Miles was tugging his phone from his pocket in the next instant, fingers trembling as he fumbled for it. "This makes no sense."

"It's just one person," Lia said reasonably, though her voice wavered. "We're not sure yet, okay? This is just one person that we've seen who isn't normal. The virus might not be related. There might not even be a virus. The notification could be a stupid hoax, remember?"

Aaron put in nervously, "If this isn't linked with the notification we got, then I'm scared. Two separate, equally terrifying events?" He didn't answer the question he'd posed, just slumped against Eira wearily.

Lia looked contemplative. Miles was silent, and so was Eira. Miles, though, had his eyes on his phone, a frown knitting his brows together. "Hey, this app didn't open this morning."

Lia leaned over to see what he was doing. Miles had clicked on the application he'd been fretting about during school; the one the notification had been sent from. The app, which had been inaccessible earlier, now displayed, when opened, all of the instructions that had been in the notification. All on one page, and nothing else. Lia seemed mildly impressed, pulling out a phone - presumably her own - from her back pocket. "Well then," she muttered as she unlocked her device. "I guess we know where to find the instructions now."

"Do we even need them anymore?" Eira asked.

Lia gave a shrug. "Maybe not. But maybe the app will be useful for something else later on."

Miles' and Lia's eyes stayed on their phones, and silence settled between the four of them again. It was a while of Miles staring, scrolling, trying to figure out if he could get anything else from the app, before Aaron spoke up. "I thought this would all be a massive joke. But this is terrifying."

Lia looked up from her screen, blue light reflecting onto her face. "I know, I understand that. I feel like maybe we should just go home and forget about this." She turned off her phone and lifted her knees, pulling them close to her chest. "But I wouldn't be able to forget."

"That wouldn't work anyway," Miles interjected. "The message obviously meant something, right? And what's happened isn't normal. Something is off and I didn't walk half an hour away from my house just to return now before figuring out what the hell is happening here."

"Me too," Aaron agreed.

Lia seemed to be pondering over a thought, an idea. With his foot, Miles tapped hers. "What's on your mind?"

She tipped her head. "We should leave this silly little cubby house and go see what we can find, don't you think?" She didn't get a response from anybody, but continued regardless. "We should go explore the area and see if we can find anybody else. Everyone under sixteen got the notification, so surely there's a good handful of them who are out roaming. If we go, we'll have to be careful... but it would be smart to try."

Careful. It felt absurd, to have to be careful when just going wandering around the city. No matter the time of day, the world was meant to be a completely safe place, now. There shouldn't be anything that was a danger to them. But Miles' heart was still lurching after what had happened just recently on the street - he'd rather admit that there was danger than stubbornly insist that they were still safe.

"That's a smart idea." Aaron was the first one to agree.

Lia shook her head softly. "Actually, Aaron, I kind of thought you'd have to stay here. You're injured."

"I wouldn't be a liability!" he resented.

"It's not about that - you'll only hurt yourself more if you go out."

"No way am I staying here," he objected, shrinking backwards and ducking his head fearfully. "Not all by myself. I'd rather come with you guys."

A muscle in Lia's jaw feathered as she contemplated his words, but Miles doubted she'd say anything against it. Nobody had made her leader; she didn't make the decisions for everybody else.

"Let's go in pairs," Miles suggested. "It's safer that way. We won't be able to cover as much ground as if we all went separately, but it's better than nothing."

Eira nodded. "Aaron and I left our phones at home, though. We won't be able to have any way of contacting you guys if we pair up together."

Lia rolled her eyes and gave Eira a look to suggest she was mildly annoyed. "Why did you leave those at home? The instructions said that they had to remain intact!"

"Aaron said that we wouldn't need them."

"Well Aaron was fucking wrong," Miles replied, "and now we only have two phones between four people." He leaned back. "Aaron can come with me and Eira can go with Lia. A phone per pair."

Without leaving any room for argument, Miles didn't hesitate before asking, "Lia, can you put your number into my phone? I'll put mine into yours and that way we'll be able to call if something happens." He handed her his unlocked phone.

Lia, who looked a little taken aback, took his phone and warily exchanged it for her own. Miles took the device she offered and at once started to put his number into the screen.

"Wait," Aaron said, but Miles didn't pause what he was doing. "I don't want to separate from Eira."

"Should've brought your phone, then," Miles muttered as he finished putting in his number and passed back Lia's phone at the same time she returned his. "If you don't want to come with me, go with Lia. You've got to choose someone."

Eira looked mildly appalled when Miles mentioned that. "I don't want to go with you."

"Well, that makes me feel special," replied Miles sarcastically, attempting to look especially offended. "Lucky it doesn't matter. Aaron with me, Eira with Lia. Does that work?"

Aaron rubbed his eyes, and Eira folded her arms indignantly.

"Perfect," Miles remarked, putting his phone in his pocket. He leaned over - a very short distance - to grab his backpack from where he'd left it in the corner. "Let's go."

"Right this second?" Lia blurted, startled.

"This was your idea," Miles reminded her. "We need to leave quickly or the night is going to keep wasting away. We should take advantage of the darkness."

"How many action movies have you watched to say something like that?"

Miles replied, "I prefer horror, actually."

"No shit," said Aaron, but his words became more of a groan as he shifted his position and his wound stretched.

"We should meet back here," Miles suggested, tugging his bag onto his back, "and let's say by... two o'clock. If the other pair isn't back by then, wait half an hour before going looking for them. Obviously, try calling them in the meantime."

Dutifully, Lia nodded. "Makes sense."

Miles determinedly shoved open the little plastic door to the playhouse and crawled out. "Let's get out of here."

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+1175 Words.

They're going on an adventure :D Hopefully they find some more people and nothing too creepy.

Please vote and comment! It helps a lot.

-Reb <3