Page 40 of Angelina

“Why was she upset?”Gideon said as he approached.

“She was pissed off that I claimed her secret crush.”I grinned at Corbin, winked, and then changed the subject.“What was Bark talking about earlier?”

Confused at the rapid change of subject, both men frowned.“What?”

“He was talking about something happening around dead man’s land.What was he saying?”

“He said that humans were doing something to telephone poles, and new walls were erected.He wasn’t sure what they were doing to the poles.Maybe they are trying to restore power here so some of the humans can return.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that is what they are doing,” I replied.“Let’s head upstairs.I need to talk to Beck about something.”

As we climbed the stairs to the overseers’ conference room, one of the guys who does patrol around the complex was coming down the stairs.I eyed his blaster and thought, oh, shit!“Hey, can I borrow that?”Before he could respond, I removed it from his hands, and he stared wide-eyed at me, then Gideon.

Gideon stopped.“You aren’t going to hurt someone with that, are you?”

“Trust me.I don’t need this to hurt someone.I want it for show and tell.”

“Show and tell?”Corbin echoed, confused.

“Come on, let’s get everyone together.I think this is much more serious than we originally thought.”

“Why?What did you see, Lena?”Gideon asked.

“I’m not going to explain it twice.Just get everyone in here.”As we hit the floor, my mind started processing what I had seen and what the possibilities of it could mean.I was pacing when everyone, but Marissa, was finally in the room.

“Did anyone find her?”Gid asked the group.

“No, I couldn’t reach her.I think she might have gone topside,” Flora said.

“Fine, then we will proceed without her for now,” Gideon stated.Then he turned to me.“So what’s going on, Lena.What did you see outside?”

I turned my attention to Bark.“You saw them working on the electrical poles, right?”

“Yeah, it looked like they were trying to restore power.”

“Yes, and building walls.I don’t think they are being nice and trying to restore power.I think they are setting a trap for us.”

“What kind of trap?”Adam asked.

I picked up the electrical blaster and tossed it onto the table in front of everyone with a loud clunk.“This kind of trap, only a hundred times worse.”

Beck shifted in his seat.“What are they doing?”

“When I was just up there, I found them working on one of the poles, and then I checked several others.They already have eight poles in a row completed in the area I was looking.Each of those poles contains an antenna similar to what they used to use in the old days for rabbit ears on the television.At first, I thought maybe they were going to use it for picking up our signals, but I think it is meant to send out electrical impulses to knock us down.”

Beck’s face clouded.“If they are using a standard electrical grid, that would be a hell of a lot of power coming down on us.”

“Yes, it would, and it would make those blaster guns look like a child’s toy.”

“What if we take the antennas down?”

“If we do that, we are just confirming that we are hiding in this area.Besides, they have people guarding each one of them.Each finished pole that I saw had six armed guards there.”

“We could take them,” Adam stated.

“We could,” Gideon answered, “but I think Angelina is right.I think they would expect us to do that, which might even be part of the trap.Plus, that would confirm our presence here further.If we went after all of them at once, they would know how many people we have here.Or at least that we have a considerable number of people.”

“Then what do we do?”Flora asked.

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