Year E3029

Ocea

"Intruder!" the bug screeched while flying around.

I clicked the rocklock catalog, watching it collapse into a small square box again. I gripped the cold rock, placing it in my pocket. A metal basket of sunflower gum caught my eyes as I grabbed a handful, placing them next to the rocklock. Thomas's eyes met mine as he smirked, seeing me steal from Clair.

"Fucking intruders!" the bell bug yelled.

The insect buzzed by my face before I spun to see Wyatt entering the door. Becca stepped into the office behind him.

The bell bug dive-bombed Becca, jabbing at her arm. It flew up to her face, attaching to the top of her head. "Beep, beep, beep, intruder!"

Becca waved her arms around her head, wanting to swat the bug away from her, but didn't want to injure it. "Get this gross thing off of me!" she yelled.

The bell bug crawled from her hair to her face, biting at her forehead. Blood dripped to her eyebrow while Wyatt smacked the insect hard, sending it across the room.

Clair ran over to the bug, scooping it up. "What the fuck, Wyatt!" she yelled at him.

The bell bug stood in her hand, making angry noises. It slowly flew from her palm onto her shoulder, perched, watching Becca.

"What was I supposed to do?" Wyatt replied to Clair, while inspecting Becca's face. "Your bug was out of control."

Thomas brought his hand to his mouth, covering his laugh. He made eye contact with me, causing him to spit-laugh into his palm. I erupted in laughter with him, holding my stomach.

Thomas put his hand out, holding the desk while trying to bring himself back together.

Wyatt crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at us while Becca let out a small giggle. Her high-pitched laugh filled the air before she snorted and covered her mouth with embarrassment.

"Sorry," she said in a muffle from her hand.

"Okay, enough," Clair said. "Ocea has what she wants. Time for you to leave." Clair placed her hand on my back, pushing me toward the door.

"Wait," Wyatt said. "Isn't Stopper here?"

Clair froze. "Stopper?" she questioned with her cheeks turning red. "I don't know where he is, but he's not here." Clair put her hand on her hip, acting like Stop means nothing to her.

"You sure?" I added, leaning against the door. "He and Dylan said they were heading here."

Clair scrunched her eyebrows together before leaving into the back room. I glanced at Wyatt while she shrugged his shoulders with a straight expression. The sound of old keys rang while Clair strolled back into the room.

"Follow me," she said, ushering us out the door.

Clair set the bell insect on the door handle on the outside before wrapping a metal chain around the door and locking it like the olden days.

"Clair, let's make this quick because the Men Of Suits will probably show up soon," Wyatt said.

Clair peeked at him. "Why?" she asked. "What did you Saviors do now?"

"What don't we do?" I said with a laugh.

Wyatt eyed me before looking back at Clair. "These two over here have chips." He pointed at Thomas and Becca.

I leaned closer to her. "And fugitives now."

Clair's eyes went wide, freezing for a quick second to think. She quickly took off, stepping into a jog. "Okay, let's get you guys to the underground." She looked over her shoulder while still running. "The far corner reaches the forbidden forest, so they will think you are over there instead of at the junkyard."

A crane hovered over my head, moving to the left and picking up a pile of rocks beside me. I ran around, lifting the material from my eye to see it with a better view. I covered up quickly with an eye at the machine, seeing it was a hormiga insect with metal junk parts around its circular body to protect it. The large legs stepped to the side as Thomas jumped out of the way.

"Woah there, big guy," Clair said, petting its back sixth leg. "This is Herman." She looked at me. "He's the oldest of the bunch."

"When did the junkyard rely on hormiga for cleaning up the piles?" I asked, ducking under the massive insect.

"We brought in Herman and his family about a month ago." Clair started running again, with me beside her. "My father hated the machines the Men Of Suits had us using, so he convinced them to let us upgrade to hormiga."

Clair slowed down when her house arrived in view. The junkyard family lived in a rocklock house, the same material as the device we used to lock up secret objects, but they took the scraps and made their own home.

"Aren't hormiga known for eating junk?" Thomas added.

Clair pointed at him with a smile. "Yes, which is why they are perfect. Hormiga are go getters. They clean up material in the wild. They eat it every so often, but mostly they have an addiction to move something from one spot to the other."

A distant siren echoed around the office, bouncing off the piles of rocks near us. "Beep, beep, beep, intruder!" I could barely hear.

"Looks like the Men Of Suits have arrived." Clair pointed to her house. "Go through the front door." She walked backward, away from us. "Follow down the hallway, and the last door on the right is a room full of nonsense." She looked over her shoulder, then back at us. "Pull up the plum stone and a trap door will open."

Clair ran away from us while we took off in the opposite direction. Wyatt jumped the front steps, opening the door. We rushed into the rocklock house, trailing to the entrance down the hallway. Pictures scattered along the walls while Wyatt's heavy shoulders bumped against one, sending it to the ground.

Thomas picked it up, quickly hanging it upside down with a shaky hand. I grabbed his wrist as I ran by, pulling him away as he tried to fix it.

As Wyatt swung the door open, the room shined rashly as the rocks reflected like the sunlight. Becca covered her eyes while Thomas found the plum rock pointing at it.

"Pull it," I said while Wyatt opened a hole in the floor.

We peeked down into the darkness with the vine ladder disappearing. I pulled off the cloth around my eye, lighting my blue fire. Without hesitation, I lowered myself down the hole.

The vine ladder slithered under my grip as my fingers wrapped around it. Squishy to the touch, Becca screamed from above me.

"Gross!" she yelled.

Thomas chuckled while glancing up at her. "Don't look at the walls then," he said, causing me to peek at the mud tunnel.

The dirt moved while thousands of daddy long-leg spiders swarmed with one another. Another insect brought from the Nus. Most established a life in dark caves, so seeing them inhabiting this wet wall made sense.

"Ahhh!" Becca screamed. "Move faster!"

At the bottom, I kept my fire near the tunnel while the rest climbed down. Thomas jumped the last two steps and helped Becca the rest of the way.

She shook her body, brushing spiders off her shirt. Becca screamed in panic while Wyatt stepped off the vines. The beam of light from above disappeared, telling us the hole above had closed.

I spun around, seeing a gigantic room full of old bashed material. Thomas walked beside me while a small click caused the lights above us to turn on. Becca stepped away from us as the lights above her signaled.

"Over there," Thomas said, pointing across the way.

In the distance, light radiated from above.

"They must be over there," I added, glancing at Thomas. "Perfect, because we need to get you two as far over as possible, so the stiffs think you are still in the forbidden forest."

The light moved deeper, flicking off, then on.

"We better get moving," Becca said, walking fast into the dark space. She raced, beating the lights above her, hoping to escape the spiders.

Wyatt took off after her, running up behind, prompting her to giggle and run away. I watched the light click on, then quickly off, seconds behind Becca's laughter.

I side-stepped, tip-toeing between shelves with my arms above my head. Thomas rounded from the other side, peeking between two rock org masks. He made a silly face with his tongue out.

"Do I look like the org?" he asked, pushing out his ears with his thumbs.

I paused, bopping him on the nose. "Nah, you are too pretty to look like an org."

Thomas lost his foolish expression, ducked under the shelf, and crawled toward me. He stood up, brushing back his curls from his forehead.

"So you think I am pretty?" he asked in a feminine voice. He brought his hands to his face, flowering his fingers around his chin.

I laughed into my palm, stepping around him. Glancing up, I see the two sets of lights, one looking like it was chasing after the other. As the lights fused, I knew Wyatt and Becca caught up with Stop and Dylan.

"So, what is our next course of action?" Thomas asked, walking beside me.

I pulled the catalog from my pocket, clicking on the side for the rock book to enlarge. "Figure out a way to come in contact with Dr. Coachman."

"Do you think he will know how to remove the chip?" Thomas asked.

"Why would any inventor create something that is unremovable?" I watched a black relict crawl over my foot as its eight legs quickly sped away from the light.

"Good point," Thomas added, stepping onto the spider with a shiver. He glanced at me. "I hate black relict spiders."

I side smiled at him, remembering how much he hated when my dad brought home one. He would always have an excuse to leave back to his house.

"I'm sure the Doctor probably has many secrets about the chips without telling the MOS." I watched another black relict jump from one pile of junk to the next, hiding in a hole before the light shined on it.

"Now the real question is—" Thomas looked at me. "Will he help us?"

We jumped a rock and stepped around a shelf, seeing Dylan on the ground with wires scattered near him. The light beamed down on him and the others going through a pile of metal on a table.

Dylan glanced from his hands to us. He noticed the lights bouncing before he smiled and stood up. "Finally." Dylan ran to us, showing me a pile of wires in his hands. "Which one looks like a human model to you?"

I pointed at the vast, gauged red one. "This one."

"That's what I said, but Stop said the yellow one." Dylan ran off, sitting back down beside his pile of wires.

Thomas strolled over to the table, sitting next to Wyatt. He started picking up pieces and asking Wyatt questions.

"Red gauge?" I heard Stopper's voice in my ear.

I glanced over at him, side-smirking. "Were you messing with him?" I asked Stop.

"Of course." His smile reached ear to ear. "Anything to get under Dylan's skin."

I pushed Stopper's shoulder. "You are an asshole."

"Oh, I know," he said with a hum.

I peeked back over at Thomas, side smiling at his expression while Wyatt explained things to him. Dylan joined them at the table, pointing at the device in Thomas's hand, then grabbed it.

"You like him, don't you?" Stopper said, causing me to side-eye him. "I can see it in your eyes. He looks at you the same way."

I dropped my mouth open, not sure what to say. Chewing my bottom lip, a pinch on my hand had me looking down. A black relict sunk its teeth into me while I slapped it, smashing the insect.

"Fuck," I said, feeling the pain radiating up my arm.

"It's not that bad. Love finds—" Stopper said before I interrupted him by falling into his side.

He wrapped his arms under my armpits, holding me up. His eyes met mine while I squeezed the dead bug in my palm. My vision blurred, coughing out.

"What's wrong?" Stopper asked.

I opened my palm, showing him the dead spider. His eyes widened as he slowly laid me down on the cold floor. I closed my eyes, letting the burning pain take over my body.

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