Welcome to Purgatory.

Discovered.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. "That can't be good." Josh says. "Turn on the monitors," I reply. He flips the switch to the right of the desk. 6 camera monitors light up in front of us. "Great. Rioters. Should I have Francine take them out?" Josh asks. "No, let them get close. We need to get their manipulator chips. Get to the gun Josh." I say. Josh gets up and goes over to the door of the lair. He presses the button below the door opener and the wall in front of him opens up. As he walks in, the room lights up, showing a seat an a controller in front of him. His takes a seat, and presses a button on the controller. "The gun is online. Ready to fire." Josh announces. "Not yet. Get ready. - - - Now." Josh fires the gun, and it makes a quiet-ish boom. My gaze returns to the monitors, now showing the corpses of two rioters lying on the ground, near our door. "I'm going out." I say. I grab a shotgun, and open the door. The bodies are just around the corner. I turn it and run into a barrel, pointed at my head. "Talk or move, and your dead." A third, bigger rioter with sunglasses says. We have a protocol 16 situation. Josh senses it. A while back I made these completely undetectable, wireless earbuds that allow Josh and I to communicate telepathically. I hear don't worry, protocol 16. I'm on it. He turns on the noise cancelling features in the earbuds, and a small button extends from the bracelet on my wrist to my palm. The button will send out a sonic pulse 15 ft in every direction strong enough to send the rioter into shock. A slowly close my hand into a fist as the rioter babbles on about how neither the government nor the Riot clan will tolerate any sort of rebellion. I press down on the button, and immediately, the rioter cringes, and covers his ears. I kick him in the gut, snatch his shotgun, and blow his head off. I crouch down, shoot through the right arms of the rioters, and take their manipulator chips that are embedded in their arms. I dash around the corner and slide into the lair as the door closes. I throw the chips onto Josh's desk and walk to the stairwell and climb up the spiral staircase. It leads to a room, with a bed, a desk, and a dresser. I walk in and the door closes behind me.
"Let's go." I say. "What? Why? Where are we going?" Josh asks. "I gotta... I gotta go home. Now." I reply. "Why? I still have work to do." Josh repeats again. "Let's. Go. Now."

*Jay Solgolus, could you please come to the front office?* the loudspeaker sounds, as I wait for Jay near the entrance of the school. After a few very long moments, I see him turn the corner and walk down the hall to where I am. "What's this about now?" Jay asks. "I'll tell you on the way. We have to go now. Josh is keeping the engine going." We rush out to the red and black truck, and hop in it. "Your moving into the base with us. I discovered something on the chip." I explain. Jay replies "What about mom? Shouldn't she come with? Why do I have to go at all?" I say "I discovered that the Clan recognizes you as a fugitive. They recognize you as an accomplice. They also know where we live and if we don't get there before they do, they'll always have eyes on you, and more critically, us." Jay's expression grows into confusion, and then changes to slightly somber. "Okay." He says, "then let's get there already." Josh smiles as we drive down the abandoned, dead road, and says "We'll make a rebel out of you yet, kid." After driving farther down the road, we stop outside of an old, rickety,  brown, paint-chipped house. "Alright, go. Make it fast." I say to Jay. He hops out, and runs into the house. I moved out long ago, to stay hidden in the base underground. I pull out my newly stolen shotgun, make sure it's at the ready. Just then, the front door of the house is blasted open. Jay comes running out with a packed bag, 2 Rioters closely behind him. "Watch it Jay!" I take two shots, and both Rioters go down. Jay jumps in the truck and says "They were right behind me. We gotta go, now!" I yell "Punch it Josh!" Josh hits the gas, and we bolt down the road. A Riot truck turns the corner and starts following us, firing their weapons, but staying out of range of us. As we come to where the road ends, another truck turns the corner and drives towards us head on. I ask Josh "Do we have another truck?" "One other." He replies. "Great. Hold on!" I say.
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1

The trucks collide, and make a huge explosion. Josh, Jay and I make way to our base in the sewers.
Now I know, I know. How the hell did you guys survive the crash. That's just it. No one survived that crash. We weren't in that crash. Josh and I activate slow movers syndrome. An ability our earpieces have that allow us to experience life in slow motion. This gave us enough time to shoot a hole in the truck floor, and get everyone through the sewer opening beneath the crash site before we collided. So there ya go. Once again, the brilliant earpieces saving all our asses.

Half an hour later, were settling down in our base, and I've set up a private space for Jay. The entire thing is surrounded by lead, so it's virtually undetectable. We are safe in it. That's not something I thought I'd be able to say for a long time. We are safe.