The house was a small cottage nestled on the outskirts of a forest in Sydney. It looked abandoned like it might hold some mythical secrets in it.

No one had said anything in the time they'd trekked, except for Iris, who gave them brief directions so that they could race through Sydney to not get caught. Eniola didn't even want to talk.

The sound of the blasts and the arena that curved into the earth replayed in Eniola's head again, in a taunting loop. She felt like her body shouldn't have existed. Somehow she should've died, but she didn't.

Theo walked up closer to the door before he looked at them like he was trying to ask for approval.

"Open it," Iris whispered.

Theo touched the door as he felt around the side for a button that didn't exist. Then he pushed open the door, and it slowly creaked open. Eniola raised an eyebrow. How old was this place?

The door opened, and immediately everyone walked inside. The first thing Eniola could think of was grey. The walls, the furniture, and the bean bags were all grey. It's almost like the house wanted to match their mood. Eniola didn't even realize that the ceilings were short until Jay craned his head down so that he could walk properly. Right in the middle was a small hallway.

The rest of the house looked small to Eniola. It was all inside of one room. On the right side was a small kitchen with a counter and some cabinets. It didn't look homely, but it's not like they had anywhere else to go. She couldn't have demanded luxury.

"We need to find the suspension tank," Theo told her, and Eniola nodded. They both walked to the hallway, which was narrower than Eniola had thought. They bumped on the sides of the walls before Eniola stopped in front of a small door.

"Here," Eniola said before she took one hand off and turned open the door. It was even smaller than the main room. It was a small square and just big enough to hold the suspension tank that sat perched above the floor. Eniola had only seen them in hospitals, especially in the one her parents worked at. It was a clear tube-shaped container filled with blue healing gel. Beside it were screens that were blank with info at the moment, but she knew that were for statistics.

Theo gently laid Keone's legs on the ground before he walked over to the tank and lifted it open. It popped open with a hiss. Eniola thought it was probably from not being opened in a while. Theo came back over to her before he lifted Keone again and they both moved him next to the tank.

"One, two, three," Theo counted before they swung him into the container. They immediately submerged his body in the healing gel. Eniola moved backwards and sighed again.

The screens beside the tank immediately lit up with information. A white model of his body showed up next to a bunch of statistics about his body. Eniola sighed in relief. He wasn't dead, but he might as well have been. If the machine worked, he'd be alive.

And Eniola was too tired to think of what might've happened next.

"He's going to be fine," Theo said from behind her. "I hope so."

"Do you think that?" Eniola asked.

"I don't know anymore," Theo sighed. She turned to him, while he glued his gaze to the ground. Then he looked at her again, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out something. It was the knife Theo assumed would protect them in Tokjin. It kind of did.

"This thing is useless," he told her. "Do you want this?"

Eniola sighed. "Why not?"

Eniola grabbed it in her hand and twisted the handle around for effect. Theo sighed into a chuckle.

"We should meet up with the others," Theo said, and they both walked outside and back into the hallway, where everyone had already taken their seat, somewhere random in the room. Lucia spread out onto a couch while Iris crouched beneath her on a beanbag. Jay sat open and Zaira sat away in a corner cross-legged. But what was common was the desolate expression burned onto everyone's faces.

"What happened to him?" Jay asked. Eniola stared at him for a long while before she moved to the couch and cuddled underneath Jay.

"He's inside and he's alive," Theo explained. "The suspension tank should keep him intact for a couple of days until it brings his bodily functions up. But for now, he's in a coma. We should take shifts to monitor his vitals. I'll go first and then someone can take it next."

"Look at us," Jay muttered and Eniola raised an eyebrow. "We don't have computers. The PSEUDO betrayed us. We're powerless now."

Eniola sighed. Guilt still wrapped around her. She couldn't have at least hinted something, but maybe she was too wrapped up in the protection that it blinded her. The PSEUDO took the computers and made Enigma. They could do anything now.

"We can't give up," Lucia said. "There has to be another way."

Everyone turned to Zaira simultaneously.

"It's going to be super hard," Zaira said with a waver. "They made Enigma and since they have control over it, we can't do much."

"But you still have the source code? Right?" Eniola asked. "Can't you hack into it?"

"Maybe I can do something, but not now," Zaira said. "I'm so tired and I'm so fatigued."

"Me too," Iris croaked.

Right at that moment, Eniola's stomach sang out a cry for help. She clutched it in embarrassment. "I'm hungry."

"Me too," Jay replied. "Let's see what they have in here."

"Are you going to cook?" Eniola asked, an eyebrow raised. She almost called for an android until the words stopped in her throat. There was no android here.

"Do you even know how to cook?" Lucia added. "You seem to know about things, but doing them is another thing for you. Remember how you almost crashed the car?"

Jay sighed out a laugh. "I promise I won't burn the food. And if you're so concerned, then come and help me."

Lucia rolled her eyes before she eventually got up. Theo had already disappeared way down the hallway. Jay opened a cabinet that creaked open before she swept everything off the shelves and put them on the counter. There was a gigantic bag and some cans.

"All right," he said with enthusiasm. "We got a bag of rice, some cream mushroom soup, some tomato sauce, and some corn."

Lucia narrowed her eyes at the food before she picked it up again. "Expired 2040?"

"Hell no," Zaira said.

"Well, we don't have many options right now," Jay sighed. "I'd rather get food poisoning than go hungry."

"Speak for yourself, buddy," Iris mumbled.

But in about 5 minutes, everyone crowded around the kitchen doing some task. Eniola poured the rice into a pot, as Iris eyeballed it like it was the most interesting thing ever. Jay had poured the expired cans of cream of mushroom soup into bowls before he inserted them into a "microwave" which heated food or something.

"All you have to do is just press the button, and that means minutes, and then it gets hot," Zaira explained. "I studied this in class before. It's fine."

"It's going to explode," Jay said.

"It won't explode," Zaira replied. She then grabbed the bowl and pushed it into the bowl, much against Jay's will. It then made some whirring noise.

"So, do we just cook it?" Iris asked Eniola, as she eyed the pot.

"I think you put water inside of it," Eniola said before she tapped open the sink and let the water flow inside. Then she put it on the stove and let it boil.

"I think if we leave it too long, it's going to turn black and crusty," Iris said. "At least that's what my brain says."

Eniola stepped back, but not before she bumped into someone. She turned around to see Jay.

"Hey," she blurted.

"Hey," he replied.

Eniola said nothing to him after.

"Can we talk alone soon?" he moved behind her in a slow whisper.

Eniola inched her head away. "Not now. I don't even think we're going to get much privacy here."

"Fine," Jay mumbled before he walked away from her.

What just happened? Eniola turned back to him, but his attention was now on the soup he took out from the microwave like it was going to explode. She turned away.

The rice eventually boiled and Eniola took it off the stove and distributed it into 6 different plates Lucia took out from the cabinets. Then Jay poured the soup onto it. It didn't look too appetizing, and it smelled funky, but Eniola had no right to complain. She grabbed her food and sat on the floor as there was no table. Everyone sat around her and made eye contact with one another.

"Who volunteers to risk their life first?" Iris asked.

"We just did that," Eniola said. "We've been risking our lives yet again. If expired food takes us out, I'll be shocked."

"Is that impressive?" Jay asked.

"Maybe," Eniola replied. "Toast to that?"

Everyone looked weary again, before Zaira started and shakily raised her glass. Eniola moved in response, before Iris, Lucia, and Jay followed.

"To us," Iris mumbled. The plastic cups clicked together roughly.

"I wonder what everyone thinks of us right now," Lucia asked. "To think we would've died and our parents would've had no explanation."

"Welcome to the club," Zaira deadpanned.

"I never thought of that," Eniola mentioned. "It was just survive, survive, and survive. I never had time to think about my family that much."

Except for the vision she had of them.

"I don't know how my parents would feel," Jay mentioned. "My Dad and I are barely picking up the pieces, and Soyeon." He ended with a sigh.

"Soyeon," he continued. "I don't know about this place. I haven't seen her since last year. But, I don't know now. If I died, it would've driven them further apart than they already have. It's just that I haven't had a normal family since I was 10."

"Sometimes you can't choose who your family is," Zaira began. "But you can always make one." Eniola couldn't help but crack a smile at her.

Eniola didn't realize it, but her bond with them grew stronger ever since they'd been on the run. They've survived through so much that they shouldn't have survived. And that's who strengthened them.

Like Zaira said, sometimes family wasn't chosen but made.