Open fire

Part 37 "Figuring things out"

"Tell me" he whispered. You looked back at him, his full attention on you.

"I spoke to Charlie earlier today... He said that there were people entering the barrier with weapons, he suspects that Tayla sent them" you explained and he looked as if he was thinking, then turned to you.

"What do you think she's going to do?" he asked. You opened your mouth to speak, but were unsure.

"She wants us all, but she can't find the tunnels" you say.

"The barrier is up, how about that?" he quirks a brow, your eyes widened.

"Oh no..." you spoke almost inaudible.

"It'll be fine Willow, we have all these people behind us" Niall tries to reassure you. You put your head in your hands, all kinds of thoughts running through your mind, but suddenly you feel your hands being slowly put down.

"Hey, no reason to be like that" he says so you look at him directly and something's very, very strange.

"I'm going to sleep, thank you Ni" you quickly said, standing up and pulling your hands back from his.

You heard him say "Willow wait-" but you were already in the room.

***

"Morning" you heard Niall's voice behind you. You returned to the IT room, but this time almost everyone was there except Crystal and unlike usual Niall arrived the last. You didn't want to speak to him for some reason, it felt really strange and you just couldn't put your finger on it.

"Hi" you replied as you saw him take a seat on his usual spot. It had been a pretty routinic day, nothing new. Some tests here and there, as previously said, nothing different whatsoever.

-

"You should take a break, babe" Calum said, sitting next to you.

"Hmm?" you asked, not hearing him the first time. You heard him sigh.

"I brought you a croissant" he said happily. You turned to look at him now and smiled as well.

"Thank you" you say, kissing him on the cheek.

"You are really distracted by this, more so than usual" he comments, taking a bite out of his croissant.

"I just keeping look at the file names" you say, taking a bite.

"You know we've looked at them, left, right, horizontal and God knows how else. They don't mean anything" he says. It's true, the fake locations were all sorted out in files with letters and numbers mixed in no order.

"Yeah...I guess" you shrugged. He seemed to be analysing what's wrong, you knew Calum would do anything to make you or anyone happy and that he was terribly disappointed when he couldn't do that.

"We'll figure it out eventually" he smiled lightly.

"It might be too late then" you said to yourself.

***

"Willow" someone's voice echoed throughout your head. You stood up and there was complete darkness, another dream.

"Zaine...?" you questioned since it sounded like him.

"Replay the letters, it might resemble something".
You woke up and immediately  glanced around the room. Calum was next to you, the laptop was on the small table in the corner. You got up and instantly turned it on.

"Willow, what in the world are you doing?" you heard Calum groan.

"I've got it" you answered and he seemed to be wokened up a bit by that.

"What?" he asked, standing up and joining you. The screen was finally lit and you instinctively knew where to search.

"Look at them, the letters and numbers. All caps, all written wrong" you said and he nodded his head.

"Well, we already know that" he remarked which made you groan.

"Watch" you said. You wrote down one of the names on a piece of paper before you, then wrote it backwards.

"I don't see anything" he said, narrowing his eyes.

"B-but it can't be" you checked again, but it was just a mess.

"Hey, it's late, it doesn't matter" Calum said softly.

"I can't believe this" you sniffled throwing the papers off the table.

"Willow..." he hugged you as you tried to hold in your anger and disappointment.

"I failed them Calum" you admit.

"No, we still have time, look at where we are now" he said, rubbing small circles on your back to calm you down.

"I have to tell you something" you pulled back, sitting on the bed, so he looked you with both curiousity and worry.

"What is it...?" he questioned sitting next to you. You turned your gaze away and opened your mouth to speak when, something clicked. The paper that was thrown on the floor, it was upsidedown, so when you look at it like that, the numbers are letters and combined with the real ones they make out something written in your ancient language.

"Look" you pointed to the paper. He sat closer to you and looked from that perspective.

"-15,0088047, 128,2997943, those are coordinates" he gasped.

"Written in our language, you figured it out!" he exclaimed happily and you hugged him tightly.

"We have to tell everyone, now" you said.

"It's five in the morning..." you say once the realisation kicks in, which makes Calum chuckle.

"Our world is at stake here" he diverts.

"Right, come on" you laugh. Now it was time for a plan, because Tayla maybe isn't as smart as she thinks she is....