Us

Mayhem stood near the window with his back to the room. As he always did. This was a daily occurrence. We show up to his meetings, and he doesn't speak for about 10 minutes. We are not a club, we are a family. Blood brothers swore by oath to stand by each other until the end. Once you were in, there was no getting out. No way in hell. So, we came to every meeting, and we pushed through. 9th period of Fort Ntainethampweb high school. A terrible place. A place where the weak were preyed upon, the strong were gods, and the bathrooms were clouded with the smoke of degeneracy at its finest. Classes were impossible, no one cared for the education, and neither did the teachers. We all hated it, and that's why we sit here in 9th period every day, for an hour. Anyway, welcome to the Kamikaze Club. I know we said it's not a club, but that's the name. We cover ourselves as the digital media club, but it's just a bullshit excuse, of course. My name is Clancy Norris, and I am the highest-ranking member other than our leader, Mayhem. Mayhem is the only 19-year-old here, the rest of us being 15-16. I and Mayhem were the founders, I guess you could say. I met Mayhem back in 13 when we were just innocent children. Then middle school changed us. And now, this hellhole. We always had each other's backs, and we still do. We've been working together on this project for about 3 years now, and we've remained the same number for that time. 9. A perfect number. Not including myself and Mayhem, we had Scott Fischer, Dirk Jan, Ash Venner, Vincent Dean, Dennis Thompson, Vito Yang, and Randall Benston. This group has shown support for Mayhem since the grand year of 2018.

Alex Mayhem had a strange mindset and beliefs. He was one of a kind, no one could ever tell what he was thinking. Mayhem hated America, and we all agreed on that. Mayhem loved every other country besides the United States. His favorite was Japan (thus providing context to our club's name), and Germany. Now, don't get any ideas, Mayhem was far from a neo nazi, he hated Hitler, and everything to do with nazi Germany. He loved all religions and all races. He supported and favored women over men any day, he believed that more women should have more to do with "running this awful country". Mayhem was a role model, everyone looked up to him. See, our school was known for its "interesting friend groups", pretty much covering up the word "gangs". We had a lot of gangs. If you weren't in one, your life would be hell. And it was for some people. We had no conflict with any other gang up until Friday, November 12th. But we'll get to that later.

"Men, what we have here is a problem. A big problem." Mayhem turned around after exactly 10 minutes to say this. "Inspection day is approaching us rapidly."

Inspection day was the day that the student council checked up on the 9th-period clubs, which happened almost once a year. This was a day we all dread.

"Can't we just move rooms again like last year?" Ash said. "It worked then, so why won't it work now?"

"No, no, no. We've spent too much time here. And they know it. We need to get the computers up and running and remove all flash drives with our work on them."

"Alex, inspection day isn't until Thursday, we have 3 days. Stop overthinking it." I said. Everyone stared at me. Oh, right, Mayhem doesn't care if I call him Alex, which surprises everyone. It kind of pisses me off that they do that.

"I know, but we can't have a repeat of last year. Remember the council kid that came a day early?" said Vincent. Everyone laughed but me and Mayhem.

"Take this seriously," I said. "Isn't that why you're all standing here today?"

Everyone stopped laughing. I had authority over them too, they forgot. Mayhem paced in the front of the room, and then he stopped and smiled.

"Men," he said. "I have an idea."

Inspection Day. We were ready. But what happened next, we were not ready for.

"Shit. There's one missing." Dirk looked at the empty spot at the end of the table.

"Did any of us take that last computer home for any reason or to the safe house?" Ash asked. Everyone shook their heads. Without this last computer, we would be in trouble. Mayhem stood up from his chair.

"Dennis, can you go check the safe house? It's probably there. Take the truck." Mayhem tossed Dennis his keys. Dennis left, and Ash went with him. That left me, Dirk, Mayhem, and Vito in the room together.

"Finish setting up," I said. "We do not need a repeat of last year."

Last year was a bad one. The student council came a day early, and we weren't ready at all. We had to make the excuse "We moved the computers because we were letting the art club use our room for a day due to work going on in theirs" and they believed it. What a student council.

"Clancy, where are the drives?" Vito said.

"They should be at the front desk." I gestured towards it. "If not there then most likely at the safe house."

"They should be there by now, I'll give Venner a call," Dirk said.

The flash drives were nowhere to be found. This was a problem for one reason. Although we had several backup drives, the real ones still existed. No one could see the information held on them, even though they were password protected. Dennis and Ash returned with the missing computer, and guess what we found in the flash drive compartment? Nothing.

"Mayhem, I can see the council kid coming."

"Get into place. And why are there only five of us here today?"

"Dean and Benston were at the safe house, I have no clue where Fischer is."

"When do we know where Fischer is."

Short laughter. There was a knock at the door. The council member walked in. Only it wasn't the council member.