Although he had told his friends that he would be alright, Alex felt the weight of his body crashing in on itself as he continued to pace the floor. Over in the corner, Sophia and Neil sat slouched together, with the boy’s oversized coat serving as a blanket that sat on top of them. The night had been uneventful, in both danger and progress. No matter how hard he thought, Alex couldn’t come up with a working theory that was sound enough to be worth mentioning. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes, stopping in his tracks as a wave of exhaustion hit him- even his thoughts were too tired to chastise him.

Somewhere deep within the store a little ‘click’ resounded which was quickly followed by the lights of the shop flickering on. The lights were dim, barely enough to see, but their presence provided a point that Alex was hesitant to admit. The night cycle was over, it was morning time now.

Neil was the first to wake, his eyes popping open with alarm before drooping again when he realized that it was just the lights. His little movements were enough to stir Sophia from her slumber, and she didn’t hesitate to stretch her arms and let out a big yawn. “Good morning,” Alex said, shocked by how rough his voice sounded. “Happy dreams?”

“I dreamt I was back on Earth playing with my dog Patches,” Neil muttered, struggling to keep his eyes open.

Alex laughed, “I didn’t know that you used to have a dog.”

“I didn’t.” Replied Neil. “But reality has never stopped a dream from taking creative liberties, I guess.”

Sophia stood and tossed the coat back to Neil. She walked over to Alex, noticing how red his eyes had gotten. “Hey, are you alright?” She said, giving him a look. “Did you actually stay awake all night?”

The boy gave his best comforting smile, “I guess I’m just a night owl.”

His lies very rarely worked on the girl, and this was no exception. “You need to rest.”

“I can’t!” Alex groaned as his brief facade dropped. “I can’t stop thinking about it, my brain won’t let me! It’s like trying to win a race up there but I’m stuck on a treadmill as all the other runners get to the finish line.”

Neil retrieved his coat and slipped it back on, then joined his friends. “Jesus man, your eyes!” His face narrowed. “It’s like they’re bleeding!”

“I said I’m fine!” Alex reiterated with a wave of his hand. “Red’s my favorite color anyway, it’s no big deal.”

Sophia and Neil exchanged worried looks, it was rare when they saw their friend like this. Back when they had first met him on the Lavender, they had known Alex to be persistent. One day he swore that he was going to figure out how the ship worked and went about carefully trying all the levers and switches in the dome room- much to Neil’s horror. Although he hadn’t made any progress in days, he still kept at it. Sophia wasn’t sure that he’d ever stop, and there was no talking him out of it. But one day, through sheer perseverance, he tossed the right switch and discovered the pilot seat. That seemed to satisfy his determinedness, or at least appease it.

“Alex…” Neil started.

“Look, stop worrying about me, and let’s focus on Tim, alright?” Alex snapped. “I’ll worry about my health after tomorrow, deal?”

The two didn’t like it, but they knew he made a point. “Fine,” Sophia said, begrudgingly. “But when we save Timothy, I’m going to hold you to that.”

‘If’ we save him. Alex frowned, he had hoped that he had escaped those thoughts for a minute.

Suddenly, from outside the shop, the sound of footsteps became louder and louder. Sophia quickly darted to the door and cracked it so that she could peer outside. She was surprised to see that a small group of people was jogging down the street. At first, she assumed that they must be running from something, but by the unconcerned looks on their faces, she figured they were running to something. “What’s that about?” She heard herself question.

Alex’s bloodshot eyes went wide as he quickly joined his friend at the door. “Oh no.” He spoke. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Neil asked, staying a safe distance away.

The tired boy breathed deeply as he slouched against the wall, his eyes closing as he covered his face in his hands. “The only time I’ve seen the people around here run like that was for the lottery.” His words fell out. “If I had to guess, I’d say that means something similar is happening.”

“Well, maybe it’s a good thing?” Sophia reasoned. “They could just be going to see who claimed the lottery ticket!”

Neil gave her a sad stare, “it’s never that easy, Soph.”

The girl huffed, “well, what are we waiting for? Let’s follow them!” She started to leave but then stopped herself. “Wait, let’s grab some weapons before we go!”

The boy in the tattered coat nearly gawked, and by ‘nearly’ I mean he did. “Weapons? Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Um, yeah.” Sophia rolled her eyes. “Why wouldn’t they be?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Walking over to the shelf, Sophia looked around for something that she could at least recognize as a weapon. Spotting something, she reached out and grabbed a small gun from a hanger and examined it closer. While the sticker above the shelf read ‘Brand New,’ the girl spotted several blemishes in the casing, though she figured stealers can’t be choosers. The gun was the size of a small pistol, although the handle curved upwards at an angle so that she had to hold her hand bent down instead of sideways.

“Look, I know you’re going to say I’m paranoid, but we don’t know how any of this stuff works!” Neil cried. “That thing could shoot backward for all we know, or maybe it’ll just blow up in your face?”

From over on the wall, Alex agreed with his friend in green. “Sophia’s right, we should arm ourselves. Not to hurt anyone of course, but we can’t keep walking about like defenseless sitting ducks, we have to protect ourselves.”

Neil knew that was reasonable but couldn’t persuade the butterflies in his chest to stop. “I don’t like this.”

Sophia nodded as she strolled over to where the bladeless knives were stored. Neil’s heart skipped as he watched her snatch one up in her hand and press the red activate switch. Up until this point, it was assumed that the handles of these objects had to belong to some hidden blades, but that was suddenly proved wrong as grey gas started to seep out the tip. Sophia quickly pressed the button again, and to everyone’s relief, the gas stopped.

“See!” The boy in the tattered coat cried, bringing a sleeve to his nose.

“I get your point,” Sophia admitted.

Alex looked outside, the crowd was thinning, and he knew that they needed to hurry. “Guys, we need to go, we don’t want to miss whatever is happening!”

Sophia nodded as she placed the gas canister back into its spot, but she still clung tightly to her gun. “Let’s go.”

Quickly, Alex and Sophia exited the building, but Neil hesitated. He remembered what he had just said, and his body told him to follow his friends. But his mind was in a wrestling match with itself. One side wanted to run away from the shop, nothing good could come of the things in there. His other side was nagging him, was he going to leave the store with no way to defend himself? He couldn’t believe that he was doing it, but he quickly ran over to where the gas canisters were and shoved one into his pocket- feeling very much like a hypocrite.

…

It didn’t take long before a bright flash erupted outside of the Extemorst Casino as the three appeared on the teleport plate. As Alex had guessed, a crowd of people had gathered outside, and a humdrum of muttering and shouting filled the air. However, none of the crowd was being permitted inside, for several armed guards stood in front of the two large doors- odd-looking guns raised and ready to fire.

Neil, after making sure that all his limbs were still intact after being convinced to take the teleport, looked over at Alex. “Was it like this before?”

He shook his head, “no, the guards are new… Something isn’t right.” He started to pace, but his acing legs were just strong enough to keep him standing, so he thought better of it. “That announcement was made ages ago, why would a crowd gather now? Something else must be up.”

“Maybe that announcement was just a cover up?” Sophia reasoned. “Old Oily might be trying to find a way out.”

The group moved forward, trying to see if a closer view would reveal anything. Sophia shoved her newly acquired weapon into one of her pockets, it was an awkward fit, but it did the job. Pushing through the crowd they made sure to duck and dodge under any particular sharp pieces of armor, or particularly sharp pieces of people, and they found themselves near the front of the line.

There were around five guards in total, each with their weapon held firmly in their hands. Strangely it wasn’t the guns that were the first thing to stick out to the group, but rather each of their large, balloon-like heads. Timothy would’ve recognized them if he were there, although he wouldn’t have been able to tell his friends that they were Cclaxions for he never heard the word. Alex, though his keen eyes were red, caught on to what was happening. “They don’t have ears.” He spoke, though his voice was hard to make out in the crowd.

“So?” Sophia questioned, eyeing the guards up and down. “Why does that matter?”

Alex chuckled, “what a little…” He took a breath to calm himself. “You were right about that announcement; Vander is covering his ass. All this is a formality, whoever had the ticket wouldn’t have been able to get by the guards here, and if they were to have a problem with that, Vander would probably just tell them they could’ve asked the guards to let them in.” He gestured to the guard, who snarled in reply. “Hence, no ears.”

Neil was confused, “why would he do that?”

“After talking to the guy, I have only one guess.” Alex shrugged. “To impress his father with how well, and ‘legally,’ he’s handled the situation.”

“But none of that explains why there’s a crowd.” Sophia thought aloud.

Suddenly, the sleuthing was interrupted as Vander Extemorst himself burst through the doors of the casino, “you!” He screamed as his grey, tentacle hand pointed an oily finger at Alex.

The boy was caught off guard, and he tried quickly to push back through the crowd but found his way blocked. Although his name wasn’t called, Neil ducked away instinctively, and unlike his friend, he managed to slip deftly behind some onlookers. Vander didn’t waste time as he reached up and patted one of the Cclaxions on the shoulder. After a swift gesture from their boss, the guards reached out and seized Alex by the arm.

“Let him go!” Sophia cried. Her hand trembled as she reached for her gun, but something in her told her to stop. Even if she was fast, there was no way she was taking down all these guards, and she hadn’t even fired the weapon before- who knew if it even was loaded?

Her outburst garnered no reaction from the deft Cclaxions, but another look from Extemorst made sure that she was grabbed as well. The two struggled against their captures, but their strength was too great to overcome. The crowd seemed to roar, or perhaps they laughed, as they watched the businessman storm inside. But all Neil could do was watch in horror as his two friends were pulled into the casino, the doors closing abruptly behind them.

Neil was alone, even though he was in a crowd. He felt his body start to shake; he didn’t know what to do. Several guards remained outside the entrance, so he knew that there was no way he was following his friends in. But as his mind raced, he spotted something odd that drew his attention just for a moment. From a corner, where the tiniest of alleyways was hidden, he saw a figure step out and start to walk away. This wouldn’t have been anything of note if the boy hadn’t recognized who it was.

There was nothing he could do for Sophia and Alex, whatever was going to happen in the casino was up to them now, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t still help his other friend. Neil took a breath as he started to follow the person he had spotted, he couldn’t believe that he was doing this all on his own, but there was no one around that could help him. It would seem that it would be his job to finally question Sally Silver.