Living in the Fray

Chapter Sixteen

Michael was content. Extremely content at the fact that he was having a great time down at the beach with his crew mates; lying on a sun bed, catching some rays, drinking several beers and just generally chilling out. The Chase was over, his boss had won it and she had just given him and the rest of the crew a huge bonus for absolutely no reason. He had already made up his mind that he was going to find a better apartment and fill it with nice things and stuff he liked. He made a mental note to check out the apartment building that Devin lived in, which wasn't far from where he was now; but it was much nicer and the apartments themselves were a lot bigger and better equipped.

'Oh God I could get some totally cool kitchen shit.' Michael thought. He looked out to the sparklingly clear ocean, the shallow waves were gentle as they lapped and glided over the sand. Parents who had taken the time off had brought their kids down with them and were happily paddling in the sea or making sand castles. It was a picturesque scene Michael was watching, till his eyes landed on his bosses Krieger and Ronson stood knee deep in the water wearing their gun holsters, bucket hats, holding beers and throwing shapes to some weird dance music that was being played through the speakers on the lifeguard towers dotted up and down the beach.

Justin and Tony's families had even turned up too. Tony's wife Maria and his daughter Antonia showed up along with Justin's wife Laetitia and their kids Andre and Saffron, all the kids were around the ages of six or seven. Michael had met them all once before at some other gathering that was held just before the Chase and all the kids had taken a shine to him for some reason. He didn't mind though, he quite enjoyed not having to do grown up stuff for a bit and now found himself sat in the sand helping the kids make sandcastles. It was strangely refreshing just to sit and actually build a sandcastle.

'So how is school going for you guys?' Michael asked the kids as he neatened up a few edges round his part of the sandcastle.

'It's okay I guess.' Andre was the first to reply. 'We're all in the same class.'

'Oh that's pretty cool. Do you all play together and stuff?'

'We do.' Saffron answered. 'We live on the same street.'

'We haven't been able to play together or go to school because of the contest.' Antonia finally spoke as she was cramming sand in to her turret shaped bucket. 'They make us stay home.'

'Oh, that's too bad.' Michael said.

'Actually that's kinda fucked up.' Michael thought. The kids of New Edo got kept inside for a while when the Chase was on, which was just a bizarre killing contest and was all kinds of fucked up on it's own anyway; but Michael knew that schools on New Edo were probably the most safest human schools around. Kids didn't leave their homes in the morning wearing kevlar backpacks nor did they have to practice active shooter drills once a month like they did back in America. New Edo for all it's really terrible flaws wasn't as bad as most people made out.

Eventually Krieger and Ronson had made their way out of the water and back to the beach, as they had soon run out of beer and needed a refill. Everybody was here now and the whole beach was bustling with people chilling out and having fun. Krieger and Ronson had sat and played with the kids for a little while, everybody beered up again and Justin started getting everything together so all was ready for the huge amount of meat he would soon be barbecuing. All was going well until Frank decided to waltz on over to Krieger who was busy sat flirting away with Erik and stand above her again, which she hated.

'You ready for our annual beach volleyball match short-bus?' Frank asked Krieger. Normally she would start screaming and swearing at him after a remark like that but she just grinned instead. It was a little bit unsettling.

'Does the Pope shit in the woods Frank? Of course we're ready what kind of a stupid fucking question is that?'

'Beach volleyball?' Both Erik and Michael quizzed in unison. Frank obliged with an answer.

'Every year after the Chase, my crew faces off against Krieger's crew in a game of four-aside beach volleyball. The losing team buys the winning team ice cream and booze for the rest of the afternoon.'

'That's the prize?' Michael asked sounding confused. 'I would've thought the prize would be something more...'

'Ridiculous? Extravagant? Yeah common misconception.' Krieger said. 'Nowt we do makes any sense we like it that way.'

Michael just shrugged his shoulders in acceptance as that sentence made perfect sense in itself. Really when he thought about it, the only thing that made sense was the fact that anything his crew did, especially Krieger and Ronson; never made any sense at all. He was beginning to accept that his life was now completely spontaneous. Not only were the jobs that his bosses accepted ranging from the most basic like standard courier jobs, shipping booze from one side of New Edo to the other, but also to the psychotic assassinations or hostile take overs. Basically the stuff that mercenaries would usually take, Krieger, Ronson and the rest of the crew would revel in as it was their opportunity to "go ape shit." Most of the time they managed to get off scot-free thanks to paying off the police, which wasn't cheap but it kept them out of jail. It was to Michael, actually fun. It made him shudder to think that he thought any of what they did was fun, but it was true. He put it down to that base human instinct being satisfied.

'Mikey! Hey you playing?'

Krieger had poked her big toe in to Michaels leg to bring him round from his little day dream.

'Dude, volleyball before barbecue. You, me, Ronson and Faye against, Yves, Heather, Fuck-face Frank and the Lovely Erik. How about it?'

'Sure, why not.' Michael replied. He downed the rest of his beer and opened a fresh one. He walked over to the part of the beach where a volleyball net was already set up. In fact there were several nets being put up all along the beach.

'Justin, how long before we get food?' Ronson asked the Osiris' resident pit master.

'Just over thirty minutes.'

'Nice one Justin.' Krieger answered.

Everyone playing the game made their way over to the net. What Michael wasn't expecting was the slow influx of people who had started to crowd round as soon as Frank and Krieger made their way over to the net.

'Hey, we need a ball. Somebody ball me please?' Krieger shouted around hoping somebody would throw her a volleyball.

'Hey Cas I think Erik would be more than happy to oblige in balling you.' Frank laughed.

'Shut the fuck up up Frank and get a damn ball you absolute fucking melt.'

Michael didn't know what to do except take up his position and wait until somebody found a ball, hopefully before Frank wound Krieger up to the point where she'd blow up. She was at a slight simmer at the moment, her mood calmed when two Lifeguard assistants came over with a ball and offered to referee the game; as well as over see a coin toss to see who served first.