“So uh, when can I have my stick back?” Andrew asked casually. His pole had been locked in a storage closet back at the diner.
“You’ll get it back once you get sent on the mission.” Wiseguy replied without looking at him.
“But what if I want to use it before then?” He looked over to Yui as he spoke, who looked back at him in confusion.
“For what? You’ll be in a room for the next two days. There’s nothing you could use that for.”
“Well I mean it’s...” He stopped seeing as they weren’t getting the joke. “Whatever man.” He glanced back to the two armed guards trailing behind them. Their rifles were in their hands in front of them. One gun looked to be made mostly out of metal and plastic, while the other had a wooden body. Andrew thought they both looked familiar, but couldn’t put a name to them. He made brief eye contact with them, then looked away. “So what are the amenities like here?” He asked Wiseguy.
“You got a bed in the room and three meals a day. That’s all we can guarantee. Whatever else you find you can use, but it probably won’t be much. This whole area has already been heavily scavenged.”
“What about bathrooms?”
“There’s a guy with a bathroom about an hour away from the diner. You can spend MP to use his shower. In terms of waste, we’ve also supplied chamber pots. Just leave it outside and one of the men will dispose of it for you.” Andrew grinned and turned to Yui.
“So I get to watch you pee?” A look of horror formed on her face and she tore her hand away.
“No! No! No! That will not happen you pervert.” She got all red and flustered while Andrew laughed.
“Andrew, You’re seriously fucked up.” Wiseguy said. Andrew looked over his shoulder at the two guards, who were similarly unimpressed.
“Geez guys I was just cracking a joke.” He chuckled and glanced around. He reached out to take Yui’s hand again but she pulled it away. Another group of guards passed them going in the opposite direction. They had passed a few doors on their way but none of them were theirs.
“What’s up with these doors here? Are they all to bedrooms?”
“Yep.”
“Why’s it I walked for hours from my room after getting out and didn’t see another door, but we’ve been seeing doors left and right here?”
“Nobody knows why but sometimes rooms come in clusters. Othertimes they’re spread out.” Andrew frowned, dissatisfied with the answer, but also aware it was the best one he was going to get.
“So what’s this mission of mine, Wiseguy?”
“You’ll find out what your mission is before you go on it.”
“What if I want to know now? Wouldn’t it be good for me to plan and prepare?”
“You don’t have to plan, that’s the Merchant’s job.” Andrew was quiet at this. They walked in relative silence for a few more minutes, before finally stopping at a white door. Andrew reached out and tapped it, finding it to be hollow on the inside.
“This us?”
“This is you. Don’t try to leave the room unaccompanied. Someone will come by with your dinner in a few hours. Until then try not to ruin the bed.”
“Great. Well, this is just dandy.” He rolled his eyes.
“Porter and Ryan will be staying behind with you.” Wiseguy turned and started to walk away. “Try not to antagonize them too much.” Andrew looked between the two guards then put on an exaggerated, crazy looking grin. He saw one of them move his finger from the trigger guard to the trigger. Andrew nodded at them and opened the door. He put arm around Yui’s back and led her inside.
The inside of the room was rather sparse; there was a bed, a desk with a desktop computer, a carpeted floor, and not much else. The blankets on the bed seemed oversized in relation to it, probably having been brought in after the covers were already stripped. Andrew walked to the center of the room and turned around a few times. Yui sat down on the bed. Andrew took a step towards the bed then stopped. He turned back towards the door and put his eye to the keyhole. Out in the tunnel he could see one of the guards fiddle with a phone then set it down on the ground in front of the door. He backed away from the door and turned to face Yui. She gave him a confused look, to which he responded by putting a finger over his lips.
He wouldn’t say a word while they were recording; he needed to block them out somehow. The computer on the desk had external speakers and his phone was in his backpack. He dropped the bag on the floor and dug through it. After unplugging the speakers from the computer, he hooked them up to his phone and set them up directly in front of the door. He thumbed through his audio folder for a bit, then settled on a podcast he had downloaded. He started playing it at the lowest volume setting, then sat on the bed with it in his hand. Yui was still looking at him like he was crazy. He typed up a note and passed the phone to her.
Guards recording w/ phone. Playing talk-show directly into it to mask our noise. Will gradually increase volume so they’re not suspicious. Yui nodded at him, then looked away. After a few moments she looked back at him expectantly, having noticed he was still facing her. He was smiling fondly, gazing into her eyes. She tried her best to stay calm, deciding after a little too long to raise an eyebrow. Andrew leaned over to her and kissed her cheek, then laid back on the bed, taking in the unfamiliar ceiling. Yui scooted a few inches away then laid down as well, covering her red cheeks with her hands.
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Over the course of a half hour Andrew slowly moved the volume up until the podcast was playing near a conversational level of volume. He got up and searched through his bag for his hard drive. The room’s computer had hand screws holding its case together. Andrew undid the screws and took the case apart. He was about to stick his hand in to unplug the hard drive when it occurred to him to unplug the computer first. Having narrowly averted electrocution he removed the current hard drive from its housing. A quick look at the pins showed them to be compatible with his device, but what about drivers? He decided there was nothing to lose at that point and connected it anyways. He put the side of the case back on and booted up the computer. After an awfully long boot up, he was greeted by the eye gouging sight of Windows with no graphics drivers. Suppressing the urge to cringe, he opened up his books folder and glanced over his options.
Most of what he had either had to do with computers or the Jewish Question. There were a few survivalism related files, but what really caught his attention was his digital copy of The Chemistry of Explosives. He opened up the drawer of the desk and found it well stocked with office supplies. After seeing the Merchant’s set up he would’ve assumed that kind of stuff would be in high demand. Maybe it was magically replenished just like his food. Reasons for being there aside, Andrew took out a pad of paper and started skimming through recipes. He jotted down everything he felt confident enough to attempt in the circumstances, as well as what he thought he might conceivably find precursors for.
After a while he felt Yui standing behind him. He turned around and faced her. She tilted her head in an exaggerated gesture of curiosity. Andrew smiled at her.
“We can talk now, as long as we’re not too loud. Whatever we say is going to get be indistinguishable from the talk show.”
“What were you reading about? You looked really into it.” Andrew was pleasantly surprised to see she was making eye contact with him while talking.
“Ah, just chemistry. I always loved the stuff.”
“So…” She trailed off, looking away from him.
“So, biology huh? You into plants or animals?” Andrew put a hand on her shoulder and gently led her back to the bed.
“Animals.” They sat down, facing each other.
“Wanted to study that as premed for veterinary school?”
“How did you-”
“Well you’re a girl in biology, and you like animals. That’s the standard thing to do in that situation.”
“Okay well you’re right.” She looked displeased with his deduction, but didn’t deny it. “Why chemistry?”
“So I could make lots of money.”
“Is that it?”
“Well, I happened to win a scholarship for aspiring chemists that would let me pay the tuition, and I like electrical engineering and all but there wasn’t one for that too.”
“Your parents couldn’t help you out with the money?”
“Lets not talk about my parents okay? Lets talk about you. What are you interested in?”
“Do you have issues with your parents?”
“You’re going to stop talking about that right now, Yui.” Andrew said with a slightly raised voice.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She put her hands up and recoiled back a little, as if expecting to be hit. When nothing happened she relaxed. “I uh, like to watch Netflix and go out to eat with my friends.”
“What a generic answer.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“I bet it’s fun to do but boring to hear about. Would you read a book about a chick who has brunch with her friends and watches Netflix all day?”
“But my life doesn’t have to be different or exciting, it just has to be comfortable.”
“What a sheep thing to say.”
“I’m a sheep? What does that even mean?”
“So you just meander your way through life, studying, brunching, watching B movies. You’re probably in college with the hope that afterwards you’ll get out and work for a veterinary practice. Probably in somewhere nice and suburban-- you know a really white neighborhood. You’ll have your steady employment and get to work at a job you don’t mind for the rest of your life, and you’ll live in a little house with a white picket fence with a boring husband, and have equally boring kids.”
“Why do you say it like it’s a bad thing?”
“Don’t you ever have a drive for something more than that? Something more fulfilling than just comfort?”
“No.”
“Well that’s fine. You don’t need a drive now, that would probably be an issue. Just let me love you and I’ll keep you comfortable here.”
“Love me?” Her eyes widened and she scooted away from him.
“I mean it would be nice if you returned the favor, but I’m not expecting instant results.”
“Do you really-?”
“I mean Dragon asked if you were my slave or my girlfriend. Those are really the only two things you can be right now, and I think you’d like the latter more than the former. I think I’d like it that way too, but I could live with it if you didn’t.”
“There’s no way back home… Those really are my options.”
“You want to be comfortable. I got us a room and regular meals. You don’t have to worry about people hurting you here.”
“But I don’t love you.”
“I don’t either, but we can certainly get there if we try.”
“I’ve never heard of trying to fall in love.”
“You’re a very lovable girl.”
“You scare me Andrew.”
“Because I hurt people? Because I take what I want? You’re comfortable because I’m scary. If it makes you feel better just ignore what I do to other people, just let me treat you well.”
“O-okay I’ll try to do that.” Andrew hugged her and she tensed up. A long moment passed before she relaxed and let him pull her on top of him. She laid her head against his chest and fell asleep to the steady beat of his heart.