Derek shouted, "We need to protect ourselves," but no one heard him. They had a separate conversation.
Pez and others squinted at each other on hearing Steven and Captain Chez's conversation on the Brave Knights. Pez stood on the same chair Eric stood on to make people focus on the gang's problem and appealed, "People, we need to focus. We will attack soon. We need more action than conversation. Focus, people. We need to focus. Please text your friends and family in the mall and tell them. We will get our supplies together and attack them. Each store should protect itself at this moment."
"I admire a man who focuses on his current issue," Rose praised. "Everything has its time. A time to know our past. A time to focus on our present. A time to prepare for our future. We need to focus on the issue."
Pez was happy about Rose's statement. Femi scoffed, "She was not talking about you. You could not even pick out food because you do not focus."
"I am an imperfect man." Pez's nonchalant behavior made Femi furious.
Back at the table, people observed each other in silence, but their minds were on how they would fight the Payara.
"I can't fight. I'm a simple nurse," a fortyish woman said.
A man reminded her, "We have old people, pregnant women, and children. We need medical personnel in case of an emergency."
Another man said, "True, we must prepare for medical emergencies. The enemy is on our doorstep."
"Look, you are needed differently," Eric said.
A woman said, "We need a way to identify medical personnel when needed."
The nurse replied, "We have paper, markers, and safety pins. We can stick paper on our backs printed with 'Medical.'" Within a short time, all medical personnel in the mall had "Medical" signs pinned to their backs.
A man asked Pez, "Won't they kill us if we fight back?"
Philip replied, "The Payara are not known to have ever killed anyone. They're cowardly thugs who never do anything in broad daylight. They destroy businesses at night when no one's around."
"So why did they attack us during the day?" a man asked.
"I don't know," Pez replied. "Maybe they're trying something different, but we can still take them."
Derek spoke up. "We might be at a disadvantage in hand-to- hand combat. We'll need to arm ourselves."
"How?" a man asked.
"There are ten to fifteen stores," Femi said. "What are they?" The waitress handed Femi a copy of the mall's directory, and
Femi tapped it on the table so that everyone could review it. A woman looked at the directory. "How are we going to protect ourselves?"
Derek told her, "There should be knives in the kitchen."
A waitress added, "We have trays and seat cushions to use as armor."
A man said, "We can get helmets from sports and toy stores." The three cooks and waiters ran into the kitchen to gather any-
thing with a sharp edge, including table knives. Derek and Eric took the knives and gave them to the people who were willing to fight, and they named them "fighters." Other people helped the fighters put food trays and seat cushions under their clothes to protect their vital organs.
Femi suggested, "We have a kitchen with vinegar, lemon juice, and onion. We can spray them in the eyes to hurt them like how the police use tear gas. We can try to take the weapons from them when they rub their eyes. I need water guns from the toy store. If anyone
has a family or friend stuck in a toy store, please text them and ask them for water guns with big pumps."
"Her idea can work. We need to get water guns from the toy store," Pez said. He went upstairs with four other men to bring the water guns from the toy store. The toy store's manager was on the second floor with his workers to clear the pathway, and the manager said to the people on the first floor, "Get me all the water guns with big pumps!"
The people gathered the water guns; they put them in cardboard boxes and large plastic containers. When they filled a box, one gave it to the toy store and asked for all the waterboards from the sports store. Pez observed sports store employees carrying waterboards and delivering them to the toy store manager. He knew they were using it as an idea to protect themselves, but he could not imagine the idea; he knew they were trying their best to defend themselves.
All the boxes passed from person to person until they reached Pez and four men. They gave it to the people in the restaurant. Femi, Pez, and many customers ran into the kitchen to fill the water guns with vinegar, lemon juice, and onion juice. The people were divided into smaller groups.
One group peeled and chopped the onions into smaller pieces. The second group processed the onions into mush. Another group drained the liquid, and another group filled water guns with onion juice. Femi and Pez filled water guns with vinegar. A tour- ist couple from Lucas City filled their guns with lemon juice. The Ramian waitress and her coworker brought the containers of hot sauce. Femi admired their idea of adding hot sauce to the water guns.
The Ramian waitress stood next to Pez and Femi. Pez looked at her and said, "The Varoone-style fish tasted so bad."
"The manager is a Varoone. He thinks their food is the best," the Ramian waitress answered. Varoone was an ethnic group that lived in the province next to the one where the Blue City was located. "Hey, I am half Varoone, and our food is the best, especially our dessert." Femi was offended and scolded them. "You would not be
eating here or working here. If our food was not the best."
"Sorry, you don't look Varoone," the waitress said. She looked at Pez and asked, "Are you a Varoone?"
"Hell no, I am a pure Child of Demon Killers," Pez said, gazing at the angered Femi. "I am lucky, no half of the people of salted tongues with sweet lips."
"I don't know what that means," the waitress said.
"It means we can insult someone but still keep our sweetness," Femi replied and stormed out of the kitchen.
"Where is she going?" the waitress asked.
"She went to talk to Philip because he is also half Varoone," Pez jokingly said. "I have an idea. We can put the sauce in the gun and spray it in their mouths. It will make them sick."
"I have a better idea," the Ramian waitress said. She poured the mixture into cake and cupcake pans and put them in the freezer.
Pez was surprised. "What are you doing?"
"When it's frozen, it becomes as hard as brick. We can throw it at them."
"I admire the way you think, my mischievous friend." Pez high- fived the waitress, and he introduced himself and his cousin Femi. The Ramian waitress's name was Myra.
"We need glasses and goggles," said a woman who was food-processing the onion, which made her tear up, "to protect our eyes."
"Good idea," Myra said. "We need to get it from the sporting goods store."
Philip and others stared at the kids' toys in the restaurant's arcade side to discover potential weapons. Philip tried to invent a weapon, and a waiter helped him. Philip was amazed at the waiter's skill and intelligence. "You are hired," Philip informed him.
"For what?" the fifteen-year-old waiter smirked.
"Oh, I did not introduce myself." Philip shook the waiter's hand. "Philip Safinshah, my father, Peteer Safinshah, the owner of the Safin Car Enterprise."
The fifteen-year-old waiter was shocked and said, "My dream is to work for your company."
"You have the skills. I am thinking about the internship positions. Are you happy with thirty thousand chips?"
"Yes. My name is Kent. I am your future employee."
They returned to work on their invention. Femi witnessed and overheard Philip's conversation with his new employee, Kent. "In a time like this, you only care about your business."
"I only introduced myself. He is intelligent and skilled. I need people like him to work for me, and he needs good money to live."
Femi whispered to Philip, "I have an idea. We get clothes from Sophi's Boutique and sneak out and attack them."
"Do you know how many there are?" Philip asked Femi.
She thought about it. "You are right. We need to count them first." "They are becoming more aggressive than we can handle. It is
better to wait. We can plan something later."
"You are right. If I think of a plan, I will tell you." Femi returned to Pez and Myra in the kitchen.
Myra sincerely apologized to Femi if she had offended her by making fun of Varoones. Femi was not offended; she focused on the Payaras problem. "I am not mad at you. The Payara are what's making me worried," Femi said. "Second thing, Varoones are Children of Demon Killers. I know Markians and Ramians don't think this way. I don't care about their opinion. I care about the truth."
Pez and Myra did not want to talk about the subject because they were not familiar with history. Pez and Myra returned to filling the water guns.
"Do you think the Brave Knights will come?" Myra said.
Femi and Pez were surprised, and Pez said, "She believes in the fairy tale." He mocked Steven by pretending to drink an invisible cup. "Probably. This guy was in the bar before he came here. Do you know what I mean?"
"I watched the video on Token," Myra said. "I saw them, saving a convenience store from the robbery. I know they exist."
"The true Brave Knights are the people who stand against evil," Pez said. "Don't wait for someone who wears knight clothes to save you."
On the other side of the restaurant, Captain Chez and his five crew members hold a net; they put it on the middle table. "I used to capture Payara in the river," Captain Chez said. "Today, I will capture
the Payara on land. My crew is in the Seaglass Bar and Ray's Sporting Goods. Conner, text the crew in another store to prepare to capture those animals.
"Yes, Captain." Conner saluted his boss.
"Can the net hold a person?" a cynical man asked.
"Those nets could carry a thousand pounds," Captain Chez answered.
Eric interrupted them. "Let us return to the plan."
"We can use the second floor to drop a net on the ground," Captain Chez said. "When someone walks on it, we will pull them up."
"Will they see the net on the floor?" Kent asked.
"The net is white. We can put it in a camouflaged area," Philip suggested.
"The front of the fountain is the best place," a retired engi- neer said, "because it has white tile. Which store is in front of the fountain?"
Kent looked at the directory. "The bar."
"The people who don't want to deal with criminals leave the bar," a man said. "We can make the bar into a prison to hold them until the police come."
"Okay, the plan is to capture those Payaras, and I need help from the fishermen and anyone with experience with law enforcement," Captain Chez said to the people in Lily's. "Tell everyone to meet me in the Seaglass Bar."
"Good idea, sir," Kent said.
"If you need anything from the Ray's Sporting Goods Store, tell them Kaia sent you," said a pregnant woman who held a stroller with two toddlers sleeping in it. "We have strong ropes, metal baseball bats, and a fisherman's favorite harpoon."
"Thanks, ma'am." Captain Chez removed his captain's hat and bowed to Kaia.
"We are retired army soldiers," one of three men told Captain Chez. "Come with us."
Captain Chez, his five-man crew—Philip, Kent, and the three veterans—went to the second floor to go to the bar.