Secret Coder

Chapter 27

Andrew's pov-
I sat next to Sky holding her hand while the helicopter flew. I didn't want to lose her. I would stay as close to her as possible and NEVER fight her again. Well besides practice but not a life or death kind. It had been scary having to fight her so hard. I hated it. I could hear the blades at the top of the helicopter slicing the wind. During I and Sky's battle, we'd both had to hurt each other so our parents wouldn't get hurt. Not that had done much seeing that Sky's dad was now dead. And mine probably too. We'd left him there. Those people weren't nice they were ruthless. They cared about nothing but themselves. They would probably kill my dad before we could even try to go back there. My face dropped with sadness. I didn't want my dad to die and I knew or had known Sky's dad so well that It hurt me to see him gone. Tears attempted to slip out of my eyes. I could feel my eyes begin to get watery but I held the tears in. I looked over to Sky and saw that his eyes were a little watery too. A tear even fell down her face but she untucked her hair from behind her ear and hid my sight of her face. I saw her arm go back up though. I assumed that she dried her cheek. "Sky...," I whispered into her ear then pulled her hair back behind her ear. She looked better when her hair got tucked behind her left ear. "It's okay, I'm here, " I finished turned her head a little with my hand so she was looking at me. She was so cute. She looked relieved as soon as she heard my words. "Okay, " She whispered back then leaned her head on my shoulder. She calmed down. I turned my head to look at Kara. I was glad that she helped us and would never have hurt us if she knew what she was doing... And I guess all she really did was inform them of where we were. She was looking at the new guy. What was his name? Hm.. Oh! Wyatt. He had red curly hair, a couple of freckles, and was tall. We were all quiet. I wanted to start a conversation but I never got to because before I could open my mouth I felt the helicopter tilt. Instead of flying straight is wobbled back and forth between sides. "Um... What are you doing up there?" Kara asked worriedly.
"I'm trying to fly this darn plane! What else?" Max yelled back. He was looking at us. Yup, great stop looking at where you're going. The plane wobbled, even more, this time. I fell forward in my seat as the plane went to the left. I felt my hand get squeezed. I looked over. Sky was clenching my hand. I gripped Sky's hand in return. The plane continued to fall to the left. I unbuckled and stood up, making my hand leave Sky's. Sky must not have wanted to stop holding my hand because she got up and grabbed my hand again. She smiled at me gaining a smile back from me. I looked out the helicopter window and saw that we were falling fast to the ground. Uh-oh. This wasn't good. "Uh... Are there parachutes on this thing?" Kara asked.
"Yeah, I think so! Probably the number of seats that there are!" Max yelled.
"Ok!" Kara said then immediately all of our eyes started looking around the helicopter for parachutes. I saw some under the seats across from us. If they were under those they would be under ours. I bent down to pick up the backpack. They were all black with white writing and zipper handles. The bag had a leather string hanging from it. It was for the parachute. I threw it onto my back and saw that the others had bags on their backs too. We went to the door and the guy with dark long brown hair pulled the door open. It was a sliding door. Right after he opened it he turned to us and said, "I'm not going to be stuck in here any longer, " Then jumped out of the helicopter. "Well, one less, " Someone behind me said. We decided to go on by one then hold onto each other's hands so we didn't land in different places. I'd never sky-dived before. Remember when I'd mentioned that I didn't love heights? Yeah, this was what I meant. Falling out of a plane never came up as number ten on my to-do list. I saw the first person jump out. They had their arms and legs out. The clouds were below us. I got more nervous as more people jumped out of the plane. A woman, then a man jumped out. The three of them held hands. I felt someone look at me. I looked up and saw that it was Sky. I smiled nervously. She smiled back and walked to me. "It'll be fine, " She said then held my hand. She lightly squeezed it, making me smile, then added, "We can go out at the same time." She knew about my head of lights but she seemed more concerned and wanting to comfort me. I smiled more. "Thanks, " I said as someone else left. There were only two other people besides us in here now. "You go first, " Sky told them. They nodded their heads and left. Just as we were getting ready to go I remembered about Max. "Hey, what about Max?" I asked. She looked at me.
"Oh.. Right, " She looked around the helicopter, "There aren't any more parachutes in here, " She turned her attention to where Max was. "Hey, Max, is there a parachute in there!" She yelled. I looked back outside. We were too close to the ground. I could already see it.
"I don't know!" Max yelled back. I looked at her. We had to go, now. She knew it too. She sighed then yelled, "We have to go!" Just as the plane got even closer to the ground. It was going too fast. If anything hit it, it would get hurt. "One, " Sky said. She was getting ready to jump out. "Two, " She held tighter onto my hand. "Three!" We jumped out at the same time and extended our arms and legs, still holding hands. The other people were off into the distance. Maybe a mile at least to walk to them. Maybe more. The wind hit me hard as I fell. We got about halfway down and let the parachutes out. All of a sudden we slowed down. The wind hit me less hard and I could see what was around me better. The sun was setting behind us, making it a little dark, and there were some birds near us. The birds passed us. They looked at us weirdly. Or that's what I thought. They didn't really have expressions. Then we were about thirty feet above the ground. Finally the ground! I had been so nervous. I was anxious to get to the ground. I wanted to be able to make the ground come to me. We slowed down and I felt the soft ground on my feet. My heart relaxed immediately and the parachute fell to the ground. I sighed in relief. Sky was taking off the backpack. I copied her. When we got them off and folded she asked, "What now?" I looked around. There was a bunch of palm trees, bushes, a road, a sidewalk, and houses into the distance. Sky seemed to be observing everything around us. "I don't know, " She said. I noticed a hotel down the road. "We could stay in a hotel, " I said. She looked over to it. The hotel was three stories and was painted white. There was a couple of cars in the parking lot. A red, blue, green, orange, and a bunch of others. "Yeah.. We could. Do we even have any money? Where are we? Where're the others?" Sly asked. I didn't know the answers. I looked over to the sign for the hotel. It said the name 'De Nada Hotel' and under it said 'Welcome to Florida.' We were in Florida? We lived at least two or three hours away from Florida. I looked at Sky. She was looking at the sign. She looked surprised and a little confused. "Florida?" She wondered.
"I guess so, " I said.
"We don't even live in this state, " She said and walked over to me.
"Which means no one we know can get hurt if someone comes here to hurt us, " I said. She looked over at me sadly. "What do you mean hurt? I don't want to get hurt, " She said. I worked in front of her. I lifted her chin with my right hand and said, "Sky, I won't let you get hurt. We need them to come to us. I don't know-how. But it definitely won't end well if we come to them, " I told her, looking into her brown beautiful eyes. Her hair laid in front of her and on her back. It was almost perfectly straight. With a curl on the right side from it being behind her ear and there was a curl at her hair right above her shoulders from it laying on her shoulders. She smiled then said, "Ok." I held onto her hand them kissed her. I sunk my left hand into her hair right above her ear. She kissed me back. This had to be the best moment ever. What could be better? Actually, I could think of a couple of better moments. Me and Sky at my house. Kissing. We were sitting on my bed just kissing. I snapped out of the daydream and remembered that we'd have to get back home first to do that. I broke off her and said, "We better get to the hotel. We need food and rest. Then we have to get them here, " I said. She nodded and we started walking to the hotel. We found that in the bags were twenty dollars each. So all together that was forty. Hopefully enough for the night. When we walked inside, as I held the door open for Sky. There were tables for eating and two couches on the other side of the tables. In the far middle was a counter with a lady in her late forties. She had dark brown hair with strands that were fading their color and turning grey. She was wearing a business suit and had her arms on the counters. She looked up from a book that was in her hands and said, "Hello. How may I help you?" She looked at both of us.
"Are there any available rooms?" Sky asked. She looked at a paper next to her left arm. The paper was on a clipboard. She flipped it and scanned the next page then looked back up at us. "Yes, it only has one bed though. Will that do?" She asked. I nodded my head as Sky said, "Yes, how much will that be?" The lady looked back at the page. "25 dollars for one night, " She said still looking at the paper. Sky grabbed 25 dollars from her pocket and walked over to the lady and put the bills on the counter. The lady slid the money to her then reached under the table and when we saw her hand again she was holding silver keys. Sky held out her hand and the lady dropped it on Sky's hand. "Room 203," She said than kept reading.
"Thank you, " I said as we walked to the elevator. I held out my hand in front of the buttons. "What floor?" I asked.
"I'm guessing two, " Sky said. I used my pointer finger to press the button for floor two. I felt the elevator guilt up. I moved to the back of the elevator and stood next to Sky. I let myself relax. Woah. I was tired. My eyes wanted to close. I forced them open and leaned against the wall just as the elevator stopped. I walked out of the elevator and waited for Sky. Then after she got out we walked to the room. The room was in the middle of the hallway, on the right. Sky unlocked the door, it was deep blue and opened it. The room was small but big enough for us. I had a small kitchen, and bathroom, and living room, and small bedroom. The walls were tan. I walked over to the couch and sat down. My eyes started to close but Sky said, "Hey." She sounded slightly annoyed but not mad. I looked up at her. "Huh?" I asked getting tired.
"There's a bed, " She said. She looked tired too but didn't seem to want to go to bed yet. I looked over to where the bedroom was.
"Oh, yeah, " I said then got up and walked to the bedroom. Sky followed me. I laid on the left side of the bed and fell asleep. Right before I fell asleep I felt the bed shift. Sky must have gotten onto the bed. As I got deeper into sleep I felt something, or one, touch me. More like a hug or something but I couldn't figure it out because I went into a beautiful dream. I dreamed I was on a stranded island with Sky. I didn't care that I couldn't get back to my parents or friends. All I cared about was Sky. I didn't think of anything else. I turned towards Sky and kissed her. One hand sunk into her hair and the other wrapped around her. I used my left hand to move her hair behind her ear. We kept kissing. I noticed a bird fly past us. We sat down on the sand and kept kissing. Later I woke up. After my eyes opened fully and I didn't feel like the light was blinding me, I rolled over onto my back and looked at the ceiling. I still wanted to sleep but I sat up a little after staring at the ceiling for two minutes. I looked next to me and saw that the covers were untucked quarter way and had wrinkles in them. Sky must have slept next to me. Just as I sat all the way up I smelled food. I looked at the kitchen. Sky was cooking something. Eggs maybe. I smelled bacon in the microwave. Yummy! I loved bacon. I hopped out of the bed and stood up. I stretched and yawned then walked to Sky. As I got to her I saw that she was cooking eggs. I walked behind her then hugged her and laid my head on her shoulder. She stood straighter, not expecting that, but then relaxed. It looked like she smiled. I lifted my head and kissed her. "Hi, " She said. I walked over to her so I stood next to her. I rubbed my eye then said, "Hi." She flipped the eggs then said, "How was your sleep?"
"It was amazing, " I said smiling.
"That's good. We've gotta go soon but I'm making eggs and bacon, " Sky said.
"Ok." One egg was uncracked, she took it out before the yolk could dry. The other one was cracked. She was probably letting the yolk dry. There was salt, napkins, and plates on the counter next to the stove. I stood there next to her just watching. After a minute or two, the yolk in the other egg was fully dry and she took it out and put it on the other plate. About two seconds later two bread pieces jumped up from inside a toaster and Sky went to the toaster to take the bread out all of the ways. Her fingers, pointer, and middle hit the hot part of the toaster. She lifted her fingers then shook them and stepped away from the toaster. "You ok?" I asked and walked to her. I grabbed her hand and moved it under the faucet. I turned it on and waited for the water to get cold then put Sky's hand under the water. "There, " I said. She smiled. "Thanks, " She said.
"You're welcome." I smiled back at her. I took the bread out and put them on the plates. "I'll get the bacon, you keep your hand under the water, " I commanded. She nodded and said, "Ok." The bacon would be done in ten seconds. I took out the butter for the bread and heard a beep. I turned around and heard another. Okay! I was coming. I opened the microwave and the beeping stopped. I smelled the bacon immediately. It smelled delicious. I grabbed the plate and took it out and put it on the counter before my hand got burned. I took off the paper towel that was on top of them. There were five bacon pieces. While I waited for the bacon to cool down so I moved them I took out a butter knife and buttered the bread. I moved the bacon onto the plates and breakfast was ready. Sky had removed her hand from under the water. She had turned off the faucet and now she was drying her hand with a towel. "Good job, " She said.
"Thanks, " I answered. She smiled then grabbed the plate closest to the stove. We sat down at a table and started eating. Sky was sitting on the opposite side as me. I was on the side almost touching the wall. I took the eggs with the dry yolk. I was halfway through my eggs when I noticed that Sky's eyes were closed. Except she was still eating her food. I stared at her and waited for her to open her eyes again. I was going to wave my hand in her face to see if she'd do something but her eyes snapped open. Really fast. She looked around the room like she'd never seen it before and was processing what was there. "What?" I asked then her head snapped to me. She looked at me for a second before she responded, "I-i don't know. I was blinking then I was somewhere else. It was like I was dreaming but I knew I was awake, " She said.
"What did you see?" I asked. She was looking directly into my eyes.
"Well, at first I was watching that jail and arena place burn then I saw a bunch of people drive away and fly away. Then I was in a car. I wasn't me though, I was someone else. I saw where the car was going. I saw a ton of information. I know what to do, " Sky answered.
"What to do for what?" I asked. I kept eating my egg. I looked at the plate and noticed every detail, the words, colors, printing. I looked up and looked at Sky. Sky ate a piece of her egg then said, "To finish them." She seemed serious but also like she was planning something out in her head.
"How?" I asked. I finished my egg and started eating the toast.
"I give up, " She said looking at her plate. I stared at her like she was crazy.
"What?" I asked. She must be crazy. She could get hurt. Or even.. Killed. I couldn't imagine her hurt. She looked at me and said, "How else?" I tried to think about it another way.
"Uh... Trap them?" I wondered.
"We could do that but how else would we get them here?" She asked. I wanted to say something different than what she suggested but I couldn't think of anything. I was speechless.
"Yeah, no other way, " Sky said after seeing that I didn't have a response. I finished my bread, sighed, and said, "Fine. I hate the idea but fine. How do you tell them that?" She pushed her hair over her right shoulder. What was she doing?
"Look at my neck, " Sky commanded. Ok.. I got up and walked behind her. Her hair was chocolate brown. I looked at her neck not knowing what to expect and saw a half of a number. The other half was covered by her hair. "What's that?" I asked as I lifted her hair to see the rest. There were three numbers. They were all in different colors. They glowed. The first was bright teal, the second was bright light green, the last was dark but shiny red. 147. That was the numbers. She turned around so she could see me and said, "My tag." I didn't like the way that sounded. Even though I didn't know what it meant. I backed away, letting her hair drop, kind of creeped out.
"What?" I asked.
"They know where we are. They tagged us, " She said. Sky sounded so smart but I was confused and creeped out.
"Um.. What?" She got out of her chair and stood behind me. Her fingers touched the top of my neck then sank down it and stopped in the middle to the right. I felt a shiver go down my spine. I could feel exactly where her figures were. My skin burned where her fingers touched. It was getting hotter. "Ow!" I jumped and turned around, making her hands stop touching me. Her expression said nothing.
"Yeah you do, " Sky said.
"Huh?" I wondered. I was still very confused. I looked at her confused.
"148," Sky said, "That's your number." Ok, that only made me more confused.
"Huh?" I repeated. She smiled.
"They gave everyone their numbers. All of the prisoners got tagged. The more important ones are valuable and if you touch that part of their skin it will burn. That's how you know they're valuable, " She paused. So I was important?
"That's how they track us. How they.. They're working on this... Control us, " She saw my face.
"What? They can control us?" I asked even more creeped out.
"Possibly, " Sky said.
"Anything else?" I asked.
"Well, they can also hurt us. It's like we're still prisoners. They know where we are. We'll never be safe, " She said sounding slightly scared. If this couldn't harm us I would have said it was cool. I touched my neck and found the numbers. I could feel the numbers. My skin burned but I didn't remove my fingers. "What color are they?" I asked.
"They aren't any. They're only slightly darker than your skin color, " Sky said.
"Really?" Sky nodded.
"Yeah, why?" Sky asked.
"Yours are colorful, " I answered.
"Oh. What colors?"
"Blue, red, and green. They're glowing. So bright. You could see it easily."
"Oh. Does it mean anything?" Sky wondered. She reached her hand through her hair and stopped it at the middle of her neck. She grinded her teeth together. It must have been burning. She quickly removed her hand.
"Maybe. You're probably more important to them than I am, " I said then thought of something. "What do you mean by 'valuable?'" I asked.
"Well.., " Sky didn't finish her sentence. She didn't seem to be able to. Which didn't help me calm down. I looked into her eyes. They looked scared.
"What? What does it mean?" I asked my voice a little shaky but curious.
"They-They could cell us, " She said. Okay, that freaked me out.
"What?" I asked walking backward a little.
"If someone knew who we came from they could bring us back and get money for us or or make us slaves for them by controlling us, " Sky said her voice shaky the whole time. I definitely looked shocked and scared.
"What?" I asked again quieter and less like a question.
"I-i know. There's no way to untag us. I think, " She said. My mind was swarming with questions.
"How.. Did they tag us?" I asked hating the way 'tag' sounded. It was like we're were prise tags. They can move us and sell us.
"W-well. When they first captured us. They drugged us then stamped us with the numbers then something went into us that makes them able to possibly control us and why it's hot or for me also glowing, " She said. I looked at my body. There was something inside of me? Creepy.
"What did they put in us?" I asked.
"A tiny robot thing, " Sky answered. I didn't mean to but I imagined tiny things crawling around inside me which just freaked me out.
"And there isn't ANY way to get it out?" I asked. Sky shrugged. "Not that I know of."
"So how many things have they done to us within the past couple of weeks?" I asked.
"Well.. They captured us, tortured us, made us stronger but was going to kill us after, and tagged us."
"Are they going to control us?" I wondered.
"They might. I bet they will. They just have to regroup then make a new plan, " Sky answered.
"Ok, " I said then wanted to sit back down. I walked back to the seat and sat down. I looked at Sky. She was sitting back down too. "Now about that you wanting to give up, " I said. Her smile left her lips.
"I don't want to. I have to."
"Ok but if you were to how would you?" I asked.
"I-i kill myself, " Sky said. I jumped up from the seat and said, "What? Are you crazy?" I didn't think she was. I didn't want to find out what living without her would be like. Even if we were only friends, which finally we weren't, I wouldn't want her to die. I looked sad but I wasn't going to let myself cry. Sky shook her head.
"I won't die, " She said. Huh? What does she mean?
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"My body is strong enough to stay alive."
"Huh? How?" I asked. I was confused again.
"When they made me stronger, they made me too strong, for there liking, unless they got my power."
"But it can't save you if you get hit in the heart." I was worried that I'd lose her. She gave me a 'Yeah, that's why I won't, ' look.
"How can you not?" I asked.
"I'm sure there's a spot that doesn't kill someone.. Just almost kills them, " Sky said. I looked at Sky.
"Do I get a say in this or are you going to do it anyway?" She smiled.
"Well, you know me. I'm going to do it whether you like it or not. Or if I like it. It's what I have to do, " She said. I sighed.
"Ok. Where are you going to do it? What do I have to do?" I asked.
"I'm going to do it somewhere near here. You just have to be ready. We have to find the others first. You can't fight five people let alone twenty and I'll be dying."
"Dying? You can't do this. You can't die, " I said.
"I won't. I'll just be dying, " She said.
"Um.. Ok. How do we find the others?"
"They probably will find us, " Sky said right as we heard a knock on the door, making me jump. Sky got up and answered it. It was Kara and that other guy.. Wyatt. They were holding hands.
"Hello, " Sky said and let them in. I walked over to Sky and held her hand.
"Hi, " Wyatt said.
"We know what to do, " Sky said and told them everything she'd told me. It turned out they also were tagged we suspected that it burned more for us four than anyone else. When they heard the part about Sky almost dying there reactions were similar to mine. Eventually, they agreed because they knew Sky would do it anyway and Kara wasn't not going to help Sky and Wyatt was just going to stick with Kara. So we knew what we would do. All that was left was getting a bigger team.. And for Sky to almost kill herself to make them come.