'Get it together' I thought to myself. 'Just keep it together.'

So, I pursed my lips and sucked in air through my nose before turning around and returning to my work.

"What are you doing there?" HAH-233 asked, walking over to me and trying to peek into the engine.

I glanced at her before returning to my work, not sure how to explain it without words and I wasn't willing to hurt my throat to explain it.

As I continued to work HAH-233 leaned over the engine next to me and watched me work.

"You're a regular grease monkey." She commented at one point. "Where'd you learn to do this?"

I shrugged, glancing out the side of my eyes at her to see her reaction. She seemed to be genuinely curios. Her black hair was just beyond shoulder length and was flowing over her shoulder, her brown eyes darting between me and the engine. It was times like this I was grateful for my eyes being black orbs. It made it impossible for anyone to see what I was looking at.

"Can you teach me to do that?" She asked.

Not sure how to answer I just shrugged.

"You know you never gave us your name." HAH-233 said after a while.

I turned to face her, giving my best 'Are you serious?' look.

She looked at me as well as her face grew red and she started to laugh.

"And I just realized how dumb that question was." She said, looking up towards the underside of the hood and laughing.

I silently chuckled with her.

Right then there was a loud bang follower by a commotion in the living room.

"The hell is that?" HAH-233 asked, turning to face the door.

The commotion continued but I could hear Phenix screaming above the noise.

"We need to move!" he screamed. "Now!"

"We should go." HAH-233 said, looking terrified.

We sprinted into the living room to find people scrambling every which way.

"Ok," Phenix shouted, getting everyone's attention. "I only counted seven so we'll split up in fire teams to try and thin their numbers. Scatter and meet at location Zulu." He paused, looking around the room. "Every one got it?"

There were nods and murmurs of 'yes' all around the room as I watched, very confused as to what was happening.

"Then get moving!" Phenix yelled. "VIPs are with me." He then turned to Jag, who was next to him, and said "I recommend you come with me. They found this place. You're not safe here anymore."

Panic flooded me as it dawned on me what he was saying. The lab had found us here.

"And who's fault is that?" Jag demanded hotly as teams of four were exiting the house in many directions. "You lead them here!"

"And I'm sorry for that." Phenix said. "We thought we lost them. But now's not the time for this argument. We can protect you. Come with us and we'll keep both of you safe?"

Jag looked hesitant and you could practically cut the tension in the room with a knife.

I kept turning my head between him and the door, hoping he would catch onto the fact that I wanted to go. That I would rather live on the run then be caught.

He was still, silently, debating when we heard a gunshot outside.

We all jumped and Jag quickly turned to Phenix.

"Lead the way." Jag told him.

And so, we ran from the house that I had called home. It wasn't much, but it was ours. Now I was saying goodbye to my boring life and being forced back into one of running.