See You at Seven [Shayne Topp]

8. Of Explosions and Explanations

Hey, guys! How are you doing?

Thank you so much for 100+ reads! First milestone, woop woop!

Also, I've extended my word count per chapter from 2200 to 3000! The more, the merrier after all.

I miss going outside of the house, because the last time I did was a week and a day ago. I'm a bit claustrophobic, so sometimes, I go out to our front porch just to get out for a bit and just sit there, which is why in my books, I put a lot of scenes where characters are talking on the front porch.

Anyway, let's get to it. See ya!

-/-/-

Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass, and I'm train-bound. Doo doo doo doo doo doo.

I didn't care one bit about being found out in Staten Island when I raced through the streets to get to the SIR. I also had no idea where Courtney and Ian were hiding. Lastly, I don't think I'd have much of me left if Alex caught up to me. We had agreed, after all, that I was just going to stay at the house and not do anything else, but I knew that the only way to get to the fourth Judge and get him to give us the Gem is when I defeat the afterlife guards.

My earpiece is beeping like crazy, but I don't answer it. I didn't need Alex shouting in my ear, because I knew what I was doing. When I get to the SIR, I first take a look at the surroundings to see if Courtney and Ian were still in the vicinity. This was not going to be a clean fight.

I go downstairs to see the afterlife guards holding a man probably in his late thirties and they seem to be taking his power away from him, whatever power he has. I take one of the bricks from the debris and hurl it at the afterlife guard right at the middle.

"Who comes there?!" he shouts at me as I aim my gun at him. "Who is this mortal, and why does he have an afterlife gun?!"

"My name's Shayne Topp," I answer, taking the other gun and pointing at both of my sides as if I were taming dinosaurs like Chris Pratt (yes, Courtney would be proud).

"The Glitch...," the man on the ground, I presume the fourth Judge, mumbles with every bit of his strength.

"Oh, so you're the Glitch," the middle guard says, and his lackeys let go of the Judge. "You're the famous Glitch who's been causing problems in our system. First, you never went to the orientation. Then, you hijacked the afterlife train before blowing it up. Now, you're foiling the Afterlife Committee's plan.

"As a mere mortal, you don't understand how greatly the Middle has improved when the Committee took charge," he continues, walking towards me. "The Middle became suitable for humans before they went to wherever they were destined to go. When you came around and ruined everything, imagine the havoc we had! Thousands of souls had to be sheltered even though we didn't know what else to do. Now tell me, Glitch, what do you say about that?"

I take a look around at the scene. It's only this big afterlife guard and his three lackeys with him. If I'm able to shoot the middle one and use him as a shield before shooting the three of them, I'll be able to fix the situation. I keep talking anyway, "The humans... don't need to be babied in the afterlife."

"What? What kind of stupidity is that?" he asks. "You were in the Middle yourself. Did you not grieve upon learning that you died?"

"I wasn't dead when I was in the Middle," I answer. "I was alive on Earth and in the Middle at the same time, and I know that the afterlife is supposed to be neutral. It isn't supposed to be a train station, even. If you asked me what I thought about the purgatory before I died, I'd say it was a waiting room."

"Silence!" he shouts before wielding an axe. "I, Afterlife Committee Security Head Jorgen, will destroy you for your words against the Middle!"

"Hold up!" I hear a voice shout before a bullet goes through two of his lackeys' heads. They fall to their knees and turn into dust, while the last lackey is shot through the chest while trying to figure out what to do. Alex arrives from the next train with Damien, both of them holding two afterlife guns.