31 Mechanical lever

"It's lonelier than usual out here today," Monke said as they walked out of the apartment in matching tracksuits.

"It has been like that for the whole week, people are even getting hospitalized at higher numbers." Joao looked over to the other side of the road, in front of Monke's apartment were two bulky men in black suits evicting someone. No one cared for the action and went about their day as normal.

"Do you think it has something to do with the police frequenting this street?"

Joao didn't answer and when Monke looked down on his side to find him he wasn't there. He looked back and saw him paying attention to the eviction, he thought it was weird because Joao never cared for these type of things. "Hello," Monke called.

"Do any of your enforcers wear suits, and do they have tattoos on their hands?" Joao asked without even turning to face Monke.

"I don't think so, new ones maybe? I don't know, why are you asking?" He answered with pauses as he slowly walked back to Joao's side.

"But that's not the problem, the real question is since when do the enforcers come with trucks to load up people's stuff. I thought you abolished selling tenants' belongings for compensation." Joao looked up and his gaze met Monke's clueless eyes.

"Want to go over and ask? They could be just moving out, so it probably isn't a bad…"

"That woman is crying and she is holding a paper, no moving company wears suits to work. Their van has no logo, they have tattoos on the top of their hands, they are wearing masks, and lastly, if it was a bank they would've called you first."

"I lost my phone, so they probably couldn't reach me," Monke shrugged.

"There is a telephone in your apartment, that, and where are my keys?" Joao's face shifted from concern to disappointment as he stared at Monke.

"I lost them along with my phone, why are you asking me this now?"

"Those guys are not part of us, they committing a robbery in the middle of the Oasis. Do you know what that will do to you?" Joao raised a finger to Monke and pressed him on his chest.

Monke thought for a few seconds, he looked around and continued thinking. Finally, his head stopped and he faced Joao, Joao tilted his face and Monke exclaimed. "Why didn't you say that then?" Monke shifted forward and took off while screaming. "WHO ARE YOU, PEOPLE?"

They paused for a second and looked at him, the one at the front, slammed his hand again on the side of the van and it started and hoped inside. The stripe around the van lit up and the guy at the back tried to take the woman with him into the van.

Unfortunately, Monke reached them in time and he kicked forward. The man let the lady go and slid inside the van. Monke's kick connected with the van door knocked it off. The van took off and Monke couldn't continue the chase because his foot had poked a hole through the door.

"Damn it this always happens!" He said as h limped about with the tip of his shoe attached to the metal door. Joao who was standing behind him at that moment was jaw-dropped and almost frozen in place. He knew that Monke was monster-like but he never that he was strong enough to poke holes into metal.

Even if it was a weak sheet of metal, these things were almost shatterproof so the force from his kick must've been unrivaled. "Are you okay?" Joao asked as he jogged over to Monke to help him remove his foot from the thing.

He looked at it and notice that his kick went through the net on the window of the door and not the actual metal. He thought that it was metal before because of how hideously bent the thing looked from his view.

"Yeah, I'm alright. But can you hurry up with that thing?" Monke complained.

"You will shut up if you don't want to be left like this forever," Joao snapped back.

After successfully removing his foot they looked at the lady laying beside the door. She was bleeding from her head and was barely conscious, she groaned a bit and that's how they knew Monke didn't kill her.

"Holy fuck you killed her dude," Joao exclaimed as he checked her pulse.

"I can see her breathing, what do you mean? Ohh, it's witchcraft, she is a witch and those people came from the government to remove evidence of her." Monke's eye gleamed with excitement even though the rest of his face looked chill with a little smile to rub in his smug feeling.

Joao stopped tending to the lady and stared back at Monke hopelessly, "don't call other people's mothers witches please." He said softly.

"That's your mama?"

"That's not the point," Joao grunted as he bounced back into his feet. "I'll need your to carry her to your apartment, she suffered a mild concussion and her shoulder was most likely shattered by your kick. She is fading in and out of consciousness, there is probably some internal bleeding but I can get her back on her feet."

"Can you fix her shoulder?"

"Do I look like a doctor to you?"

"Let's take her to the hospital then."

"If those guys were your enemies and had something to hide from you, they'll definitely look for her and silence her. Our best bet is to call a doctor here to keep her stable until we get some information out of her."

"No, call an ambulance, her life is more important than some piece of information," Monke said as he lowered himself down to hold the old lady's hand.

Joao sighed and thought for a bit, "okay. But you will have to get people to look after her while she is in there. If her life really means that much then you're going to spend a lot trying to preserve it."

Monke looked up and with a blank face stared at Joao, "what?" Joao asked.

Monke then told him to call the ambulance but he refused, they ended up taking her to the hospital in a van of their own. The two stayed there overnight, waiting for her to get operated on and other medical stuff.

Stuck on Joao's mind was that blank expression that Monke gave him when he tried to warn him about the expenses. He had once told Monke about his inability to feel compassion, fear for other people he just met, and empathy. That was one of the reasons they started hanging out.

Monke thought he could make Joao cry and started taking him to movies and to the abandoned parts of the city. Although the two bonded over that, there was little to no change at all in Joao. When they began their second year a few weeks ago he felt like they were drifting away from one another.

Monke had adapted a cold and expressionless face, even though he was still stupid, simple, and fun-loving. He appeared to be hiding something, Joao was trying now harder than ever to prove his worth. Any moment now either one of them could be nominated to return to the inner circle and he didn't want that to happen while there was still a divide between them.

Someone cleared their throat and woke Joao up, as he raised his from Monke he came face to face with a doctor.

"Ah yes, your mother is okay. I just want to know how you were able to completely powder her shoulder?" He giggled.

"It was his fault and she is not my mom. Did you fix it?"

"Yeah, we added some mechanical enhancements to replace the broken shoulder. If her IQ is anywhere below 90 percent it would take longer for her to figure out how to use it. Other than that she is ay okay, I also checked you guys, I'm sorry for that, but I found out that you guys have an extremely low count of…"

"We don't take it." Joao intruded in the doctor's speech.

"Oh, but it is very vital…" The doctor tried yet again to question him about some pills they are required to take with every meal by the government. The people called them the robotic pills because they were meant to safeguard against radiation produced by the many mechanical instruments in the world.

"We just don't," for some reason, outlaws didn't take them, everyone ended up thinking that the government denied them the privilege. But it was because somewhere along the line someone decided to not let them their families take them.