Grandfather (10 page)

I stomped my way down the
ladder, followed by Marley. My face was hot with anger. A few more
minutes with Ashton would’ve surely led to a fight.

“I shouldn’t have come,” I
told Marley as I darted through the tunnels.

“I’m so sorry,” she said,
having a difficult time keeping up. “I should have warned
you.”

“What’s his problem
anyways?” I asked, finally allowing her to catch up. After all, I
had no idea how to get back.

“He feels more strongly
about Grandfather than anyone.”

“Yeah, I noticed that,” I
snapped.

Marley looked at me with
gloomy eyes. “Something happened to him before I met him. He won’t
tell me what, but I know it’s the reason why he’s so angry with the
group.”

Well, I didn’t know what
Ashton went through, but it didn’t give him a reason to treat me
that way. He needed to take things down a notch.

Marley left me alone in my
room until dinner. I was just going to go back to staying in my
room, talking to nobody.

I was afraid I’d have to
sit close to Ashton at dinner, but he sat at another table beside a
man in a white uniform. I guessed that was Dr. Mac. Occasionally, I
would catch him glaring at me. I just forced myself to ignore him.
I’m pretty sure Marley noticed this, but she didn’t mention it.
What could she do? There was no chance in changing Ashton’s
mind.

I couldn’t even sleep that
night. My blood was ready to spew. I wanted to leave that
underground facility so bad. I even thought about it, but knew the
only place I could go was the orphanage. I was not letting that
happen. I even thought about going to another region but realized
how ridiculous that was. I wouldn’t even know where to go. I’d
probably starve to death on the streets. I had no choice but to
stay with these people, so I was just going to have to get used to
things. I was trapped, and the anxiety just kept swelling inside
me, twisting my stomach. This was going to be harder than what I
thought.

Chapter Five

I
spent the next week keeping to myself, rarely leaving my
room. When I did get out, I kept my eye out for Ashton. I wanted to
stay as far away from his as possible. He continued eating with Dr.
Mac, and he continued glaring at me. Eventually, I started giving
it right back to him. Marley did her best to keep on common ground.
“I like hanging out with both of you guys,” she told me. She liked
hanging out with me? It was strange because nobody had ever said
that. I wondered what I did to make her like me. I thought I was
kind of a boring person.

In other news, Edgar
started to change. At least his appearance did. His foul attitude
was exactly the same as before though. He started wearing clean
pants and decent looking button-down shirts. His skin wasn’t as
dirty either. The only thing that was the same was his missing
tooth, of course. That wasn’t exactly something easily replaced,
although he could’ve probably afforded it. Which begged another
question: why didn’t he fix it?

One afternoon, after I had
finished my lunch, Edgar told me he wouldn’t make it to dinner but
wanted me to stay there until he came to get me. He didn’t tell me
what we were going to be doing, but I told him I would do so. Even
if I refused and went to my room, he’d probably beat the door
down.

After I finished dinner, I
waited for him to come and get me. I wondered what he possibly
wanted and if it was just going to be me and him. I sure did hope
not.

Everyone left the dining
room until it was just me sitting there. Marley offered to stay and
keep my company, but I told her I’d be fine. After being alone for
nearly ten minutes, I was starting to think Edgar had forgotten
about me. That’s when I heard him complaining about something. I
looked up to see him walk in through the double doors, followed by
Belladonna and Robert. They all stopped.

Edgar glared at me. “Said
ya wanted to go with me. Here’s your chance.” He motioned for me to
follow him, and I did so until we reached Belladonna’s meeting
room. I followed them in to find somebody else was already there,
sitting at the table. I froze. Great.

It was Ashton.

Things got even worse when
Edgar pointed at the seat beside Ashton. “Sit,” he demanded. I did
so. I didn’t acknowledge Ashton and he didn’t acknowledge me. Good.
I wanted to keep it that way. Edgar looked at us curiously.
Deciding not to question what was going on, he sat down across from
me. Belladonna took a seat beside him and Robert stood behind
her.

“
Basically,” Robert
started. “We need your help . . . both of you.” I kept my eyes on
Robert, forcing myself not to look at Ashton.

“
What is it?” Ashton asked.
I noted excitement in his tone.

“
Well, I’ve been within the
wall these past few days,” Robert said. “Grandfather is hiding
something.”

“
Well, yeah, aren’t they
hiding a lot of things?” Ashton asked.

“
Yes,” Robert replied. “But
this . . . this is probably the most dangerous.”

Here they were, once
again, going on about Grandfather. I asked Robert what they were
supposedly hiding.

“
I was following a couple
of guys I knew to be followers,” Robert answered me. “After getting
some information, I tracked the location of some secret
vials.”

“
Vials?” Ashton and I asked
at the same time. He gave me a quick, angry glance. I ignored
him.

“
To make a long story
short, they’re hiding vials with some sort of substance,” Robert
told us.

“
Very dangerous,” Edgar
added.

“
Listen,” I said. “How can
you possibly assume the vials are the most dangerous thing they’re
hiding?”

Ashton turned to me. “Just
be quiet,” he told me.

“
No,” I argued. “I want to
know more and –”

“
Why is he here?” Ashton
asked Edgar and Robert. Edgar looked taken aback. Robert shook his
head as if in disappointment.

“
We don’t have time for
this,” Edgar yelled at us. “You both been goin’ on about how you
want to help. Here it is. Shut that damn mouth and
listen.”

Neither one of us were
going to argue with Edgar. Sure, I wanted to. And I knew Ashton did
too. I nodded at Robert, urging him to continue. He did
so.

“
Anyways, I have learned
that the vials have a substance in them . . . a disease. Virus. I
overhead it could be airborne.”

Edgar took out a map and
laid it across the table. There were streets in every direction,
and gray squares to represent buildings. It looked like a busy
place, so I knew it had to be a map of the city within the wall.
Edgar said, “Those sons of bitches could be planning to do anything
with this. Could expose it to everybody in the city.”

“
They call it Sub X, and I
know where they’re hiding it,” Robert told us with certainty. He
placed a finger on one of the smaller gray squares on the map.
“This is where they are hiding the vials. We need to steal them
before they decide to use them.”

I looked at the map. The
gray square was on the corner of two streets: Luther Drive and
Cabella Street. I wondered if it was true. I definitely thought it
was a little odd for somebody to hoard a bunch of vials filled with
some sort of virus. Perhaps Robert misunderstood. The stern and
serious look on his face told me he was very sure of himself. I had
one more question. Ashton got to it before me.

“
So why do you need us?”
Ashton asked.

“
Four of us are gonna sneak
in,” Edgar said. “This building is storage space for the president
and his councilmen. I know the layout. Was in there a lot back in
the day.”

I shot a quick glance at
Ashton. He was smiling. The idea of stealing vials from Grandfather
took away all of his anger. He looked at the map, his eyes
twinkling.

“
I saw them put the code in
at the door,” Robert said. “So we can get in.”

“
This is great,” Ashton
said.

Edgar seemed satisfied
with Ashton’s excitement.

“
Why us?” I asked
Robert.

“
Who’s gonna suspect two
boys your age?” Edgar said. “You two will make us look like normal
people from within the wall.”

Within the wall. Not once
in my life did I ever think I’d see what it looked like inside. And
now, it seemed as if I was about to. I looked down at what I was
wearing. There was one problem.

“
What is it?” Edgar asked.
I guess I made it pretty obvious that I had some concerns. “I know
you don’t believe in Grandfather yet, but you wanted to come with
me. Here you are.”

“
We’re not dressed fancy,”
I told Edgar. “They’ll notice us fast, even with me and Ashton
there.”

Robert shook his head.
“That’s the easy part. We’ve already got suits for you. They should
fit. Edgar and I already have one, of course.”

Oh.

“
How are we carrying it all
out?” Ashton asked.

“That’s an easy part,
too,” Robert answered.

“We’ll have our own
briefcases,” Edgar elaborated. “Robert says we’ll be able to carry
it all.”

I was about to ask why we
were even bothering stealing the vials if there wasn’t a large
supply but decided not to. I assumed that even just a small amount
of the substance would be extremely harmful. Or so that was what
Robert and Edgar were obviously thinking.

“
How are we getting there?”
I asked.

“
Same way we got here,”
Edgar said, sounding somewhat annoyed.

Oh.

“
We have
a driver always on standby,” Robert said. “I know the guy, but
he
is
a bit
odd.”

“
It’s best he doesn’t say
anything,” Belladonna said. “He gets us where we need to
go.”

Well that certainly
explained the driver’s silence.

Edgar told us we’d be
leaving that next evening, just before dark. Even though I was
taking a trip with people who really annoyed me, I was actually
excited for it, but wondered if the people hiding the vials
actually planned to infect everybody with the virus. Of course, I
questioned whether or not those hiding it were actually Grandfather
members. Perhaps the vials were for educational purposes, and Edgar
and Robert were making it a bigger deal than what it really was.
There was only one thing that mattered: Learning more about the
truth. Why was I so important? If the trip proved to me that
Grandfather was real, then Edgar and Belladonna were right. If
there was no proof, then everybody living underground was going to
look even more like lunatics. Oh, and another thing. It looked like
I was going to get to see what it looked like in the city. I was
extremely eager about that part.

That next evening came
quickly. Edgar told Mae what was going on, and Marley came up to me
to make sure I would be careful. She also told me that she talked
to Ashton about leaving me alone while we were gone. I just hoped
he actually did so.

“That goes for you too,”
she told me.

I didn’t plan on even
speaking to him, so that wasn’t going to be a problem.

Before leaving, Edgar
handed me a clean, black suit, complete with a white dress shirt
and a black tie. I took it to my room and tried putting it on. I
got everything except for the tie. I didn’t even know where to
start. I still tried, only to form a jumbled up knot. As if
knowing, Edgar knocked on my door. I let him in to find he was
already dressed in his black suit. Whoa, did he look like a
completely different person. “Here,” he said, taking my tie and
tying it for me. I had never worn a suit before, and I had to give
it to myself . . . I looked good.

Edgar led me away to the
meeting room. Robert and Ashton were already there, sitting at the
table. They, too, had on black suits. Belladonna stood beside
Robert, dressed in black pants and wearing a red turtleneck. There,
in the middle of the table, were black briefcases, one for each of
us.

“Just get the vials, and
we’ll put them where nobody’ll find them,” Belladonna said, all
business. Just as we were leaving, she told me to be careful. “And
I hope you find something that helps you realize the truth. But if
you don’t this time around, that’s completely fine.”

Ashton looked at
Belladonna with wide eyes, probably in disbelief it didn’t bother
her that I didn’t believe. I had a smirk on my face as Ashton’s
eyes met mine.

“Better get going,” Edgar
said. Belladonna told us to be careful once again while we each
took a briefcase and left the room. Edgar and Robert took out their
own flashlight and led the way back toward the entrance. Ashton and
I walked side-by-side, following them. We didn’t say a word to each
other.

We soon reached the ladder
that led us to the surface. Great . . . I was going to have to
climb it again. First, Edgar went up so that he could open the
door. Second was Robert, followed by Ashton, then me. I reached the
surface and Edgar closed the hidden trap door.