"Homestead's Hillbilly Honeybee Farm..." I whispered, slightly resisting a giggle as I cautiously turned the car onto the road beside the unusual sign. I could instantly see a forest of trees beside both sides of the street in the near distance.
"Mm..." I heard a small moan come from Ace's direction.
However, I looked over at him and saw no sign of consciousness, so I continued to channel my focus solely on driving toward the woods ahead.
Of course, though, the attention I gave would not last long.
"Ah!" Ace abruptly screamed out, painfully, as he jumped awake in his seat.
I jumped quite a bit as well and jerked the steering wheel over to the right side more than necessary, forcing the car to weave between the edge of the road and the grassy path beside it.
"God... Ow!" Ace continued to yell out.
As soon as I had put the car back into a stable state, more in the middle of the road, I shot a quick glance toward him and saw that he was hunched over and clutching his shoulder once again.
"Are... Are you okay?" I questioned of him.
Completely ignoring me, he screamed out in pain once more.
"Okay," I mumbled, now guiding the car a little into the wooded area and toward the side of the road.
"It... It doesn't hurt that bad..." Ace suddenly grumbled out.
I slowed the vehicle down, drastically, and gazed over at him for a moment.
"It... doesn't?" I asked, my eyebrows narrowed.
"No, I'm fine," he confidently stated.
I pushed the brake pedal and reached down to push the control stick into park.
"I'll just..." Ace continued, removing his hand from his blatantly bleeding wound and gritting his teeth a little as a form of wince. "Rub some dirt on it."
I gave him a concerned look.
"I don't think that's sanitary..." I muttered.
He gazed into my direction and gave an extremely weak smile, even though I honestly wasn't even trying to be funny.
After a second or two, he looked forward once more, and then turned back to me and spoke.
"You know that you need to pull forward more?"
I snapped my eyes back to the road.
"Oh, okay..." I quietly replied, reaching down and pushing the shifter out of park.
I then slowly rolled the car a number of feet forward, only stopping when Ace instructed me to.
"This is good," he eventually said, unbuckling his seat belt and opening the side door before I could even get the car back into park.
"H-H-Hang on..." I, for some reason or another, stuttered out.
"No need," Ace stated as he slid himself out of the passenger seat. He then made another sound of pain and went to grab his wound, but quickly retracted and attempted to just ignore the stinging.
I quickly twisted in my seat and swung open the driver's car door, following up this motion by jumping onto the poorly paved road below my feet. I then slammed the door shut behind myself and swiftly walked around the front of the car. When I approached Ace's side, however, he ignored my presence and made his way into the woods in front of us. So, I made the decision to just follow him loosely by his side until he found the hidden keypad in that one special tree. After he entered whatever code he needed to enter into it, he walked over to the concealed passageway, opened it, and began making his descent down the staircase within it.
I began to step onto the stairs behind him, paused, and then looked back at the hinged door that he had swung open.
"I should probably shut this..." I whispered, really just to myself, as I reached out to grab the oddly-shaped handle on the inside of the door.
I pulled the point of entry closed behind myself when I took the first few steps down the stairs, and then looked forward to see Ace reach the bottom step and walk out of sight. I promptly followed his footsteps to the room ahead, stopping to momentarily look around once I had accomplished my trek there.
I quickly saw Ace trying to push past both Mel and Katie by the closed door on the left wall.
"I'm fine," he suddenly spat out at them.
"Ace..." Mel coaxed as she attempted to guide him to a nearby chair. One of the 'spinny' chairs, actually, to be specific, which I would have been completely okay with taking a ride in at that moment because... well, why not?
"Ugh," Ace grumbled out and, soon after, he pulled away from her soft grip and reached out to open the door by his side.
"Ace, stop," Mel now commanded.
Ace ignored her and promptly vanished through the cracked doorway.
Once he had disappeared and the door had slammed shut behind him, I took a step into the two girls' direction.
Mel then placed her hands on her hips, looked down at the ground in front of the door frame, and let out a short, but frustrated, sigh.
I took another step forward, but in my mid-step, Mel abruptly stepped around the door beside herself and whipped it open, like it had been once before. She then disappeared through it just as swiftly as Ace had.
I paused my step and looked the passageway over as it re-closed itself.
"Well..." Katie began, now turning to face me. "She can take care of him, then."
I gave her a slightly weak smile.
She gave a faint smile back, and then began to pace toward the most front and center-placed desk in the large room, the one it seemed that her and Mel always occupied.
"So, how has your day been?" she inquired, a small stab at starting a conversation.
"Um, well... I've had better, probably," I replied, turning around to face the direction where she was now stationing herself. "I mean, I may not remember much, but I think I'd remember if I'd had another day as eventful as... you know, this."
Katie let out a pretty well-sized laugh and took a seat at what I assumed to be her place at, assumedly, her desk.
"Yeah, enduring life-threatening danger twice over a five-hour period with... well, him," Katie gestured toward the side wall and raised her eyebrows for a quick moment. "That can be quite the experience. Even without the element of severe danger, I would be... just exhausted."
I remained in my place of stance and gave a small laugh.
Katie looked me over a few quiet seconds, and then spun around in her spinny chair to look over a few papers on top of her computer keyboard, all placed on top of the desk in front of her.
I awkwardly pursed my lips and leaned to one side while she silently searched the documents.
After what had to be at least two whole minutes, or something like that, Katie finally piped back up.
"So, are you okay with staying here tonight?" she asked, her head still pointed downward at her desk.
"Uh, yeah, I think," I answered, now taking a few steps into her direction.
"Good... Because, I mean, it's kind of your only option..." she slowly looked up and turned to place her eyes on me. "Isn't it?"
I finished making my way over to the left side of her desk before responding.
"Kind of... I guess... Yeah, actually... Or, at least, my only good option."
Katie laughed, and then turned back around in her chair.
Before another silence could begin to fall, I stepped closer to her side and grabbed the chair next to her for myself to sit in.
As soon as I had taken a seat, Katie let out a long sigh.
"Oh, God..." she mumbled.
I opened my mouth to form the simple inquiry of 'what', but before I could, she went on.
"I tell you; this is a stressful job."
This time, when her voice quieted, I jumped in to ask my question.
"What is it?"
She then reached forward, her eyes not leaving the paper in front of herself, and grabbed a black ink pen.
"Well, actually, that's a good question..." she muttered, now scribbling some notes at the bottom of one of the pages underneath the one she was intently studying.
I kept silent and looked her over as she stared at her paper, or at least until she spoke once again.
"I don't work for the government, though, so you can keep that clear."
"Oh," I said, actually forcing my voice to sound a bit amused.
"That's just something that can be kind of confusing..." she continued to explain, beginning to flip through her papers instead of write on them. "Then again, that's just what I think would be confusing... I've never had to explain my job to someone before, so..." She kind of shrugged, and her voice trailed off for a few seconds before returning. "It's actually something I'm not supposed to tell anyone; maybe that's why I don't know how to explain it."
She picked up her pen, wrote a few more items on one of her documents, and then stopped to throw it down and spin into my direction again.
"You don't have to explain it to me, then... you know, if you're really not supposed to," I said.
Katie smiled.
"But don't you want to know?" she interrogated.
I studied her a short moment and, afterward, responded.
"Well... I mean, kind of... a little, yes."
She cocked her head to the side a bit.
"Okay... I'll tell you," her smile turned into a small smirk and she twisted back to her desktop. She then reached under her pile of papers and pulled out one from the bottom of the stack. "Here, look at this..."
She handed the single page to me and I immediately began to search it.
At the top of the page read the date of June second, two-thousand sixteen and the headline 'Mission: Flow Control'. Underneath that, the name Jeremy Barker (of which I did, in fact, remember from seeing on a few papers in Ace's car) and the word 'briefing' was printed. And, below that, a few, good-sized paragraphs were written. I began to scan the first few sentences, which read: Once again, our absolute favorite group of businessmen have discovered the information on the whereabouts of section twenty-two. Again, we need your assistance in locating this information and testing its accuracy.
Before I could read any further, though, Katie interrupted.
"You know what that is?"
I glanced back up at her and paused before replying.
"Maybe..."
Katie extended a hand out and gently took the paper from me.
"Well..." she looked it over quickly with her own eyes. "It's a type of... mission document, I guess. I don't know what else to call it, but do you get the general idea of it?"
I squinted at the paper as she held it, but when she gazed back up at me, I glanced back and nodded.
"I make these all day," she went on, now replacing the paper atop the others on her desk. "Not just that kind of document, specifically. I do others, too... And I research a lot. A lot of... 'top secret-kinds' of stuff."
She returned her full attention to me.
"But no, I do not work for the government. I work for this agency, right here," she finished, waving one finger in a circular motion at our surroundings.
I slowly opened my mouth as I observed Katie a second, and then decided to speak.
"So... um, who is Jeremy Barker?" I bluntly asked.
Katie chuckled a tiny bit.
"Oh, that's just the code name of our best agent around here..."
I gave her a puzzled look.
"I'm talking about Ace," she explained.
I raised my eyebrows.
"Oh!" I responded.
"And, actually," Katie began to continue. "Pretty much our only agent, right now..."
"That's not very... reliable," I softly commented.
Katie smiled.
"Yeah, especially with someone like him."
We both fell quiet for a short moment, at least, until Katie decided to continue speaking.
"I mean, we had two other agents last year, but they both retired from the job... And yesterday, we hired a new agent, but on his first mission today..." she paused for a second and looked around a bit. "Well, we can just say that you came home instead of him."
I had to study Katie's expression for a long moment before it hit me.
"Oh my God!" I quietly exclaimed.
Katie gave a weakened smile and resituated herself in her chair.
"Yeah, but... that happens, sometimes. I just think he wasn't as experienced as he said he was. And the mission today was a lot more dangerous than usual... Usually, a gun isn't even required."
I bit my lip a little and just listened to Katie talk.
"But there's always a risk involved... That's just a part of the job."
She then ceased speaking and turned back to her desk. I waited a few long moments before attempting to speak again.
"So, why—"
Before I could fully state my question, though, the door on the left wall swung open and Mel's voice began to fill the air.
"Well, I at least got a band-aid on him... but that's all he would let me do," she declared.
I looked over my shoulder and witnessed Mel make her way over to where Katie and I sat.
Katie let out a half-laugh/half-sigh, and then replied.
"That's not surprising."
Mel stepped behind Katie's chair and both myself and Katie turned to face her. Mel and Katie then exchanged almost annoyed glances and, afterward, I piped up.
"But... But he... he was shot, wasn't he? Isn't that, like... kind of a big deal, or something?"
The two gazed over at me.
"Yes, it is, actually," Mel answered, slowly. "But try telling that to Ace."
I then fell to silence as she looked back to Katie, shook her head, and paced toward the right of the desk.
"Where is he, now?" Katie inquired, after about a minute had passed, while she twisted back to her unorganized stack of papers.
"Trying to sleep, already," Mel shot back in reply.
Katie looked up and studied a clock on the left wall, past my head. Or, at least, I assume that's what she was doing.
"Well, that's a new record," she commented, returning her eyes to her endless paperwork.
The room then fell silent, again. I studied Mel as she leaned up against another desk and placed her forehead in one of her hands, as well as Katie as she began scribbling on numerous documents, it seemed like, all at once.
"Um..." I unsurely started. "I think... I think I'll go to bed, too. It's probably late... Past my bed time, you know. If I have a bed time, that is, which I'm not really sure of... Which is also why I should sleep, so I can just, like, remember that... And a lot of other things, too, really..."
I quickly stood, and then Katie spoke.
"It's only seven thirty," she said with a slight laugh.
I paused for a second and stared at her, thinking of a reply.
"Yeah, that's my bed time," I responded, now turning around, toward the left.
"You don't want anything to eat?" Katie asked.
"No, not really... Not right now," I answered, probably because that didn't really go so well last time.
"Okay, well goodnight, then!" she added.
"Yes, thank you!" I kind of yelled back, now approaching the door on the near wall.
I had to stop once I had reached that point, though, and look back over my shoulder at the two women.
"Am I going the right way?" I asked.
They both looked back, but only Mel began walking after me.
"Yes... This way," she stated, once she was by my side. She then reached out and opened the door before us. "You probably need someone to come tuck you in, anyway, don't you?"
She gave a small, but much needed, laugh and stepped into the long hallway in front of me. I began to follow her and gave a small laugh back, but only to make her feel better about her... joke, or whatever it was.
"This room's for you," she said as she approached one of the doors on the right side of the corridor.
"Oh, yeah, I remember, now," I mentioned while she opened this door for me as well.
Both of us then stepped into the area and Mel flipped the light switch on by the doorway. I looked around at the small bed, desk, dresser, and empty space that I had observed once before.
"Oh, and there's a bathroom right next door, on this side," Mel informed, pointing to right wall of the small bedroom. "With a shower, too. If baths are your thing, though, then sorry."
I walked into the center of the room and turned toward her just in time to see her show a smile.
"We'll work out... all the 'stuff' that we need to take care of tomorrow, don't worry. We'll take care of you... And you're safe here, I promise," she finished.
I looked her over a second and attempted to give her a warm smile.
"Thank you," I proclaimed.
"Welcome," Mel returned as she turned toward the doorway. "Goodnight; sweet dreams!"
She stepped out to the hallway and gently closed the door behind herself.
"I'll try to... have them," I inaudibly mumbled back.
I then gazed over to the bed for a moment and, after that, walked back to shut the light off. Once that was accomplished and the room became completely black, I tried to make my way over to the bed. However, I somehow managed to trip into it and hit my head on the metal headboard above it.
"Ow..." I whispered.
After a few, tough seconds of breathing through the pain, I sighed and reached down to pull my sneakers off of my feet. Once they were thrown onto the floor, though, I realized I was wearing an uncomfortable pair of restricting skinny jeans.
"Oh, well..." I muttered to myself, throwing my body back onto the bed mattress and pulling the few blankets above it over myself. "I guess I'll just be sleeping tight tonight."
___
A ball of mucus lodged itself in my throat, forcing me to make a gross, choking sound. And, immediately after I had cleared it away, my eyes fluttered opened. I gradually adjusted them to the darkness of the room, and then looked around at the semi-familiar pieces of furniture. After my eyes realized there was no clock, window, or even sundial around, though, I began to wonder about what time is really was. However, I slowly rolled over and quickly came to the conclusion that it was sometime before nine a.m.
Why?
Because the current process of waking up was painful.
I closed my eyes, once more, and sluggishly stretched my arms above my head. As soon as I began making these small movements, though, an urgent feeling struck me in my... pelvic area, I think.
I really had to pee.
"Oh..." I grumbled, keeping my eyes closed as I threw the blankets off of my body. I then turned onto my right side and pushed myself up to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Only then did I actually open my eyelids and carefully stand.
I began to head for the door and, once eventually there, I reached out and swung it inward. Somehow, though, it struck the tip of the biggest toe on my right foot while taking its path.
"Oh..." I whimpered, now hunching over in the doorway while I held my foot off of the ground. I grabbed the door handle with both hands and used it to support my weight during the time.
After keeping myself frozen for what had to have been... just a few minutes too many, the throbbing pain in my toe slowed to a halt. I cautiously placed my foot back on the ground, and then released the door from my tight grip.
After that was all finally over, I took a deep breath, and continued my journey into the hallway. I looked around at the other shut doorways, and then turned toward my right.
"I hope..." I mumbled under my breath as I approached the closest door to the one I had just come from.
I extended a hand to it and leisurely twisted its doorknob. After pushing it inward, I efficiently observed the new room and safely distinguished it as a form of restroom.
"Yes, thank you..." I whispered as I entered it and pulled the door shut behind myself. Promptly, I followed up by flipping the lights on and making my way over to what I recognized as a toilet. Once there, I turned, pulled my jeans and underwear down to my ankles, and sat myself upon the clean white throne.
I began to release what needed to be released and, without exactly meaning to, closed my eyes, again. They re-opened themselves when my head started to droop and veer to the side, though.
After what was, honestly, an entire minute, my urine stream turned into a drip. And, after a few more seconds, the dripping turned into... well, nothing, so I grabbed a wad of toilet paper to wipe away any excess remnants and pulled up my pants to where they belonged.
I then turned to flush my excrements away, placed the lid of the toilet over the rim, and stepped over to the sink by the toilet's side.
"One way to save a life..." I remarked, to myself, as I slightly turned the sink's handles and reached out to pump a healthy-sized amount of anti-bacterial hand soap onto my palms. "Without shooting and killing others..." I lathered the wash onto my hands and rinsed it under the water faucet. "Is this, right here."
I shut off the sink's water supply and patted my hands dry on a nearby towel. I then turned toward the door and commenced my exit, both turning off the light and closing the door in the process.
Once back in the hallway, I took my time in returning to the side of the bedroom door.
Before I even reached it, though, I heard a loud, but distant, almost pop-like noise, followed by a recognizably deep voice shouting, 'yeah!'
I paused my plodding motions and scanned the hall both in front of and behind me.
After one short moment, I picked up the sound of another pop. No yell accompanied it, but I could tell that the noises were coming from one of the rooms at the front of the corridor.
I started to walk into the suspected direction, and then heard yet another pop. This one, however, came from behind one distinct door, so I much more swiftly made my way over to that specific one.
Once there, I grabbed the handle and leaned my body against it, but didn't enter right away. I listened for another sound from within, and after another pop sounded off, I felt I had the clearance to go in.
I slowly creaked the door open and peeked past it. I allowed my eyes to observe what was inside, but they didn't receive much information, though, because another, much louder pop shouted out and scared me, apparently enough to make me jump back into the hall and slam the door shut.
I stood still for a second, and then heard a voice yell from inside.
"Hey!" it exclaimed, more excited than anything else.
I waited until the door miraculously opened itself before me and revealed Ace's tall figure.
"Good morning, sunshine!" he said with an abundance of enthusiasm.
I raised my eyebrows from my sleepy expression and looked him over; he was sporting baggy, camouflaged pants, a white v-neck shirt, and a small black pistol.
"Wh... What's going on... in there?" I stumbled out.
"See for yourself," he stated, spinning himself around and making his way back inside.
The door began to shut behind him, so I lunged forward and slipped into the room as well. Once inside, I saw that it was, in fact, a huge room with shelves of weapons and ammunition on the walls, a number of ringed targets against the farthest wall, and a long counter close to, but not against, the nearest wall.
Ace walked over to near side of the counter and picked up a pair of headphones to put over his head. He then grabbed another pair close by and extended them out to me.
"Here, this helps!" he yelled, barely even able to hear himself speak.
I paced over by his side, took them, and put them over my own ears.
Ace then repositioned his feet so that one foot was slightly in front of the other and raised his gun in his right hand toward the targets across the room. He steadied his extended arm for a short moment and, afterward, pulled the pistol's trigger back.
Pop!
The force of the shot was still loud, even with the softening of my headphones. I jumped back a few inches when the shot was actually fired, but I somehow managed to stay put when Ace let out two more bullets. I did have to grab the earpieces of my headphones, though, just as a sort of comforting measure.
After all three shots had rung out, Ace set the gun down on the counter in front of himself and reached up to remove his headphones. He then turned to me and moved his mouth in a common talking motion, but I didn't really know what it was he had said, on account of the fact that... well, I still had yet to remove my own pair of headphones.
"What?" I yelled, now pulling the earpieces away from my head.
"See that?" he, I assumed, repeated.
I looked from him to the far-off targets, and then studied them for bullet holes. However, I didn't think any human could actually have 20/20 vision from... 50-ish feet away. That's just an estimate, though, because even though I couldn't remember much, I could remember that math was never my strong suite. Or, at least, that it's not for very many people.
"No, not really," I eventually answered.
"Well, I can..." Ace voiced. "And all three of them are perfect bull's eyes."
I slowly looked from his expression to the targets, and then back to him as my thumbs rubbed the headphones I held by my waist.
"Oh... That's nice," I, more quietly, said.
Ace gave a small smile.
"What, you think it's easy?" he interrogated.
"No," I immediately responded. "Well, maybe... just a little."
Ace partially rolled his eyes.
"Well, then, in that case..." he started, now turning to swipe the gun from the counter beside himself. He then looked back at me and held it out with the handle facing upward. "It's your turn."
I opened my eyes a tad more, looked the gun over for a moment, and then gazed up at Ace.
"Well, then... okay," I confidently stated, although my thoughts were definitely not as highly esteemed what-so-ever.
I then went to grab the gun, realized the headphones were still in my hands, put the headphones onto my head, and gently took the gun from Ace's hand. I turned toward the counter, stepped over to where Ace had shot from, and cautiously raised the gun with both of my hands.
I found it difficult to aim, though, not because it was hard to see the center of any of the targets, because I could actually make that out, but because my hands were shaking a great amount.
I took a deep breath, and then decided to pull back the trigger, even though the center target wasn't even in my range.
Snap!
The gunshot rang out in the room and bounced off of the floor somewhere, I suppose.
I threw the gun back down on the counter, removed my headphones, and placed them next to the pistol.
"Wow, look at that..." I mumbled, turning around to notice that Ace was already standing right behind me with his headphones pulled off. I halted, studied him a second, and then continued. "You know, I don't think this is really my thing..."
"Well, duh, it's only your first try," Ace replied.
"Actually, now it's like... the third, or something, so..."
I took my eyes off of him and attempted to step away from the counter area, but he stopped me before I really had a chance.
"Come on, 'Nesia," he pleaded, throwing his arm into my path of exit. He only continued when he gained my eye contact. "Try again."
I paused a second, took a deep breath, and then turned back around. I reached out to my abandoned headphones, but Ace stopped me from returning them to my ears. Of course.
"Without those," he ordered. "You've gotta get used to loud noises."
I tilted my head to the side and glared at him from over my shoulder.
"And... what... what if I don't want to?" I questioned.
He stared back at me a moment and sighed.
"Well, if you're that insistent..." he began, now walking over to one of the cabinet shelves on the wall opposite of the door. He didn't take long looking for whatever he was searching for, picked up another, bigger hand gun, and then paced back over to my left side. "Here."
He handed the weapon to me.
"What's with this?" I asked as I took the gun into my own hands.
"It's silenced," he swiftly answered. "You know... so it's not too loud for your deathly sensitive ears."
I glanced from the pistol to him.
"Uh, yeah, I already knew... that," I said as I turned back toward the counter.
Obviously, I didn't.
I took a decently sized inhale, again, and extended the newer gun in my arms, pointing it toward the center target on the very far wall.
"Steady," Ace coached by my ear.
Surprisingly, this time, I kept my trembly hands under control, but that sure didn't mean my aim was kept in control, too. I soon pulled back the trigger, which was also easier to pull than the other, and spat a bullet at... somewhere in the room.
I let my arms droop down after the more quiet shot had rung out.
"Okay..." I started, now reaching out to place the gun on the counter, by the other. "I think that's enough for me for today... or really, for... ever."
I turned around to face the door and took a step into its direction, but Ace stopped me in my tracks yet again.
"Come on!" he reiterated, reaching