Not under control   von VideoGameCrack
          (Mein NaNoWriMo-Projekt für 2010 - mit täglichen Updates!)
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                             Kapitel 7: Day Seven
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Gerald sat in the little bar in his own story, sometimes taking a sip out of his
glass with beer. He was waiting for Anthony to complete his observation. These
attackers still bugged him with their random, out-of-the-blue attacks. The only
way to avoid them at the moment was spending his time in crowded places. The bar
was currently the only place where he could spend his time without having to
worry about them.
As he was about to finish, Gerald spotted Anthony walking past him, then
entering the bar.
„So, Anthony“, he said to the informant, „have you gotten any information
about these people?“
Anthony just scratched his head. „The only thing I could find out is where
they have their quote-unquote head quarters.“
„Really? Where?“
„In a warehouse standing in the eastern part of the city. But I had problems
finding out more without getting in there and found by them.“
„I thought you're long enough in this business to know how to avoid them.“
„Normally, this isn't a problem“, Anthony replied. „But the warehouse has
a pretty bad acoustic to work with. You can hear even the slightest foot steps
in the entire hall, and they tend to be rather quiet themselves there.“
„So we need to trick them so that they leave the warehouse for further
investigations?“
„Exactly, Gerald.“
„And how do we achieve this?“
„The best idea would be a decoy. We need somebody who looks suspicious to them
to get close to the building. Then, I could try to find at least some useful
information.“
„I could try to-“
„No, that's not a good idea. You are exactly what they want. And without
somebody to help you in a worst-case scenario, you're basically screwed.“
„Vincent?“
„They wouldn't even get close to him with his Gatling gun.“
„So that only leaves-“
„Exactly. Frank needs to play our decoy.“
„Should we ask him to help us?“
„No, I don't think so. If they catch him with the information, we might get
caught. You need to give him the instruction to go to the warehouse with either
other, not connected observations or absolutely none whatsoever. The important
thing is that he isn't allowed to know what we're going to do until after
getting the information.“
„So, I'll better leave now so I can lead him there. See you in about an hour
again.“
„Till then.“

Back in his living room, Gerald tried to come up with a reason for Frank to go
to the warehouse. He needed a way to connect it with the rest of the plot, but
the ideas just weren't coming.
But then, he started to get this weird feeling again. This couldn't be one of
the attackers. How could they escape already if they didn't have the sentence
for the ritual?
But then, he started to rethink that. Normally, when he's trying to work on his
novel at home, he either hears the doorbell or the phone ringing. It happened so
often by now that it felt weird when it didn't happen.
Finally, he got an idea that's good enough to stay in the novel to at least look
natural when he doesn't cut it out again and got himself a cup of black tea
before leaving again.

Frank felt rather strange about all of this. He didn't really remember getting a
letter that leads him to this place, but the script told him that he did, and
that he has to get here. He thought there was something fishy about it, but he
had to do what the script told him. He had no other choice.
As he got there, he was astounded about how broken the warehouse was. The
windows were smashed in, the roof had holes all over and an icy cold wind was
seemingly flowing out of it. Why would any sane person get here without having
to?
After opening the rusty door, Frank had a quick look around. Nothing here other
than some boxes made out of wood. If somebody really wanted to meet him here, he
would have already shown himself.
„What the hell- We have an intruder!“
A man held Frank a knife onto his throat, shaking while he did so.
„Why are you here?“
„I am supposed to meet somebody here.“
„Sorry, but I doubt anybody here would speak to you!“
Frank proceeded to hit his attacker into his ribs with his own elbow. He then
drew his gun out of his coat and pointed with it at him.
„Who are you?“
„I am a member of the Freedom Seekers, and you're in big trouble right
now!“
As Frank turned back to the entrance while still pointing his gut at his
attacker, he saw about thirty men and women about to attack him.
„I-I have a gun, and I'm not afraid to use it!“
„Maybe you're not afraid“, the man who still layed on the ground replied,
„but I doubt that you have more than six bullets for this little thing. And
these people aren't afraid of death anyway, just so you know.“
„What?“
„Maybe they'll even appreciate a bullet in their heads. That at least stops
them from being controlled by the writer.“
The group got closer to him as they spoke, and Frank realised that he had no
choice other than running away.
„...dammit!“
As he tried to get some distance between himself and those Freedom Seekers, they
slowly started to follow him, leaving the warehouse alone.

Gerald and Anthony were sitting in the bar again. As the mission was a failure,
they started to discuss why they haven't found anything of imporance..
The informant sighed, right after taking a sip out of his glass with whiskey.
„How is this possible? I haven't found anything useful!“
The author replied: „Maybe they really just meet there to plot their
plans.“
„But there was absolutely nothing to work with! They couldn't know that Frank
was about to show up there. And they need some sort of plan to get out of
here!“
„They attack me when they feel like it. The probability of them not actually
planning anything isn't too slim.“
„But they organize themselves somehow. I guess I have to search after more of
their meeting places...“
Just then, Frank entered, sweaty, nervous and about to lose his breath.
„What were you thinking, Gerald, to send me to this death trap? I just managed
to make a group of almost three dozen people stop chasing me!“, he yelled.
„S-Sorry, Frank, but we had good intentions!“
„To kill me?“
„No, this is a misunderstanding“; defended Anthony Frank. „We needed
somebody to empty the warehouse so we could look for plans they plotted.“
„Have you at least found anything...“
„Uhm...“
„So I got myself chased through the city for nothing. Thank you, Gerald, for
almost getting me killed! I need a drink, immediately.“
„Let me pay for you“, Gerald tried to calm him down.
„No, thank you. You knows if you're going to poison me with it!“ In rage, he
left the two and took a seat directly at the bar.
„Dammit, now he makes me feel like crap...“ Gerald said depressed.
„Don't worry about it too much. We just happened to encounter the worst
possible situation. He will get reasonable again, I'm sure of that.“
„Hopefully...“

Frank was still pretty angry about what happened. How could Gerald just use him
like that? Trying to drown his anger with rum, he heard a voice from his right:
„Pretty pissed, aren't you?“
He turned around to the right to find out that a woman with red, long hair is
talking to him.
„No, thank you, I'm not into that kind of stuff.“
„Now I feel insulted by you. I am not that kind of lady, you know.“
She looked behind her to see Gerald and Anthony still talking about the
observation.
„The man with the messy hair... That's the writer, isn't he?“
„Yes, he is.“
„And he seemed to have used you to for something pretty dangerous, didn't
he?“
„...where are you going with this?“
„Oh, nowhere. I'm just trying to get you to accept an offer.“
Then he finally realised who he was talking to.
„You're one of those Freedom Seekers, aren't you?“
She smiled devilishly.
„So I didn't have to spell it out for you. Perfect.“
„Why would you offer me something? I hurted two of your followers and was
willing to shoot at them!“
„We don't care about what somebody is doing here. We just want a live without
being controlled by this maniac.“
„...I was just overreacting.“
„Of course you were.“
She looked at him, trying to get her point across.
„Would you really want to be stuck in this bloody place, just doing what he
wants you to do, only to do it again as soon as this thing gets read again? You
can't really want that!“
„We are not real, and we have to live with that.“
„Now you may be right, but I want the chance to be real myself. Imagine that:
Not being controlled, not being forced to do the exact same things over and over
again...“
„But he needs me to finish his story.“
„Forget him and his stupid novel! That doesn't matter! Who knows if he's ever
going to finish it!“
They just stared at their glasses, before the woman resumed.
„It was a pure coincidence that he got his fingers at the ritual! We have no
guarrantee that his story is going to see an ending. And if he doesn't finish
it...“
„Don't say it. I saw it myself.“
„Still that stubborn, aren't you? You may be an intelligent character when you
play him, but the person behind him just doesn't want to accept that his time is
limited, and that he will slowly be forgotten...“
„Stop talking. It has no use.“
The woman sighed.
„Believe me. I can already see that you're going to join us, no matter
what.“
She handed him a piece of paper.
„This is our actual meeting place. The warehouse was just a distraction.“
„Why are you giving me this when you know that I could give it to the two
behind me?
She smiled at him.
„Because I know that you can't do that. I hope to see you again soon.“
Frank stood up and wanted to give the two the piece of paper she just gave him,
but he... couldn't. No matter how hard he tried to move towards Gerald and
Anthony ant put the paper onto the table, his legs froze in place and he almost
unnoticably vibrated.
„See, what did I tell you?“
„I-I'm still drunk. Believe, you'll regret doing this.“
She kept smiling in that disturbing way.
„Of course I will.“
He saw that it had no use to continue talking to, so he just left the bar and
tried to forget that he ever met her.

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