Fading Numbers

Chapter One

A jet black SUV slowed down and pulled over by three sweaty, grimy bodies sprawled out on the ground. The tinted window rolled down which revealed Delilah sliding her sunglasses into the glove department.

She looked at them and smirked before clapping her hands and bellowing, "Break's over boys. Isaiah, haul the wheelbarrow over here so we can cram all these bricks in there."

Isaiah groaned and gripped onto the handle of the wheelbarrow right beside him and yanked himself up out of the shade. He teetered for a couple of seconds while adjusting to the sunlight hurled at his eyes before thrusting the wheelbarrow behind the car. Delilah unlocked the trunk and extracted sacks of bricks out before spilling them into the wheelbarrow. After emptying three sacks, Isaiah jostled the wheelbarrow to the new house he was building.

It's been two months since they had escaped Nevada. After withdrawing fifty billion dollars from at ATM at the airport with the debit card they had snagged and opening multiple checking accounts under the owner, they had bought a BMW 7 series for $136,000 along with other parts for a car engine so they could modify it and drove to a ghost town called Carnegie. They had worked on the car for four days straight and once they installed tinted windows, titanium alloy wheels, auto insulation, and other features Exton and Isaiah went on a two day trip to Kentucky to obtain more information about multiple debit cards. They came back with more than a billion dollars and since then, they've been attempting to rebuild the ghost town they were hiding out in. Bricks, cement, glass panes, and lots of other materials were sent to post offices where Delilah would pick them up once Exton alerted her of the delivery. During the day, Isaiah and Braxton would clean up what's left of the houses that were still standing in Carnegie and then they would rebuild it into something modern. Exton would monitor the delivery status of all their orders and would make sure nobody is heading towards Carnegie through satellite feed but at night, he would try to finish what the boys didn't until he collapsed into a slumber.

They've already finished building one house where they all slept together on top of plush sheets, thin blankets, and fluffy pillows. It was to remain unfurnished until all of them owned their own house. Delilah tugged her hair into a tight ponytail before gesturing for Exton to meet her behind the trunk.

"Here's the tech you wanted," Delilah helped Exton carry some of the heavy boxes to his work station. "So, do you really think you can do it?"

"Yeah," Exton murmured while violently tearing the boxes open. "If I can build a motion sensor out of these materials and connect the PIR sensors to create a field with a diameter of 300 miles, we will be alerted if anybody trespasses it."

"Not if," Delilah gave him a gentle nudge which reassured him. "When you do it. How powerful can you make it?"

"It will be charged by solar energy so it would be up and running 24/7 and if I implant a multidirectional antenna, it could detect if anything trespasses by air too just in case they're sending pilots to look for us through the air. Though, I'll make the alert not as important because birds and bugs would be setting it off all the time."

"Wow," Delilah said in awe. She enveloped him in her arms making a soft velvet color fill in his cheeks. "Thats amazing."

"Thanks," Exton chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair before turning around and organizing all the hardware. "I think I could have this up within another month. I'm gonna need loads of coffee tho."

"All right, I got you," Delilah backtracked a couple of steps and walked away slowly to check up on the other guys.

Behind the new house, Braxton muttered to himself annoyed in between huffs and puffs, "Build a town just for us, they said. It's gonna be easy, they said. Easy my ass."

He emptied the last sack of sand which was just enough to fill up the hole in the backyard. He trudged through the grains beneath him and reached to grab the 30 foot long vapor barrier which he unrolled and fitted on top of all the sand before taping it down. Braxton bent over and gripped onto his knees, heaving loudly when a hand caressed his shoulder.

"You alright?" Delilah asked concerned with a soft smile on her face. Braxton looked up at her with his silver eyes making her look away into the distance. The corners of her chapped smile tugged down into a slight frown when she saw Isaiah lounging around with a Pepsi in his hand.

"What the hell is he doing?" She angrily murmured while storming over to him.

"Hey Lila," Isaiah had a grin on his face before he took a long, long sip from his soda can.

"Are you done?" Delilah stammered with rage.

"Not yet. Got a little bit left. But what's up?"

Delilah took one long breath before hollering, "Hey? What's up? That's all you have to say? All of us here are busting our asses trying to build a safe environment for us to reside in while you're here sitting on your ass drinking a damn soda can."

"I don't understand why you're bugging," Isaiah's eyes flickered down to her trembling fists with pearl white knuckles. "Like chill out dude. An average person lives up 82 years old. We're all 32 so we have like 50 more years to build a luxury. Relax."

"Are you really in that much fucking denial?" Delilah howled getting the attention of Exton who was working on his motion sensor field. "The FBI is after us. Not the local fat, donut-eating 5O. Okay? If they find us, we are dead. We are not going to be arrested and sent to court. They will put a bullet in us."

"Okay, but if you haven't noticed, there aren't any local cops around here though," Isaiah threw his head back and chuckled quietly. Delilah snatched the can from his hand and dumped the rest of the Pepsi on his head.

"Let's get back to work," Delilah and a wet Isaiah trotted over to where Braxton was working and helped him build the concrete floor.