Four of a Kind

Unwilling Catch-ups

It didn’t make much sense to me that Andy was running amok with his technologically advanced gun around the house. If so we’d at least hear some commotion.

I then heard a big blast followed by a trail of smoke. I guess that was the commotion I I was expecting. Remind me not to run my thoughts off again.

“Okay… look” I said to Kim. “What’s being a cloud over all our thoughts is the fact that Andy might be in serious trouble if we can’t get rid of his split personality issue. My dad obviously knows a lot on how to get rid of someone and Andy may not be that hard. He lived in a foster home with 5 other kids. They were all eight to ten years old while he was seventeen. The homeowners probably won’t care if he went missing deep in their hearts. But that was wrong. I cared about Andy. If dad and his maids take down Andy before we do then we won’t have much of a say in the matter of disposing him. Heylian the head maid would be all for it. She never liked any of my friends anyway.”

Kim seemed dejected by my big statement.

“So… in a nutshell all we have to do is contain Andy and stop his rampage?” Maq rhetorically asked getting up. “Ready to go Red? Kim?”

“Okay. I can do that.” Kim said.

“How do you do that exactly?” I asked him reaching for my spear which Maq put on my desk.

“Turning Red?” Kim asked. “I just think about things that get me in my mood to start the day. Then I’d try to connect them with things that are…”

“Red? I presume?” Maq offered.

“Yes.” Kim answered.

“Ok, we’re using you as a last resort. I don’t want to wreck my house. Ironically the housemaids don’t seem to give a damn.” I muttered that statement under my breath.

“Let’s GO!” I yelled.

We went down to the basement where I was hoping Kim could show me how to get deeper below. But that wasn’t necessary cause we met dad and his squad of killer maids.

“Reeves what are you doing here!? Ge back to bed and tell your friends to leave!” Heylian screamed at the three of us.

She was no longer wearing her maid uniform. None of them were. They were all in expensive sportswear. Equipped with guns that were glowing with Synedrates.

“Those appear to be lethal rounds. You don’t want to kill him. He’s not dangerous maybe tranquilizers might do don’t you think?” Maqius said to them.

“We know.” One of the maids said. “We’re all using them. Heylian’s just the last resort in case it comes down to it.”

The wall we were facing in the basement slid up and revealed a old-fashioned elevator. We got in. the ride was a very awkward one. Seeing that one group was out to kill Andy and another was out to save him. I counted and they outnumbered us by 4 more people.

They were more likely to catch Andy than us if they split up.

“So how did it happen?” I asked.

“Your big friend here set him free.” Heylian answered.

“What? Is that true Kim? I thought you were just going to see him.”

Kim stayed silent.

“I left him alone cause he said he wanted “alone time with his friend” or so he says. How was I supposed to know he’d give your friend a loaded weapon.” She said.

I could hear choked tears. It was dark in the elevator all but Kim knew Heylian was about to cry. I could also see one side of her cheek was red.

My dad hit her. I was sure of it. I couldn’t believe he’d do something like that. This was a trivial mistake. It wasn’t like as if his whole business or house was gonna fall apart due to this. But judging by the state of the basement I took back what I said in regards to the house.

Heylian gave us a quick heads-up of what the current situation was.

“So, he got out by remembering the sound of the dial tones in the keypad. The first time was when we put him inside that cell. The second was when big guy went in to visit. He must’ve memorized it properly by the second time cause looking at the CCTV, he got out with three tries.”

“So you’re saying his breakout transpired under camera surveillance, and you didn’t lift a finger to prevent this?” Maq asked.

“He caught us by surprise!” One of the maids or ex-maids from behind Heylian shouted out.

“Anyway… once he got out our guys came down here to detain him and and whipped out his gun that was in the shape of a pen from his pocket and changed it to big Smith and Wesson sized gun. He fired pretty accurately. He killed two of the four and the other two are wounded. And he ran to the generator near his cell and shot it along with other fuses and circuit boards. So no electricity. Those dim lights are powered by back-up battery. He’s still somewhere around this big floor. Maybe in one of the other cells hiding. Take a flashlight and be on the watch.”

“How are you even sure he’s not already out?” I asked taking three flashlights and handing two to Kim and Maq while keeping one myself.

“If he did he’d be killed on sight the moment the elevator doorbell rings. Speaking of which.”  Heylian pushed a button inside the elevator and let it go up with no passenger inside. That elevator was the only way in and out of this basement. There was nothing but power supplies, emergency rations and cells to detain people in here. So other than his gun I think we’re safe from other ways of meeting our demise.

“Can’t be too careful.” She said. “Okay…split.”

She and her team of seven split into even groups with Heylian going to the right corridor alone. Leaving me, Kim and Maq alone.

I turned to Maq and Kim. Who was reading a map of the floor plans.

“It’s sort of like a maze. In the right half of the floor we have a 4 rows and 5 columns of cells. They are split evenly apart. Andy broke out of cell 16…so it’d be the fourth cell in the fourth row. I want to say we should check that out but some of those girls might already be on to it. On the left we have a wall separating the cell blocks and storage facility but there’s no security or anything to get past the walls seeing there’s a automatic glass sliding door…too bad it’s not functioning.”

As if to answer the question to why it was too bad, we heard the sound of glass breaking from the left side. I was startled at first but realized it was probably one of the girls breaking the sliding door.

It’s like a maze from there. The power supplies such as batteries, generators and such are placed in a pretty confusing way. In the front end there are big shelves that stores all the food. It’s like a Home Depot here. In the middle, where we are is just where they keep other stuff they might use later like above ground pools and bed sheets and stuff.” Maq said.

“So what is the plan?” Kim asked.

I looked around the middle section where we were in this basement floor. It was really silent…unlike the first few moments when Maq started giving us a rundown on the floor. What should have struck me odd a while ago only struck me odd now.

The two maids that went ahead of us to further investigate the middle section didn’t make a single sound anymore.

Andy was here in the middle section of the floor. It was nothing but a mere deduction. But unless those two maids just decided to stop and freeze there was no other explanation… I’ll be honest it was just because I was scared I had all these thoughts running to me… a panic attack if you will. I was never a fan of spooky things and this seems like something out of Stephen King’s alley. I just wanted to get out of here. But I didn’t want to chicken out. So going to the left section of the basement sounded fair enough. Three maids sounded better than no maids.

“Let’s go to the left section. Where they store the Home Depot stuff like you put it.” I told Maq and Kim.

“Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?” Maq asked. Wondering the same thing as me.

“Yeah what happened to the two ladies?” Kim pushed. “Do you think? -”

“If it was Andy then we’d hear gunshots or some sort of sound when his arrowheads fly out his gun barrel.” I reasoned and turning left towards the Home Depot section of the floor.

We stepped through the cracked glass making sure no sound was made. Which was especially hard for Kim and we walked in the dimly lit room. It was hard to make out who was who but then I had a idea. I pulled out two things I kept from my pocket. It was when we stopped by the motel for a quick fresh up and I bought us some essentials. The store clerk gave us five glowing bands. I gave one to Kim and Maq. Red and Blue respectively, while I took a yellow one.

“This way we can tell each other apart without shining the flashlights into each other’s faces.” I said beaming.

“Splendid mate!” Maq said.

“Thank you.” Kim said.

We walked on further deeper into the Depot section till we reached the three big columns that Maq told us about.

I turned to the other two.

“Wanna split?” I asked as if asking if we wanted to split a bar candy between the three of us.

“No” Kim said.

“Yes” Maq said.

I didn’t know whose word to take but just then lights where shined on us. It was Heylian and the other two maids. I felt guilty not mothering to learn the other names of the maids but since Heylian was always the one taking care of us face to face. I just didn’t give them enough attention.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’d be checking out the cell which he was in.” Heylian asked.

“We’d figure some of our maids might have that under control so we didn’t bother.” I replied.

“Your maids? First of all we don’t work for you. Second of all we’d gladly kill you if your dad ordered us to. The only one who’s under your command is Heylian cause the rest of us aren’t paid enough.” The one on Heylian’s left said.

“What’s your name?”

“Jessica.”

“Jessica…go f**k yourself.” I said bluntly.

I guess she didn’t see that coming cause she acted surprised in a sarcastic manner.

“Why don’t we split up?” Maq suggested. Seeing there’s six of us we can split into two groups. Reeves you go with Heylian and me and Kim will be a pair. That leaves Jessica and you to be the third pair. We all just got here and this is more than three big shelves so I doubt you all have already run a check up to see if he’s hiding here or not.”

We agreed and split.

Me and Heylian went to the far right of the section to walk through.

“Heylian…we need to talk.”

“What about?”

“Your sister Ada.”

Heylian stopped in her tracks. Obviously she hadn’t heard her sister’s name in a long time.

“Who told you this?” She demanded. It seemed obvious that she wanted to know really badly.

“When we ran out of that bar, we wounded up in a old town called Blasgoul. We rested for a while at the beach but we got sucked below by quicksand. It was a underground cave. We walked around and stuff and ran into three big guys. They were Gladiates just like Kim but less professionally “surgeried” we killed them all and it turns out the Player was your sister Ada.”

Heylian seemed stunned trying to process this so I continued.

“Well I lied, she wasn’t the player but the three Gladiates thought she was and stole for her all sorts of stuff to keep her entertained in a part of a cave. I guess that’s where she lives or something. There were other stuff. Synedrate-related stuff that I can tell she’s been working on. Does this sound like big news to you?”

“Yes and no. I know she’s mixed up in this society a long time ago. I was raised in  Canada with my sister. Up until a year ago neither of us knew our parents dabbled with Synedrate. Something went wrong and people came after our family. Even our grandparents. Our family hid us in the walls of the house and gagged us. I guess they were desperate to keep us safe.

The family that adopted us were really kind. But I left because before they adopted me your dad came to me and offered this job to me. When Ada’s family adopted her. It was only because they found her adorable. I on the other hand was a 16 year old teenager who had acne and well…they didn’t want us siblings to separate so they grudgingly took me in. I knew that but I let my pride fall for the sake of seeing whether or not my sister was gonna have a good life. Once I could confirm she was OK and safe with this new family she’s with, I took the offer Jack Nato gave me and left without saying a thing to her.”

We reached the end of three shelves as we walked. Still no Andy. At least some progress did happen here. We met up with the other four where we agreed to meet. Jessica and that other maid was already there.

“Done with your side?” Jessica asked.

“Yep” Both me and Heylian said in unison.

“Now what? We go over the other sections and if we can’t find him then we have to assume he’s escaped right?”

“Actually…” Jessica started. “We kill all your friends. Your dad said that no one would care if those three disappeared so yeah…bosses orders.”

I laughed. I should’ve hung out with these maids sooner. They were actually pretty fun to be with. the jokes were definitely funny.

But they weren’t joking. I know that now that Heylian shot a dart at me and those three ran off after Kim and Maq.