Palinoia

Chapter 3

"C'mon Peter," I called out. I had collected the textbooks I needed and was waiting for the idiot to finish his hopeless flirting.

He came running with a smile on his face. "She threatened to file for a restraining order," he explained.

I raised an eyebrow. "How is that good news?"

"Hang on. When I left her alone, she gave me her friend's number because she thought we'd match. All about the charm Seb; all about the charm," he finished.

I shook my head and started to head out. Peter caught up to me and raised his eyebrows. "You're not heading home right?" he asked.

"I am actually. Why?" I questioned.

"I was just about to visit the Red Headquarters. Wanna come?" He asked.

I sighed. "If I say no you're going to beg me to come anyway so fine."

Peter sent me a smirk and started to walk a little faster. I caught up with him and noticed that we were speed walking. Wonder why he's in such a rush...

As pessimistic and sad that I may seem, I really wasn't a fan of anything related to the force. I understood that they were just doing their job and trying to protect the country but they had so much people putting their trust into them when not all of them were angels.

We reached the front door and I watched Peter pull out a card from his left pocket and scanned it on the screen. This caused me to raise an eyebrow.

"I didn't know you were a member," I inclined.

Peter glanced at me and gave me a nod. "Yeah. I used to stop by here in and out to help move things, clean or any other small job for some pay. It really paid off and they gave me a card so that I can pop in any time I want," he explained.

I scoffed. "They actually trust you."

Peter rolled his eyes and stepped inside while I followed behind. We were met by two security guards that were wearing dark glasses who stared at me suspiciously. I ignored their stares and looked at Peter.

"Mike, Steve, this is my friend Seb. Seb, Mike and Steve," he introduced. I said nothing in return.

"What brings you here Peterson?" The black-haired Mike asked.

"Just wanted to check the security cameras. See if there's any suspicious activity going on," Peter answered.

"I'm sorry but you're in no line to work on those," The brown-haired Steve spoke.

"Relax. I'm just here to view. Nothing more nothing less. I mean, you guys get to stalk the city and other whereabouts so why not me?" Peter retorted.

The two men huffed but granted the two of us access to pass. One of the interesting things about Peter was his persuasive techniques. He knew how to make people eat their words and leave them sinking in their own words.

I looked around and noticed that the area was very dim with only a few lights lit atop of the ceiling. There was multiple door that seemed to be locked with a passcode and I wondered how Peter was even allowed to enter the rooms. Maybe it was his enthusiasm.

"We're here!" he announced before walking inside a room that wasn't locked. I raised an eyebrow but followed from behind.

There was four men dressed in black uniforms sitting in the room. Each one of them sat by a desk and were accompanied by computers. In front of them was a very large screen displaying different camera locations all over what seemed to be the city and other places that could be identified in Tekuni.

One of the men, who was wearing brim glasses, turned to face us and was taken aback. "Eh? What the hell are you doing here Andrews?" He demanded. His eyes shifted towards me. "And why the heck did you bring a guest!?"

Peter was unsurprisingly calm and scratched the back of his head. He flashed the man a calm smile and stared up at the cameras. "Just wanted to see if everything's fine," he explained.

The remaining three looked at Peter and shook their heads. "You shouldn't be here you know," one of them said who was typing away.

"Ah c'mon Dave. It's not like I'm causing any trouble. What are you doing by the way?" Peter asked casually.

Dave exercised his hands before typing again. "I'm just sending a final report to the boss. I'm informing him that everything is fine and there's been no-"

Beep. Beep. Beep...

I quickly stared up at the screen and noticed at the right corner in the third row, there was a red flashing light that appeared which started beeping repeatedly.

Dave let out a gasp and the men stared up in complete shock.

"What did you do!?" Glasses guy accused. He shot a pointed finger at Peter. Peter raised his hands up defensively.

"How could I do something when I didn't touch anything?" he argued back.

I frowned and faced each one of them. "You're the ones in charge here. What's going on?" I asked.

Immediately, they each started to analyse the camera and the source that was causing the strange flashing light. Dave narrowed his eyes then I watched as they widened and he froze in the spot. Peter took notice and rushed over to see what he had analysed.

In just a few seconds, Peter's body started to shake and I could tell he was very tensed up. My frown deepened as I stared at the both of them. "What happened!?" I demanded.

Dave gulped and made that particular camera the only one that appeared on screen. This filled up the large screen so that we were all able to view what was happening. And the sight before caused my breath to hitch.

What we saw, right in front of us, were three Demolishers that were in a distant part of the city. From what appeared, it looked as if they were feasting on some sort of cooked meat but that wasn't the issue.

"Demolishers..." I spoke, my mind going haywire. "Why are they...here?"

"What's going on? I thought the demolishers weren't able to access the city," Peter said who gave each of them questionable looks.

"We don't know! We're only in charge of keeping an eye on the cameras," Glasses guy snapped. "Dave, Ralph. Inform the boss and all the staff here that this is a code ten. I repeat code ten!"

Peter grabbed Glasses guy by the shirt. "What do you mean 'only in charge of keeping an eye out'? We're not kids here. Tell us exactly what is the issue dammit!"

Glasses guy moved Peter's hand away. "The issue as you can clearly see is that there are demolishers dwelling in the city. What we're now trying to do is inform the boss about this so that he can inform the White Headquarters that there's going to be a lock-down," he explained.

Peter stared at him in disbelief. "A lock-down? Seisamo's never had one of those..."

"Drastic measures need to be taken. For all we know there could be more of them all over the city in hiding. The worst part is that those demolishers were nearby residential houses," Glasses guy added.

Ralph piped in. "The boss is contacting the headquarters now. The lock-down is now in operation." I watched as the other guy press on a red button that caused a siren to sound everywhere. I looked outside the door and saw people either run outside rooms and frantically enter the rooms.

"Okay," I began. "So what do we do know?" I asked.

Dave stood up. "Run."