Assigned

Chapter 15

Percy had been looking through the recent surveillance footage that was by the older district that was by the docks. There had been a flood a couple of years prior that made most of the buildings in the area unsafe and a hazard to people. The city never got around to repairing every building that was damaged.

Percy, however, suspected that the runaways would hide there since no one would want to risk their life to any crumbling ceilings or floors. The runaways were smart, but not smart enough.

Percy was sitting at the table in the room he and Jonas had worked in before. He hadn't left in four hours. He sat in front of a computer and had several tabs open. All were different cameras that had different footage. Percy had printed pictures that were from the footage he had reviewed with notes scribbled on each with a permanent black marker. He had pictures of all of the suspected and known runaways and pictures of sightings of them from the security footage.

The table was a mess and no one could barely see the actual table. There were coffee cups stacked up. Percy was stressed but he wasn't that messy. Crystal walked in and leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. Percy's hair was disheveled and his face was tired.

"Percy," Crystal called him, causing Percy to jump in his seat. "Jesus, Crystal," Percy mumbled. "Got anything?" she questioned and saw Percy perk his head up and scramble around with the photos. "Okay, so I found sightings of some of the runaways! I have seen Heather and Amanda the most, but I've also seen some of the suspected runaways. I also have this photo that I am positive is Diego," Percy rambled as he held up several photos up to Crystal. She furrowed her brows as she peered down at the photos on the table. She walked over and rummaged around the pictures and read the notes Percy had scribbled onto them. "And?" she inquired.

"And, all sightings have been close to the flooded part of Boston!" Percy chirped as he wheeled to the bulletin board. He had put up purple dots where the sightings had been. Now, the map had the singular blue dot for the AHDA tower, the black dots for the victims, the green dots for the former AHDA agents that lived in close proximity to the AHDA tower, and the purple dots for runaway sightings.

Crystal stared at the map. The purple dots were surrounding a cluster of old office buildings. The runaways could've been in any of them. Their location was still vague. Percy stared down at the papers scattered across the table. Where was the correlation? Where could the runaways had been hiding? Where was Jonas?

Jonas laid on the floor of the same dark and dank room. He had finally recognized the smell of mold and rust. It was disgusting and unpleasant. Jonas laid on his back with his hands still tied. He was staring up at the ceiling even though he couldn't really see it. He couldn't really see anything in the room. He heard footsteps pounding above him and all around him.

Jonas couldn't help but feel so small. The door to the room opened and revealed the dim light from the hallway. Jonas looked over and squinted his eyes from the exposure to the sudden light.

Amanda stood in the doorway. "Stand up," she commanded. Jonas obeyed but glared at her with hate-filled eyes. Amanda returned the look and attached a chain to the rope that held Jonas's hands in place. "Where are you taking me?" Jonas muttered. "Somewhere," Amanda muttered back. She was hostile towards Jonas. Amanda tugged Jonas out of the room and down a hallway.

Jonas squeezed his eyes closed but eventually got used to the light. He looked around as Amanda pulled along with her to wherever they were going. There was no one else Jonas could see. Shouldn't other runaways be somewhere or were they just in a different part of the building they were in?

Jonas's wrists had hurt from the rope rubbing against them and made his skin turn a bright red from irritation. He followed behind Amanda and kept his distance from her. He felt uneasy around her, mostly because he had seen her kill a man. Amanda walked along the hallway and took turns and stairs. Where were they going?