The Duns

New Friends

Chapter Sixteen

Peter

After Ester is done marking the way on the map, it all moves ahead like clockwork. It is decided that tomorrow, at precisely 2:00am, the three of us- Ester, Cathy, and me, would leave for the hideout, who's location Ester figured out, being a senior member of Oi Alloi. We would reach there in approximately thirty minutes, leaving us with enough time to distract the guards and any possible security threats, and then let out Max, Richard and the rest of them.

Finally content, we all take to our rooms early and fall into a restless sleep.

-

I work hastily, rummaging through my bag, checking and rechecking, my eyes flickering a confusing shade of gold and then green and then blue and they hurt due to the constant changing.

Catherine grabs my arm, perhaps realizing the stress I am unnecessarily putting myself through and it helps. I puff my chest up and blow out, ready, now that I am finally done. We scutter into the car, guns laying ready, and take off.

-

The path narrows down to a small, bumpy lane. Tree branches get into the way and so do leaves that are left unkept, continuing to disturb the motion of the car. I check my wrist for the time. 2:22am. The car goes on, grumbling disdainfully as the road continues to punish us. Hardly a few minutes later, Ester pulls the car over into some space between two shrubs. He turns to the backseat. "Hereon, we go on foot."

-

Our little trio treks on, not a single human life visible since we started. 2:33am.

And then, as if a fairy waved her magic wand and went "bibbidi bobbidi boo!" a small triangle leans out of the cluster of leaves, breaking into the sky. It is shining, reflecting the sunlight, and soft rays of dark blue emits out of it into the surroundings. We have reached.

Catherine, who hadn't spoken a word till now, makes a small gesture with her head in Ester's direction, as if to apologize for doubting him earlier, and then returns her eyes to the top of the trees, "a pyramid. That's a lot like them."

Ester then stops in front of us and spreads his legs out shoulder length, as if he was barricading us from going forward. I sigh and step ahead, my palms already in a ready position to attack him with some bolts of fire. He frowns, confused, and then says, "you can put your hands down, boy."

Facing the both of us, his voice but a mere whisper, he continues, "Okay, here's the plan: we can't use the front gate, it's too risky, even with Sir Fancy Hands over here, there's probably way too much security. Max spoke about a way from the backside. Here's the exact route to the dungeons, it's pretty straight forward from behind," he places a small smudgy lined paper in my hand, "I'll stand at guard out here. You'll won't take long to reach the prisoners. He claims that there's about 4 men blocking them, easy shots," he removes two small pistols from his bag and passes them onto both of us, "Good luck then."

"Wait, Ester," I remember something from the last time I visited To Sotos, "these guys must be having really good security- and not just personnel, specifically not just people. If we go in, there's no doubt that it's going to get caught on any one of their hundreds of cameras."

Ester looks at me like I am a five-year-old child, "Boy, you are the Tetrakinita, and I managed to hypnotize you in seconds, these guys are just men with guns. Stand by for exactly four minutes, and you'll be clear to enter. I swear." I ignore his comment and his praises for himself and we begin walking ahead briskly.