Page 40 of All Your Days
“Hello.” I deadpan, trying to keep my nose from wrinkling at the man’s acidic stink.
“I’m Coby.” He grins at me, flashing surprisingly white teeth. Well, yellow, but still more teeth-coloured than others. And he has most of them.
My smile is a straight line on my face, but he remains completely unbothered that I haven't given him my name. The seconds tick by and I can hear the tense conversation going on behind me.
One of the Blue Creek crew is asking if we really perform breeding experiments on our residents, while another jokes that he’d be up for some breeding experiments. Only the Blue Creekers laugh at the exchange. The rest of us are stony silent.
How is Coby the best option here? My headache pounds harder the longer he stares up at me.
“Uh, hello.” God, he grinsharderat my hello. Maybe he’s not right in the head? I mean, that’s a pretty safe bet, but still.
“You got pretty eyes.”
Every few months we have practice drills to ensure our safety systems still work for us underground in the main building. A horrible siren blasts through The Facility. It’s different from the fire siren. This one is designed to drive you out the building as soon as possible. It throbs in your eardrums and rattles your spine, tickling your tailbone, telling you to run.
That siren is currently blasting through my body. But unlike at home, I can’t just run to safety.
“Thanks.”
Again, I give nothing, and again, Coby doesn’t care. I let my hand drop, the one closest to Jacob, and thankfully, he does the same, awkwardly wrapping his pointer finger around my middle one.
“Pretty lips, too.” Coby mumbles dreamily. He half leans, half falls forward, nearly tipping himself right over. He corrects himself just in time, but I’ve jumped away anyway, pretty much shoving myself into Jacob’s lap.
When Coby rights himself, he only ends up closer. I take too long to stop looking at him and he mistakes my horrified fear for interest.
“You like my piercings? I got more.” He bounces his eyebrows and chews on his lip. I think it’s meant to be attractive, but it’s just disgusting. I can feel my heart racing, my breath getting harder and harder to catch. Coby lifts his shirt enough to show me his ribs and pierced nipples. His belly buttons pierced, too, top and bottom with thick bars shoved through them.
The shirt drops and, stupidly, I still don’t look away from the horror show. Neither does Jacob nor Lou. Coby seems to appreciate he has a wider audience.
“I got more. Look.” Then he stands, unfastening his pants.
Holy… He’s gonna…
“NO!” Jacob bellows, ripping me back off my chair. My feet stumble as I’m shoved behind his back.
“No!” He says again to the confused Coby whose dick is half out of his pants. “Put that shit away. No one wants to see that.”
Personally, I think Jacob’s stance is perfectly reasonable—who the fuck gets their dick out in the middle of a pub? But Blue Creek—specifically Buckles—was already looking for a fight, and apparently we’re it.
“What’s your fuckin’ problem? Think you’re too good for our Coby here?” Buckles asks, standing up unnecessarily aggressively, sending his chair flying.
Fucking hell, now we’re all standing and too many damn people have their hands on their knives.
From my vantage point behind Jacob, I can see the panic in the rest of the pub. Some people are clearing out, not willing to get into shit in the middle of the day. Behind the bar, the man and the woman seem to be scrambling—to do what, I don’t know.
The table of armymen haven’t moved yet, but they seem to be keenly watching, and waiting, to see what happens next.
“Just not fuckin’ interested.” Jacob levels back, his hand on my arm squeezing tightly.
“Yeah nah, fuck that. You Facility fucks always think youse’re so fuckin’ special.” Buckles spits—actuallyspits, disgusting—on a roll with the tirade he’s just chomping at the bit to unleash. “Too fuckin’ good for Merline’s. Too fuckin’ good for the rest of us out here, tryin’ta make a livin’. Always lookin’ down ya noses at us real folk out here in the world. Just ‘cuz we don’t live in your science freakshow. They do experiments on you, too? Maybe they be tryin’ to knock that one there up like a woman. He pretty ‘nuff to be one. Maybe youse just don’t got what it takes? Maybe he needs a real man.”
Ooooooh fuck. Panic has spots circling my vision. I can’t fucking breathe. Jacob’s hand feels like it’s going to snap my arm, but I don’t care, it feels real. Safe. He won’t let me go.
“Now, fellas, we’re just tryin’ to have our midd—” Lou is using the same calm and reasonable voice he uses on the camels when they’re being finicky.
Unfortunately, Buckles is more of an animal than Sheba and Adeeko.
“Shut the fuck up, old man.” Buckles barks at Lou. There is the harsh sound of chairs being shoved and I squeeze my eyes tight, fumbling at my waist for my knife—not that I’ll be any use with it.
