Today was the day, after everything that happened, today was the day we would finally do this damn thing. Excitement, fear, and anxiety were all there, that's right, I said excitement. 

For some reason I thought all this was pretty cool, the entire mission sounded pretty neat. It felt like we were boutta do something from a movie, something so dangerous it was insane. 

Of course with everything possibly leading to this whole thing failing and us dying, that feeling was ruined a bit, but still. I ran through the huge hallway outside my room until I found the stairs going down. 

Everyone was already here on the lower floor which honestly looked like a moving scene because of all the stuff laying around.  Harry was loading some things in the truck, and Jason was talking with Toby. That was a surprise though, the other day Toby was talking about when to kill Jason, now they were talking? 

I walked up front, “When are we leaving?”. 

“We're leaving in 10 minutes,” Jason replied. 

He grabbed a pill from Toby after saying that and walked off. Something wasn't right, Toby first wanted to kill Jason and now he’s giving him these random pills to “help him?”. 

How does Toby even have something like that? Yea, this was messed up. Jason also went pale when Harry asked him how he was last night, he said the pills Toby was giving him were temporarily slowing it all down.

Alright, had to interrogate, I walked up to Toby, the guy still had the pills he gave Jason in his hand. He had dozens, but he put them all away in a container as soon as he saw me.  

“Toby, the heck are you giving Jason? I thought you wanted him dead, and how is he totally fine now. He’s barely coughing and can stand up straight like it's nothing!”. 

Toby chuckled, “They are pretty helpful, aren't they? I made them after looking into almost a hundred people that got stung. These pills are the closest thing I’ve got to a cure, I'm giving some to Jason so he isn't useless during the mission”. 

“Watch your mouth, and doesn't it have any side effects?”. 

Toby smiled, “we’ll just have to wait and see won't we”. 

Damn it, that didn't help. I was worried Jason was doing the wrong thing taking the pills, but they were working. Fair enough for him to wanna use them. 

I wasn't the one turning into a goddamn monster, not literally at least. 

“Alright, we got everything, hop in guys” Toby shouted. 

Time to go, whatever the heck was boutta happen, didn't matter. What Harry said to me last night, he was right. I was going to die at some point anyway, I was ready to do whatever I had to. No turning back now. 

Alright Leo, this is all going to work out. It has to. 

I walked in the truck Toby was pointing at, this thing was even crazier than the last one. Toby definitely made some adjustments, at least he was prepared. 

This one had two long seats on opposite sides of each other. In between them, there was an empty gap that would be pretty easy to walk in. 

That was the main layout, one of the biggest changes in this one though was the wheel. It had double the buttons as the wheel in the previous truck and had a huge navigation system all around it. 

We all sat down, all of us except Toby. He came up front and began clearing his throat. “Guys, it's about damn time we do this. I've thought of basically everything, you guys got nothing to worry about. And if anything goes wrong, I have a backup plan. I know where we can find what we're looking for. We should get there in half an hour”. 

He walked up to the wheel after that and started the engine, just the noise of him doing that felt crazy. 

We were really doing this huh, walking into a 99 percent chance of death just like that. 

I stared at my watch, its bright light caught my eye. Somehow it was on again, this piece of crap made no sense. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, it randomly turning on just now felt convenient. 

I would be sitting around for a while right now, why not check out the watch properly while it was still around. 

I tried pressing the screen, I could see a few app icons but of course, I wasn't able to click them. Damn it, what was this thing?

“This is Luis Nichols reporting for Beta tester 1”. 

What the heck?! The watch just randomly played that, and so frikin loud. I was lucky I was able to hit pause somehow. It was a voice recording, and the watch screen changed. An app probably opened up, but just now the touch screen wasn't even working…. 

I nervously looked at everyone else, no one even stared back. Did they not hear anything, how? 

After lowering what I assumed was the volume button on the side of the watch, I clicked play and pulled my wrist right next to my ear. Thank god the touchscreen worked again. 

“This is Luis Nichols reporting for Beta test 1. Cryptic is ready for testing and Beta tester one is about to enter. Age is 14, gender is male, and name is Leo Maxwell”. 

Umm, wait, that was Luis talking? The same guy I've been talking to? And he just said…my name? 

The heck was I listening to? There was even more left in the recording, why was this even in the watch?! 

“Leo, I checked in with Toby, he brought more than enough weapons. Come grab the ones you need now so you're ready, they're in the back” Harry said. 

I was sweating everywhere as I tried responding to him, everywhere! “Harry give me a sec, I'll be there, just need to do something”. 

Harry thankfully nodded and walked off, alright, I had to hear the rest, I made sure no one was near me and then just clicked play. 

“Leo, go ahead”. 

So as soon as I hit play I hear this, what did he mean go ahead? I unpaused it again and raised my wrist. 

“My name is Leo Maxwell, I have agreed to the terms and conditions and I take full responsibility in case anything goes wrong”. 

Wait, what? Th-that was me talking, how was that..me? The heck? Why was I talking, how was I talking? What was going on?!

“Leo, come on, we need to grab the weapons!” Harry shouted again. 

He was standing with Jason near the back of the truck, there was a small door next to them, probably where Toby stored the guns. 

But I couldn't even think of that, what the heck was that voice recording, how was I talking and…what was I saying?

I have agreed to the terms and conditions, the heck? And what was Luis saying, Cryptic? Beta testing? And he said I was the damn beta tester? 

Nah, there's no way, this didn't happen. I barely know who Luis even is, how were we both talking together?

“Leo!”. 

Oh damn it, Harry looked pissed. Ok, I just had to push that recording outta my head, couldn't let it distract me. 

Yea that wasn't possible, but whatever.I slowly walked over towards the others. I wasn't thinking straight, and right before this whole mission was about to start. Damn it. I wish I just didn't find that recording. 

Harry had the door opened, the guns inside the storage were pretty damn weird, they all had that futuristic, techy look. 

“What are these?” I asked. 

Harry shook his head, “No idea, just grab them for now”. 

I looked at Jason, he just shrugged. Guess that meant I could pick whatever, I didn't count but it looked like there were about 8 guns. 

I grabbed 2 of them and began getting my gear ready. In the storage, Toby also had some helmets and vests, so I made sure to start wearing everything I would need. 

“I doubt any of them are near the right size, but just work with them for now”. 

Toby walked up to me while saying that, and I just realized, the truck wasn't moving. We stopped, this meant we were here. That recording crap had me going crazy so long, I didn't even notice how long we were on the road. 

“Guys, there are some Parasites up ahead, a bunch of them. Almost all of them are the small ones, but I think there should be at least one big one around here. I've been here before, I'm pretty sure we’ll find what we're looking for. Unfortunately, it's time to ditch the truck. Big one isn't a problem, it's just that the trucks gonna make a lotta noise and the little ones around here, they're gonna come. Gotta walk on foot now”. 

That seemed, risky. “Toby, how do we know the big one here isn't fully charged or anything?”. 

“We don't, we just hope”. 

Man, I hated Toby so much, either way, it was time. I couldn't believe it, once wearing all his gear, Toby got out the truck. I finished wearing mine and followed him outside, in front of me was a mall. 

"Alright, one of the big ones is in here, I know it, this mall is pretty damn big too though. It's going to take a while to find it if there's only one. Let's hope that's how it is, anyway, we gotta split up. Leo, you go with Jason and Harry, I'll be on my own. We cover the most ground this way, and this is a fair way to split up, equal abilities on both ends”. 

“Toby, you talk too much. Remember, without our help, you wouldn't have even had the guts to come out here”. 

Well damn, I didn't expect Harry to say something like that, I was still glad he did. I would have said it if he didn’t. 

Anyways, it was time to go. Toby was already running inside, time to do our part. 

I looked at the others, “Let's move!”.