Pay Day

"Alright! All of you have your devices?" Jack asked, holding a tablet in front of him.

"Yes!"

I use my phone while Lucille looked at the watch on her wrist, Maya on a tablet and Cameron on his phone as well.

Instantly on each of our screens appeared the entire layout of the city and the number of creatures in it, symbolized by red dots.

"Now, let's see how you all do." He said, tapping his screen as all the hundreds of red turn to green, one by one. "Congratulations! You have cleared all the creatures you were all set out to."

Everyone clapped, but it was more so with a sigh of relief than happiness because the punishment awaiting us if we failed is worse than anything we ever had to go through.

"Now, let's see the number of kills!"

The green dots turned to different colours, numbers popping up at the corner of the screen, with a pie chart.

Pink has the most kills, yellow is second and silver and black are tied in the last place.

"The money has been sent to your accounts according to your kills," Jack said, tapping on the screen again as my notification popped up.

[Thirty-Seven Million dollars sent to your account.]

Sometimes I see the money and I go, yeah. This is easy work. Then I remember how many times we almost die because of the creatures and the people that sent us and go, is it really?

Some may say that only the strong survive but everyone has a different opinion of what strength is. It is very subjective, so how do we know who really is strong and who isn't?

Surviving here is sometimes just based on pure luck. Like tonight. We all got groups that are friendly with each other and none of us is interested in getting the most at the expense of others lives.

But there are all kinds of people out there. We don't know what typed we will meet and how they will be like. Some have decided to just focus on money because nothing else matters.

And they are right, in some ways.

If I didn't have Yale, I would have become someone like that. Easy money at a high cost. They are not always worth it in the end though. Coz, nothing remains, not you, not the money, not your loved ones.

___________________

"Did you try calling him again?" I asked, turning to Yale who was restlessly looking through my phone.

"I did." She said, leaning back on her chair. "He didn't pick up. He must have forgotten his phone somewhere again."

"He does like to do that when he is panicked." I chuckled, remembering the day of his wedding.

__________________________

Alexis asked me to be the best man. I have no idea why, even his family were surprised but I couldn't say no and didn't want to.

So I and Yale took a day off and I attended the bachelor's party. All he did was play board games with everyone in the room.

Some of them tried to play spin the bottle but he refused. They also tried to invite strippers but he was having none of it.

"Just because it's the night before my wedding doesn't mean I have the right to cheat on my future wife." He said, annoyed.

That wasn't the first time I had alcohol but, no matter how much I drank, I could not get drunk. Why did I want to get drunk? I don't know. I just wanted to experience getting drunk at least once in my life.

Well, everyone was knocked out and so I decided to just spend the night there. Out of habit, I woke up at two in the morning and saw him awake as well.

Alexis was sitting on the balcony, watching the moon as he practised his vows, saying, 'no' over and over again.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sitting beside him and startling the man out of his skin.

"You were awake?! Did I wake you?"

"No, I just … woke up," I said, looking at the papers in his hands. "What is that?"

"My vows." He said sheepishly. "Hey, Zion. Have you ever thought of getting married to Yale?"

I looked at him, confused, "I AM going to marry her. What do you mean think?"

"Kids these days, so bold," Alexis said, chuckling to himself. "I wish I had half of your coolness, Zion."

"I'm not cool."

"You don't think you are." He laughed again, resting his head on the railing. "I love this woman, Zion. So much that I can't even understand why I do. She puts butterflies in my stomach and … my heart races every time I see her."

"You should really get yourself checked. Those don't sound healthy."

"I am so deeply in love with her, Zion." He said again, completely ignoring me. "But I worry that I will not be able to give her the life she deserves or even be able to protect her."

"Don't worry about useless things like that," I said, looking right at the moon. "Yale and I will protect you two."

"Really?" He asked, amused.

"Yup," I said completely serious. "So don't worry about anything."

"Then I will lean on you two." He said, ruffling my hair. "With you two around, what can go wrong? Right?"

"Right."

_____________________

I was a little cocky back then, I admit. I thought, pressing my temples in annoyance. But I meant what I said. I will do what I can to protect them.

They are the only ones I consider as my family and I will do anything to protect them.

"We are here." Jack's voice instantly pulled us out of our trance and Yale got to her feet immediately.

"Zion. Come on. We need to hurry." Yale said, pulling me to the door and jumped off.

"Thank you for today," I said to the others. "I will see you all some other time."

"Thank you too, Zion!" Hudson said waving at me, the others grinning.

"Get out of here!" Cameron said, "And we will have dinner together tomorrow. All of us, don't be late."

"Alright," I said, getting off the helicopter and took off after Yale who was already at the door.

____________________

"We won't make it in time," Yale said, gasping for breath as we slowed down beside the road. "He's … not … picking up … the call … too."

We aren't going to be able to run to the hospital from here. I thought, looking around the deserted road. What to do? What to do-?

I spotted a man on a bike, struggling to turn it on and ran to him as quickly as I could.

"Excuse me, sir. I want to buy your bike." I said to the man, his dyed blond hair with green tips being the only thing I noticed about him.

"It's pointless, it can't even turn on." The man said, an annoyed look on his face. "Now I am stuck in this town too."

"Are you travelling?" Yale asked as I began to look at the mechanics of the bike.

"Yea, I was supposed to go to the next city over but this bike gave up on me." He said, taking off his helmet and sighing as noticed a broken wire and began fixing it.

"We will buy this bike from you," Yale said, looking into her strawberry shoulder bag. "So that you will be able to buy a new one too."

"I'm not selling it. Even if it is faulty, it is still my only home. Unless you have a million dollars on you." He said, annoyed.

"Cash or cheque?" I asked, looking at the man in the eyes after fixing the wiring. "We are pressed for time. Hurry."

"Cash." He said, looking at us, slightly surprised.

I turned to Yale. "Did you bring cash on you? I don't think I brought any."

"You always like to pay with a card." She teased, pulling out her cute little pink purse and took out a million dollars in hundred bills, handing it to the man. "I added some extra for your hotel cost."

"Climb on," I said, sitting on the bike and turning it on as I took the keys from the man.

Yale took the helmet from him and placed it on my head, wrapping her arms around my waist as we took off into the night.

"I didn't know you drove a bike!" Yale shouted into my ears.

"I learnt when I took on my job as a delivery boy," I said, feeling her arms around my waist tighten. "Should I go faster?"

"No! This is enough! Be careful!" She shouted, voice slightly excited.

If I knew she like bikes I would have gotten one earlier. Maybe we can buy one tomorrow.

For now, we need to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. I hope those two are alright and everything is resolved.

It turns out nothing was resolved and we reached the hospital with people surrounding every inch of the place, gunshots coming from the inside.

Absolutely fantastic.