Apartment 905 by Sahin, Ned (readnow .TXT) 📕

Lily is not startled with her touch, she leans forward and opens her arms for a hug. Lily gives a quick hug and pulls herself back right away.

“You’re not alone here,” I say, nodding. Reminding her that everybody is in the same situation should make her feel stronger. It works for me, at least.

She smiles with a coy glance at me. She moves a pinch of hair back to her ear.

“And you have good hosts. We talked to them,” Kathleen says.

The expression on Lily’s face changes rapidly. A fearful look replaces her smile. She doesn’t seem content to hear about the hosts.

“Something is wrong?” I ask.

“No…nothing…” she says. It looks like she is afraid of saying more.

“You can talk to us. We are not here to harm you,” I say.

She lifts her head and exchanges looks with me and Kathleen.

“They are…” her sentence is cut off when Logan enters the room.

“Time for the class!” he yells, then raises his eyebrows as he notices we are in the room. “Oh, what’s up, guys?”

He probably didn’t expect us to be here talking with one of the children. He rubs the back of his neck and bites his bottom lip. He seems concerned seeing us sitting with Lily.

“Couldn’t sleep. Decided to make new friends,” Kathleen says.

“I love how many books you have here. There is even a TV and movie archive,” I say, turning my head to look around the room.

“Yeah, it gets boring here quickly, you know,” Logan says impatiently. He looks back to the hallway.

“I will be right there, boys. Finish up your homework,” he says to two boys walking behind him.

Lily hands a piece of paper to Kathleen before Logan turns back to us.

“Bye,” Lily says while looking at Kathleen. She folds her book and walks to the door.

“We better go back to our bedroom,” I say, trying to sound as less suspicious as possible.

Logan nods. Wrinkles on his forehead get deeper as his eyebrows lift up to give more space to his questioning eyes. He waits for us to leave the room first.

We return to the playroom and close the door. Toshi rolls the other side of his blanket to see who has entered the room.

“You came back early,” he says with half-open sleepy eyes.

Kathleen unfolds the paper in her hand. She freezes while reading the note Lily gave her. She raises the paper to show it to me. It takes me a moment to figure out Lily’s handwriting, which reads:

they are using us

We look at each other. They are using them for what? Or in what way?

“What do you think?” Kathleen asks me. I have a million things going around in my mind about what this might mean. None of the scenarios is looking good for the kids or us.

“Will you guys tell me what’s going on?” Toshi asks as he straightens up on his blanket.

Chapter 29

“We have to leave,” Kathleen says while pacing back and forth in the room.

“At dark, while Ricas are up there?” Toshi says.

Both are right. We can’t stay here longer, but it’s also too dangerous to go out right now.

I still think about Lily’s note. I am not sure what she meant when she said they are using them, but it doesn’t sound like something trustworthy people would do.

“They are probably abusing these kids,” I say.

“But I agree with Toshi. We can’t leave right now. We don’t have a chance against those many Ricas. It would also alarm Murray and his sons,” I add. We should wait until the morning.

“Then... We should stand watch tonight,” Kathleen says while checking if there is a way to lock the door from inside.

We are back to the watch schedule. I think we will never feel completely safe until the order is restored by the government—if there is anything left of it.

If we don’t do anything to make Murray and his sons suspicious, they should let us leave without any trouble, but I am still worried about the kids. They are not safe here. They are not safe outside either. The virus kills people from all age groups. Ricas too.

We need to find out what exactly is going on here so we can make a reasonable plan. Maybe Lily didn’t mean anything negative. What about Ben? He seemed like a kid on the edge. I decide to go for an indoor trip.

“I’ll have a walk in the bunker.” I walk toward the door. Both Kathleen and Toshi seem to be evaluating my decision.

“Need backup?” Toshi asks.

“No, it’s better if you guys stay here. So if I get caught, I can say I was looking for the bathroom or something around that.”

They nod.

“Be careful, Matt. We need you,” Kathleen says. It’s touching to hear this from her.

I step onto the hallway and close the door behind. I can hear kids from the classroom. They shouldn’t be out for at least the next half an hour. The hosts shouldn’t be around either. They are probably in the class teaching to kids or in their bedrooms resting.

I decide to go to the storage rooms. Those are the only rooms Logan didn’t want to show us inside. I have to walk through the cafeteria and pass by the bedrooms to get to the other side of the bunker.

The hallway is empty. I try to walk as quietly as possible on the steel floor. I am glad I didn’t wear flip flops like most of the kids here.

There is only one person in the cafeteria. He is one of the older kids and is cleaning the tables. He lifts his head to look at me when I enter the room. He rolls his neck from side to side to loosen kinks and continues to wipe the tables as if lost in deep thought.

I leave the cafeteria and walk in the rest of the hallway with several doors opening to bedrooms. Glancing at each of them, I notice every room has at least fifteen beds. They are all occupied