Sanitized

Chapter 34; The Plaza

Tres and I walked over to a tall fence, and Tres took a running start, and jumped it. I took a deep breath and followed her.
When I landed on the other side, I saw a pile of sea snails scattered in the corner.
"What happened here?" I asked quietly.
"This is where Spyke used to lounge. Now he hangs out in the coffee shop near the alley." Tres whispered back in response.
I looked forward through a tight alleyway, and crouched against the wall when I saw Inktolings making rounds.
It looked as though it was nighttime.
"This looks like a Splatfest..." I heard Tres mutter to herself.
I took a breath and crawled forward to the alleyway entrance.
"There's nowhere to hide here."I whispered.
"I know right?" Tres muttered back.
I took another breath, and ran behind a green stand, with a pillow covered in cat fur.
Luckily, there weren't very many guards.
Unfortunately, they were elites.
Luckily, we knew where our friends were.
Unfortunately, these guards were our friends.
I saw Phoenix standing by a boy with a bowl cut tentacle style, who I knew as the boy from Inkopolis News.
I knew there was another boy too, his name was Peyton. Phoenix was standing by Paxton near the manhole.
I saw Pearl talking to Callie and Marie, all of them standing near the railings of the tall balcony-like structure.
I saw Isaac talking to a girl with long bangs, I knew her as the new girl, Evelyn. Well, the newest girl, I couldn't say that she was that new compared to the rest of us. It had been forever since I had even closely talked to Isaac, or had a conversation with him.
I felt bad to be looking at all of these sanitized faces, and it was my fault that they were sanitized. If I hadn't fallen off that jetski, or if I had worn water protection, I wouldn't have been sent back to Inkopolis, and I wouldn't have been sanitized, and if I wasn't checked on, because people know I'm clumsy, then they wouldn't have been sanitized, and so on.
I saw Opal and Steven walking side by side, guarding the perimeter. They were both talking casually, as were all of the others.
I knew that if I jumped out, they would all notice. There wasn't a single angle that these guys couldn't see if I left the back of the stool I was behind.
I looked over at Tres, and saw her analyzing the scene as well.
Then I thought to myself, "Faith, you're reading into this too much!"
I then agreed with myself, and charged from behind the stool.
All of my friends stared at me confused, almost as if remembering something, then began to shoot at me.
Tres nodded at me, then attached the ink connector to her sniper, and began to aim at our friends. She still hid behind the corner concealed, and I had everyone distracted, so no one would notice if she un-sanitized people.
Half of my friends were holding ink guns, and the other half were holding ancient human weapons.
I dodged Isaac's precise splat bombs, as I circled the Plaza.
Opal aimed at me with an ancient human gun, I ran up to her and Steven, attempting not to splat them. Steven began to use his Heavy Splatting Deco, and aimed a barrage of sanitized ink at me.
I had Isaac, Evelyn, Opal, and Steven all now following me, with the others beginning to approach me.
Phoenix and Paxton aimed rifles at me, as I barely dodged their bullets, and felt the heat of them graze my skin.
Phoenix and Paxton began to follow behind me, joining the trail of people behind me shooting.
I ran up the stairway to the old news studio, and approached Callie, Marie, and Pearl, then realized that I was cornered.
I kept running though, running forward, or more specifically, off the balcony. I jumped off the side of the railing and landed on the ground below.
All of my friends stood at the edge of the balcony.
They were all shooting at me, when Tres sniped all of them. I watched as they all crashed to the balcony ground uncomfortably, and unconscious.
I saw the sanitized color drain from their faces.
"Come on!" Tres said, running over to the ramp to the balcony.
I followed her, and picked up as many friends as I could.
I heaved Opal and Phoenix over my shoulders, carried Pearl, and gave Isaac a piggyback ride.
Tres uncomfortably held Callie and Marie on her shoulders, she held Evelyn and Paxton, and gave Steven a piggyback ride.
"It's hard-ughgg carrying-hmmmmm 4 people at once." I said, wincing between words.
"Talk about it." Tres said.
"Hurry! We've gotta get out of here before they send backup." I said, running towards the gate.
Tres followed me, and then we crunched down in the alleyway when we heard the alarm go off.
"HURRY!" Tres whispered to me.
I gathered all my strength and climbed over the fence, and landed safely with everyone in my arms.
Tres followed behind me, as we rushed to the car.
The alarm began to get louder, and I saw many Inktolings appearing and making rounds.
I opened the car door, and slammed 4 people into the middle row, as Tres shoved 5 people into the back seat.
We hopped into the car and immediately, and quietly, started moving forward.
I buckled all of their seatbelts as Tres moved onto a main road.
They all slept peacefully, resting each other's heads on the other's shoulders.
I heaved out a big sigh and Tres said, "Well that was sTressful."
"Yeah, at least I didn't get shot." I said, trying to look for positives.
"They know our plan now." Tres said before sighing.
"Well, at least we have everybody." I said, looking forward to the black night.
"No, not everyone. We are still missing Peyton and Serenity."
"Oh no..." I said dejectly.
"Yeah. But at least we got a lot of them!" Tres said.
I nodded in agreement, then looked at the backseat.
My eyes were directed to Isaac, whose shoulder was being used by Marie. I didn't know why.
I looked around and saw Opal and Steven hugging each other, and I giggled at the sight. Paxton and Phoenix were a domino effect against the car wall. I looked confusedly at Paxton, who I had never met, but I could already tell that we were going to be friends. In the very back row, sat Callie limp against Marie, and Marie resting her head on Isaac's shoulder, Isaac limp against the wall. Pearl rested her head backwards, and Evelyn slouched against the car wall. I didn't know her, but she seemed pretty nice.
Tres noticed my wide eyes, and said, "Evelyn is a doctor, and is kind of like a mother to us, even though she is a year younger than us. She's really nice, and she helped me when I got shot. Other than that, she is really mature, but there seems to be a sort of protection aspect in her mind, that prevents a lot of us from getting to know her."
"She seems cool." I said, "But what about him?"
I pointed to Paxton. Tres said, "Well, he's the same person that you see on the news, happy and upbeat. Phoenix seems to have taken a liking to him."
I nodded in assurance, and looked at the night sky through the car window.
"Oh! Just got a message from Captain. He says to the Albacore Hotel." I said, holding up my phone.
"Oh okay." Tres said.
"Will that make the drive shorter or longer?" I asked.
"Shorter." Tres said, "It's closer to the city."
"Good. I don't know how much longer I can stay up." I said, yawning.
"I think we all need a good night's rest, and a day of rejuvenation." Tres said, patting my shoulder.
"I wonder how Elliot has been sleeping."
"Well, we've been gone for an hour, so he hasn't gotten much sleep." Tres said.
"Better than no sleep." I said.
"We're here." Tres said, pointing to the large building in front of us.
"Do you think it's abandoned too?" I asked.
"Maybe, but there's no other way to tell other than going in." Tres said, opening her car door.
"Wait, how are we supposed to get them up to the room?" I asked, pointing to all of my unconscious friends.
"Can you text Captain and tell him to have Marina and Elliot come down and help us carry them?" Tres asked.
I nodded and grabbed my phone.
A couple minutes later, Marina and Elliot walked through the door, with large carts.
"I don't think we ever took our suitcases out of the car." Elliot said, pointing to the trunk.
"These guys can also be lifted on carts too." Tres said.
"Hey, wait!" Marina said, "I think I've got something..."
Marina typed on her phone restlessly, and then showed it to us.
"I can get everyone's suitcase here." Marina said.
I gasped in awe, "Really?"
Marina nodded and pressed a button on her phone.
The suitcases appeared on the cart, with all of the coats and items that we left in Flounderida.
"Wow, Marina!" Elliot said, crossing his arms.
We grabbed all of the suitcases, and placed them on the carts, and set some of our friends on top of them.
Elliot pulled the carts. Which held Evelyn, Paxton, Steven, and Isaac.
I gave Opal a piggyback ride, Tres held Marie in her arms and Callie on her back, and Marina held Pearl.
"So where are we going to hide the bodies?" Elliot asked jokingly.
All of us laughed, and walked into the building limply.