Love Letters Through Corpses

Chapter 6: With Us

"What are you doing?" 

Sage's focus was instantly shattered by the young man's sudden interference. However, it didn't take long for her to dismiss his presence and continue to search around the room. Given the situation she really didn't have enough time to sit and chat with the said boy. Not knowing how much time she had, she needed to act fast. 

She was focusing on her knowledge of explosives, trying to figure out the most proficient and advantageous locations to place in a school cafeteria. trying to calculate the possible damages and injuries that they could get once that explosive detonates. 

She thought hard to herself, "It can't be in the kitchen, nor the bathroom since it could not be that effective and wouldn't create as much damage. Could it be under the counter?"

With a possible lead, Sage immediately got down from the chair and quickly headed towards the counter to check if there was any possibility of the explosive being there. Sadly, though it looked like she was mistaken.

She grunts with frustration. The counter was the most advantageous place to place it if they were to create as many casualties as possible, then why wasn't it there? Could it be that there's more motive than just creating casualties?  

Seeing the younger's frustrated expression, Daexoen knew she was onto something, "What are you doing?" he asked her again. 

The younger sighed, seeing the boy's determined look she knew he wouldn't stop until he gets an answer, "This is a trap. I think there's an explosive device in this room." The girl bluntly said.

Several gasps and frantic whispering can be heard in the room. The students were starting to grow more and more restless, some were already on the verge of tears trying to communicate to the people on the other side of the glass door. If everyone wasn't panicking before, well they are now.

Daexoen on the other hand, was composing himself into a calmer state. He needed to think rationally if he wanted to get out of this room alive. He thought about the given possibility of Sage's hypothesis. And there was a 99.9% chance that this was really the situation they're in.

"What are you thinking?" he asked, determined to seek any ounce of information to help with this situation. 

Sage looked at him for a quick moment. She was hesitant to explain her thought process regarding these things, she knew most people wouldn't understand. However, to her dismay of getting the counter thing wrong she decided to try and discuss it with the boy. She wasn't that hopeful but after their little scene yesterday she was more than willing to give him a shot compared to anyone else in this room. 

She sighed, "The most logical location to place an explosive device is the counter so that it could create a lot of casualties."

He nodded, "True, but what if they are not trying to kill us?" he questioned. 

Sage paused for a moment. She didn't expect an answer from the boy, more especially a question. A simple yet very on point question.

"Then why trap us here?" 

"Then why us? I mean yeah, you have a point but why would they want to kill us?" 

she looked at him confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean we are just a bunch of high school and college students, if it was for money they would have kidn*pped us instead but there are no kidnappers. But if you're right about the bombs then why would they do that here? What for?" 

Sage quickly understood his questions. Why were they really placed into this kind of situation? It wasn't a hostage case so it clearly wasn't for the money. She started to analyze the situation more thoroughly.

They trapped at least 20 students and 4 staff members in a room with glass doors, cutting off any means of communication outside the room with a possible explosive ready to kill them anytime. Now the question, why?

"Sage?" Daexoen called her.

Sage was instantly pulled out from her thoughts. She slowly gazed at the boy, who was now looking at her with worry. And that's when it hit her. It wasn't about them. It was about him and maybe even her. 

"You're right, they aren't trying to kill us, but to warn us. To use you" she quietly said after the realization. 

Daexoen gave a mixture of confused and somewhat disturbed look, "Warn us? Use me? What? Can you elaborate on that?"

"Your uncle was the head agent on the case yesterday, right? They know you're his nephew, they didn't want him to find out that's why they waited for you to enter the cafeteria. They want to hurt you to hurt him. What could be the greatest downfall of an agent who can't even protect his own nephew?"

Somewhat enlightened by the situation, "Okay, you got a point but what do you mean by warning us?"

"We got involved in the investigation yesterday. We gave them a lead to the serial killing. They don't want to kill us but they want to hurt us, not just because you’re Agent Brook's nephew but because they don't want us to get involved. This was a trap for us." 

"Why don't they want to kill us?"

"Because if they killed us your uncle will have a stronger drive to find them and bring justice to your supposed death"

Daexoen nodded, understanding the motive of the situation they're in. He can't deny that he felt a bit guilty that they were the reason why other people's lives are threatened. 

However, there was one question he was still curious of, "But why an explosive? Why- " He immediately cut off his words the moment he understood what the suspect's true intentions were. "They want us to survive and everyone else to die." 

Sage nodded, "Exactly, they thought it would be a bigger downfall if the other students died and we survived, we wouldn't live with the guilt especially you and your uncle." She paused and continued to search for the room,  "Now, where would they put an explosive to ensure that everyone else die but would save two students?" Sage added

"I've never been in this cafeteria before, I just transferred and don't start classes until Monday. How would they know I would come here and how would they know you would be here at the exact same time?" Daexoen continued to ask 

Sage wondered as well. The both of them seem to be in different educational stage, there was a possibility of them going to the cafeteria of their own lever and an even bigger possibility that one of them wasn't going to report to school today. 

"They must have followed us. They must have been following either one of us since the moment we stepped outside our houses. They figured that the reason why we're here is to meet some teachers, so we couldn't possibly go to our own department's cafeteria but here. Damn it, where would you put a bomb that won't hurt two people but can still create damage to the rest?" Sage frustratingly grunted. 

"Near the door" Daexoen whispered as he finished processing everything they've just talked about.

Sage looked back at the older, "What did you say?"

"Near the door. You were sitting by the farthest corner of the room. Judging by your personality you wouldn't care if there was a commotion away from you, especially one with a lot of noise. And I would be at the counter, instead of piling up with the other students by the door I would be away from it trying to observe and not cause more commotion." He deducted. "So should we stay near the people so the bomb won't be detonated?" he added.

However, good of a thought it was, it wasn't the answer they needed.  The criminals knew the longer they waited the bigger the opportunity the people outside could get them out. So at some point they would just have to kill both of them as well. Even though they knew his uncle would be on their tail. They weren't risking that chance. It was better to find the device and deactivate it themselves rather than just waiting it out. 

Sage then realized something, " To make sure we weren't caught in the blast it must be remote controlled and they must be able to see us."

Daexoen's eyes widen at the younger's realization, "They caught off all means of communication, all signals in and out of this room, so they can't activate it outside or watch us remotely so-" 

They looked at each other. It all made sense now. How they were able to trap them together. Why they were even trapped there in the first place and how up until now the device still didn't detonate. Sage mentally face palmed herself, How could she be so careless? How come she didn't figure that out in the first place? 

"That's right, they are in this room with us."