As you continued to work on the device, Tom and Sara kept looking at the screen. They were interested in seeing what the kids would do next. Rick sat in the back of the room and said, "I think it's pretty obvious that they're going t..."

"Shut up!" Sara exclaimed before he could finish. She tried being more polite earlier, but this was getting frustrating, annoying, and ridiculous. Rick just sighed and shook his head in response. Tom said, "Really, I don't understand why you think they're evil. They...seem nice." Of course, it was possible they were just pretending to be nice, but right now, it seemed like that was very, very unlikely. Now, what he didn't know is that Rick was so distrustful because there were several people who manipulated or betrayed him before. But he didn't want to talk about that, so he just sat there as you kept working and the others kept looking at the screen.

Nate just finished trying to call his brother who, unfortunately, didn't answer. The kid sighed in disappointment, "Looks like he's busy again." Zach said, "Well, maybe he'll call back later. But until then, d..."

Before the 13 year old could even finish his sentence, he was startled by sudden, intense bangs on his door. And, of course, you and your team heard and felt it too. The rapid, thunderous banging, despite coming from a far away source, was still painfully loud. It even felt like some kind of earthquake was occurring as well.

"What...what's happening now?!" Tom asked fearfully. He was so hopeful that no more terrifying, life-threatening things would happen. That they would all be safe and back home soon. "Okay, just calm down. I think it's just someone knocking," you reassured him while pointing at the screen, which was displaying the kids looking at the door. "I hope you're right....And Rick, don't even think about making any comments," Tom said.

Zach quickly opened the door and what he saw was exactly what he was expecting. It was just his younger brother looking at him, his expression clearly signifying that he wanted something. "Alan, what do you want? We're kind of busy right now," Zach said quietly in a slightly annoyed tone. Alan replied with, "I can't find my charger! Can I look for it in here?!"

Zach wasn't surprised. Alan has searched his room many times when he couldn't find something he wanted. He already searched his brother's room for his headphones , Sometimes, Zach didn't really care, but other times, he definitely didn't want his brother in here. This was one of those times.

"Not now. We can look for it later, okay?" Zach told him, hoping he would leave soon.

In response, Alan started begging even more. "Please? Please, please, please, pleeeeaaaaase?! My phone is at 9% and I looked in a bunch of other places already! I won't take more than 10 minutes!" Zach wasn't sure about that. Sometimes, according to Alan, "2 minutes" was actually 30 minutes. One time, Zach asked him for something, and he said he would give it to him in "15 minutes." It actually took him over an hour to finish what he was doing and give his brother what he wanted. And similar things happened many other times. He usually didn't take quite as long to search one room, but there have been a couple of times where he took 30 minutes after saying he would only take 5. And when he searched rooms, he didn't carefully go through things. He would carelessly throw things everywhere.

"Alan, no. I know how long '10 minutes' is according to you. Did you actually search every other room in the house?" Zach said.

"Well, no. But I looked in a lot of them!" Alan said as he continued to stare at his older brother with sad, pleading eyes.

"Then go look in the other rooms you missed," Zach told him, "If you still can't find it, I'll look for it in here, but you can't come in right now. Seriously, I have something really important in here and I can't let you touch it. And also, talk quietly. Your screaming might break it."

Alan was instantly intrigued by his brother's mention of this " important" thing. "Really important? Ooohhhh, what is it? I want to see it! I promise I won't break it!" Alan said enthusiastically. Still, despite being extremely excited, the kid actually listened and wasn't talking as loud. He didn't want to break...whatever Zach had in his room.

"No. I'm not sure you'll be careful enough around it," Zach said, causing his brother to complain even more. "You never let me look at your things!"

Then, Daniel realized something and walked up to the door. "Give us a second," he told Alan, who refused to move. "Come on, Alan. We'll be back in a minute," Daniel said, causing the younger boy to reluctantly move away.

After closing the door, Daniel looked at his friend. "Maybe we should just let him in," he suggested.

"What? Why?" Zach asked in confusion. Daniel explained, "If we show him what it is, he'll probably be more careful. Or he'll just leave us alone after he sees it."

"Y-yeah, but....but you've seen how he gets when he's excited. He might hurt them accidentally," Zach told him, although he was starting to consider his friend's suggestion.

"Eh, maybe Daniel has a point....but I get what you're saying too. Ugh, why does this have to be so difficult?!" Nate stated in frustration.

So, the three of them spent the next couple of minutes discussing what they should do before finally coming to an agreement.