The Secret Keys

The deadly inferno tore through the house as though it were only made of matches and gasoline; its bright orange glow lit up the street in the dead of night and brought all the neighbors out of their own houses in pure shock. A whole home and lifetime of memories were now gone. Sure, the people who once lived there luckily made it out unscathed—even their beloved dog Bella and cat Gerald managed to escape—but everything they once knew was destroyed.

“EVERYONE OUT! THE ROOF’S GONNA CAVE IN!” the captain shouted at his team of firemen, all of them quite tall and strong. Three of them were still inside doing all they can to get the last two members of the household—namely the man of the house, Mr. Dean Crawford, and his oldest son, Ron—out of the house. I saw Mr. Crawford rush back into the house, covering his nose and mouth from the smoke and dodging the flames despite the firemen and his family trying to block him off. I saw him looking around frantically, but the flames were too bright and hot for him to find what he was searching so hard for…something he was going to need desperately from that moment on.

“THIS HOUSE IS GONNA BLOW! GET OUT, NOW!” the captain shouted through the megaphone once more. One of the lead firemen grabbed Mr. Walker by the shoulders and another got ahold of his son to shove them out.

“Please, I have to get back in there!” Mr. Crawford pleaded, the spray from the hose pouring over his head.

“If I let you back in there, your charred corpse is on my hands! Ain’t happenin’, man!” the first fireman stated, blocking him from the house. “There ain’t nothing left, man, it’s gone! All gone!”

“You don’t understand! If I lose that drive, I lose everything!”

“Dad, come on! It’s not that important!” shouted his son who desperately tried to pull him away from the front of the house.

“Sir, I don’t care what it is, we cannot let you back in there!” It was then that there was a whizzing noise in the air that grew louder and louder like a time bomb. I couldn’t do anything myself except sit there in that wicker basket in what was once the office room…

And then, in a split second, the world went silent and white followed by a deafening boom.

On that following morning, though the sky was clear and blue and the trees in full autumnal colors, the saddening sight of the ruins was on full display. Nothing but ashy gray wreckage and black smoldering smoke. The fire truck was still there hosing down what was left of the mostly dead flames. There was nothing left of the frame of the house, mind you, though traces and shards of it were found scattered throughout the neighborhood. Within the remains of the house, bits of furniture could be found. Sarah, Dean’s wife and mother of their three children, found a small patch of fabric from her favorite chair—somehow it still showed a bit of the gorgeous lily floral pattern on it. Sarah hung her head low and sighed. How were they ever going to get out of this mess?

“Mommy, look!”

Avery, the youngest child, managed to find her beloved beanie baby, a green and blue Peace Bear whom she nicknamed Chip. Sarah smiled at her sweet little girl and was deeply glad that someone in the house had found something salvageable. The only reason it was intact was because she, being only four years old, had stuck it in a sink of soapy water earlier that day and got it sopping wet, as she wanted to give it a spa bath. She was going to give all her dolls and stuffed animals a spa day when her mother caught her in the act. It was surrounded by a small pile of dampened towels, the lucky thing!

Ron and middle child Garrett went in search for remnants of their old, shared room with their dog Bella following close behind.

“Daaang…” sighed Garrett, bewildered by the sight of their former home. It amazed him, and truly all of them, how quickly things can change in a day’s time. It was something none of them would ever forget. Suddenly, he points, “I think that’s your backpack…”

Ron jaunts on over to the partially burnt bag; his was dark colored before the fire, but now the dark color made it hot to the touch. It was still somewhat open, and everything inside of it was nothing but ash and melted metal. His school computer was absolutely toast. The giant pre-calc textbook was over halfway burnt.

“Wonder if that means I’ll be excused from the test tomorrow,” Ron and Garrett shared a smirk, both still processing all that had happened. Meanwhile, Bella carefully brings another item over to the boys—namely myself on a key ring and a lanyard, the lanyard of course being in the dog’s mouth.

“Woah, easy girl,” Ron reached for the lanyard, which was warm to the touch. My metal cover was still dangerous, however. Definitely to be handled with care. I did not know to what extent I was damaged—all I knew is that it was far too hot. I felt liquidated on the inside. No telling how the information inside was doing.

“Dad’s drive,” he muttered. “This stupid thing nearly got us both killed.”

“Yeah, Mom was freaking out, and Avery was crying,” mentioned Garrett. “What’s on that thing, anyway?”

“Hell if I know,” sighed Ron. “Better go find Dad. He’ll want this back for sure.”

The boys make their way back towards their parents, with Ron holding the lanyard carefully on the cooled off parts and looking at me with both confusion and disgust. He’d never even gave me a thought before last night—I was always their father’s business and no one else’s. I don’t think Sarah even knew about my existence fully, though I’d heard discussions between the two of them in the past about their plans for the future. The two of them stood in the distance, both making valiant attempts to stay strong, but clearly ready to crumble. The tragedies that befall humanity are a lot to take in, I’m sure.

“Dad, look what we found!” shouted Garrett as he and Bella ran ahead of Ron through more wreckage. Ron solemnly continued walking, growing more sullen as he made his way toward the rest of his family.

“Well, Bella found it first,” Garrett admitted as he petted the top of Bella’s head. “Ron’s got it.”

“Gotcha,” Dean responded, sounding somewhat hopeful before shouting toward Ron, “What did ya find?”

“This,” Ron answered before handing it to his father. Dean was relieved to find it was me, but his excitement was tempered by my uncertain status and his eldest’s angsty look. From what I could tell, he knew what that was about. Sarah looked at her husband, wanting to know if that was indeed what he was looking for so much the night of the fire. Dean looked back at her and nodded. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief—there was a bit of hope after all.

It was then that Dean walked toward the car as his family followed including Bella and Gerald the cat. He opened the back of the vehicle and a newly bought cooler full of food and drinks and pulled out a small icepack for me to rest on. That felt amazing—once the heat died off, I started feeling much better inside and out. Still had no idea what level of damage I suffered though.

It took an hour before I was sufficiently cool enough to plug into Dean’s laptop.

“How’s it looking?” Sarah humbly asked, fearing the worst for my situation and more so the family’s situation.

“Just now finding that out,” Dean replied, his face glued to his computer screen. Inside, I heard some technical noises like something was trying to boot up. It was taking a while though. Not looking good. I was otherwise okay now, but who knows what was going on inside. Sarah walked off for a bit and dropped to her knees in prayer. She always was the quiet but faithful one. Avery made her way over to her mother to hug on her shoulders for a bit while she prayed. The two boys watched and wandered at a distance through the remnants of the house.

It was then the software on me popped up on the screen—MACHINA X CORPS. Dean immediately breathed a sigh of relief—as long as that popped up, everything was going to be fine. Sarah got up and ran to him as did the three kids.

“We’re gonna be fine, folks!” he shouted for joy. “We’re gonna be just fine.” He clicked into the software—all his investments were still there. XWD, ZRC, NDS, ZOD, $ASK, and other coins were all still there. Yeah, yeah, I know---he’s a crypto investor. But hey, he’s got enough to get a whole new house without need for a mortgage if he wanted to. And I guess I, the little jump drive wallet he kept it all on, was built a lot tougher than I thought.