Episode 4: A Safe Place
The jeep came to a halt near the garage and the crew walked over to the garage which had a padlock on its front door. Mike brings out a set of keys and starts to unlock the door. The sun was right about us and it was immensely hot enough to make people sweat profusely in seconds.
"Welcome to El Fostane! The safest of all garages out there!", Lucas prompted as he waited for Mike.
"Garages? You mean a run down place for homeless people and freaks?", Xavier mocked.
"Very funny.", Lucas replied as the door opened up. Mike heads in first, followed by the rest. The lights flicker on to reveal a small cabin in one corner and a white sedan parked on the other. It was in a late stage of disrepair as if the previous owner didn't look after it much. In the center there was a rusty metal table with a whiteboard beside it on which was a crudely drawn map of the entire country. The cabin was just a small shed inside which was a small storage area for spare parts and tools along with a table and a cushioned chair. The floor was tiled with paper, metal parts and various kinds of filth.
"Nice…. place.", Xavier remarked on the condition, clearly disgusted by it.
"It's simple, comforting and eerie. I love it!", Louis comments as he heads over to the whiteboard.
I went over to Mike who was busy looking through someone's phone. "Where did you get that from?", I asked.
"Hm? Oh, from the locals. They also gave us this place to live in.", Mike replied.
"You trust them right?"
"Better to trust them than the brain dead people roaming everywhere. Besides, they are the only people around here who are sane enough."
"I doubt that. The people at the school were calling me 'Jack'. Do you happen to know anything about him?"
"No but sure as heck better than getting called by Richard."
"Pffttt.. from GTA V.", I smirked.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it's better to tell you the plan. Or what we'll probably do when we reach the island."
"Why not tell the rest?"
"The last thing I want is Lucas and Louis to fight here. You know what happened the last time."
"The time when the group couldn't decide whether to break in from the roof or to break in through the garage?"
"Yes."
"Yeah… we ended up crashing into the roof.", we both sighed as Mike went on to tell the plan.
"Since you three are now escapees from the weird college, there would be search parties and posters everywhere on this country, even on the island. Kevin will come with you as well because of the 'little' incident he made. So, group one, me and Lucas, will enter normally and we'll make our way to the backside of the park. You four, group two, will be waiting for my ribbon signal, indicating that the path is clear. One of you will then launch a grappling hook onto the wall for others to climb it-"
"Mike, calm down. It's a college not some state prison. They won't be looking for us like that. How about we just go the normal way in?"
"Hope so. Stealth has always been the key to many locked gates."
"Tell that to Louis.", I smirked
"Whatever. We're going to need Xavier for the next part."
"Why?"
"I'm planning to use her psychic powers to triangulate the source, the device used to hypnotize nearly everyone in Venty. When we do, the real timer starts."
"I'm not following you.. what?"
"Well, if the source is using hypnosis then Xavier would sense it. There might be a chance that the device would sense us as well and might alert the entire country of our presence. We'll be the public. Enemy. One. The locals said that the device might be in the industrial capital, Verona so we'll be heading straight there."
"Dark types like you are immune to psychic attacks and can't actually triangulate them perfectly while any other type would fall prey to that. For psychic types, it depends on the tolerance. Xavier's the best one we got in this suicidal mission. Whattya say?", Mike continued as I nodded.
"Yeah. What other choice do we have?", I said as me and Mike went over to the table where Louis had gathered everyone to formulate a plan.
"...how about we go guns blazing? Secure the park and make our stand.", Xavier prompted as the group objected to the idea.
"If we even had guns to do that, it'd be risky.", Lucas said as the group started to look for alternatives.
"Why don't we go in like casual people?", Mike presented his ideas as he walked up to them.
"Kevin and Mike make up for a good distraction. We could use that.", Isuggested as the group took it into their consideration.
"Good distraction as in?", Mike asked.
I smirked and whispered into his ears, "Do what you did in the talent show back in 2011.".
"OHHH! Yeah, we can do that!", Mike agreed as the group remained puzzled.
"I don't like where you're going with this, Eugene.", Louis said as he locked his eyes on me.
"Trust me. It's surely better than going gu-"
"Guns blazing? That'll be stupid. We'll be the public enemy one, yes but we won't be shooting the public. We'll go in there, provide cover for Xavier, curtail out of this state with a quick getaway. Hope I won't need to repeat myself cause that'll be the plan. Any questions?", Louis presented his plan in a commanding tone.
'It's clear that any other plan would spur up a fight but this one sounds workable enough for us to pull it out. But, how did Louis come to know of our plan and what'll be the getaway?', I thought as Louis approached us.
"I should've kept the plan with us. But hey! It's a much improved version.", Lucas said
"You took the ultimate risk. Thank lord that Louis wasn't thinking of going guns blazing.", Mike sighed in relief.
"All we now need is Kevin. You're coming with us, Eugene?", Louis asked.
"Nah. I'll just stay here and explore this place a bit.", I replied as they both started walking to the door. Left with only Xavier and Louis, I went over to them.
"Hey!", I greeted Xavier.
"Heya!"
"So, you're sure that this'll work right?"
"Suspecting my potential?"
"No, no. Just worried about the aftermath. If it is a hypnosis inducing device then we'll be screwed. How in the world will we escape an entire country?"
"We'll escape it like any other manhunt. How hard can it be?"
"They're hypnotized, not willingly sent after us. Those manhunts had people who had various reasons to kill us. We can't just spray bullets in their direction, hoping to buy some time cause in the end, there are innocent souls in them."
"That is indeed true but, we'll figure something out. We always do. Just gotta wait for the spark in the right direction."
"Yeah. How are you hanging though?"
"Well enough. My mind still has a lot of questions about… all of this."
"Same feeling here…"