Page 102 of Wandering in Darkness
“How do I alert you?”
“Text, I guess?”
“Okay. Please be careful.”
“I am the most careful human alive,” he says.
I feel rather suspicious after all of my previous experiences that included him, and even though his smile is going, “Believe me,” I oddly… don’t believe him. But he’s still a very precious friend to me so off I go, believing in him to the best of my ability.
I hold my gun tightly, really hoping I won’t have to use it as I slip across the open space and press my body up against the side of the greenhouse that Antonio drove into. Feeling like they might be able to see me if there’s anyone inside it, I crouch down and shimmy between the greenhouse and the bushes. Then,instead of sticking my head out, I flip my phone’s camera and use it to assess the situation on the other side of the greenhouse.
So far, most of the people are still surrounding the man they’ve just finished beating, and no one seems interested in heading over here. Instead, their interests seem to align with chatting while they wait for their next order.
I give Felix a thumbs-up, so he gives me some finger guns and then scurries over to the storage container. It makes me strangely skeptical about how this will go. Like… how can some simple hand motions make me so skeptical?
My attention is momentarily sucked away from my job as I watch how swiftly he breaks into the thing. Honestly… I’m quite impressed.
He disappears inside, shutting the door after him as my attention shifts back to the crew on the far side of the greenhouse. Hoping to gain some kind of information about what’s happening here, I listen in.
“Have you ever thought about what it’d be like to live in outer space? And if we met alien life forms, would you let one probe you? I would definitely let some alien chick probe me.”
“We’re in the middle of torturing some dude and that’s what you’re thinking about?” a second guy asks.
“We’re taking a break, yeah? I mean… am I supposed to think about torture even during my breaks?”
“We’re letting him marinate.”
“Like chicken?”
“Fucking hell. We’re letting the idea sink in that we’re going to make his life a living hell if he doesn’t start talking.”
“I wouldn’t mind some chicken. You think they have chicken here?”
A noise sounds behind me, and I freeze. Did I fuck up? I wasn’t watching my back well enough. I was too distracted by this strange conversation and some odd hope they’d spillsomething about Lt. Allen. But when I turn to look, I see the absolute last thing I ever expected to see.
Felix’s macro pig.
There’s Brigs in all of his beefy glory as he comes crashing through the trees. I see AntonioandGrayson hot on his trail. They’re trying to be quiet, though, so they’re doing this strange hunched run, like they think making themselves smaller while running through the trees chasing a pig could possibly be less alarming.
I’m not quite sure how effective it is.
Antonio leaps forward, and this move might have worked if Brigs was truly a micro pig, but just when Antonio’s arms wrap around his body, the pig shoots through them like a fucking jet engine while Antonio goes careening headfirst in the dirt. It’s rather impressive how his legs keep going even as his face stops, causing him to nearly do a flip.
For a monster whose legs aren’t even half the size of his body, that pig sure can run.
We’re going to get murdered.
We are literally going to die out here…
Because of a pig.
The pig shoots through the trees and out in the clearing while Grayson drops to the ground with Antonio like they’re going to belly crawl across the compound and snag the pig without anyone noticing. Antonio is doing some weird hand motions, and I can’t tell if he’s off trying to summon help from some pig gods or what, as I watch Grayson throw something.
When it smacks the pig on the head and rolls off, I realize it’s an Oreo. Brigs will do just about anything for an Oreo, so I’m positive Grayson thought he could use one to con the pig into returning to him.
Instead, I watch as Brigs, who was hanging near the tree line, notices the Oreo land on its side and roll perfectly right toward the enemy.
I’ve decided fuck watching the scene unfold through my phone camera at this point and stick my entire head out in time to witness the Oreo hit the shoe of a guy who is holding a gun on the man we’re quite skillfully in the process of saving.
