The Days Of Fear: A TO Novel - Chapter 3

[Pythor 1,354]

PREVIOUSLY ON T.D.O.F. -- http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=376843 CHAPTER 2

 

C H A P T E R  3

 

 

That night, all three boys set up their sleeping bags in Michael’s basement. Connor set his alarm for 6:45, giving them plenty of time to wake up before making the call. Aaren had called Jeff and filled him in on the progress of the investigation. Jeff said that he would be back home in a few days.

 

None of the boys slept well. Michael woke up twice from a bad dream, and Connor kept complaining about the mosquitoes. Aaren didn't manage to sleep at all.

 

At 6:45 the alarm went off. Connor mumbled something before leaning over and shutting it off. Michael freed himself from the confines of his bedding and went into the basement bathroom. After splashing water on his face, he returned to where Connor and Aaren still lay.

 

“C'mon guys. We have 5 minutes till we make the call.”

 

“Relax bro. It’s not like we have to prepare ourselves to make a phone call,” Aaren said as he sat up. Michael grabbed his phone and lay back down on top of his sleeping bag.

 

“Aren’t you curious who this guy is and what information he’s got?”

 

“Of course,” Aaren replied. “He just seems a bit freaky. I mean, how the heck did he know we were looking for him?”

 

“That I aim to find out,” Michael said grimly. Then suddenly he turned and yelled, “Wake up Connor!”

 

Connor promptly rolled over onto his back and his head made direct contact with something solid. The thud, followed by a high-pitched yelp, vibrated around the close confines of the basement. He sat up, all sleepiness drained from his body.

 

“Of all the bloody…” Connor gasped as he kicked the battleship board. He spun around and looked at Aaren, who was smiling.

 

Connor slowly unzipped his sleeping bag without saying a word, and stomped off to the bathroom.

 

“Great. Now he’ll be in a bad mood all day,” Aaren snorted.

 

Michael grunted, then stood up and lifted the shades from the lone window in the basement. The rain, which had released its fury for almost two days straight, had finally ceased. There were still clouds gathered in the sky, but the sun was breaking through.

 

“We might be able to go outside today Aaren.”

 

Michael left the window opened as he dialed the number on his phone. Then he put the call on speaker mode. This time it had barely rang once before someone answered.

 

“Good morning.”

 

This voice didn’t resemble the one Michael had talked to the night before at all.

 

“Hi… is this…” he glanced over at Aaren, who shrugged his shoulders. “Underwood?”

 

“The name is Asher. Asher Underwood. I…”

 

“Hold on,” Michael quickly interrupted. “I want to ask you a couple questions first. To start, how did you know we were looking for you in the first place?”

 

There was a pause.

 

“I see everything that happens related to Tanki,” came the reply. “At the moment, the next issue of the Tanki Newspaper is about to be released. Nives just logged on and is playing in a Polygon CP with other Warrant Officer noobs. I know there are three of you. You have some important questions to ask, yet you don’t want certain information leaked. I know you contacted Mr. Stiffler regarding your questions, and he sent you to me. Am I correct?”

 

Aaren mouthed something but it was drowned out by Michael’s answer.

 

“Possibly,” he replied lamely.

 

“I know you were in a Madness CTF a couple days ago. An unexplainable event took place.”

 

There was another pause.

 

“However, what I do not know are the minute details of the said event. I am sure you will help me there… no?”

 

“Umm yeah. One more thing though…” Aaren took the phone from Michael. “You sound different.”

 

A soft chuckle was heard from the other end of the line.

 

“I have… enemies. Last night, you called my work number. So, I had to mask my voice a bit. They will stop at nothing to get me. We wouldn’t want them to track me, now would we?” The reply was simply put.

 

“I’m still confused,” retaliated Aaren.

 

“But enough of the chit chat,” Aaren’s comment was ignored. “Tell me the information.” Underwood’s tone suddenly became colder.

 

Michael wrestled the phone back from Aaren.

 

“There’s not much to tell. Monday morning is when it happened. Me and one of my friends were on Madness. We heard a rumbling sound, then the floor of the map supposedly collapsed.”

 

“Ah, go on… where were you that your account was not destroyed?”

 

“How did he know…” Aaren started to say, but stopped when Michael waved his hand at him violently.

 

“My garage page was open.”

 

“Before the map collapsed, did anything happen that was… unusual?”

 

“Well,” Michael replied. “A gold box dropped right before…”

 

“Ahh, then it is as I expected!” Underwood exclaimed.

 

“What is? Is a hacker behind this?” Michael questioned.

 

“Yes. Although calling him a mere hacker would be a gross understatement. He is the leader of all kinds of electronic hacking. He plagues the gaming world, hacking into databases and causing players to blame the developers, when really, it was he who should have taken the blame. He is good,” Underwood emitted a short chuckle. “He is very good. He creates chaos and destruction, then when the highest climax is reached, he suddenly disappears into the shadows, and hides until he deems the time is right to strike again. Nobody knows who he is, because none can catch him. In this case, he has waited quite a while before returning to Tanki. Years and years ago, in the first stages of Tanki, he terrorized the game for many months, hacking into battles and causing glitches and lags to plague the game. Many tried and failed to unveil who was behind it all. Some lost their accounts to the evil genius. His own personal flourish to his feats was he would drop a gold box before he struck. This caused players to both love and fear the gold box siren. Then, one day his antics ceased, and he supposedly withdrew into hiding. Now, it seems he has returned. And if it really is him, dark days lie ahead for the Tanki community.”

 

Michael and Aaren had been listening intently to Underwood’s story. Now Michael spoke.

 

“How do you know all this?”

 

“Ah,” the other snorted. “I know because I was probably the closest out of anyone to actually catching him. I have traced his signature hacks from game to game since his days in Tanki. However,” he paused. “This time is different. He has been perfect, utterly perfect in his schemes up to this point. But finally, he has proven even he can mess up. He made a mistake.”

 

“Which was…?” Michael replied in bewilderment.

 

“You.”

 

Everyone was silent for a moment before Underwood continued.

 

“For the first time, a witness wasn’t directly affected. He didn’t know you weren't in the battle when he pulled off his stunt. You couldn’t have picked a better time to enter the garage had you tried. Had I been in your place, our hacker might have been caught. But, since it was only you, other details that would have been useful were… overlooked.” Underwood said the last sentence slowly, letting his words sink in. “But, no matter. Now that he has made one flaw in his plan, other mistakes might follow. This could prove to be the beginning of his downfall.” The speaker paused again and there was a rustle at his end of the line. Underwood had been talking in a grim tone up to this point, but now his voice turned cheery. “Lets keep in contact going forward. I have a website…. The password is ‘UGAHDA.' I’ll tell the others to be expecting you.”

 

“Wait…”

 

“Sorry, gotta fly. If you see anything out of the ordinary, call me. Be careful, and remember, with ‘him,’ nothing is as it seems.” There was a crackle, then the phone buzzed and went dead.

 

Michael took a long, hard stare at his phone before setting it down on his pillow. He sighed, then turned to Aaren.

 

“What is going on.”

 

Aaren grunted. “How do we know Underwood was telling the truth? For all we know, he could be the hacker himself!”

 

“We don’t have any other information, so for now, let’s believe him. I suggest we go visit his website. Maybe we can do a little more research on who he really is.”

 

Michael was interrupted by a loud banging on the stairwell. Connor appeared at the other end of the room dragging a garbage bag full of snacks. Aaren took a quick glance at his phone to see the time. His eyes widened, it was only 7:07. The phone conversation had felt like an hour, when in reality, it was only about five minutes.

 

“You are already done? What did you guys find out?” Connor questioned as he emptied out the contents of the bag onto the floor. He was evidently in a better mood now.

 

“You’d better listen up,” Michael spoke. “If what Underwood just told us is true, dark days lie ahead indeed!”

[kaisdf 3,320]

Article approved.

 

Nice  :lol: 

Loving the series, keep it up!

 

Pretty accurate overall. If I were to be pedantic and nit-pick, I would point out that you had a very long series of short, one- or two-line paragraphs, and then a couple of massive ones, which doesn’t really help the flow. I couldn’t split them up really as it was all part of one person’s speech, but maybe next time, try and split it up with a question or something.

 

Edits:

• A few minor spelling/grammar corrections
• “Let’s” is a contraction, short for “Let us”, hence there is an apostrophe, which you missed.
• “…” is an ellipsis, and does not end as an end to a sentence. A fourth full stop, “….”, is needed for it to count as a sentence ending.

[Pythor 1,354]

Thx Kais  ;)

[TankiNoob2000 231]

Good story;)

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Nice

[Person_Random 4,991]

Amazing!  Still, the dialogue needs a little work, and I think I spotted a grammar error.  (that's not your fault really)

 

Example (there are a few):We might be able to go outside today Aaren

Corrected: We might be able to go outside today, Aaren (Edit in Yellow, added a comma)

Edited October 8, 2018 by Person_Random

[Pythor 1,354]

Sorry for the wait.. But I will be gone for the next two weeks. I will submit Chapter 4 shortly after I return.

[Person_Random 4,991]

Sorry for the wait.. But I will be gone for the next two weeks. I will submit Chapter 4 shortly after I return.

It's okay.  Now I can analyze this series and point out more typos and grammar errors and read other people's stuff too!  Anyways, you never had to wait 2 months for an entry, let alone 4.  *tells self to stop procrastinating*

[Pythor 1,354]

Just got back from my trip... Expect chapter 4 to be released in the next few days

[Pythor 1,354]

Chapter 4 submitted! Stay tuned

[Person_Random 4,991]

Coincidentally, there is a character named Aaren in my story too.  Weird...