Four of a Kind

Pressured Escape

“It would be good if you two know that this is Ada’s place.” I told Red and Andy. I turned my head to look at them. Andy was beside me and Glasses was behind Andy and Red was behind me. They looked like the start of a bad joke. But I looked at myself and Red. If that was true, then we’d be the punchline that wouldn’t get any laughs except those forced pitied ones.

“You know? There isn’t really a need for all four of us to be in the same closet. I suggest the big one get out. Or the small scrawny one.” Glasses said.

That raised both mine and Andy’s eyebrows seeing as we both fit the latter description. I admit I was scrawny but neither of us were small. We were tall but thin. I didn’t know if replying was the best idea as it might just confirm what he said to be true. Andy seemed to be thinking along the same lines and kept his mouth shut. No one got out the closet.

That’s when Ada came in the room. I should have known it was a girl’s room the moment I woke up. Not because I’ve been in a girl’s room a lot but because it smelled good.

I prayed that she wouldn’t open the closet door. I could’ve sworn she saw me but she didn’t seem to be looking for us.

“Maqius.” Andy spoke softly with a strained smile. “That’s not my arm your ass is leaning on. it’s actually my wang.”

Red looked like he was about to pass out from behind me and topple outside. I had to push an elbow back to make sure that didn’t happen. As for Maqius I thought anyone who’d hear Andy speaking in his cringey sexy voice would immediately jerk off as a natural reaction. Girls may find his voice attractive. But us guys not so much. 

But he was feeling drowsy. I didn’t know resting on another man’s p***s could make you fall asleep but now wasn’t the time to get lustful with each other when we got a girl outside who might be ready to scream at the sight of us.

I looked outside and was getting lustful myself. She was undressing. She was noticeably cleaner than before. She probably took a shower first thing after she sweet-talked Red and Andy. Her body was whiter and more radiant. I wished Red didn’t snap for pointing at his chest with my elbow for so long. Otherwise we’d see her naked.

He pushed me out the closet and the rest came out one by one. Ada froze and looked at us with wide eyes. She covered her body with a towel and was too stunned to speak. I could see the fear growing in her eyes with each movement we made. I raised my hands pleadingly to know that we came in peace. The others followed suite. Thank god she understood cause it was at that moment someone came knocking on her door. She ran up to it and slammed into it with momentum before telling the person behind the door she was undressing. It was her mother, she replied saying the shower isn’t free yet.

“That’s ok! I’m not showering yet. I just took one a while ago.” She replied truthfully.

The woman left. And Ada faced us. “What do you want?”

I gave her my hand to shake. “None of us want to hurt you or take anything from you. We just need to talk.”

“On the contrary, he wants to talk. I want to ask.” Maqius said.

I pulled out my spear on Glasses. I knew how complicated s**t was gonna be with everyone yapping at the same time. I needed order. And to do that I needed to make sure that people were quiet.

“One at a time.” I said with a strained voice. I’ll go first. I’ll tell her everything and she does the same AFTER ME.” I said with a breaking voice.

Glasses obeyed. Red and Andrew were just a waste of space doing nothing but delaying our “adventure”.

I told her everything. How me and Andy found Red. How I was invited to a bar under the impression Red was my fighter and found the technology Synedrate. How we robbed that place amidst the chaos in said Bar the next day. And how we ended up here after Andy robbed a car. And how we met Glasses and how he was gonna help us take the Redhood organization down.

I didn’t know why I was telling her this, but when I woke up and started accepting the big changes that was happening in my life I knew I had to talk to someone about it.

Ada listened in silence. Judging by her reaction I think she believes us. After I told her everything so she could catch up I told her it was her turn. I wanted to know why she lied to Red and Andy and somehow got away with drugging us and letting her get our car.

“Ok,” she said taking a long breath. “This is a long story but we better make it quick. If they find you four here it’s not really a big deal, but if it’s them… sorry let me start from the top. I’m Ada, I live here in Blasgoul and a month back these sub organization of Redhood, the bad guys you’re after, calls themselves Bandits. They took over this town with neckbelts.”

Maqius said “Ahh that explains it.” And looked like he understood everything after the word “neckbelt” but I was gonna have to ask her. “What’s a neckbelt?” Me, Red and Andy said in unison.

“Was hoping you asked. It’s sort of a device that can tell a person what kind of emotions the wearer is going through depending on the way you use your voice. If you have high discord it means your in a very emotional state and etc.”

“I’ll take it from here sweetheart.” Glasses said is a prince-like voice. Me and Andy sniggered and coughed from the sudden change in his tone.

“These neckbelts are powered with Synedrate. Those bandits must’ve reworked the belt so that they can explode with the touch of a button. They might automatically notify the user so they can arm the belt to explode if the wearer shouts or says something whilst in an emotional state as well. All the townsfolk must’ve been forced to wear it.”

“It’s not that hard really.” Ada replied. “If you had that many neckbelts. You can take over any town as long as you know how to reprogram the belts and have that many. Plus, those bad guys had the balls to kill someone. When they forced the belt on a few people, our village head called their buff and it resulted in someone dying. We were all forced to wear one. Every day those bandits make the people work on digging an excavation site.”

“Then Ummmm…. where’s your neckbelt?” Andy spoke to her for the first time I think.

“That was a month ago. I wasn’t here. I was busy looking for my sister Heylian then. When I came back I knew something was up and snuck in without anyone noticing.”

“Wait then didn’t your family felt alarmed you came back and say something when they saw you?” Maqius asked.

“They definitely felt alarmed. But they must’ve bit their tongues to not say anything to save their skins.” Ada answered him.  “My adoptive family owns this bar, they were the nicest people. After the m******e me and Heylian split off.  Heylian chose to work as a maid for a family called Nato and I got adopted by this family.”

I raised my brows. I turned to Andy. “You didn’t tell her?” It might’ve nice to know that Ada knew my full name.

Andy exhaled deeply. “Listen man, there’s a lot of things that we talked about while you were drooling and my mind didn’t know what to say after she told me Heylian was her sister.”

“Wait, tell me what? Do you know where she is?” She asked with eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree.”

“His name’s Reeves Nato!” Andy said gesturing to me. I’m Andy, this is Maqius and the big guy s called Red.

Red opened his mouth. I stopped him just in time by telling her that we’ll take her to Heylian on one condition. And that was she’d give us our car back and tell us how to get out without being seen by those so-called bandits.

Ada was about to retort when the door banged loudly, and I don’t think it was from someone that belongs here.

The door opened with a bang. It wasn’t your typical rebellious teen bursting and slamming door where they stay silent after using the door violently for the dramatic effect. There was no pause. The guys who burst in didn’t wait for no effect. They got right to business and pointed guns that looked similar to Andy’s at the five of us.

There were again three of them and all three looked the role of a pirate or outlaw already. With their weather-beaten brown thick jackets and dirty hair. Oil glistening from their skin as if they haven't taken a shower for a while. These guys couldn’t have been older than 30.

Their guns looked dangerous. I wasn’t stupid enough to play hero. Nor were the other three. Figures. When it comes down to it they were all just a bunch of side characters to make anyone who wanted to play hero look good.

The tallest that had red hair spoke first. “Reliable little belt’s aren’t thay you think?” he asked dragging out a middle-aged lady by the belt on her neck from behind them to between us.

“Mom!” Ada screamed. “Don’t hurt her!”

They pushed her out the room and locked it. We could hear her pleas to open the door.

The shortest one on the redhead’s left aimed his gun at her. “Who do you think you’re to order ush around? We own youse. Unless youse want to walk around headless- hey! Where’s youse belt?”

Ada stayed silent. I looked at Maqius. Hoping to add another under our belts. He shook violently. I guess it wasn’t gonna work. I looked at the other two. Andy seemed frightened and Red was… he was turning blue. I think he must be sick from all the Synedrate vials he took in less than three days. I guess his body was rejecting the Biotic Synedrate or something.

“Hey! You lanky!” The last one from the redhead’s right called out. He only had one eye and was wearing a pink napkin over the other. “Youse facing ush. Not youse friends. If I see youse eyes staring at somewhere other ush then I pop youse head hear me?”

“Is this how y’all speak? “Youse”, “ush”, and what “thay”?” I stalled and mocked. “Ish youse gon killsh me ifsh I shan’t comply?”

“How dare youse!” Pink eye patch retorted. He was obviously sensitive cause he pulled out a remote and tapped a number and hit a big red button.

A bang came first. Then the screaming and yelling of a woman. I looked to my left at a window towards the source of the sound. It seemed to have come from a building across us.

Ada clapped her hands to her mouth and pushed her way past towards me to the window, not caring if those three shot her or not. The four of us cautiously, with raised hands, as if in sync, looked at the three bandits in fear while taking step by step closer to the window to see what was going on.

Ada was crying with tears dripping. I looked over it seems that a man died due to pink patch arming one of the belts and exploding it. It hit me that my cockiness costed the life of a innocent husband.

“HOW COULD YOU?” Ada screamed. At first I thought it was directed towards me. But she ran to pink patch and started hitting him. the bandits drew their guns on her but rest of us reacted quickly. I pulled my spear out and aimed it at them whose focus was only on Ada. I expanded my spear and it poked the shortest of the three, while Glasses threw one of his daggers and it hit the door. He disappeared from our side and tuned up behind the bandits. He took out two blades and poked the remaining two in the neck.

They all went down at the same time. I smiled thinking that me and Glasses worked well like a well oiled machine.

Then one of them moved. Went for their gun. Andy saw that and used his gun for the first time. With a satisfying “feeeyu!” The shot whizzed through the air and met it’s mark. Blood splattered and all.

“Yippee!!” Andy screamed in a way that did not sound like him. He was grinning in a very disturbing way looking the mess he worsened.

“AAAAHHHH” Another scream came from behind the locked door. The blood spilled and went past the door for Ada’s mother to see.

Just as we were about to make a break for it, seeing that the townsfolk were distracted by the loss of their fellow community member, Red collapsed. This was a total mess. A chaos. There was a fuss outside our building, a hysterical woman screaming at the sight of blood outside our room and her daughter berating us inside the room. The fresh bloody corpses weren’t much help either. The sudden change of motivation Andy had from “frightened” to “enthusiastic” and Red being suddenly sick were just the cherries on top of an already impossible to finish ice cream.

Me and Maqius had more than enough on our plates already. How were we supposed to lead the way out of this mess.