HOMEOSTASIS

Chapter IX

"Failure find me,
To hang me up now by my neck,
'Cuz I'm a fate worse than death."

⦻⦻⦻

Look, running away from that place with an almost dead girl on Brian's back would surely be a challenge. They've faced worse, though. Firstly, they needed to get out of the house. They couldn't run away inside four walls, especially if they're surrounded by the police. So they did what they do best.

They lied.

And Tim made a certain phone call...

They brought Natalie out along with the chief and his assistant, some inspectors following suit. Barbara nudged his side quietly and Tim quirked a suspicious eyebrow. In a hidden manner, she passed him a water bottle and nodded. He smiled fondly. That made him glad. At least someone in that team is a little decent. But she knew what they were doing. Pretending to accept giving her away, so she could go to jail. She didn't mind, though. She just couldn't stand to see someone so wrecked like that.

But as soon as they stepped foot out of the house and arrived at the park filled with police cars, Tim turned around, placing his whole body in front of his partner and the girl.

"Move."

"We had a deal." The sound of screeching tires echoed through the woods, "We told you we're not on your side. We only have Natalie in common. And because of that, we are not scared of you people in the slightest. But I'm feeling nice today..."

Suddenly, a white van pulled up on the other side of the bridge, and a white-hooded person came out to open the backdoors. Inside, there were five other figures, but no color or shape could be made out of them.

"What's going to happen next is..." Brian started walking backwards in baby-steps, not threatening to harm anyone, but also pressuring the police to accept the deal. "We're gonna take Natalie Ouellette with us, and we will release her once our... experiment is done. And to put your souls at ease about that deal, we will allow five of your men to come with us. Not three. Five. They may arrest our entire crew if we fail to keep our promise."

The chief opened his mouth to speak but no sound would come out. They don't have a choice, yet they do at the same time. Also, they can't just shoot these two, that's not how it works. It would cause a scene, and having the media on them is a big no-no. Besides, it's not like these TotheArk people don't have history with the cops. They've done investigations on them before, and although their goal is very controversial and some would agree borderline criminal, they can't find any video evidence of them actually committing a crime. So to most, the entire channel is a big joke. Only random messages and threats to an empty group of people, which they don't recognize or understand. Mostly because they never found the Marble Hornets channel.

Brian was at the middle of the bridge by now, and Tim could only smirk at the lack of response.

"The clock is ticking, chief..."

"Barbara, Stuart, Campbell, Jins, Carlos. Go with them and keep your walkie-talkies on at all times. Keep us updated!"

Said five emerged from the crowd, but Tim's smirk fell once Barbara passed by him. Him and Brian exchanged alarmed looks but decided against voicing any complaints. If they speak out against it, they'll be raising suspicion on themselves, and they can't have that. Not now. They'll just have to close their eyes to unfairness once more.

The group ran towards the van, both proxies took out those ridiculous surgical masks, and put on their own. They jumped inside, the previous sitting figures scooting over to give them space. They lurked in the shadows, mysterious, non-speaking. Not like the cops noticed.