Like the previous building, this one is brightly lit up on the inside. Other than that, the two buildings are entirely different.

The first building was a near empty canvas, but this one is a chaotic rats nest cluttered with papers all over the tables and walls. Papers carpet the six rectangular tables that line the four walls. Each table is so covered to the point that I can't tell what color they are.

On the back wall, there is a map of the whole town of Treegrass, with the carnival drawn onto the town. This has to be the room with the information Vesper told Aiden about.

As I step further into the room, I can't help but berate myself for my lack of caution since I did not consider the possibility of a guard being in here ready to shoot me. I make a mental note to change that, and then I turn my attention to the thousands of papers scattered across the nearest table.

Aiden's instructions echo in my mind. He said to look for anything about where they might be taking the carnival to next and to find a map. The school had shown us a map of the New World before, but it was too vast and complex to commit to memory. If I could steal a map for the Jumpers, then that would surely help them go to another town and warn them of what is coming.

The first table of papers is full of drawings of the games we played here. There are drawings of the rock wall, the triangles, the shark game, and more. Devin and I must have missed some of the games because there are a few drawings here that I do not recognize.

I flip through the papers to see if there is anything that could be useful on this table, and when I see nothing, I move on to the next.

The second table has papers with many people's names on them—just one list after another. I don't know who these people are or if they are important, so I take the notepad that Aiden gave me out of my back pocket and write down some of the names.

Izzy Soto

Leo Tyler

Georgina Donati

Issac Rowland

Karl Blackwood

Since I don’t want to waste too much time, I stop writing down names and start looking through the papers again.

I shuffle through more and more papers and start getting frustrated by the New World’s inability to be organized. How did they manage to kill us if they can’t even get their documents in order? It’s like being hunted by a raccoon, and somehow, the raccoon is winning.

After what seems like forever, I finally find a list of the names of the eighteen towns in the New World. Except this list only has seventeen town names. Of course, they would not include themselves. I quickly pull out Aiden’s notepad again and write down the names in the order they appear on the list. I don’t know if this is the exact order in which the deadly carnival will go, but I keep it in order just in case.

I put the paper down and look through the rest of the papers laying around. I come across a paper with Governor Davies’ name written on it, titled Saving Life. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean because, from my perspective, it looks like he wants to take life since he is killing most of us. Who is he saving other than himself and the others in the town of Officials?

No one is safe, and no one is being saved. I guess that is not true. Aiden and the Jumpers saved us, but no one saved them or the town of Redseed.

I skim over some of what the paper says, and I immediately put it down when I see the words The removal of a portion of our country’s population has become the only solution we have found to work without fail. I want to burn this stupid lie, but I think that would give away the fact I am in here.

I move on to look through the rest of the papers, and I manage to find a map. It is just as I remember, very confusing. The map is confusing because so many towns are separated by the large green and yellow spaces between them. This area is called no man’s land. We were told no man’s land was too dangerous and that a person could only go out there if they had a valid reason and were accompanied by the military or guards. My fingers trace over the intricate lines on the map as I wonder about how much the New World has lied to us.

There is a pretty big rolled up map that I decide to leave behind, its size and complexity making it too impractical to bring with me. However, a slightly smaller one catches my eye, and I decide to fold it up and put it in my pocket. There is no way that I am going to waste any more time in here by trying to draw an exact replica of the map and put it into the notepad.

I shuffle through the papers once again to see if I missed anything, but I don’t think I have. I step back from the tables and look around the room again. The four walls are almost bare, and the room is windowless, so there is nothing I could miss there. The tables are cluttered with papers that mean mostly nothing to me. As I back up further closer to the door, I catch the sight of a small drawer on the far table that I don’t remember checking.

I move over to it and quickly open it. There is nothing inside but a small laptop. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not. Laptops are so expensive that only government officials and police officers can afford them. Some teachers in our school all joined together to buy one a few years ago, and I thought I would never hear them stop talking about it.

They would go on and on about what it could do. It could show multiple readings or files all at once, and it could even analyze those files and show you the similarities and differences between them. The laptop could download all your information and send that information straight to the police if anything were to happen to you. If you laid it flat on the table and clicked on a particular option, then it could show you a 3D version of whatever you were looking at. That was everyone’s favorite option.

But most importantly, the laptop has some of the best security features. If you wanted to put a password on it, you could. I don’t mean any regular stupid password that you would use to make your friend or sibling guess if he wanted to get into your fort as a kid.

No, I mean a password that a person could put a whole series of hidden buttons that someone has to hit in a particular order to unlock the laptop. If you didn’t want a regular password like that, then you could choose to have a face recognition password or one with a voice activation option to unlock it.

There is an option for the laptop owner that if the wrong person tries to get in or fails to guess the password, the computer could take a picture of you so that the laptop owner would know who was trying to break in. This is a good security measure, but the teachers in my school never chose it since they felt sure enough that no one would try to get in.

I take the laptop out of the drawer and place it on the table. If I open the laptop and it’s locked, then I know I have checked everything in this room, and I’ll go. If there is no password or it has been unlocked, then maybe I could find something better than a few names and a map.

I know that the camera for facial recognition will be in the top center of the screen, so I slowly open it so I can put my hand over the camera. I don’t know what would happen if the wrong person tries to unlock the laptop. Will it take my picture and send it to the police or the town of Officials? Or maybe since the government likes killing people as of lately, perhaps it will fire out a bullet right into my brain. That last one might be a little extreme, but I am not taking any chances, given the circumstances.

When the laptop is mostly opened, the screen lights up, and I am met with an image of the three heads of government staring right at me. Their heads are so prominent on the screen that I am taken by surprise, and I almost take my hand off the camera. I hold my hand onto the camera a little tighter and look around at the screen.

Besides the three faces of what I am now going to refer to as our nation’s three biggest idiotic assholes, there is nothing else on the screen. There must be a hidden button or passcode, or it needs me to take my hand off the camera so it can use its facial recognition. I am about to close the laptop when a notification pops up.

You have thirty seconds to unlock.

A timer is shown counting down from thirty, and I start to panic. What happens after thirty seconds? Does it just turn off, does it shoot me, or does the whole thing just blow up?

I seriously hate the government. Just like their vague explanation for what happens to the red light people, their laptops are also ambiguous.

I don’t bother sticking around to find out what happens if I fail to unlock the laptop, so I close it and put it back in the empty drawer. Once I close the drawer, I turn around and head for the door. If there is nothing else useful in this room, then there is no reason for me to waste any more time here. I need to get to the kitchen to meet back up with Aiden.

I reach for the handle, but the door starts opening before I touch it. A wave of terror hits me, and I take multiple steps backward until my back hits the end of a paper-filled table. A guard walks in and freezes when he sees me, just as I do when I see him.

The male guard is on the younger side. His blond hair is slicked back, and his uniform is perfect—no wrinkles or stains. His eyes skim me over, and I know that he can tell I am not another guard and that I shouldn’t be in here. I catch the sight of his gun strapped onto his waist, and I am reminded of my own gun.

When the guard takes a step toward me, I quickly pull out the gun from my waistband and point it at him before he can reach his own weapon.

“Hands up and close the door,” I say, trying to sound like the most confident person in the world.

The guard looks at me for another second, then does what I said. “How did you get in here?” He asks and tries, taking a step closer to me.

I hold the gun up to point at his head, “I don’t recommend stepping any further,” I hope my voice comes out as serious as I mean. “I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to.”

The guard nods in understanding, and then I continue, “Is anyone else expected to come through that door?”

The guard looks at the door and then back to me, “Not that I know of.”

“How many guards are out there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie, I want an answer.”

“I don’t know.” He says again a little louder.

I decided to let the question go since he would probably lie about it anyway. Besides, it doesn’t really matter how many guards are outside that door. If there are more than one, then I am as good as dead.

A new question hits me. “How many innocent lives have you taken today? How many people have you killed?”

He closes his eyes for a second before answering, “Why would that answer matter? You aren’t going to believe me anyway.”

He is right, but it does not change the anger I have because of him and his fellow shooters.

“Move,” I tell him, motioning with my gun to the other side of the room. He nods, then slowly takes one step to the side, then another, and another. Once he is standing on one side of the room and I am on the opposite side, which is closest to the door, I decide to make my move.

Without saying another word, I quickly open the door and sprint out of the room as fast as possible. I don’t turn back to see if the guard is behind me or if other guards are chasing after me. I just run as fast as I can in the direction that I think Aiden and I came from.

Chapter 17

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