Read Forsaken World:Coming of Age for Free Online

“It was the best one out there,” he snapped. “Sure, I could’ve bought one of the cheap ones, but I would’ve had to rewrite most of it, and that takes a lot of time we don’t have.”
    “I’m not complaining,” Ian said, raising his hands. “You left four of Doug’s cards for us to use even though we couldn’t use them long.”
    “If it’s so good, why didn’t your parents or Doug buy one or one like it?” Jennifer asked, moving over and hitting Ian with her hips until he scooted over in the chair to let her sit down with him.
    “If they would’ve brought everyone they planned on, then someone would always be able to watch the monitors, but we don’t have the manpower,” Lance said as the program opened up, and he closed the video feed, making the screens go blank. Ian and Jennifer glanced at the dark screens with some apprehension.
    Closing her eyes, Jennifer silently prayed, Please don’t break it, Lance. I really like seeing around us . Opening her eyes, she gave a sigh, seeing the monitors blinking on as Lance started clicking away. “Ian, click the phones to accept,” Lance said.
    Startled by Lance’s voice, Jennifer watched Ian lean over, looking at three smart phones on the desk that were lit up. She leaned over and saw “Accept wireless host connection” on the screens. “Are those your phones?” she asked.
    “Yes and Allie’s,” Ian said, tapping the screens. “Lance asked her if you could keep it to stay in touch with the computer, and she said yes.”
    “Allie would do anything for Lance,” Jennifer giggled.
    “Leave Allie alone,” Lance said, shaking his head but never looking away from the screen.
    “Yeah, she told Mom she was going to marry Lance,” Ian chuckled, handing Jennifer her phone.
    “Who hasn’t she told that?” Jennifer snickered.
    “I’m not kidding; leave Allie alone. She’s super sweet,” Lance said, tapping the keyboard, then pushed back. “Done, baby, we are live now.” They looked at the monitors as all the camera angles came on. “Watch,” Lance said, getting up and running upstairs.
    Hearing the front door open, they looked up at the monitors as the computer beeped. One of the thirty-inch monitors showed the camera view and location over the front door at the top of the screen with a white box outlining Lance as he walked off the porch. They both looked down at their phones as they buzzed, showing them what was on the monitor.
    The box kept him outlined on the screen as Lance moved around and off the porch. When he left the field of view, the box left, and the monitor went dark—as did their phones. “He was that sure it would work?” Jennifer asked as her phone and the computer beeped and showed Lance walking toward the front gate from another camera.
    “If it wouldn’t have, we would’ve locked his ass in here because when a computer doesn’t do what he wants, he becomes a major asshole,” Ian said, tapping his phone.
    Lance came back and showed them how to work the program. As Jennifer was going through it, the computer beeped, and one of the four screens at the very top that showed the status of the cabin and powerhouse beeped. “I didn’t do it,” Jennifer said, looking up. “Overflow alarm? What the hell is that from?”
    “The pump house even though there isn’t a pump; water is by gravity feed,” Ian said, standing up as Lance moved Jennifer’s hand away and clicked open a program.
    “System says we need to open the overflow pipe,” Lance said, getting up.
    Jennifer got up too. “Why isn’t the overflow pipe just open?”
    “So rats and bugs can’t crawl up it and contaminate the well in the pump house,” Ian said, following Lance up the stairs.
    Taking off after them, she asked, “Just where the hell is the pump house?” as they grabbed the M4s they had when they were painting the others.
    “Back, northwest corner, just inside the fence,” Lance said, press checking his rifle. “Coming?”
    “Hell