Chapter 4: Burning Questions with No Answer Part 6

"Good luck Contestants."

And just like that, the Loudspeakers shut off, leaving us in silence yet again as our next motive was announced.

"Well, that's not what I was expecting." Mia said, admitting that surprisingly.

"It is the same for me. I was expecting something, but not something of that caliber of uncertainty." Liam added in, rubbing his chin, "However, could we not just avoid the videos overall?"

"Oh yeah! Why don't we just not watch them?" Akira responded, backing up Liam's idea.

"That's not a good idea lad," Jambo stopped them, leaning back with his arms crossed, "If we all avoid those videos, one of us sorry saps is gonna snap and look at their vid."

"Is there a problem with that?" Urkstin asked.

"Well yeah mate, then they'll have a reason to snap someone's neck, and we won't know what that reason was for them." He continued to explain.

"He has a point, huns." Risa added in, "I know that I won't last long having to avoid those videos…"

"We'll have to come up with a different way to stop this motive then." Mia explained, "Something involving sharing them or destroying them." Everyone nodded in agreement, but I could feel some apprehension around the room, and I couldn't tell why. Something just felt uneven, or untrustworthy in the room, whether it was people or a single person, it felt overwhelming compared to the group effort between everyone else in the room.

"That reminds me," Jambo spoke, before laying his head down in his arms on the table, "HEY JACKASS ON THE LOUDSPEAKER!"

…

…

Nothing. The Loudspeakers didn't come on, which caught some of us by surprise. Jambo sat up again, looking a lot more confident in himself, before waving his arms in the air, towards the Loudspeaker.

…

…

"Do you need something?' Came from the Loudspeaker, catching us even more off guard.

"Yeah, do the vids count as property that we ain't allowed to destroy?" Jambo asked, looking at the Loudspeaker.

"Hm… Yes, they do. You are not allowed to destroy your video, unless you want to be punished. Is that all?"

"Yeah, it is." Jambo said, before turning back towards us, while the Loudspeaker shut off again.

"... What the hell just happened?" Poppy asked, leaning in towards Jambo.

"I was testing something out. And I think that it worked perfectly well." He answered, with a smirk.

"What were you testing hun?" Risa asked, leaning on her arm again, pressing herself on the table.

"There are cameras all around us, but we can't see 'em, right?" He started, as we all nodded in agreement.

"Well, I just pretty much confirmed that they ain't picking up audio." He explained, motioning towards the Loudspeaker, "Or at least, not until the audio is activated by the jackass on them. And the camera that they do have is inside of those loudspeakers."

"Ah, I see! That is why your shouting did not attract the attention of the one behind all of this! Good thinking Mr. Adebayo." Liam congratulated Jambo, as he nodded with pride.

"Well good job, now we'll be able to find a way around the motive without the person on the loudspeaker knowing now." Mia explained, "If we can figure all of that out before tonight, we can stop this motive from affecting us tomorrow."

"For now though, are we allowed to go off on our own hunnie? I'm not the best at planning this kind of stuff, and I know others have other things to do." Risa asked Mia, pressing her body up against the table more.

"Yes we can disperse, but be back here by dinner." Mia demanded, before everyone nodded and headed off. I stepped out of the cafeteria, and was hit by the burning question yet again. Who do I want to spend the morning with?

. . .

After watching his smart feat in the cafeteria, I decided to hang out with Jambo, and see how far his intellect can go. I checked around for him, and found him sitting on the stairs in the cell block. I approached, and he automatically saw me coming.

"Morning lass, how goes it?" He asked, standing up, moving out of the way, expecting me to go up the stairs.

"Not much, I was wondering if you want to do anything before lunch?" I responded, catching him a bit by surprise.

"Really now?" He said, sounding a bit suspicious of my intentions. I simply nodded and stared up at him. After a couple seconds, he broke the silence, "Fine, I needed some bloke to come with me somewhere anyhow. Follow." He said, heading out of the cell block. I hastily followed behind him, and tried to think of a conversation topic as we walked down the hallway, towards wherever he wanted to go.

"So, if you don't mind me asking-" I started, before getting interrupted.

"No." Is all Jambo said.

"No?" I responded.

"I dunno what your question was going to be, but it was probably bonkers." He said, not even looking at me.

"Well, I'll have you know I was just gonna ask how you got that scar on your lip." I said, feeling offended at his assumptions.

"Oh, well, I don't know if that's a story you wanna hear, mate." He replied, glancing down to me.

"I do though! I want to get to know you better so we don't have to act like strangers for the rest of our time here." I explained, feeling as though he would be a harder cookie to crack compared to Mia. A sigh of defeat gave me a good sign.

"Some bloke attacked me with a knife there." He explained, rubbing the scar, "He attacked me in an alleyway."

"Was he a mugger or something?" I questioned, taken aback at the direction this story was going. Jambo shook his head as a response.

"He was a guard for a casino."

"A casino? Why would they attack you then?"

"Because I was spying on them with a group of people trying to steal their money." Jambo spoke, clearly and monotone.

"You WHAT?!" I shouted, standing back from him.

"It was a one time gig, and I didn't really have a choice mate." He tried to explain.

"How could you not have a choice in that Jambo?" I questioned, concerned as to the things he's done.

"I had been doing small spying jobs before that, so they took me in forcefully, and made me help in that casino break. It went almost casualty free, until that guard showed up." Jambo contextualized, sounding ashamed at himself.

"Did you… " I said, not wanting to finish that sentence.

"I didn't. All I did was knock the bloke out. The group I was with finished the job, said they didn't want any witnesses. I never want to hurt anyone like that, and never want to end up like those freaks." He explained, looking upset, "This scar helps me remember that."

"I see… Sorry for backing away like that. I just didn't expect that." I apologized, getting back to shoulder distance with him.

"It's alright, I can understand what you were doing." He said, before looking up and turning a corner, "Oh, good, we're here."

I looked forward and saw a familiar looking door, leading to the room where his body was. I felt a wave of fear pass over me as we approached.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, my voice shaky.

"I want to check if the body is still around." He said, as his hand gripped the handle. He looked back at me, and I gave a nod, and a deep breath as we stepped in.

…

…

Thankfully, the room was completely cleaned up. No more blood, no more marks, no more body. Jambo and I both sighed a breath of relief, and slumped against the wall.

"That's a big relief." Jambo said.

"Is that all you came here for?" I asked back.

"Oh nah, that was just half of the reason. Come over 'ere." He said, walking over to the shackle that used to belong to him. We both made our way there, and Jambo crouched down to pick it up.

"Catch." He said, as he tossed a lighter up to me. I barely caught it, and crouched down next to him.

"What are you doing?" I questioned, as Jambo held up the shackle, and a key.

"Light that and bring it close to the lock so I can see." He said, and I followed his instructions. I glanced at the key and saw the letters 'J.A.' on it, so he must have grabbed his own key. I questioned why in my head, when he pushed the key into the lock, and turned it.

What I didn't expect to happen was that the shackle unlocked!

"What the-"

"I knew it." Jambo said, backing up with a grin, "Every single one of those keys were the same."

"The same?!" I exclaimed, taking a second to think back. The time when I unlocked the cell block with his key, that only makes sense if they were the same key, so Jambo was right!

"Why… Why would the person behind this make them all the same?" I asked, not able to follow the logic behind these keys.

"I haven't got the slightest idea, but I thought about it ever since yesterday, so I'm glad I checked." Jambo explained, flipping the key in his hand, "Can I have my lighter back mate?"

"Oh yeah, here you go." I said, passing back to lighter.

"Cheers. Thanks for the help, and the company," Jambo thanked me, heading for the exit, "You're not bad Aka. Not bad at all."

"Thank you. I could say the same about you." I replied with a smile, following behind him and exiting this room. The last time I came to this room, it was full of an intense feeling of dread. This time though, the room had a friendly, growing feeling, between me and Jambo.

The rest of the morning, we went around collecting all of the keys from the different shackles, talking about their purpose along the way. Soon after, it was the start of the afternoon, and we split off from each other to do our own things.

I made my way down to the cafeteria again, and grabbed some lunch. Inside there, I saw different groups sitting with each other. Urkstin was hanging out with Poppy and Risa. Mia was talking closely with Jambo, and Liam, and the rest were eating together like a lunch table. So while I grabbed my own lunch, I stared down the groups, and thought of who I wanted to be with next.