The Runaways

Chapter Six - Syndicates

"And that's when my Uncle Steve said 'Well Reece, that piñata is too big for you anyways' so then I went up to my Dad and told me to grab the bat and..."
I sit at the table with Corban and Reece. Reece is telling us a story me and Corban had heard hundreds of times. While Remington is leaning up against the bar flirting with some woman who was wearing a shirt that showed so much skin I don't think it can no longer be classified as a shirt.
It bugs me whenever Remington tried hitting one women because it usually results in one of three ways. The girls boyfriend or husband shows up and they get into a fight. On very rare occasions Remington will make the woman mad to the point where she's throwing glasses at him as e runs out. Or the most annoying, he hooks up with the girl, sleeps at her place for a night, and then comes back all tired and cranky.
"Are you guys listening?" Reece asks.
"Yep," Corban says as he takes a bite of his food.
"Then what was I saying?" Reece asked.
"Your Dad hit your Uncle Steve instead of the piñata," Corban said.
"Yes that's right, so then we had to take my Uncle Steve to the hospital because my Dad hit him so hard he knocked out and lost a tooth so then we..."
Reece goes on and on and the whole time I'm eyeing Remington at the bar and then his empty seat at the table. He didn't order any food, just a couple of beers and I'm praying this woman doesn't decide to do shots with him because he keeps going and going until he either wins or he's on the floor crying and I have to drag him home.
I'm finished with my food. I finished awhile ago actually. I just want to pay and leave. Being in town makes me nervous, like someone could find our camp and steal everything and trash it. Or someone would recognize Remington and we'd be screwed.
"Alright, I'm done, let's get Remington and leave," I say as I set the napkin I've been ripping apart in my hand for the past twenty minutes on the plate.
"But I'm not done yet," Reece whines.
"Take it home then," Corban says.
"Yeah, and maybe if you didn't talk the whole time and actually ate your food we could leave earlier," I mutter. I just really want to go home, the more we stay in town the more nervous I get. Plus I don't feel like dealing with all this socializing crap. I just wanna go to bed.
We call over the waiter and pay for our food and Reece gets a small brown bag to put the rest of her food in. And of course Corban and Reece vote for me to go grab Remington from the bar.
"Hey Remy," I say as I tap him on the shoulder mid-conversation with the woman sitting next to him, "We gotta go,"
"Oh uh hey Elias, uh you guys can go, I'll catch up with you," Remington said.
"Give me the rest of the money first," I demand, knowing if we leave he'll blow it off on something stupid.
"Elias it's fine I can keep the money, you go, besides in probably gonna buy another beer and leave," Remington says.
"Then you can just take enough money for the beer then," I say, "Now give me the money so we can leave,"
"You know what Remington this was nice and all but I gotta go," The woman said as she hopped off the stool and walked away further into the restaurant.
"Thanks a lot dick bag," Remington mutters as he walks past me and over to the door.
"What did I do?" I call after him as I follow.
"You scared her off, probably made her think I'm poor are some shit," Remington says as we exit the restaurant.
"But we are poor," Corban speaks up as he and Reece walk over to us.
"Okay well she doesn't need to know that!" Remington retorted.
"Oh please, you'll only fuck her once and never speak again," I grumble, "It's not like she would actually try to form a relationship with you,"
"Elias shut up," Remington grumbles angrily, "Unlike you I enjoy not being a virgin,"
"WH-- I like sex! And I'm not a virgin either!" I stammer, embarrassed.
"That sounds like something a virg' would say," Remington teases.
"I'm not a--"
As we walk out of town we suddenly hear a gunshots and screaming which cut off me off as I try to defend myself. When we turn around there are men in all black clothes with red accents running around and shooting up some of the shops. Immediately we all run. We start sprinting to the edge of the valley and quickly run into the cover of trees so it makes it harder for us to be shot. Once we get high enough on the valley walls we stare down at the town as we watch the men in black clothing ravage the town.
We all know this scene far too well.
The Syndicates.
A gang full of murders and homicidal maniacs. They take over towns and burn down others. They kill as a warning and steal without consequence. They tear apart families taking their children to traffic them as slaves and laborers, sometimes even test experiments. In our world filled and ran by gangs and terror groups. Only wanting money and power and out of all of them the Syndicates are by far the most ruthless and the biggest and widespread gang there is.
They are in charge of most of the towns in all the areas I've been too. They claim to protect these towns from rival gangs but then again end up robbing the town or kidnapping children when they believe they have too much money or power. They have to be on top. Always.
Anyone who was once a Syndicate can never return to normal life, even if you try running away they hunt you down and kill you. These people will show no mercy. They don't care if you don't have anything to do with the town or not. All they want is money and power, they rule and command with fear and punishment. And since their so widespread it's nearly impossible to escape their suffocating grip on our scattered way of life. A small group like ours would be easily killed with one wrong run in with them.