Run: Day 20

Word Total: 120,035

Year to Date: 390,055

Summary of Events:

Ty landed at the airport and got a taxi driver to take him to the best burger joint in Seattle, as he was quite hungry. DaNiel got off the bus and started to hunt for one of the two roads nearest to the house he'd discerned the person who'd sent the messages from Seattle lived in and ended up being approached by Ty before he'd gone too far; Ty tried to get him to hand over the Latrodectus, but he didn't think that was a safe thing to do on a busy street, so he promised Ty he'd do it if Ty would come with him. Ty did, although reluctantly, and was given the Latrodectus by DaNiel just outside the front door of an old-fashioned house. The man inside left Ty speechless, as the man looked shockingly like an older version of himself, thus DaNiel did the initial talking, which got them brought inside by the man, who was quite alarmed at the news they'd brought him the Latrodectus . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Does anyone know that you’re in Seattle?” the man asked urgently, locking the door shut behind them with quick movements.

“I don’t think so,” DaNiel replied.

“Does anyone know you have the Latrodectus?” the man asked, looking at both of them searchingly.

“The Army knows,” Ty replied, finally recovering himself from the shock of seeing a man who looked like what he might become in the future.

“And who exactly is the Army, in this case?” the man asked critically, his gaze sharply fixed on Ty.

“The Army in Portland,” Ty replied. “I flew here, but the flight was delayed, and as I was waiting the lady came up to me, and so I ran, but security caught me and, and searched me, and she took me to an army base and screamed at me and hit me and kicked me for ages, but I didn’t tell her, and the General had her arrested anyways.”

“Was her name Sergeant Templeton by any chance?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Ty replied. “She chased me in Alexandria, after I got it from the dying man; she killed him, and then she shot at me and chased me and then I found him and we hid out for the night and–”

“If  I may,” the man interrupted. “Who was the dying man?”

Ty grappled to recall what he looked like. “I don’t know, he was just bleeding and coughing up blood, and I didn’t really want to go up to him but he beckoned me and he gave me this,” Ty withdrew the device from his pocket. “And he told me to guard it with my life, and not tell anyone, and to run. I kind of didn’t do the not tell anyone part, but I didn’t tell the lady.”

Immediately the man took the device from Ty’s hand and pressed it open; he looked at the inside for a moment, then pressed the power button, which lit up, flickered, then went steady.

He stared at it for a moment before pressing it off again and closing it back up.

Ty remembered something else and pulled off his backpack before tearing clothes out of it until he reached the bottom and found what he was looking for; he handed it over to the man.

Pocketing the device into a breast pocket within his coat — or maybe in his shirt — the man then took the wallet and opened it.

He stared for a long time and Ty thought he saw the man’s eyes moist.

“I, um, I launched the beta version, on his laptop,” DaNiel said, sounding like he was making an uncomfortable confession. “It only showed us a message board. I figured out where you lived because it gave coordinates for where the message was sent from, and those led us here. We drove across the whole country to make sure it was safe.”

The man’s head snapped up and toward DaNiel, who was standing a little more into the living room. “Safe? No, no . . . it’s not safe here. It’s less safe than it was before.”

Next Post: 2 May.