I jolted awake struggling to whatever was holding my mouth. I forced myself to grapple with whatever it was when I heard Bennie's voice. "Calm down Richie. It's me." Bennie whispered.

I relaxed knowing I was safe still recalling or dreaming about what happened a few hours ago. It was a very vivid dream. Horrible screams for help, the shouting, the crying.

"Hey." Bennie bellowed while tapping my cheeks. "You're okay. We're gonna be fine. Don't go PTSD on me now Richie. I still need you to watch my back. We got this. Like we always do alright?" he stated. " You got it," I answered firmly. "Your turn to watch. Wake me up in an hour. Oh, keep an eye on sleeping beauty too. I don't know why you dragged her with us but you got to take care of her." He said while shaking his head with a bit of exasperation. "She's our responsibility now," he added.

"I know. I also didn't know why I dragged her but the moment she endangers us. I'm cutting her off no questions asked." I replied. I know it's a bit cold of me but dragging people around who's actions can result in both our deaths is not on our priority list. That's a recipe for disaster. That's just us waiting for Uncle Murphy to come down swinging and trust me when Murphy gets you, it results in very bad things happening. Things will go sideways from fucked up to very fucked up.

"Anyways I gotta catch some z's. Keep calm will you? You wiggled like a rabbit on heat when I woke you up." Bennie smirked. "Hah!" I laughed " Roger Wilco." I replied with a bit of sarcasm. Bennie rolled over the side of the tree root where I was sleeping, removing his polo shirt and using it as a makeshift pillow, and breathed slowly. A few minutes later, I can hear him snoring like a pig. Probably tired of all the things we encountered so far.

It's not quite dawn yet. I checked my watch and it showed 4:30 am. I can spot the blue horizon in the distance quite clearly. In this coastal desert around us, it's quite amazing how different the ambiance is in megacities. Only two landmarks and a desert all around. At least for a few miles. I can't quite see the mesa from here already and all I can see down the river are the silhouette of a few tall buildings of the border town. Earlier Ben suggested following the river downstream straight shot to the border town. Again I disagree and said we should follow the road and probably find out what is going on. He rebutted my claim and said "That's a no-go. Whatever spooked the civilians to go to the mesa to find shelter is maybe or also following the most obvious route chasing them." he answered and in the off chance Murphy reared his ugly mug, we are probably gonna be pincered between panicked civilians and rioters.

I sighed and passively checked my surroundings. It's just me and the two caterpillars sleeping behind me under the tree. That's my world right now. That's my job. Keep them safe and keep anything that can hurt us out. You know doing all our gaming sessions together. All the airsoft sessions, the survival games, and FPS games like Bounter Strike, DayZEE, and Project Zombie with Bennie helped me create a practice of what you call switching on and off. It's a state of mind where when you switch on, nothing matters except the game and the objective. Do everything in your ability to achieve the goal. No questions asked, no excuses made. You just do it. Switch off, and then you get to contemplate what could've been done to reach the objectives better next time. This state of mind helps me in real life. It helped me to be more efficient, more accurate, and more adaptable to situations or problems that otherwise would be so hard to cope with. Like staying calm when hitting my pinky toe on a drawer or having a 12 straight losing streak or even doing my job while shutting out all the fuckers that would otherwise irritate me while they assert their so-called masculinity over me during work hours. Those fuckers.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

I was looking over my shoulder examining the two sleeping princesses over making sure nothing sneaked up behind us when my eyes glued to Abigail. She was lying sideways facing away from me. But damn! That suit didn't give her justice. It was a nice fit. Not too tight nor too loose. Just right, highlighting her curvy waist, and damn I tell you she's got quite the bakery down there. Oh, I would love to have it for a night. I haven't seen her a lot passing through the 3rd-floor basement. I'm pretty sure these collar folks have their ways of getting in and out of the mesa. Oh, the disparity of society.

I shook my head now isn't time for that, or is it? Because I mean, whatever is happening in the mesa right now is only an inkling of what's happening in the border town right at this moment. What exactly shook almost 300,000 civilians in the border town to cause a fraction of the population to drive right in front of the mesa seeking shelter? You know what I mean? The police, the army, and even the border patrol are there, right? It's either they didn't contain the threat or even worse, can't. I'm betting on the former.

I checked my phone. Still no connection. "Fuck." I groaned. I need more information. All I can piece together are bits and pieces. Terrorists? Rioters? Foreigners? There are a lot of factors to consider, I hated those movies where the main characters of the story suddenly knew what was happening or the cause of a certain dilemma that they almost knew beforehand. It's a possibility but it's unrealistic. Like how am I gonna get a good picture of what's happening based only on what happened in the parking lot and the mesa? Sure as hell there isn't any lighting beyond the main road to see how many cars or civilians came knocking at the gate of the mesa. Too many car lights that's for sure. Sure the fence and gate post provide lighting but to what degree? It's morning that time but I'm sure as hell it's still too fucking dark. I can't see beyond what's happening at the gate at that certain point in time. Between running away from the facility and staying to assess what's happening, I'm pretty sure Bennie was right to escape the facility post haste. Do you have any idea how scary a stampede is? Few hundred people running towards you? Just a small misstep and you will fall. Do you think someone is gonna help you up during a panic? No, you're gonna get crushed underfoot with hundreds of people running away from something.

All I saw was a few hundred people packed in front of the gate shouting bloody murder. People trying to get into the facility. I closed my eyes. Recalling every bit of detail I can remember.

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