7. Monster Disposal Unit Heist

“What do you mean you’d piss and shit yourself in public if you don’t eat an alien core now?”

Jed never thought he’d tell anyone about this traumatising and humiliating nightmare even for once. Let alone only one day after the merciless punishment happened.

Sighing in disbelief himself, Jed grunted, “It is exactly what it sounds like. What more do you need me to explain?”

“Dude? Like, seriously? Everything!” Ricky crossed his arms. “Of course you need to explain everything. Are you even aware of the words coming out of your mouth?”

“… yes?”

“You must be joking!”

“I know it sounds crazy–“

“Now you get it!”

“–but the punishment for failing to do that already traumatised me. I can’t go through that the second time.”

Ricky looked at him as if he grew a second head. “What do you mean by the second time?”

“Do you really need me to explain that?”

“I want to see it.”

“Dude!”

“Sorry!” Ricky turned away and held his stomach, shoulders visibly shaking. “…”

“Please stop laughing at me.”

Ricky didn’t stop laughing, but he promised he’d be by Jed’s side if that happened again. As a proud spectator, of course. Even so, Jed couldn’t get angry at the blond as he got what he wanted in the first place.

“So, where is this alien core you know of?”

The Monster Disposal Unit was part of the Ministry of Planetary Affairs division. As the name suggests, their works involved in ridding the monster’s corpses and cleaning the city out of any remaining hazards. It sounded like a messy work, truthfully so but at least, the pay was enough to keep Ricky and his five younger siblings.

Ricky worked there since he graduated high school and resigned just last week after he got selected to join the Force. So, he was well-known about where they kept the damaged alien cores from any other parts of the corpses.

Thankfully, they still got free time to roam around and get acquainted with each other before the official training started tomorrow. Furthermore, Jed was lucky that the alien core was actually being kept in the storage facility in the Defense Force’s bases.

“As you know,” Ricky said as they were close to the Monster Disposal Unit’s storage facility in the base, “I no longer work there, so I don’t have my keys anymore. I can get us in the storage facility, but you have to move on your own inside. If you’re caught, please don’t mention my name, okay? I really want to keep living.”

“You make it sound like a heist, you know?” Jed teased, wondering what the inside of the storage facility would look like.

Ricky gulped, barely aware that he was being an accomplice without much thought. “I-it’s not like that!”

Jed chuckled, “Then, you’re fine.”

As they arrived in front of the building’s emergency exit, Ricky led the way inside. Ricky made sure they weren't caught by the CCTV, so they slipped through the emergency stairs. He then asked if Jed had something to draw on.

Jed took his little notebook and flipped through to find an empty page, then handed the blond a pen.

“What did you write here?” Ricky asked after he caught a glimpse of the front pages.

“Just things I always wanted to do before I die.”

“Dude, why do you have such depressing thoughts? I know we’ll get sent to fight aliens, but keep a positive vibe, will you?”

Jed rubbed his neck. “Anyway, what do you want with it?”

“Oh this?” Ricky stuck his tongue as he drew a map on the notebook. “This is the elevator, and this is the map for the underground floor. You will find the alien cores being kept there.”

Squinting his eyes, Jed tried to make sense of the map Ricky drew. Turns out, the blond was a good artist. He even made a surreal painting he called a map in such a short time. “Great.”

“Don’t rat me out, okay? If you don’t come out in fifteen minutes, I’ll start the fire alarm.” Ricky said before he got out of the emergency door, “And remember the passwords to enter the underground floor.”

The door was closed before Jed asked him. “What passwords?!”

Of course, no one answered him. He was all alone.

Taking a deep breath, Jed collected his courage. He walked to the back side of the building, located where their cleaning service’s locker room was. Spotting it, went inside and stole a uniform. Thankfully, no one was inside to witness his first crime. Jed wore the uniform complete with the mask to cover his nose and mouth. He pushed a cleaning cart for the perfect undercover.

He knew his plan worked because the security guard didn’t bat an eye at his appearance in the lobby. Even Ricky who strode through the front door wasn’t aware of him. To the elevator, Jed pressed the basement button. However, it didn’t work.

Instead, the floor buttons lit up red, as if asking him to enter the code. Jed was fucked. He didn’t know the passwords – Ricky didn’t tell him the passwords, despite what the blond said to remember it already.

He didn’t know shit about any of this.

But, the key scanner also lit up in red colour. Could there be some keycard in his stolen uniform?

“Ah! Found you!” Jed chuckled as he found an ID card inside the uniform’s pocket. The owner’s name was Phillip Youngs, and he was a senior cleaning service with underground floor clearance to boost. “I hope it didn’t use all of the luck in my life.”

Sliding the key card in, the elevator dinged as it descended to the underground floor. For a one level difference, the ride seemed to take up too long for Jed’s guess.

When the elevator finally opened, he was face to face with sturdy walls and huge cables on either side of the hall. It was poorly lit and had a certain dampness that touched his skin. Jed didn’t like the feeling of being here, but he must find at least one alien core to save himself for further trauma.

[Failure to use Ultimate Skill – Devouring for the next 10 minutes will result in punishment.]

“Oh, shit.”

Jed had to move quickly or else, he’d never live another day with even one shred of dignity in his name. The map Ricky kindly drew for him proved to be useful, despite the great efforts he must exert to decipher the meaning behind the blond’s artful skill.

Striding further inside while pushing the cleaning cart, Jed didn’t have much time to find the alien core. The only good thing about this was that the dingy place didn’t have many separate rooms. In fact, the hall only led to five different rooms, each with certain functions that Ricky didn’t care to mention.

However, it was clear that the furthest left room was where the alien core existed.

Heart beating rapidly, Jed put his hand on the door and–

“Hands up or I’ll shoot you.”

Jed felt the muzzle of a gun was pressed against the back of his head.