“If they would just let me back into the house then we wouldn’t have this problem!” Andrew practically shouted. I could’ve sworn the walls shook around us, each word gaining momentum.

“That’s an awfully suspicious thing to say.” I noted.

“Better keep your voice down or we’ll have cops swarming us.” Daniel added. I gave a small laugh, as if any cop could find us. Our base was practically a criminals paradise, stocks of food for hiding out, sturdy walls, far off in the middle of nowhere.

A place no one could find.

I loved this military bunker. I knew the boys did too. It was the closest thing we had to a home.

I swung my legs off the bed and onto the floor.

“Weren’t you the one who made the rule ‘no shoes on the beds,’ Amelia?” Perry said in a mocking tone. I rolled my eyes at him and stood.

“How much longer are we going to hide out for?” I asked, snapping open my pocket knife and adding another line in the bunks wood. Rows and rows of lines with small spaces in between, as if someone hit the space bar on a computer.

Each row represents a time we hid here.

And each line represents a day.

“Until the _problem’s_ solved. And like I said, Beck is not letting us back in. Even worse, he knows our location.” Andrew said, pulling the conversation back to his outburst.

“Well where do you want us to go, Andrew? Climb up in the dusty vents again?” Daniel asked.

Perry shuttered. “I think there’s still dust up in my nose.”

“And _not_ good for my claustrophobia.” I couldn’t help but cringe at the thought of climbing back up into the vents, my arms pressed against each other and no space to note. Another reason I loved this bunker, space. But now, that space was in danger.

“We should just stay here,” Daniel continued, “and hope for the best.”

“But the best isn’t good enough.” Andrew growled in frustration. Slamming his fist into the table. A crack slit down the wood and I raised an eyebrow.

“Did anyone just hear that?” Perry asked.

“Andrew throwing a fit and smashing everything? We aren’t deaf, Perry.” I said.

“No, _that_.”

I tilted my head towards the metal roof, trying to make out any sound.

Voices.

Nearby.

Who would be in the middle of a desert? We didn’t hear any vehicles approach either.

Daniel opened his mouth to say something but I shushed him, putting a finger to my lip.

A loud clatter came from the porthole in the roof and the door knocked open. A figure in a dark cloaked jump down and we braced ourself. I held my pocketknife in front of me, my eyes widening.

The figure tilited his head. “Hello there.”