Chapter 6
January 31st 2022, flashback
"You wouldn't believe my manager, almost as big a dick as Snyder" Jacob complained to his wife "Snyder's demanding the top guards from everyone of his building to work at his L.A. office during the Purge" he said "why do I have to be so frickin good at my job"
"Woah seriously that's so unfair" Nicole said. Snyder was apparently a massive piece of work according to a lot of his employees. But they didn't have to worry about that much, since they chose to work at the one in Wichita, it meant they got to stay in Kansas.
"You know what we can already afford a Purge shelter, maybe I should quit and go back to my old job" Jacob said as he laid on the couch
Nicole pondered this but shook it off "I mean, it's still the safest place during the Purge" and she wasn't wrong every february Snyder rented out WOLF news just to brag about how amazing his security is. Every time he broadcasted people trying to force their way in and failing miserably.
"You think"
"Trust me no one is capable or insane enough to break into that place" Nicole smuggly said "me and Chloe will be right here waiting when you get back"
"Actually every family has a place in the lounge" he said as Nicole perked up "you'd be safe during the Purge and that's what matters… you know what why not, another nice trip to California, let's hope Disneyland is still standing after the job" he said as he hugged his wife
Nicole sat back down, how much could they really have to worry about. Jacob was always finding his way out of difficult situations, he almost reminded her of….
Back to the Present
Logan speed walked away from Serenity's stupid Purge award show, pulled out his phone, and clicked Quinn on his contacts "Honey are you there"
"Yeah I'm here, did you get the intel of his phone, is something wrong" Quinn said, Logan could tell how worried she was
"Snyder just acted weird around me, is everything fine over there, the security system isn't going off, no one showed up" Logan panicked straight into the phone. He made sure to get a system from a company other than Snyder's to be safe.
"Don't worry everything's ok over here, nothing's wrong" Quinn assured
"It's not just that, Snyder knows about Nicole, Chase, Zoey, Michael, and Lola" Logan whispered avoiding anyone hearing him
"What, you've gotta do something we can't let them die" Quinn said passionately
"I'll…. I'll do whatever I can to help" Logan said, and he was gonna make sure to honor that
"Just please be careful, I love you"
"I know" Logan said before hanging up
Logan walked back to the party, how was he supposed to help them.
"Attention everybody" Snyder said on stage "I am on my way to deal with a slight security issue while there I am allowing two potential business partners to accompany me and learn about some of my newest designs"
"I'll do it" Logan said
"Reese, I was hoping you would" that was not a good sign at all
Was this a trap, obviously. But Logan needed to help his friends and Snyder was about to pull something insane to try and kill them. And more importantly he needed to finish downloading the explosive and helicopter intel on his phone
"I'll go too" Stacy said approaching the stage
"Perfect just give me a moment to get ready" Snyder said as he spoke to his assistant
Logan approached Stacy "Stacy"
"Hey-"
"Look I really think you should stay behind, it's probably not safe" Logan said
"What?" Stacy asked
"Look Snyder is a bad guy, I really think you should stay behind" Logan assured
"Logan you sound crazy, he's-" she was interrupted by Snyders assistant
"We have over six hundred guards dead" the assistant said
"Oh just have the bodies incinerated, we'll be able to sell electricity that way" Snyder smugly said
"What?" Stacy said "don't they have families who'll-"
"That they do, good thinking Dippson" Snyder said "burn all their records to so we can avoid proving any benefits to their families"
"Ugh it's… it's actually Dillsen"
"DON'T CORRECT ME" he said having a mini tantrum before walking away
Stacy looked at Logan "ok maybe he isn't as nice as I hoped but maybe he's just at a bad point in his life, I've been at a few low points myself maybe he just needs some advice" she said "there's good in everyone right" she said. Logan could have rolled his eyes, Stacy's optimism was admirable even if it was highly misplaced.
"Alright here we go" Snyder said gesturing for them to follow him up the stairs
Logan went through his briefcase and made sure no one was watching, he tapped a part of the seam and a secret compartment revealed a handgun, Logan shoved in the back of his pants and behind his suit jacket. Logan went up, but Snyder stayed back tampering with some keypad next to a gap in the wall, and just like that the noise of the party completely disappeared.
Once the five of them got in the elevator they had to choose between floors 50 to 101 which were all labeled; 'Counterfeiting', 'Child Care', 'Labor Racketeering', 'Aquarium', 'Tax Fraud', 'Accounting' (really needed to avoid that floor), 'Cafeteria', ect.
"Ok according to Quinn there's a staircase that leads right up to Snyder's safe on the 97th floor" Zoey explained. They traced the controls up to the 97th the… 'Exotic Spider Terrarium'?
Huh, Nicole didn't like the guy but that was a damn clever way to protect the staircase. "Yeah that is not happening" Nicole said crossing her arms
"Well the only other way is directly through Snyder's penthouse" Zoey harshly assured "so agreed" she said pushing the 101st button
Michael leaned forward and pushed the button to the cafeteria to the dismay of his coworkers "hey I just want to see what's available" he defended. Zoey clicked the button again to shut it off and made their way up to the 101st floor only to find a metal wall where a floor was supposed to be. All five of them tried to pry open the doors with all their might but to no avail.
"What the hell is this" Lola complained
Nicole pressed her ear to the door and she could kinda sorta hear some kind of party happening on the other side, so this was definitely the right floor. A lightbulb went off in her head, only people inside the party could access the elevator. It wasn't so crazy an idea, they don't want just anyone to come up.
"I'm calling Logan" she said as she pulled out her phone but there was no signal in the elevator. She reached for the button to bring them down to the 100th floor….. 'Strip Club' and quickly diverted to the 99th floor 'Laundry Services'.
The stepped out and were confronted by three security guards doing laundry "hey" one calmly said "what are you guys doing up here, I thought all guards were stationed on the ground floor"
"We were sent looking for you guys, are you Ed Laurent" Lola said looking at his name tag, it was actually really well acted she had a stern voice and a convincing facial expression
"Oh yes, well-"
"Because the boss is extremely mad, he specifically said that he wanted all three of you back downstairs or he'd be in a tizzy" and she ruined it
"You know I was completely buying that until you said tizzy" he said as they drew their guns
"Oops" Lola said
Out of complete fear and adrenaline the five of them slammed their weapons at the guards until they were unconscious and took their radios and ammo. Zoey found some duct tape in the supply closet and tied them up before they hid all three of them in the corner.
"Ugh why'd you guys beat us up"
"I'm gonna have brain damage the rest of my life"
Lola sighed, Nicole tried life her spirits "I think you did great"
"You don't have to lie"
"You didn't do nearly as great as I… previously implied" Nicole said before rushing to sit down
she sat with Michael as he was tampering with the TV and flipping with through the channels
"The Shay fashion division reported on sale for 550 million"
"Coming Soon, The story of two brothers who will always stand together during the Purge, starring Hugh Jackman and Peter Dinklage"
"Honey... Where are my Pants"
Nicole left the couch and went to call Logan "Hello" Logan said
"Logan we need you to open the elevator for us" she calmly said
"Ugh hey sister, how's Bermuda?"
"What, Logan it's me" Nicole said confused, Logan was also talking strange in a weird and over the top voice
"Oh the party, I actually had to step out because my pal David Snyder HERE needed my help with something" Logan said a several pieces started falling into place
"Oh" Nicole said as she started to whisper "well how long until you can get back"
"Oh it's just a small security error and should only take a few minutes, apparently FIVE burglars broke in and were just on the FIFTEENTH floor" he said
"So how long do we have to wait?" Michael asked
"Snyder may know we're here" Nicole blurted out
"WHAT!" Zoey screamed
"Ok ok, we'd better keep moving" Chase said calming everyone down "we should still have a little time before anything bad happens"
"He controls this whole place, we don't have more than a few- are you yawning?" Nicole said before getting distracted by Michael
"Sorry, I'm just not used to staying up this late anymore" he said as he yawned
Lola noticed Zoey texting "Who are you texting, our morgue"
"Ugh…my will executor"
"We will not need a will executor because we are going to survive" Chase said trying to avoid any panic, while simultaneously panicking on the inside.
Nicole was mostly silent during this, keeping her panic on the inside. So this was her situation: she had a psychopath in a mask hunting them down on one side and a super powerful criminal with a building of security guards on the other. Not a great situation.
Nicole noticed Chase snapping at her trying to get her attention, she clearly did a bad job of keeping her panic on the inside as the others could tell. "Hey, Nicole stay with me, we will be fine"
"Sorry, just thinking maybe I could've messed with those cameras of something" Nicole pondered, trying to draw attention away from her reaction
"Ugh how'd you ever become an engineer when you're that much of a clutz" Zoey said rolling her eyes
"Well, I wanted to be an obnoxious blonde but the job was filled" Nicole shot back
Nicole took a deep breath, this wasn't the time for this Snyder was probably sending a hundred guards at them as they spoke
Logan kept his cool as Snyder led him, Stacy, and Serenity down his stairs passed a door to a hanger (where his Yacht sized helicopter was waiting for him) and into a room with a bunch of monitors and controls "alright here we are, everything we need to exterminate intruders" he said in a ridiculously prideful voice
"AHHH" Logan freaked out, a strange tiny yellow man was stuffed and positioned in a display case "What is that?"
"Oh I tried cloning an army of Minions for myself but then they got annoying so I killed them" he explained before sitting down "Serenity you aim, Reese you choose the weapons, I'll find them on the security feed, and Dippson you get me stuff from the mini fridge when I ask" Logan placed his phone close enough to Snyder's and the downloading process proceeded.
"What?" Stacy mumbled to herself
"You got a good look at them right?" Serenity asked
"Of course, two white women, one Mexican, one white guy, and one black guy, easy" Snyder said as he went through the security feeds "hmmm this looks like them" he said referring to the a similar looking group on the 54th floor having lunch, hm Maybe it Logan would be able to save his friends. "Reese hit the green button" Snyder ordered
"No the red" Serenity whined
"Ok the red"
Logan hesitantly pushed the red button and Serenity played with the controls.
"WHHHAAAAAAAA" the group screamed in pain as the entire room was lit on fire
It was a terrible sight but Logan had to stay under cover and try to save his friends. While Snyder and Serenity were bonding over their own insanity Logan shot Nicole a text 'Guys spread out, Snyder only knows you as a group'
Snyder laughed and slapped Logan's arm "Awesome isn't it Reese, I've got traps like that all over the building even in this room" this made Logan jump out of his seat in fear. "Wait I don't think that woman was Cuban, kinda hard to tell now that her body is all charred, let's keep looking"
Stacy finally got over the shock "ugh don't you think you should attempt to incapacitate and capture the burglars before resorting to violence"
"Not really" Snyder said pushing her away "these two might be them, Reese push the blue button"
"Oh I love the blue button" Serenity said
Logan hovered over the blue button, Snyder peeked at him "is there a problem Reese because if so-" Logan hit the blue button before he could finish "there you go boy"
Blue lasers appeared on the edge of a hallway with a random white guy and a random dark haired lady having a conversation. Serenity guided the lasers right at them and sliced them into bits.
"There's good in everyone, there's good in everyone, there's good in everyone" Stacy repeated to herself obviously struggling with the idea.
"Dippson, Gin" Snyder said snapping his fingers, Stacy reluctantly handed him a gin "Ok now the green button" Snyder urged
Logan heartbreakingly pushed the green button, and watched the two white women as…. Green gas started coming out of the walls… Familiar green gas… SPIDER KILLING GAS. "That's my wife's patented compound, you stole my wife's invention!" he ferociously said at Snyder. He swore he should have pulled the gun out right there, but decided it wasn't worth getting exposed.
"Oh" Snyder said looking around "I feel really bad, I do, I should have been considerate enough to not show you that I stole her invention, I'm really really sorry buddy, I forgot who I stole from" he genuinely said as if that was an actual apology
"That's… almost something" Stacy said giving two thumbs up and giving a fake smile, Intellectual property theft wasn't…. The worst thing someone could do.
Logan almost pulled his gun on him but forced himself to calm down and get back into his seat. "I'm really glad you understand, anyway if those four were our culprits this might be the last guy" Snyder said referring to… Michael!
Logan had to think fast, it could get him exposed but he had to say something "wait that's the guy who cleared me to come in" Logan said trying to be as convincing as possible, he had his hand near his gun in case it went south.
"Really?" Snyder said with a look of suspicion
"Ugh yeah he did the same for me too" Stacy said, she clearly knew it wasn't true, but wanted to stop all this death
"Ok then I guess we're done here, not that we were in any real danger to begin with" Snyder bragged
"Awe" Serenity whined "...I'll just kill him anyway" she said flipping a switch
'BOOM'