Under My Skin

Under My Skin - Part 42

Under Martin Zachs' watchful eye, equipment was stripped, examined, and then reassembled. After a while, the crew of Watch Two felt stripped of any joviality there would have been during lockdown. Card games lost their luster, and even the roving game of Apples to Apples had been tossed aside. In the boredom, the janitorial staff ended up cleaning things that had never been cleaned before.

Reese and Beni worked diligently on the recordings from Kore's weapons depot, filling out a detailed map of his men's comings and goings. It was old information at this point, useless since things would have changed from being away from the case for so long, but it kept the pair busy. And they kept their ears and eyes peeled for more mention of the missing Doctor Palmer.

Rachel kept herself busy with inventory, Cetz kept an ear out for Louis on the emergency line.

And Olivia was bored.

"We've been here for two days," moaned a Security Tech as he slapped down his cards. He turned in his seat towards the Tech who stood sentinel over the screens. "Hey, Oli, any action yet? I thought people were supposed to go crazy during lockdowns and have whoopee all over the place."

"That's blackouts," replied Olivia as she eyed the suited inspector flanked by two other suits walk across one of the screens. "And I doubt anyone wants to be caught by Mister Inspector."

"What's that tight-ass looking for anyway?"

"We'll know when he finds it."

Another Tech threw down his cards. "How long is the record for being in lockdown?"

"I dunno," said Olivia, toggling through the screen feeds to get away from Zachs.

"How long do you think we'll be stuck here?"

"I dunno," repeated Olivia. Then she tilted her head, a slow smile going across her face. "How about a gamble other than poker?"

"What do you have in mind?"

***

Louis spat the grit out of his mouth, gripping the plastic wrapped handle of the makeshift dagger made out of a sliver of broken glass. The squirrel scurried away in the dusky light, limping, and its tail tip red.

"That's right you punk! Run!" yelled the blonde after the rodent. He hissed as he got back to his feet, dirt from hitting the ground streaking the side of his jumpsuit. One moment under a malfunctioning lamp with his shades off, and had to deal with fuzzies with teeth.

A wadded up paper napkin fluttered beside him, eventually rolling and smacking into his tiny form and making him fall. Louis thrashed away from the napkin, adding it to his list of things to cuss out, along with squirrels and faulty bright lampposts.

"God, here I am, Louis the Giant killer, defeater of rodents, and protector of fuck all."

Louis checked the sock covered virus canister at his hip again, protected under t-shirt borrowed from a donation bin. The latch to the jumpsuit's belt was holding.

He needed to find a bright light and a safe place to sleep, hopefully better than the dumpster from yesterday. Last night had been rough, not just because he was living like he was homeless, but because sleeping had been nearly impossible. Through sheer exhaustion alone he had gotten maybe one hour of sleep. He wished he had had the foresight to bring his phone with him. Or at least an mp3 player that could play the recording that sent him to sleep. Or a full flask of damn coffee.

"I fuckin' hate this."

***

After much procrastinating, Rachel had gone to see Will. She was the first person he had seen waking from his second round of fitful sleep. She looked wrung dry, and Will knew why; guilt. She had never been apologetic about her experiments or exams before, but over a prickly silence and a much needed coffee for her, Rachel had asked for forgiveness.