I glared at Amela as Stanley sighed. “You couldn’t have thought about telling us that before the meeting so that we would’ve brought our phones?” Chave pointed out, annoyed.

Amela looked at us sheepishly and apologized, and we talked a bit more before we left, one by one. “Wait!” Amela called out to us as we were about to leave the square, running up to us.

I looked at her curiously, and she quickly explained. “Uhm, I just wanted to give Claude and Charlotte something,” she spoke shyly, and I looked at her amused. She produced a toy car, something that Claude happily took, and a card for Charlotte.

I looked at the card strangely, and before I could speak she explained again. “The card is for Charlotte to come into our house without booking an appointment. She can also bring Claude along, since I have a lot of younger siblings who want new playmates.”

I nodded, and then big her farewell before leading them back home. Charlotte inspected the card a bit, before looking at me. “Do you want it?” She asked, and I shook my head.

“Nah, Amela gave it to you, which means it’s yours.” I smiled and ruffled her hair, and then we walked back home. Going back, nothing much happened, and we soon arrived home safely. I inspected the house first, making sure nobody tried to break in or destroyed anything while we were gone.

Luckily, nothing happened, so we went to the back. “Ok Charlotte, you’re going to go on my shoulders, and I’m gonna stand on this chair, so try to get on the roof, in the window, and use the hammer to take the nails off and let us in.”

“Got it.” Charlotte confirmed, and I grabbed the chair that I had put in the bushes earlier. Then, I squatted on the group as Charlotte stood on the chair, and then put her legs over my shoulders.

With great effort, I stood up and moved the chair as close as possible to the roof while making sure that it wasn’t under the roof. Then, I carefully stood on the chair, and called out to Charlotte. “Is this good enough?”

I heard some rustling, before feeling Charlotte shift her weight on me. “I got it!” She shouted back, and then soon I felt her getting off my shoulders. I quickly watched her and saw that she was struggling on the edge, and quickly helped push her up.

After that I grabbed the chair and Claude and went to the front of the house, letting Claude sit on the chair since I knew it would take a while. After some time, I could faintly hear the plank being removed, and tried to open the door.

“Thanks a lot Charlotte!” I thanked her as it opened, and I brought the chair in, while checking that Charlotte wasn’t injured while removing the plank, which thankfully she wasn’t. I didn’t remove the rest of the planks though, since I still had to refill our water supply, and I had to leave them alone for periods of time which made me worry a bit.

I took a few trips to the lake and back, before almost all the containers at home were filled, as well as the purified water. It was quite late in the day, and the sun was already setting. I didn’t worry though, since I knew that yesterday me and Sam had arrived late.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

I went into the pantry and checked on the foods we could, thinking about what to make for dinner. There were still some goose eggs left in the pantry, and I guessed soon it would go bad. I filled a bowl almost full with water, before putting all the eggs in it.

The eggs were mostly at the bottom, but some were about in the middle, closer to the end, meaning they were still good, but the ones in the middle were going to go bad soon. I had the dinner plan in mind, and spent the rest of the afternoon roleplaying with the kids.

A few minutes after the sunset and I had lit a few candles, Sam and Jane came home. We were in the living room, so we were able to quickly greet them home. “Welcome home!” I greeted them, walking up to them and giving each a hug.

“Welcome home Sam and Jane!” Claude shouted, running up to them and almost barreling into Sam and knocking him over. Charlotte soon came up on the rear, and welcomed them quietly.

I noticed the bag that Sam put down looked bountiful, and curiously asked them. “Did you find a lot of stuff today?”

“Oh boy, you wouldn’t believe it El! It turns out that the area you and Sam were in yesterday was empty territory, and you met the other group by luck!” Jane started chattering on, and opened the bag to show me everything.

For some reason, no group was in that area, and since Sam and I scared off the group from yesterday, nobody but them were there. Not much was taken though, since not a lot of stores had food that could last for a long time, and they didn’t have enough storage.

I helped Sam put everything away for a little bit, before getting started on cooking, since we agreed to eat first. As I got everything ready and was about to cook, I heard a faint beep. I paused on cracking the egg, and listened more carefully, since I wasn’t too sure.

Beep. It sounded again, and this time I was sure. I hurriedly looked around, but there was no way that a bomb was here, so where was it coming from? Then, I remembered what Stanley and Chave said, and I looked at the stairs.

The communicator was left with Sam while me and Jane took care of the phone, so I went upstairs and into his room. Before I could enter, I heard the beep again, and it sounded much louder than before. Knowing that I didn’t know where the communicator was, I called out to Sam.

“Sam! Come up here and get the communicator please, it’s important!” I shouted from the doorway, before entering. But before I took a few steps in, I reconsidered and stepped back. “And bring Jane too!” I added, before going back.

Sam’s room felt comfortable, even if there wasn’t a lot of decoration in it, though it wasn’t bare either. I searched around the room for the communicator, looking at some pretty obvious places.

Sam arrived at the doorway, with Jane behind him, and grabbed the communicator from under the chair, in which he had taped under. He gave it to me, and I thanked him profusely while checking the messages.

“Why’d you even call us in such a hurry anyways? We already agreed that you’d tell us after dinner.” Sam looked at me confusedly, and Jane agreed. While he had spoken, I had already found what I was looking for.

I laughed giddily, before looking at Sam and Jane excitedly. “Look at what this is!” I showed them the communicator’s screen, and on it was a number one surrounded with a red circle, meaning an unread message.

Sam stared at it, a look of disbelief on his face. He grabbed the communicator, and kept staring at it. “Who is it from? Hurry and check it Sam!” Jane murmured excitedly, looking over his shoulder.

I decided now would be a good time to explain what I learned today. “The Andersons’ and one of the people in the Together got a message from their family that they were coming back.” Sam looked at me, then back at the communicator.

His finger hovered right above the button, but just when he was about to click it, he stopped, looking uncertain. Then he shoved the communicator to me. “You do it El,” he asserted, looking at the communicator nervously.

I looked at Sam, confused. Then I realized what he could’ve been nervous about, and felt bad. I clicked the button, and read the message. And again. And again. I rubbed my eyes and tried reading it a fourth time, making sure I didn’t read it wrong.

But I read it right, and the text didn’t change. I gulped, before taking a deep breath and reading it aloud. “Adena’s been kidnapped. Nobody else cares about the situation, and we think she’s going to be sent for human trafficking. Beware of Aila and Mikhail.”

Jane and Sam looked thunderstruck, and I quickly tried to comfort Sam. “Sam, hey it’s going to be ok alright? They’ll come back, it’s an absolute,” I whispered encouraging words while hugging and patting his back, but his face was still twisted into a shock.

Jane joined in, trying to comfort him. No matter what we said, Sam uttered nothing, and he didn’t move either. When we heard creaking coming from the stairs, Sam regained himself quickly and spoke low. “We can’t let Charlotte find out. She’ll be devastated.”