Songs for this chapter are:

Popfunko - Nobigdyl, Jon Keith (Indie Tribe)

Saltwater - Indie Tribe

24k - Jon Keith, Mogli the Iceburg

For the next two days, Ebun couldn't get her mind off the lace pantie case. She couldn't think of a way out because she didn't know how to start her investigation, so Ebun decided to wait till she met with Sean face to face.

Today is Ebun's first day of school. She ought to resume school today, but the previous night, Sean sent a text informing her of his new plan.

I'm coming to your hostel tomorrow morning to pick you up. I'll come with the university's school bus, and I'll disguise myself as the school bus driver. I'll also put random students on the bus to make it look believable.

Why do you have to do all of that? I can just walk to school by myself. The daughter of the owner of this hostel is also a student of First Moscow State Medical University. I can just accompany her. Ebun replies.

You don't get it, do you? You are not going to school tomorrow, airhead! You are coming to the barracks with me. I want to introduce you to my way of life!

Oh! I get it now. Ebun replies. She was supposed to be fuming with rage that someone had dared to call her an airhead but hasn't she always been one? She always flunked her school tests. But more importantly, her cheeks had turned pale. She was blushing. She was excited, and she anticipated the journey.

All you have to do is tell whoever is watching over you that the school bus is coming to pick you up. If the person asks why and says stuff like, 'you're not a nursery school student!', tell him or her that the bus picks up freshmen students every new session. Just say the lie believably.

I understand. I'll do that.

Now, Ebun dresses in a navy blue turtle neck top and black mid-length shorts. There are new notes in her bag. She looks like she's ready for school, yet she is headed anywhere but that. Mrs. Mariyah is calling her and Viktoriya downstairs to have breakfast. She treats Ebun specially because Yemisi paid extra cash.

As Ebun descends the stairs, she can't help but think about how intelligent Sean is. He already thought ahead for her, and it was accurate. There was a high possibility that Yemisi told Mrs. Mariyah about Ebun's past so Mrs. Mariyah could know what to do if she ever spotted Ebun alone with a man, which was why it was so clever for Sean to show up at the hostel as a school bus driver.

The breakfast table is set with bacon and toast for consumption. Mrs. Mariyah is taking the kettle out of the stove as it's steaming hot.

Halfway into their dining, a bus starts to honk loudly in the near distance. Mrs. Mariyah furrows her eyebrows in irritation. She's gotten up from her seat and is about to yell at whoever is making that noise. "Vho eez zat driver causing a noosance outside?"

"The bus is here for me, ma'am. It's taking me to the university."

"Eh! Ahre you e beby vho doesn't know her vay ahround? Use e map or let Viktoriya tek you to skool!" she nags.

"Mum...have you forgotten? When I was a freshman at the university, a bus came to pick me up every day of my first week at school. That's the school rule because freshmen don't know their way around a school as big as First Moscow State Medical University, and they have to go through a whole registration process, " Viktoriya joins in helping Ebun tell a good lie.

"Hm. Let me see how ze bos end eets driver."

Ebun rises from her seat and adjusts her bag, ready to leave the hotel when Mrs. Mariyah accompanies her. Outside, Sean is standing beside the bus in all of his glory. The morning sun finds a way to shine on his face irrespective of the fact that he's wearing a face cap.

He is wearing a blue overall that seems to fit his physique well. The blue overall and face cap he is wearing has the university's logo printed on it. He removes the hat from his head so that his face is showing clearly. With a smile on his face, he bows politely at Mrs. Mariyah, but she completely ignores his greeting and looks through the windows of the bus instead.

Subconsciously, Ebun is inspecting as well, and she sees a few students seated inside the bus, looking very calm and relaxed. She even spots a girl with pink hair blasting a song on her headphones. Mrs. Mariyah notices this as well. This bus driver won't harm or kidnap Ebun. She concludes from her inspection.

With a sigh that beholds satisfaction and a little bit of subtle uncertainty, Mrs. Mariyah makes her decision. "Hmm. I guess you cahn vollow ze bos," then, she glares at Sean. "Young man, don't mek noise vhen next you come khere," She walks back into the hostel without waiting for a response from Sean.

Ebun looks around the exterior of the hostel and spots Viktoriya peeping through one of the windows. Ebun gives her a thankful wink before hopping into the bus's front seat that Sean has provided for her.

***
There were no pleasantries exchanged between the two of them. Although Ebun is excited to see him, she can't express it.

"These random people at the back seat..." Ebun mentions as she looks behind her and fixes her gaze back at Sean. "What are we going to do about them?"

"Drop them back at the campus while we continue our journey, " he answers coolly with his eyes fixed on the road and his hands on the steering.

"I wonder how you were able to get them to come along with you."

"Does that old woman know you're coming home late tonight?" Sean ignores Ebun's remark.

"Um...no, but I told her daughter that I'd be coming home late, so she'll cover up for me, " Ebun answers. The lace pantie case came to the fore walls of her mind as soon she talked about Viktoriya but knew she couldn't talk about it with Sean yet. Moreover, people are with them on the bus.

"Good," he remarks and, in one move, swerves the bus through the roundabout that leads to the other side of the road.

A few minutes later, First Moscow State Medical University comes into view, and Ebun takes a good minute to observe what she could see since there's a gate barricading the premises. Ebun loves what she's seeing.

The school's design is in brown and reddish clay colors. There is a center bungalow and two tall buildings behind that look like wings. She's trying to get familiar with the school she will be attending soon, and it's a glorious sight.

Ebun is distracted by the rumbling of the door, and she notices that the random students that occupied the back seat are now alighting from the bus, and she hears one of the students thank Sean for the money he gave them.
Aha! So he bought their voices with money! Ebun figures.

What she finds strange, though, is how Sean was able to make use of the school's bus, but she asks no questions. Now it is just her and Sean in the bus, ready to embark on the actual journey that is far away from school, and Ebun can barely suppress her excitement.

Ebun can't believe that this is the life she's living now. She never imagined a day would come when she would skip school. That was something her family would have caused a fuss over if she was in Nigeria. Another thing she doesn't fail to notice is just how gorgeous Sean's side profile looks while he's driving.

***
Ebun is snatched by surprise when she notices Sean parking the bus in the middle of perhaps, the world's busiest street. There are so many high buildings with barb wires swinging from the end of one pole to the other. A lot just seemed to be going on in one avenue.

Shops and pedestrians swarm the entire place and behind the busy, narrow street is a view of a building that looks like The leaning tower of Pisa. You can't help but think it's about to fall and crush everything around it, thanks to the hypnotizing design of the building. It adds to the business of the surrounding.

"Aren't you getting down from the bus?" Sean asks a perplexed Ebun.

"I didn't expect the barracks to be in the middle of the busiest street in Moscow."

"Just get down and follow me."

Ebun does as she's told. Sean takes her hand and leads her through the narrow street carefully. Throughout the entire walk, they keep dodging traders carrying heavy commodities, motorbike riders, and hawkers who would go to any lengths of clownery to get you to buy what they are selling.

The farther they walk down the streets, the less rowdy it is, and soon Sean stops when he gets to a gate. He knocks briskly, and immediately a security guard appears. Once the security guard sees that it's Sean, he opens the gate without asking who the woman beside him is.

They step into the premises, and Ebun is displeased by what she sees. She had an entirely different mental picture of what the barracks were going to look like. She expected the barracks to look like the palace of hell itself — tall, gigantic pillars, a massive statue of Satan in the center of the building, hefty looking men with muscles that could kill a grown elephant in one blow, and an ember of fire by the side just in case of an emergency.

Foolish of her to have had such thoughts because she was gravely disappointed. Right before her eyes is a massive field with several unappealing-looking bungalows scattered across the area. It looks like a desolate, abandoned project. Like the land used for the construction of the buildings was not in good condition.

On the flipside, after thinking on the grounds of proper observation, she realizes that the place really did look like a former rehabilitation center. It looked like somebody has reformed the area for a different purpose now, like a product of rebellion.

"Let's go inside, " Sean says.

They walk further into the vast area of land. Sean leads Ebun into one of the bungalows located at the center of the site, and she's surprised when she finds herself in a dark living room. She could figure that it was a living room because she could see the outline of a couch. The walls smelled like formalin. It still had that medical smell. It was disgusting.

"Turn on the lights. It's me, " Sean says into the dark, and upon the sound of his voice, light conquers the darkness in one split second.

Ebun shields her eyes for a minute because of the severe effect of the light on her retina. Once her eyes adjust to the light, she opens them and takes a good look around. Beyond the living room is a long, narrow passage with so many doors that once used to be the wards of the psychiatric patients.

Quickly, people start to come out from each door—mostly men. Ebun spots a few women—Just two. One is undoubtedly in her fifties. The other woman looks like she is in her thirties. Most of the men look young. The oldest had to be forty-eight years at most, and it is the man who switched on the light.

All eyes are fixed on Ebun, the strange newcomer.

"Who is she?" the woman in her fifties asks Sean. The woman is bald and has about five facial piercings. She has a cigar hinged in between her teeth.

Everyone else looks with all curiosity, expecting Sean to answer the question. Sean turns towards Ebun then he speaks.

"Introduce yourself to them and tell them what makes you wish to join the psycho barracks, "

Ebun clears her throat. She can't deny the fact that she feels intimidated. Being amongst this set of people is a whole new experience. When she joined the league of boxers back in Nigeria, she met older men with scary body physiques, but that didn't move her. She maintained her fierceness and was confident without viewing her young age as an obstacle.

But this...this was entirely different. These people looked brainy. They didn't look like people that used their fists very often, and the only thing Ebun relied on were her fists. Was she smart enough? Could she fit into this group of people? Would they mock and belittle her naive, amateur ways?

Nevertheless, she decided to chin up and look smart even if she felt like she wasn't. She could at least manage to give a good impression before her true colors got exposed later on.

"My name is Ebunoluwa Williams, and I'm from Nigeria. I met Sean in Nigeria at a boxing ring. He was my opponent. I came to Russia because he gave me this offer. I chose vengeance over healing and forgiveness hence why I wish to join the league of the psycho barrack.

I was raped by six boys when I was twelve years old. The leader of the rapists wore a mask so that I couldn't recognize him. He dared me to catch him if I could, and that's what I wish to do, and even if I don't, I want to capture every bastard rapist out there who plays hide and seek with their victims so I can punish them in the way that they deserve."

"Hmhmhm..." the woman smirks as she puffs out smoke from the cigar. "Have you told her about how we operate here?" she asks Sean while she scans Ebun with her eyes from head to toe. "She looks too bold. We don't need such people here, " she criticizes Ebun in one glance.

"And you won't be the person to tell me whether she fits in or not because it's that same raging desire for revenge that made you join the movement. No one present here came with all calmness on the first day. We were all mad and angry from our respective traumas until we learned to have control over it. So, I will teach her how to control her anger, but Ebun has the potential of a skilled assassin which is why she's going to join us, " Sean snaps at the woman.

Ebun wonders how Sean can talk back in that manner at a woman who is way older than him. Then she figures that he is perhaps the boss of the barracks. Cool.

"Before I go on to explain how we operate here in the barracks, I will need all of you to introduce yourselves to Ebun and summarize your traumas in one sentence. Starting from you, " he points at a short man.

"My name is Igor. I lost my entire family in a planned motor accident because I refused to sell my shop to a commercial loan shark."

"My name is Ashley, " the second woman present in the living room speaks. "I watched my younger sister get raped to death by an old man."

"My name is Dima. I lost all of my properties and hard-earned life savings to a fraudster."

"My name is Maximiliano, " the oldest man in the room talks. "I lost my triplets to a kidnapper even after paying a ransom of six million dollars."

"My name is Joanne, " the woman who didn't seem to like Ebun says. "I survived a planned fire accident but lost my husband and my daughter."

As each person in the living room shares their stories, Ebun fights hard not to cry. She can't even believe that she is moved. How had they been able to reach this level of calmness while sharing their stories? Then Ebun finds the answer after she remembers her conversation with Viktoriya.

Ebun realizes that she can fit into this group of people after all because they all have the same mindset — retaliation. It is people who are still hurting and trying to forgive the people that hurt them that cry when sharing their stories — just like Viktoriya. But these people here are all about the action. Even if the pain is on the inside, the action comes first for them.

Ebun braces up again, and the urge to cry disappears.

"Now that you are familiar with everyone here and their stories, including mine, I'll waste no time in telling you everything you need to know, " Sean turns towards Ebun.

"Russia has to be one of the most vicious places globally, and everyone present here grew up and experienced those traumas here in Russia. Don't be deceived by the aesthetics. This barracks is the headquarters that has several prestigious places as its branch for activities. First Moscow State Medical University is one of those branches with solid affiliations to this barrack, and you will be the representative since you will be schooling there.

I'm sure you are shocked to learn that your school has a skeleton in its cupboard, but it boils down strictly to business. First Moscow State Medical University is an institution that is notorious for consistent and alarming news of rape. The school should have gone extinct seven years ago because the government had nearly signed a bill to shut the school down. Parents and guardians were complaining and protesting. The lecturers were close to getting fired because they were falsely accused of sexual offenses.

But we came to the rescue because that was when the rebellious move started. That was the year we reformed the rehabilitation center into a den of vengeance. Obviously, what we were doing was highly illegal, and we couldn't risk getting caught by the state authorities. So we needed a backup and figured that we could do some smooth business with the school since we both needed help.

So we agreed to kill rapists in First Moscow State Medical University because it turned out that the students themselves were the main perpetrators. That way, the school has been able to remain in existence because the rape cases reduced drastically.

But we had to kill systemically and leave no traces behind. So, we kill three notorious criminals per session and dip their bodies into a dissolving agent and remove every trace of their corpses. What do we do with the skeletons? We refurbish the skeletal remains and supply them to the school's laboratory for practical.

Since it's a medical school, there are about three to four laboratories: one for osteology students, one for archaeology students, and the third for orthopedic students. These three courses require the study of bones, so we supply the bones of the criminals to these labs.

What do we get in return? Peace, money, and protection. No one suspects us or dares to invade our space. We keep the rehabilitation center staff here just in case the government officials decide one day to do an inspection. We make them think that this place is still a functional rehab center for mentally ill people. That's why the other bungalows exist. If I take you on tour to each cabin, you will realize that each of them looks like wards for psychopaths.

That way, we don't get disturbed. The school pays us for each successful murder, and we use the funds to make this place look as decent as possible then, we share the remaining funds equally amongst ourselves and the staff. If anyone ever gets concerned about where these criminals go, it's none of our business. The school handles it. They can't afford to flop or say something shady because it affects us indirectly, and it could damage the school's reputation.

This is why we don't move like raging dogs and kill any rapist or murderer we see on the street because if you do that, you are implicating everyone here, and you won't be able to get any protection since you didn't kill systemically. The police will arrest you, and that's the end.

Hence, you can only kill rapists that carry out their acts in First Moscow State Medical University and nowhere else, and you must obtain permission from us before doing so. More importantly, the school authorities must affirm the case before you can proceed to do anything. Afterward, you can murder that rapist in any way that you want. Just make sure you leave no traces.

Like I said earlier, First Moscow State Medical University is not the only organization that does business with us. There is a cybercafe in Volgograd that is popular for having youngsters that defraud many people. Dima is our representative because his trauma is affiliated with economic crimes, as he mentioned earlier.

How he punishes these fraudsters is that if they cannot refund every penny they stole within eight weeks, he kills them, and the owner of the cyber cafe deals with the peripherals. The criminals know better than to run away without redeeming themselves.

So that's how we work here. We are more efficient than the police themselves. The authority is fucked up, and they don't care much for people like us since we are black people. Although we have Russian names, most of us come from African, Jamaican, and Black American homes but just happened to grow up in Russia, and as you can see, eighty percent of us here are dark-skinned.

We've tried getting justice from the police but ended up in psychiatric homes, and this is what we do to achieve the justice we didn't get. I told you that story just in case you think we are doing too much.

Lastly, as for the staff that is still present here, they fall into two categories; the first set is the staff who are psychos themselves, and some of them are present with us here in this living room. Ashley, for example, was once a staff but she chose to join the force. The second set is the ones that have nowhere to go. If they leave this job, then they would be wrecked by the icy hands of poverty, so we pay them well so long as they vow to keep quiet.

Then there's the third category that is the staff who left before we came and the ones that fled after we rebelled. As for the latter, we killed any one of them that said a word about us."

Sean breathes out loud after a lengthy explanation and stares at Ebun, who is now loaded with enormous information.

"Now that I've explained everything you need to know, do you have any questions?"