Chasing the wind

Chapter 3: The search begins

upotteMountaintop40: Hey, Riot. I thought you had forgotten about me. :( Oh, woe is me. After so many sleepless nights together. 

Starcounter: Dramatic as always love. Of course, I wouldn’t forget you just caught up in a little research.

Mountaintop40: ha, it’s never a little research when it comes to you. You find research more important than me.

Starcounter: You’re right, I do. lol kidding kidding

Mountaintop40: Do you want to talk about it? Anything new and exciting you’ve uncovered.

Starcounter: Something strange, but I don’t understand it yet. I need to tinker with it a bit more first.

Mountaintop40: I understand. Well, when you’re ready, I’m all ears.

Mountaintop40: typing…

Starcounter: What is it?

Mountaintop40: I found something I think you should see. I’m actually going to be in your city next week. My parents have to pass through for work, I’m going with them, but I’m going to stay in the city. Since it’s my last year of school, I need to look for a place of my own. Mainly I was hoping that we might get to see you.

Starcounter: Oh… really. Well, that’s cool. Maybe we could. What is it you found?

Mountaintop40: I’m sorry I know it's sudden. Honestly, I don’t want to tell you on an online chat. It’s hard to explain. I think It’s better if you just see it for yourself.

Starcounter: You have captured my interest. The idea of getting to meet you is exciting, but I’m not sure. I’ll think about it and get back to you. 

   I hear the front door closing and close our chat, curling up in bed, pretending to be asleep. My parents' soft voices drift to my ears, but I can’t make out their words. Their feet shuffle on the floor, failing at the attempt of being quiet as not to bother me. 

   It doesn’t take long before my door opens slightly, and my mom pokes her head in my room. I lay as still as possible, so it looks like I’m asleep. She sighs before pulling my door closed. With this, more shuffling ensues with loud whispering. Then all fall quiet in the house once more as their door to their bedroom shuts.

    I flip onto my back, opening my eyes. My mind caught up in so many thoughts making it difficult to relax. Wondering why this story is consuming my mind but unable to turn my focus to anything else. The more I learn, it’s as if there’s less I understand. Something about it all makes me feel uncomfortable. 

   Then there’s Wyatt coming to the city. What could be so incredible that he has to show me in person? Not to mention that this would be our first time meeting in person. It’s not that I don’t want to meet him, it's just when’s the last time I met someone in person? 

   Other than William and my parents, I don’t see anyone in person. Not to mention that I can’t remember the last time I left the house. There’s just not much need for me too. 

    Closing my eyes, the image of the ocean stretches out before me. I stretch out my hand as if I could touch it. Then a sudden feeling starts stirring within me of longing. I never knew the urge to go outside and see the world until I started reading that story.

   A whisper of wind that seems to come out of nowhere brushing against my ear, it carries a soft voice to me saying, “Find us.”

    I log back onto my chat with Wyatt and send off a quick reply without thinking. I’m not sure what I’m doing, but I do know that sooner or later something will have to change. With that done, I suddenly feel almost drained and shut my eyes, allowing sleep to drag me into her embrace. 

    A few days have passed since I last saw William, but we agreed to meet up to share notes today. Oddly though, he’s running late. He’s never late. I send off a quick message to him, for what feels like the thousandth time, but he’s not responding like he usually would. I try not to think about it too much and sort through the mail. 

   Most of what comes to the house is mine since I don’t leave the house. I set all envelopes on the counter to go through later and unpack my packages. While I’m putting stuff away, I finally hear the front door open. 

    He never knocks since he knows the code, but it wouldn’t kill him to send a message letting me know he was almost here. I head to the front door to scold him for not responding to any of my messages since last night. The moment I turn the corner, I stop dead in my tracks. 

   Yes, William is standing there, but he’s disheveled. His eyes that usually carry amusement are dead serious. He’s carrying a bag, and he’s holding it so tight his knuckles are white. When he notices me, he doesn’t immediately try talking me into leaving the house. Instead, he moves quickly, grabbing my hand, dragging me to my parent's empty home office.

   “William, what’s come over you?” I ask astonished by his behavior, finally bringing myself to beagle to speak.

    He doesn't say a word; instead, he locks the door and shushes me. He quickly starts pulling things out of his bag and starts setting them up in each corner of the room. Checking and then double-checking everything is set up exactly how he wants it.

    Finally satisfied, he turns to me, “Sophia, listen. I’m only going to say this once. You were right, but I think it’s way more than you originally imagined. I wish you were wrong.”

    Puzzled and a little freaked out, I go, “What do you mean?”

    Taking a deep breath, he closes his eyes and runs his fingers through his hair. He slowly slides down the door and sits down. “The story’s true.”

     “Isn’t that a good thing? I don’t see the need for us to have hidden in here for that.”

     I immediately stop talking when I see his eyes. “No, it’s not. Since the story is true, then the government has been hiding and suppressing the truth. As I was doing research, I kept hitting a wall. I needed something solid to go on. So I might have done a little light hacking. Anyway, the things I came across were not what I was expecting but weren’t extremely damaging either. It made it look like it happened, but events just got confused and twisted accidentally.”

     “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.”

    “I know, and I was going to be content to leave it there, so I transferred copies to my vault. Then the weirdest thing happened. I started getting errors, and it was like files were rearranging and formatting themselves. By the time I got it all sorted out, I had found the problem. There was a micro bug hidden in the same copies I just got. Honestly, I’m not sure how it’s possible. I had to get rid of everything, including the vault itself. I’m sure that wasn’t the only bug. I’m pretty sure I'm being monitored now.”

      “Wow. I would say you sound like the paranoid one now, but... “ I just kinda stare into space before continuing. “So, where do we go from here?”

     “What do you mean, where do we go from here? You got the truth. Congratulations, the story is real now. I suggest we return to life as we knew it before and never speak of this again.”

     “We can't. We don’t have the entire truth. Like what happened next? Why hide it?”

     “Sophie, this isn’t a joke. If we uncover too much more, we might end up in the middle of something we don’t need to be in.”

    “I understand, but I just can’t stop yet. I know I’m going to sound crazy, but… just hear me out” I then proceeded to tell William about my dream and what I discovered about the person. When I was done, I looked at William with hopeful eyes. The quiet seemed to stretch on for an uncomfortable amount of time before he finally decided to speak.

    “You’re right. You do sound crazy. I know you might want to find some purpose outside of everyday life, but this isn’t the way. I set up those devices to hopefully block out signals, so no one hears us. That's how serious I am.”

    “I’m not saying you have to keep searching with me, but I’m not going to stop.”

    “I just want you to think about this rationally. Besides, what are you going to do once you uncover the entire truth? Expose the government?”

     “Well, no, but…” He quickly cuts me off.

     “ It doesn’t make sense for you to keep going. Be smart. You’re not acting like yourself.”

    Breathing hard, I sit next to William taking his hand in mine. “I know you’re worried. I know it doesn’t make sense, but something in me is telling me I need to do this.”

    Finally, dropping his head, he sighs. “Fine… fine, but I won’t let you do this alone. I’ve already come this far, might as well go all the way. So what do we do next?”

     “Well, obviously, we should compare notes then come up with a plan of action. First, I’m going to need you to explain these little gadgets you’ve set up around the room.”

    We got lost deep in conversation and lost track of time. By the time we had finally decided to take a break and emerge from the office for food, the day was long gone. William and I decided it would be best if he spent the night for the next little bit until we understood better what was going on. Leaving me alone for what felt like only a moment to grab some things from his house and let his parents know. William’s family lives just two floors below mine, and we’ve been friends since we were babies, so he didn’t have much need to ask.

     For the next couple of days, we both stayed shut in the house, trying to sort everything out. It’s odd having someone else in the house with me. I eat and sleep on a somewhat regular basis now because of William. 

     Even though William is staying over, I still don’t see my parents ever except when the few nights my mother pokes her head in at night. If I hadn’t told them that William was staying over, I’m not sure if they would have noticed. I know for sure that they won’t notice when he leaves. 

     After a couple of days of sorting through everything trying to figure out how to get more info without sending up possible red flags, we soon hit a wall. We know for sure our search history and communications are monitored now. Whoever is monitoring us isn’t being subtle as if they want us to know that we are being watched, maybe hoping that out of fear, we would stop. So any info we had we had to put into physical copies. We don’t get rid of the online files, but we don’t open them anymore. Hoping that it might make it seem like we’ve given up, make whoever is monitoring us might back off.

      The monitoring doesn’t stop, but nothing else happens. Since we can’t find a way to search on the net without it being monitored and we have to be careful of what we order, we’re at a loss what to do. It’s like we are starting a puzzle and are so close but are a few pieces short.

    William falls back, closing his eyes. “Sophie, let’s just call it. Our hands are tied. If we could find one of those places filled with paper books for sale, then maybe we would have a chance to find something. Though I don’t think any of those are still around. Not to mention the fact of how quickly we would be spotted on cameras, and I don’t think I could hack them. Well, at least not all of them.”

    I fall back beside him, sighing. “I know the answer is right in front of us. We just can’t see it yet.”

   We turn our heads and stare deep into each other's eyes. I can feel my lips turning up into a smile as I get lost in his silvery-blue eyes. Even though I was fed up and drained before looking in, his eyes make me feel calmer. It’s always been like this no matter what I do or get sucked into William is still here next to me. 

      William’s mouth opens like he’s about to speak, but before he can get a word out, the doorbell rings. Confusion passes over William’s face, and I know mine probably looks the same. We sit bolt upright, but apparently, we aren't moving fast enough because the doorbell goes off again and again. I get up to answer, but William wraps his hand around my wrist, holding me back.