Chapter 38 - What If
Tobias
I wake up to Indy impaling my abdomen with his paw and nails, and with his gross, slimy tongue spreading slobber all over my face.
Messing with him, I gently shove him off of my stomach and onto his back on the bed, then I roughly mess with the fur on his belly as he squirms with excitement from me scaring him suddenly.
He playfully nudges me with his teeth, growling playfully as I burry him in a blanket and run out of the room. He's just a few seconds behind me though, the sound of his toenails scratching the hard wood floors as he runs after me into the kitchen. On his way to the kitchen after me, he picked up one of his rope toys that I got him, it's long ends dangling from his strong jaws.
I bend down and grab one end of the rope from his mouth and begin to pull on it, he growls playfully, pulling with all of his might as his toenails make it hard for him to stand.
There's a knock on the door. I remember that Mom was going to stop by sometime this morning before noon to talk to me. She went to see Tris yesterday, and from what she briefly told me on the phone last night, it went very well.
"It's open!" I yell.
From the distraction of remembering my mother's visit, and then yelling to her, I wasn't pulling as hard on the rope, and with one swift pull from Indy, my butt hits the floor as he drags me from the kitchen out into the living room.
My mother laughs as the door shuts behind her. "Well, I guess you two are up and chipper." She chuckles.
Indy, clearly being lost in beating me at the tug-of-war game we had going on, must have not heard the knock on the door, because he jumps when he hears my mother's voice, then let's go of the rope and runs to greet her, his tail wagging a mile a minute. She pats his head as he sits at her feet.
I laugh, getting on my feet. "Never a dull moment with him around, I'll tell you."
I drop the rope at my feet and his ears perk up at the sound. He runs over and picks up the rope, then prances back to my mother in victory, his head high and his tail going back and forth like one of those old clocks.
"So, how'd it go yesterday?" I start conversation with her.
"It went well, very well. A lot better than I had mentally played it out in my mind. We both agreed to completely start over." She says smiling.
"That's great." I smile back at her.
"I was surprised by how much she was talking. From what you said, it didn't sound like she was talking that much." She says.
"According to her doctor, I guess she's talking more and more each day. I saw her last two days ago, so I guess then that's about accurate if she was talking a bit more with you now than she was a few days ago.
She nods, smiling more than I've seen her smile in quite some time.
It makes me so glad to know that my mother and girlfriend will finally maybe get along. I think it will work out best for all of us.
+ + +
Indy runs circles around Josh and I as we go over data that the Erudite has sent to us from what the discovered from the building. The investigation happened three days ago, and everyone came back okay, and they brought a lot of stuff to decipher.
"There's small amounts of video footage found in some of the computers, but none of the footage really shows anything that we haven't already seen from hacking into the one computer. We had thought that the computer we hacked was the main one, but it wasn't, this is." He says walking over and pointing to the one computer on the table. "Erudite brought it over here to see if anyone in the control room would have better luck hacking it than they had. It's probably the computer we are looking for with all of the information we need."
Great.
"And then there's these. These papers were found nailed to poles with shackles on them. The interesting thing is that people in Erudite searched the records they have for every person who has ever stepped foot in the city, and there's no records of the people, nor were they rescued, well, by us at least."
"What do you mean by that?" I question his last statement.
"The Erudite have come up with this theory, or idea that there was a rescue before ours, but the city that conducted it only saved their people."
I feel my face get hot.
What would have happened if they had saved everyone.
Tris could've ended up in a whole different city.
I mentally slap myself for thinking so selfishly, I mean, if she was rescued by those people, then maybe she wouldn't have been in such rough shape.
But still.
"You okay? Don't pass out on me here, Four."
It makes sense though, I mean, why else would there be so many empty cells?
"Four? You're scaring me here... What are you thinking about?"
I blink, snapping out of my phase. "It makes sense. There was so many empty cells when we got there, I mean, why else would there be so many unused cells for that time being?"
Josh nods, now being the one deep in thought.
"The Erudite also found evidence that there was another antagonist in the building besides David." Josh says slowly, choosing the placement of his words as if he was talking to a child.
I look at him, but he continues to look down at the table, his eyes never meeting mine.
"His name is, was, Derrick, and they are unsure if he is deceased or still alive somewhere. They're also unsure of what his threat may be, if there is one, towards us."
I'm silent.
What could I say, even if I knew what to say?
"It will be fine, I am hoping. We just have to to keep putting the pieces together through the IB group and the investigation in general. Maybe we are just overreacting, but I guess it's better to be over prepared than less." He says.
"But what if this man, Derrick, becomes a threat and is out there somewhere seeking revenge? How would we be able to continue to keep the IB a secret conspiracy if we had to prepare for a war or something?" I ask.
He sighs, looking unsure of what to say again.
"Let's just keep the 'what ifs' in the back of our mind for later right now and worry about finding the truth with the facts, and then we can work from there. I understand your worry, but I think we can't bite off more than we can chew right now."
I nod, but I know that I cannot ignore the 'what if's' that wrack the back of my brain.
It's good to be back. 🙂
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