Chapter 5

                                    

                                          


                          
Once we reached the apartment, Jeff opened the door to let me inside to get comfortable. My chair was covered in glass, and there was dirt all over me from all the debris and soot that fell from the fires. So, with a soaked towel, Jeff wiped off some of the dirt that covered my face. Then got down on one knee to get all the dirt and glass off my chair. 
                          
Jeff wiped me clean enough to finally get comfortable and got me the remotes to watch some TV before finally breaking the silence. 
                          
"Well, I tried to get you as comfortable as possible, Dak. Do you need anything more? Because I really gotta get back to help at the hospital."
                          
"Now that you're safe here, please call either your mom or me if you need anything. We'll come by sometime later to check on you." He said as he turned towards the door.
                          
"Don't worry about me, Jeff. I'll be ok, I'm just a little tired from the day. I just want to relax and try to figure things out." I said as I grabbed the remote to turn on the TV.
                          
"Oh, alright, I'll see you later then." He said one last time before closing the door to the apartment with the quiet locking sound following.
                          
I turned on the TV, and it seemed like every channel was covering the explosion at Peyton's office. It was being shown and talked about on NBC, Fox, ABC, and CNN. Footage of the devastation and blue flames being contained by firefighters were shown all over the screen. With different news anchors debating if this was some sort of terrorist attack or an accident somehow. Either way, no one seemed to know what had happened to cause such a large-scale explosion. They didn't know what caused more than fifty people to be injured with burns and broken bones. Or how the other forty-five and counting deaths came from such a horrible scene.
                          
I tried flipping the TV channel to Netflix to get my mind off of it, but it kept popping back into my head. The images of Wayne laughing after telling me I had been fired a week ago without me knowing it. The flash of blue light before the explosion that had enough wind force to blow Wayne off his desk and shatter all the glass windows in his office. Then silently going down the elevator as Wayne panicked and screamed beside me that we're all going to die. Or the sounds and smells of people screaming in pain from their burnt flesh upon going outside GloboEngine. I couldn't get any of it out of my head.
                          
An hour later, as I was trying to get these images out of my head watching Elf; there was a loud knock on my door. I immediately took out my phone and checked the ring doorbell system to see who it was because no one I knew knocked on my front door. On my screen, I saw a tall, well-dressed white guy in a black suit with a very nice watch. Accompanied by another man who was dressed in all-green camouflage camo pants with a green beret on his head. The man in the black suit looked directly at the camera in the doorbell, and, with a southern New Orleans accent, he said, "Are you Mr. Dak Wilson from GloboEngine International?"
                          
I answered, "Yeah, this is him. Who are you?"
                          
Then, as calmly as ever, he answered. 
                          
"Pardon my horrible manners, Mr. Wilson, but I'm Dr. Jeremiah Hyde and this is my associate, Mr. Chase Killigan. We, gentlemen, are from the Department of Homeland Security and wish to discuss with you some information pertainin' to the disappearance of your friend, Mr. Peyton Henderson. We all know he's not on no cruise, so can we come in and have you listen to what we have to say, my fine sir? I'm certain you'll find it very interestin'."
                          
His statement immediately caught me off guard. I had to let him in, because how would he know that Peyton wasn't on a cruise? I had just told that lie to my mom and Jeff an hour ago. If he knew that, then he must know some stuff about why Peyton disappeared the last couple of days. Or why he hung up on me after his office exploded.