End Wars: A Hi5 Studios Story

Theories: Chapter 5

*Matt's P.O.V*

The young man took off his black mask, revealing a round, chubby face. Brown freckles were scattered across his cheeks. His eyes were an electric shade of blue. He was wearing a camouflaged long sleeve shirt and matching camouflaged pants. A tight black Velcro vest sat curled in his chest. Curly blonde hair fell in his face, blocking his right eye. He chuckled and moved his hair away with his left hand, but it kept on falling in his face.

"See, this is why I usually keep my hair up. Then I don't have this problem," he looked to his buddies beside him, who also laughed, muffled by the masks. 

After chuckling for a while, the young man turned to me and put out his hand for a handshake. I stared at him, not knowing if I should shake his hand. And besides, my hands were shaking already. My whole body was. And before I did anything with this guy, I needed to know what was going on. I looked over at him, my body going into a protective stance, and glared at the young man.

"Before we do anything you tell us to do, I need to know why you had to kidnap us to take us to this "camp!" "You didn't have to do that! You could've just told us what was happening!"

The young man's gaze turned serious. He stared at me, sorrow in his eyes. His eyes turned down, and he put his guns on a nearby table, then put his hands up in a defensive stance.

"Look, I'm sorry we had to take you under such notice, but we had to. We-"

I suddenly got out of my stupor and shoved the young man, pinning him against a wall. The other men started pulling out their guns, but the young man said, "It's okay guys," and then pushed me again, making me fall to the floor. Despite how skinny he looked, he was pretty strong.

"Let me explain before you go pushing me around, okay?" The young man glared at me for an answer. I rolled my eyes, but nodded.

"Okay listen, something's happening. You noticed that. Hi5 Studios got blown up, right?"

I nodded, my eyes narrowing. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

The young man put his hand out to help me up, but I just stared at it, then pushed myself up off the floor. I then wiped my hands on my pants, and sand went everywhere.

The young man looked at me, nodded, then went on. "Lately, a lot of buildings have blown up. Nobody knows why." The young man paused. "But we do."

I leaned against a table, my arms crossed. "So, why? Why did Hi5 blow up?" 

"The government," he said reluctantly. I heard Woods laughing, shaking his head. I wanted to laugh too, but some part of my brain believed him.

"Wait, so you're telling us that you believe our own government has been bombing their own country? Why?" I asked again. I looked around for someone else to ask these questions, but it seemed like I was the only one interested. Our own building got bombed, and nobody wanted to know why? That was also pretty confusing.

The young man nodded, as if this question had been asked a lot. With all the people around him, it seemed like it had been asked a lot. "From what I've heard, the government believes that the buildings they've bombed are a threat to society. Don't ask me anything about that, because I don't know how Hi5 Studios was a threat, okay? But what I think is that there was some kind of gas that made the government go crazy. Hallucinations. Delusions. That's why they've been bombing everyone. The FBI can't do anything about it because maybe they've also been gassed."

"But you're just guessing," Tanner exclaimed, getting up from off the floor. 

Finally, I thought to myself. Someone else is asking questions. Someone else is talking. I felt like the odd one out. Asking the people who kidnapped us questions.

The young man nodded, then kind of half shook his head. "We know some things for sure because we have some people undercover in the government. But yeah, sure. Most of that is speculation. Conjecture." The young man paused, deep in thought. For a few moments, there was nothing but silence. Only the heat of the sun beat down, wavering.

"Oh, my name!" The young man burst out, talking to me. "I forgot to tell you my name. The name's Brandon." He went to shake my hand, but then remembered that I didn't want to shake his hand and turned to Woods, who also didn't want to shake his hand. In fact, nobody wanted to shake his hand. He seemed offended, and on the inside, I chuckled. Okay to be honest, I smirked. Only a little, though.

"Yeah, but you still haven't answered Matt's question. Why did you kidnap us?! Why not just tell us what was happening? That why we might have gone with you!" Woods exclaimed as Brandon was going to leave, turning towards the cars.

He sighed angrily, then turned towards Woods. "We took you because we needed to, okay? W-We're running out of people. A-And besides, it didn't look like you wanted to stay at Hi5! I mean, things were blowing up all around you! That didn't look fun! Were you guys having fun, or was it just me that saw the FEAR in your eyes?"

He grabbed a gun, and honestly, I thought he was going to point it at Woods and shoot him. Don't ask me why, Brandon just looked pissed off. He threw the gun into the sand, throwing sand everywhere, then he stared at Woods. No, glared at him. Like he knew something. 

My eyes narrowed, looking at Woods. There seemed to be...something there. Recognition. 

"Woods, do you know this guy?" I asked quietly, almost mumbling. 

Woods just stared at Brandon for a moment, silent, but then, almost imperceptibly, he nodded. 

But then Brandon looked at me, and smiled. "Come with me, inside. I think I need to show you the camp."