Chapter 201: Things Dave Needs To Figure Out List

I ran over to the smoke silver tube, and reached inside, grabbing the gun out. It had a sleek feel that fit into my arms well, and I didn't feel restricted by the weight while holding it. I didn't really look at the stats for very long, just enough to know that the thing was a Sam Sammich, and it had Stopping Power, whatever the hell that was.

The nice thing was this time, there were only six of them, and they didn't really aim with their guns. Instead, they just shot in our general direction, so both of us split apart, I headed for a small green tractor and ducked behind the wheel. I quickly set my new gun to a knuckle slot and then looked around to see Aquina.

She had got behind the bar and was firing at the aliens, but none of them had gone down yet. I got and tried to stick my in the steering wheel to fire, but an invisible wall got in my way. In frustration at the game, I backed up and raised my gun to aim through the area I was blocked from, and then squeezed the trigger.

Everything went wrong from there.

I had not read all the stats of my gun, full auto, being the main problem. Three shots were fired off before the first one ricocheted back and hit me, followed immediately by two more. The impact from the bullets knocked me back three-meter, and I was only still on my feet because of game mechanics.

"Are you alright? Who shot you?" Aquina yelled over.

My vision was pulsing red and the shock of almost killing myself was finally wearing off enough for me to start functioning again. Wow, what a kick! Note to self, if the gun doesn't go through it, neither will the bullet. On top of that, for the first three shots, there was a heavy recoil, so I would have to keep a tight grip on my gun if I wanted to hit anything.

"I'm fine, just a ricochet. Don't ask, I will tell you after."

With that my vision was now pulsing a light pink, so I ran around the side of the little green tractor. There were only four left now, but they were a lot closer now. I brought my gun up in a planted stance, keeping a tight grip on my Sam Sammich, and unloaded into the big ugly aliens. 

As the bullets started hitting, they were pushed back and each time they were momentarily stunned. Aquina rushed from the barren throwing two grenades in quick succession, into the area that my bullets were pushing them. As soon as the grenades were about to hit the ground, I did a fast switch to Rip, pumping two slugs into the centermost alien.

The explosions went off at the same time to my eyes, but when the smoke cleared, I still had no points. 

"Sorry! I guess mine went off just after yours and got the kills, maybe I can upgrade yours if you give it to me?" Aquina asked as she jogged over.

It was a fair question and after I had finished reloading, I tried to hand Aquina Rip. As her hands looked like they would touch the gun, they passed through the gun like it wasn't there. That made sense, I guess, but it was still shitty for me.

[09:59 Remaining until next round]

Well, at least there was more time to look around this time, so we had better not waste it. We still had to find the person that had the parts for the Tacos Infernos Machine, and the parts for the distillery. That reminded me, that damn Russian never told us what we would get as a reward, not like that would make me find the parts any easier.

"I think we should go and take a look inside of the house, I think that's where most of the parts will be."

"Why not finish out here first? We didn't look around the barn that much, but I didn't see an exit for the game, so we should check their first so we don't have to backtrack, right?"

"You are a smart cookie, lead on! It's nice to have someone take the lead, hehe!"

Aquina turned to walk to the barn but then looked back, then gave me a sexy look, and an air glasses adjustment.

"Then follow me private!" Aquina said in a deep and throaty voice.

"I'm going to get you, and your damn privates!" I yelled, chasing after her with the full intention of tickling her half to death.

The two of us raced into the barn before I caught up to her. I settled for some light tickling, and a kiss, before starting to look around. We had shit to find, and women to save, and maybe I was gonna get some more free time!

The barn only had one large open area, with a single level, and no farming equipment. That left the center wide open and decreased the number of places we had to look. We each took a side and started looking around the workbenches, and shelves lining the walls. 

And look was all we could really do; invisible walls blocked me from touching the bench or its tools. I started to walk along, looking around until something caught my eye. There was a silver pot that seemed to have a bit more detail than everything else.

"Dave, I found the copper spring thing, the items are more detailed and stand out. So, you should be able to see them better than the rest," Aquina called over.

"Thank you, dear. I found a large pot with a lid, do you think we should look more? This is two of the four parts, I can't imagine another one being in here."

"Better safe than sorry. It will take us more time to come back then if we just finish looking now."

"Your reasoning is sound, I'm just going to shut up, and look, boss!"

"You better, or you will be the one going over my knee!"

"Can I get a substitute? I know this great gal that would just love to switch places with me!"

I didn't get an answer back, so my man brain heard it as a maybe, making me laugh quietly.

"THAT WAS NOT A MAYBE!" Aquina yelled at me angrily from across the barn, making me turn around.

"Woah, hold on a second, I didn't say shit!"

"That's what you thought!"

"How the hell would...oh, that's not cool Mom!"

'Sorry.' -Tequila.

"Are you kidding me? Alright, what the fuck is going on Aquina? Why is mom playing favorites with you, when you only just met her?" 

I was getting a little fed up with being left outside of the loop with all these secrets. What was the point in hiding everything from me?

'You're not ready to know yet, please, Dave. I promise not to do something like that again, it was just automatic for me, sorry.' -Tequila.

"I am sorry too, I shouldn't have lost it about something you joked about in your mind. I also shouldn't have asked Mom to spy on you, it was my fault, not hers."

I was joking? Yes, a very good jokester I am. I waited, nothing, no reaction from Aquina, so it was good for now. The rest would be done covertly without my knowing, no doubt. I really wished I had more time to think about what I wasn't ready to know. I was really getting behind on my 'Things Dave Needs to Figure Out' list.

I turned back with an audible sigh and started to look over the stuff again, but I was getting drawn back into the question of what I wasn't supposed to or couldn't know. I was about to get lost in some deep introspection when I noticed something white ahead of me on a bench. When I got closer, I was surprised and a bit grossed out by what I had found lying on the bench, between a wrench and a screwdriver.

I reached forward and grabbed the human tooth off the bench. It was clean and seemed to be in good shape, so I stuck it in one of the two pockets that I could actually reach into. I looked for a bit more and then turned to Aquina, who had just finished looking. 

I got a pleasant smile, but there was no trace that we had just had a mind-bending discussion. One that produced more questions and no answers, but we needed to hurry, the clock said we only had three minutes left. Aquina pushed her chin out towards the door and I nodded, then both of us ran as fast as we were allowed over to the house. 

The house wasn't big, and we entered inside into a mudroom with coats hanging up. They had that slightly less detailed look that I was becoming more familiar with, so I didn't waste my time trying to touch them. Instead, I entered the next room and found it was a kitchen with a small table with chairs at the opposite end of the room.

As I entered the room, I could see that there was a piece of paper on the table, so I walked over to it with Aquina. The paper was a note, but It had more texture than the table, so I reached forward and picked it up and scanned the note, and sighed. I had no idea who wrote this note, but they seemed like they were going to be a lot of work, like Gretchen kind of work.

"What does the note say?" Aquina asked after I finished reading.

Instead of reading it out, I just turned it around and held it out for her to read. The note was drawn in crayon, with a stick figure at the bottom. The note read as follows:

'Hey! You! I fell down the stairs and rolled into a cage that locked itself. Can you come to get me?'

Was this a text message? The way it was written, sounded like she wrote the note after she locked herself into the cage, but my thought was interrupted by a 'hm' sound from Aquina, and a laugh. She grabbed my hand that was holding the paper and turned it back to me, and I looked at it again. New writing was there and I groaned.

'Dave, if you don't get you lazy ass down here right now, I will tell everyone all your dark little secrets!'

Great, well, I found her finally, because there was only one person I knew that loved secrets and extortion as much as she did.

Latisha.