Order of Magnitude

XX. Deadlier Than Cholesterol

     "Are you sure this is the right way?" Scarlet asked as she walked down the narrow tunnel.

      "I'm positive," Chandra replied from behind her.

      "Trust us, we know these paths better than anybody," Asa agreed. "There should be a fork coming up, we're going to need to go left." Sure enough, not long after she said that, the tunnel split into two different directions. Miller, Turner, Jacques and the others followed Asa's advice and went left.

      "How long did it take to make all this?" Turner asked Chandra, more than a little impressed by the vastness of the tunnels.

      "Well, most of this was made by parvs who found their way to us. But the rest were built for supply runs. And you have to think, we have thousands of members in our community, so with a healthy portion of them working out here, it didn't take long at all."

      "What's the time?" Jacques asked while lugging a heavy bag behind him. "Remember this operation depends on being speedy as much as it does anything else."

      "We're fine," Chandra said. "Still have a few hours left."

      The group moved forward in silence until they came to a hatch. "This must be it," Turner said.

      "We'll soon see," Scarlet said. They opened the hatch and looked around the cool night landscape around them. The SubTerrans were right; the tunnel had led them right outside of the Burger World.

      "Perfect," Jacques said as he pulled his heavy bag topside. "How many people eat here?" he asked.

      "A lot," Asa said. "We've stolen supplies from this place before, and it's always packed."

      "Good," Jacques said, and rubbed his feet into the nearby mud.

      "What are you doing?" Turner asked.

      "They need to know that it was the parvs that did this to them," he replied casually. "This whole thing will be for naught if we remain anonymous."

      Chandra watched in morbid curiosity. "Are you sure that you want to do that? This world is dangerous enough for us as is; we don't need the humans to start targeting us."

      "Yeah," Turner said. "This new Prime Minister, Antony, seems to want to treat us better than anyone ever did before. This whole thing could backfire."

      "We've come too far to start second guessing ourselves," Jacques responded evenly. "And Antony is just as bad as the rest. You weren't in that tank. He was ordering EXPERIMENTS to be done on us. That doesn't sound like a man who wants to treat us better, does it?"

      Turner remained silent. He had no response, and instead just turned his back and looked forward to the Burger World. Like it or not, he was in the middle of this. He had to trust Jacques' judgment.

      "Asa, you've been in here, right?" Miller asked. "What kind of layout can we expect?"

      "It looks like any other fast food joint."

      "Assume that we've never been to one."

      "Wow, gee, I don't know," Asa tried to think. "Grill, counters, fry machine. We've never really stuck around for too long."

      "That fry machine; is there salt by it?" Jacques asked.

      "Yeah."

      "Good," he said, and scooped up a handful of the white poison in his bag.

     "This should be an easy task, right?" Scarlet asked, her eyes focused on the restaurant. "Go in, do what we have to do, then leave. No problems?"

      "That's right," Jacques said, and started toward the Burger World. "And the sooner we start the better." The rest of the parvs looked at each other and apprehensively fell in line behind him.

      Miller quickly sidled up next to Scarlet. "So..." he whispered. "I have to admit that I'm surprised you came all the way out here with us."

      "What's that supposed to mean, little man," she said coldly. "I'm the toughest person left from our group."

      "That's one theory," Miller smiled. "But I have another one."

      "Oh yeah, and what's that."

      "You're into me."

     "What?"

      "Yeah, you heard I was going on this mission, and couldn't bear to let me out of your sight. I'm flattered, honestly I am. But you should have just told me how you felt before we left."

      Scarlet smacked Miller with a grin. "You're so full of yourself, you know that?"

      "I know, I know, but it seems like you want to be full of myself too."

     She smacked him again, harder. Miller laughed and took it, so she hit him one more time for good measure.

      "Cut it out, guys," Jacques scolded as he approached the front door of the restaurant. "It's time to do this." One by one, the parvs slipped under the crack of the door and into the Burger World.