thought about what her sister had said. But the scary thing was- that it was possible.

WHISTLE- WHISTLE.

Ben began flapping his arms around like a bird, making both Rylee and Tyler sweatdrop as they watched him blow his whistle. Everyone watched as the tall boy typed on the phone he had in his hands, some nervous, and some confused by all of this that was happening.

-'He knew about Logan and I in detail. And when I said we accept his arrangement, he said something Mr. Thomas used to a lot.'

"You've decided to join us?"

The black haired adult stood in the giants room, his back facing the teenager who was currently eating a sandwich. And as usual, Ben typed on his phone.

-'Yes.'

"Good. Alrighty then, what about the others?"

-'Others?'

"This'll go a lot faster if you don't play dumb. We're on the same side now. I know you and the others can communicate somehow at night."

GLARE.

-'..They agreed as well.'

"Good, that means you already explained everything for me. Then, this is how we'll proceed from now on-"

-'I've been distracted by him saying he knew we could talk to each other, and it didn't click when he said "alrighty".' Ben finally typed out what he wanted to say, as his cousin, and Tyler both put their hands on his shoulder, trying to tell the boy that it was okay. Well, Aiden was trying, Tyler was struggling. Logan, beside the blonde boy leaned forward as he spoke. "...I guess Mr. Thomas would say that habitually in class."

"Alrighty, let's get class started. Everyone sit down."

"Alrighty, turn to page 15."

"And when that happened, they basically just said alrighty then, and started blasting-"

Taylor tilted her head to the side, against the brunettes thighs as she sat on the floor, eyes on the ground. "We should go ahead and tell Mika and them and see what they think."

It's been about a week since we found our parents here. When we had told them about Maverick..

"You want us to what?"

The smaller Banner sibling seemed to snap at the old mans words, as she was seated in her wheelchair, pushed by none other that Tyler himself- who was currently standing behind her with his arms crossed. Each one of them, and their parents also, were helping the kids gear up, while making up stuff on how to get the hell out of here. "Play along. Go ahead and join them, see what they want and how they are operating. It's likely they'll already assume you're only playing along at first thought, it'll always be assumed until enough trust and loyalty is actually gained. So don't go fool yourselves into thinking you're fooling him. But at the very least, you'll both be gaining something from the arrangement this way. Rather than them forcing you kids and being the only one to gain from it." Rylee was already side eyeing the old man, before turning her head back towards the boy behind her, who just shrugged his shoulders with a rather annoyed expression on his face.

So like our parents suggested, Ben told Maverick that we'd join them.

Thanfully even though Maverick knew we could talk to one another somehow, he doesn't know what the realm looks like.

When he asked, Ben just draw some random enviroment hoping to throw him off for a bit.

And since joining Maverick, he's been condusting experiments and trying to gather more information. He's made the others touch the infected as well albeit, less aggressively.

But there were no flickering lights or people falling into comas like with Ashlyn.

He had also tested our reactions to one another, since it appeared that the others had know me and Ashlyn gotten hurt somehow.

They cut Logan's arm, and none of us reacted.

But.. they had one of the infected claw his other arm slightly, and suddenly we all instinctively knew that one of us had gotten hurt.

So, we thing that our 'connection' or whatever it is, isn't in the physical realm, but through our joined connection to the phantom realm.. possibly.

And now we know that he was our history teacher?

"But why would he go undercover.. that doesn't make any sense?" Aiden had spoken up, his tone one of boredness, as he lazily laid back on the bed, facing the ceiling. His hand mindlessly moved infront of him, doing random movements- and occasionally hitting the brunettes back. But when she turned her head around and shot him a glare, the blonde had never sat up so quickly ever before. This sudden movement made Logan side eye the boy.

"Not unless he'd been targetting us for a specific reason?"

"We know he's against this facility.. Maybe he'd been trying to work discreetly, separate from the facility, and needed a disguise since he's a known face here." The boy with the glasses spoke up as he turned his attention back forward. Taylor, letting out a small sigh, still rested her head against the brunette girls thigh. "Yeah, but he'd used the government guys to kidnap us, I don't see the point."

"Well, maybe they didn't? The facility could've sent the men first, and asked 'Mr. Thomas' to cooperate without knowing it was actually Maverick." The redhead spoke from her standing position, her eyes still on the note in her hands- before the blonde haired boy spoke up. "If we were just gonna end up here anyway, why did he spend all that time as our teacher? There has to be some motive.."

"..oh."

"Oh."

"If you aren't gonna share just hand it over."

. . .

"..The apocalypse?"

"The cult guy wants to start the apocalypse?"

'So the faciliy wants to use the infected as super soldiers.. and Maverick is pretending to work for them, but has a different goal of destroying the facility and apparently the whole world along with it. We seem to play a key role in both of their objectives.. and we need to leave before they figure out how to do that. We've mapped out and memorized quite a few escape routes, but..'

'..there's no way we can escape with our parents.'

'Why's the pigeons calling?'

The guard was sat up on his bed, in the middle of the night as he looked at his phone, before answering. His tone was one of annoyance- as he swing his legs off of the bed. "I told you I wasn't going to get involved anymore, so whatever your're calling about, leave me out-"

"The kids are planning to escape tomorrow night."

"..What? Escape? How do you think they're going to do that?? There's no way they're going to be able to, you need to stop them before they get hurt. This place has high-end secuirty and-"

Wait..

"...Nevermind, this is none of my business. Why are you telling me?"

Alex had sat down on his couch, his gaze focused on the paper note in his hand that he had received from the kids, phone in his other hand.

"Well.. for the plan to work properly.. someone higher up that me needs to allow a breach to happen as a distraction."

. . .

"No. No way. I already have Jasmine looking at me suspiciously. I'm not about to risk my neck for some stupid last ditch plan when the kids probably won't make it a few turns before they get lost or cuaght, even if there is a distraction."

"They have the layout memorized."

"..What do you mean?"

"That's what the phantom dimension is.. It's just a replica of this place. And they spent the last couple weeks memorizing every cranny."

'..They've been walking around here every night?'

"I think they have a real chance of pulling this off. Will you help?"

. . .

"..What kind of breach are you talking about?"

"What do you mean the Andragathía?!"

Sitting in the room together, everyone was geared up with different kinds of stuff. While the kids sat on the ground, forming a small circle, their parents were positioned on the couch and around it. Ashlyn and Logan were building a tower? out of paper cards, while Ben just watched. Taylor was just showing Aiden the bracelets she and the other two made. And then there was Tyler, sitting with his back agaisnt a locker, and the brunette girl beside him- with her head resting on his shoulder as they watched the older man speak, their eyebrows raised. And then there was Lily, with her head resting in Rylees lap. "We were only part of one of the lower smaller families and retired quite a long time ago. Our influence and ability to ask for favors is limited, especially since we are retired, but I have a few friends that were still working with the syndicate I can try to call on. They most likely won't go as far as taking in the kids, nor would I want them to. However, they might be willing to come to this location long enough to cause a ruckus and distraction for the kids to escape."

"So you ARE with a criminal organization."

"Were."

Turning to Logan, Tyler spoke as he had his arms crossed. "No wonder you were so good with a gun, you already had experience didn't you?" This made the boy with the glasses clench his hand into a fist, his eyes narrowing. "..A little, not much.."

"And how do you plan on getting in contact with them?"

"If the person that has been exchanging notes with the kids is willing, I can give him a phone number, a code, and a message to relay. However, he'll probably also need to find someone to shut down their security cameras long enough for whatever members of the family sends to cause a decent stir."

"..and then it'll be up to the kids to make their diafygí."



🤗

Now that was a long fucking wait.

I'm currently making a discord server ¿for this book?, so anyone that wants to join, drop the users🤗