CHUCK Everyone in the protest area went wild and cautious when we noticed that there were four men running off the building while pushing a wheeled stretcher with them. There was a guy laid on top of it, covered in blood, and even barely conscious. I knew since the very beginning when the first cop set his left foot out the building that it was Travis, because I, I mean the four of us, were there back on the ninth floor during the set up happened. Watching our plan slowly and carefully succeeded made me thought that maybe, just maybe, our plan would eventually turn out to be a success. I let out a fine sigh as I wiggled my butt to move myself to the direction of a mini circle composed of four of my friends; Janvic, Philip, Rabiya, and Andrei. Basically, among them four, Andrei was the most clueless and the most uninformed. He did not have even a single idea that what happened to Travis was not true, and that

TRAVIS   Every second mattered. Every breathe I took in and I took out indicated my chances of surviving this another mess I stuck my nose into. There was no right time to perform yet another act. In fact, there was not even a time for that.   As I prolonged my eyes watching how the white lights on the ceiling of the hospital ran past the rushing wheeled-stretched where I was laid and pushed forward by the three nurses, I thought of things that were about to end the moment we would reach our destination--the ER. Better known as the Emergency Room. I had seen people, there was too many of them actually, as we continued venturing the isle. I was not able to see the reactions made by their faces, but I had the ears who heard all the gasps and gossips they let out as they saw me laying on my so called ‘death bed.’ Their reactions were terrible. Their gestures showed too much concern and worry, something that I h

“Ho. . .How?” I said as I gasped, trying to suck as much air as I can only to express how shocked I was because of the unexpected turn of events. “What do you mean how, little brother?” My big brother asked, on his face was a mark of stifled laugh that he was trying so hard not to reveal it to me but it seemed that he was no genius in hiding laughter so he failed doing it anyway. “Do not tell me you are trying to question my capabilities as a son of our father Hercule Exposito? Remember, I am older than you, boy. That only means I know a lot more complicated stuff than you do. If you think you are good at disguising, and so is me,” he bragged in a delicately confident manner, and he followed it up with an engaging smile on his face. It made me flustered. “Now, get up from that cheap little death bed and ready your self because we are to begin yet another hard problem,” he added after a short break. 

The door of the white van suddenly slid wide open, revealing the empty interior of the vehicle. Inside, there was not a single person seating. Inside, all I could even see was empty seats and dramatic yellow-gold colored curtains flowing over the window panes that were tinted with black sheets of glasses. As I continued scanning for what was inside, I came to realize that there was a huge black backpack seating over the last seat of the queue. And then, right when I was about to divert my gaze, the door of the driver’s seat suddenly slid, too. It was only then when we heard a voice that commanded us to get inside before anyone else, according to the voice, could see us. “Hop in. We ain’t got no time to meddle here. Y’all should know that I was kinda in a hurry also,” the anonymous, unfamiliar, and discreet voice suddenly said. Judging from the way he spoke, I must say that he was a British. As what was advised to us by the confidant

The next thing my brother did was call anyone from my friends/classmates and tell them that I was fine and that I was now back on to the tracks. He also told as that we were somewhere hiding in the city public plaza, and that we were just waiting for our perfect opportunity to re-join the scene again. My brother did not directly specify who did he had a call with, but he said that they now knew everything single update they need to know and that there was now nothing for me to worry about. He also said that according to them, if they would be given the chance to dismiss themselves, they would most likely sneak out and come to us here. When I also asked my big brother about the updates I thought I needed to know from them, he just answered, “They said the cops are planning to have another round of search and arrest movement on the entirety of the Hamlet Creek University. However, on the brighter side of it, students whose parents would be fetching them would be dismissed one af