The Runners

Rise

I shoot out of bed, a nightmare had woken me up. "Their starting up again." I sigh. I look to my right and see my alarm, 7:50. "Fuck!" I yell as I throw myself into my closet.

getting dressed and rushing into the kitchen, grabbing an off-brand granola bar and my keys to my shitty car and go to work. I get stopped at so many red lights but I finally get there. I roll my shitty ass car to the gate and the guard asks for my ID and I hand it over, he types it into the computer and says "you're one of the new guys right?"

 I chuckle awkwardly and say "yeah it's my first day." He looks at me and laughs while handing my ID back and says "coming in 15 minutes late on your first day here doesn't look good for you but it's not my job to care, Move along." I park my car and get out, the full parking spaces seem like they're mocking me for being late. 

I am about to start walking to the door, passing a humvee. I push the door and slam myself into it, it's a pull door. I walk in and see the place is very bright and pristine.

 A guy in a lab coat waves me in "ah I see you're here now." the man says happily. "I am so sorry I'm late sir," I say with obvious panic and desperation in my voice. The man keeps a happy look and replies " oh it's fine I know you just got out of college so some of the habits are still there, just don't make this a habit." He looks at me and extends a gloved hand out and says " I forgot to introduce myself I'm Nick Romero but people call me Doctor Romero."

I shake his hand and notice he has a really strong grip, almost painful. He turns around and makes a motion to follow. As I follow him he starts speaking, but as I listen I notice guards with M4s. They take sudden and quick glances my way. He leads me to my office and says " well here we are. You don't have to do much work for the first few days to let you get settled in if you need me I'll be in my office." As he finished the statement he left and I went in and started moving things around to make it all look nicer.

 Suddenly as I was decorating when someone with a Russian accent came up from behind and spoke to me " so you're also one of the new hires." I turn around and reply " yeah I am, I'm guessing you are too?" "да, I'm in the office across from you. I just finished decorating so I came over here to introduce myself." He extends his hand and follows with "I'm Vadik Sovetsky." I shake his hand and say "I'm Alex Mist."

 We talked for a short time but lunch came around so we head to the break room and as we enter I hear two dudes arguing. " Fuck you! You bumped into me!" Says the tall one, "no way. You shoulder-checked me!" the other says. Sovetsky and I sit down at a table and start eating. Three minutes into eating and the guys are still arguing and look like it's about to turn physical.

 I see Sovetsky get up and walk towards them and say "ladies, can you both stop this bullshit and eat. If you two aren't going to kiss already, then cut the shit. People are trying to eat" the two guy's faces turn from angry to annoyed and then quickly to scared when they see him and then both say sorry. After sufficiently putting the fear of god in them, he comes back to the table and sits down.

 A minute later the two guys sit down in front of us to eat. Sovetsky and I give them both the "what the fuck are you doing" look and the smaller one speaks up "after the argument no one wanted us to sit with them so you're our last option." Sovetsky looks at them, shrugs, and goes back to eating his taco.

 I look at them both and ask "what are your two's names" The larger one speaks up and says " I'm Andreas but people call me by my last name, Ren." I nod and look at the smaller one and he clears his throat weakly and says "Desmond, Just call me Ries though." 

 I look at them and then Sovetsky speaks up with his introduction. After he is done I finally reveal my name. After I'm done I ask "you two new as well?" " I am and so is he," Ren says while pointing at Ries who nods in agreement. We didn't talk much and we back to work and after a few hours we left.