The Renegade

Chapter 12: An Office and a Tight Space

Everyone flinched, even the people from the other squads, as you could hear Schiffs rip off the exoskeleton, and Jeff's skin along with it. Blood started dripping onto the training room floor.
Jeff's cries of agony aren't of any help either.
''Call the infirmary!" Schiffs yells. "We have an injury!"
The person who was nearest to the phone on the wall of the trainging room, who was a member from another squad, picked it up and dialed the infirmary. Mere minutes later, paramedics roll in with a stretcher. They lay him on his stomach, since the exoskeleton was mainly attached to his back. Ulysses runs in and checks his pulse. He sends the paramedics off with Jeff in tow.
After dismissing Squads 2 and 3, Ulysses turns to Mike, Riley, Schiffs and I. I noticed this time, instead of wearing contacts, he was wearing thick black glasses.
"Why the hell was Jeff's skin ripped off?!" Ulysses yells.
"Ask Ezra," Schiffs grumbles.
"Fine," Ulysses grunts. "Why the HELL was Jeff's skin ripped off!? And add on to that, his heart rate was slow, and he was siezing."
"I didn't do anything." Ezra defended.
"I didn't ask what you did, Ezra. I asked why that boy's fucking skin was ripped off."
"Well these kids decided to do the simulation even though I told them not to, because we still needed to run tests."
"That's fucking bullshit and you know it!" Schiffs screamed at Ezra.
" Alright, calm down. I need two of you to go down to the infirmary, keep Jeff calm. Because of his injuries, he's going to be taken to your personal infirmary, down the hall."
Mike and Schiffs volunteer. "Perfect," Ezra mumbled. "You two head down there. The rest of you, head to the game room. Waste some time."
Riley and I glance at each other before following the others. Ulysses steps in front of the two of us. "You two are coming with me."
Ulysses leads us down the opposite end of the hall that the rest of the squad went and into an elevator. He hit the button 2. I look up and see the number 6. Wow, we were pretty far underground. Six levels, not including a couple feet or so beneath the actual serface that the first level starts. Ulysses crosses his arms and impatiently tapped his foot. It didn't take long before we were at level 2, being that this elevator was surprisingly fast. As soon as the elevator door opened, Ulysses stormed out and towards a room at the end of the hall.
He pushed open the door with such force that the door slamed against the wall. And there sat Ezra, with a smirk plastered on his face."What a nice surpise."
"Cut the shit, Ezra. What happened?"
"I already told you what happened."
"You didn't tell me the truth."
"Says who?"
"I can tell when you're lying Ezra."
"Fair enough" Ezra deduces.
Ulyesses turns to us. "What actually happened."
Riley was the first the speak up. "Well, this all happened after our birthday party for Kylee, Belle, and Jeff. And it's all of their 18th birthdays. And they had tried out their new upgrades in the trainging room. Jeff went onto the observation deck. And when he came back out, everyone was talking and all of a sudden, Ezra popped on the screen in the training room and said he had a surprise. He wanted Jeff to do the simulation, to which we refused. Since before, with Kylee, Belle and myself, we had all passed out. Ezra claimed that it was a birthday present. And so when we refused again, he sent in squads 2 and 3, and forced Jeff into the simulation.
Whoever was at the computer had locked the simulation, and we couldn't unlock it. So Schiffs manually ripped the exoskeleton off of Jeff. If she didn't, he probably would have had a heart attack and could have possibly died."
A wave of realisation washed over me. How did they know that it was my 18th birthday? Ulysses' voice brings me back to reality.
"Where were you?"
"I was out on the observation deck. Up until when he started calling in the other two squads."
Ulysses must have liked out answer.
"I did that simulation on purpose." Ezra admits.
"Obviously, but why?" Riley asks.
"Because even though you're our best squadron in the whole city, I don't like you," Ezra says, squinting at me. "You guys are too smart."
"What does that have to do with anything?" I protest.
"You, of all people, should know when to shut your mouth." He says simply.
Ulysses rubs the bridge of his nose with his index finger and his thumb, "You know I'm going to have to tell the Mayorie?"
"Tell him what? That someone got injured?" Ezra said, his lips pursed.
Ulysses slams his fists on Ezra's desk. "That you're wasting time and resources for-"
"For what?" Ezra cuts him off and whispers something in his ear.
Ulysses stand up straight. "Whatever you got to say to make yourself feel better, Ezra."
"Aww, bite me."
Ulysses leans closer to Ezra and mumbles something that I didn't catch. "C'mon, girls." He says finally after a long period of silence and blushes exchanged between the two men. We go to follow him, but we are both stopped by a tugging on both of our arms.
"Don't. You. Two. Say. A. Fucking. Thing." Ezra says.
"Fuck off," I say.
"What?" He says in a low growl.
"D-D-Did I fucking stutter?" I say clearly.
I thrash my arm away. Riley does the same and we follow Ulysess.
Ulysses storms out of Ezra's office and towards the elevator. Riley and I follow behind."How could you tell he was lying?" Riley asked curiously.
He sighed,"Ezra and I were lovers, a while back."
"You what!?" Riley and I both gasp.
Ezra makes the elevator goes up to floor 1, and gets off there. He turns around before the doors shut,"You two head back to the game room. Immedietly." We both nod and he send us down to floor 6.
"Can you believe they were lovers?" Riley laughs.
"No," I chuckle in response.