4

I turned to leave for class as well, knowing best that standing still would only provoke nothing more than tears.

I held onto my school bag as tight as I could and made my way out of the scene and into the first class I had for the day, maths.

So far, the day was progressing much but not with my friends. Nobody had died in my presence and that was a good thing to know that nobody was lying.

A small smile lightened my mood when I thought of cheating partners and how they could no longer lie to save themselves especially if they loved their lives.

I was still thinking about these scenes in my head when I bumped into someone walking in the other direction.

The slight accident caused me to stagger a few steps backwards, forcing me to almost lose control of myself. The tall brunette caught my waist just in time.

It was none other than Luke Freeman. He had on a headphone that must have served his form of distraction.

"Are you okay?" He demanded to know.

I wriggled free from his grip instead of giving him a direct answer.

Luke and I had been in the same class since third grade but we'd never had an actual reason to communicate with each other.

"Want to know where I'm going?" He suddenly asked, taking me aback. I was most certainly not interested in knowing anything about him.

I continued walking towards class but for some reason unknown to me, he jogged behind me and attempted to catch up.

Why was he following me?

"I found a possible way that could get rid of the liar gas permanently. " He sounded enthusiastic about his idea and I almost questioned the knowledge.

I stopped walking and turned around to look at him. He was still standing there, alive and well which drew me to the conclusion that he knew what he was saying.

"Why are you telling this to me?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I have no specific reason. You are Ariyah, aren't you?"

"I am." I nodded in approval. I was so excited to know that all of this could possibly end sooner than I had expected and that I didn't have to give up on anything perfect.

He disconnected his headphones which volume he must have reduced to talk to me.

"You took that anonymous survey on how the gas had affected your life as a student, didn't you?" He smirked.

"How did you know that?" I began to follow behind him as he turned to leave and God knows where.

"Because I hosted it." He chuckled at my facial expression. "You decided to embark on being silent for as long as it would last."

"Where are you going?" I asked, still moving with him, not interested in asking how he could know.

"To the computer room. You can come with, there's something I'll show you." He told me.

"But what about class? We are going to be late." I expressed my concern. I truly didn't want to go to class but I felt the need to defend its necessity.

"Do you even really care about that anymore?" He lifted one eyebrow at me. It was true, I didn't.

"You better know what you are doing." I warned behind him.

He only smirked and did a little chuckle. The fact there could be hope brought a smile on my face.

I missed talking, I missed it so bad.

*

"Okay, take your seat." He ordered. The computer room was empty and the lack of use in the past days was glaring.

"How do you have access in here?" I asked Luke but I got ignored.

He inserted his Flash drive into a laptop he had pulled from under a computer desk. I wanted to ask and know how that managed to get there but decided against it.

"Okay look at this." He spoke after a few moments of furious typing into the internet and waiting for response.

I turned to look at the screen, waiting for his explanation. "Okay?"

"This was the first published news from the American government after the liar gas was first exposed." He pointed at the screen, then scrolled down using the mouse on the keyboard to navigate the page downwards.

"So?" I didn't get his picture right, or what direction he was headed.

"Exactly a month ago today, this news read that it was an accident from the science lab." He began to explain, pointing at the text that conveyed the message he had said to me.

"But look at this, yesterday, the name of the scientist that exposed the gas was revealed to be Nie Manchester." He said, exiting the page he was to show me where it was published. "And although when the gas was first exposed, they said the scientist was a new one, that it was his first time in that lab." He explained to me. I still did not understand his point but I loved wherever it was going.

"You can see his image attached here." He pointed at a picture in a black and white filter that contained a man who was half bald and in a lab coat, frowning in the screen.

"Okay?" I nodded.

"Look what happens when I type Nie Manchester into the search box." He said and speed typed the name.

News that filled the screen was the images of the man that exposed the gas and how he had done it.

"Well, It is just news that tells exactly what you showed me." I shrugged, still not understanding where this was headed.

"Good." He nodded and returned to the search box, "now look what happens when I type Nie Manchester's age." He said, typing exactly that.

"Read it carefully." He pointed at the screen. "This is the same man that appeared on the news and based on this results, that I'm certain will be taken down very soon, Nie Manchester was born one hundred and seven years ago, and died fifty years ago."

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, shocked by the news. "What are you trying to say this means?"

"The liar gas was not an accident, Ariyah." Luke said.