Chapter 76: 76 The Sound Before an Earthquake, Part Two

Jin didn't really like being out of bed before ten in the morning, no matter what so called military discipline had to say about that, but he'd noticed Gael was agitated (not that you could miss it) and for all he knew that slammed door down the hall was Gael trying to stir up someone else into trying to fight Neo.

Jin could sympathise. Neo was more gross than pond scum. But also more boring than pond scum. Jin had barely though about Neo since he'd shot him in the leg. He thought more about ham sandwiches and how much Angharad had missed out by not eating them.

That was off the point.

The mechanical noise the night before had annoyed him, too, but he could sleep through bombs going off if he had to, so he woke up just as the noise was calming down and lay in bed, listening to the sound of his own breath and the distant sounds of machines moving toward sleep. And then the early morning sounds he usually liked to ignore – the Colonel making the occasional grunting sound as he did his morning push ups, Tony complaining about being hungry, a far off drip. Urgent steps and then a door slamming, and Jin rolled over and looked at the angry red numbers on the clock by the bed, rolled his eyes, and pushed himself up.

Okay, Gael wasn't in the hallway, but that didn't mean he wasn't around.

Gael had moved from wherever he'd been sleeping before (the gymnasium, maybe? Jin had overheard something about not wanting to share a room) when the barrier between the two sides of Zapville came down and then parked himself in one of the empty rooms of what Jin had started to think of as the men's dormitory. Jin didn't pay much attention to Gael, but he knew where he was. He knew where everyone in camp slept. It was important to know these things, just in case. Anything could happen.

And Gael was Freya's friend, so Jin was going to have to make sure he didn't get himself hurt. Somehow. Gael seemed like an idiot so he'd probably manage anyway.

Jin found Gael in the cafeteria, getting breakfast and trying to ignore the robots hitting his hands with their metal spoons when he leaned over the counter to get more disgusting morning slop.

Jin was fine with watching from a distance, not that he was good at stealth. But he wasn't good at paying attention to two things at once and Josephine intercepted him before he could find the right place to stand and watch as unobtrusively as possible.

"Hello," she said, rubbing at her face.

"You look terrible," he said.

"I broke up with Eleanor."

"You and Eleanor break up twice a week."

Gael was actually eating that disgusting slop, just shovelling it into his mouth before he looked around the cafeteria, eyes suspicious. And then he looked back down to eat some more.

"It's going to stick this time," she said.

Jin did not believe that.

"Do you think I should warn Angharad?" she asked.

That definitely distracted Jin from his terrible surveillance attempts. Even anxious, Josephine looked like she ought to be the confident lead of an action film, with her nervousness troubling no more of her face than her eyes and eyebrows.

"Why would you need to warn Angharad?" Jin asked.

"Eleanor's angry because I kissed her," Josephine said.

"What? You what? When was this? Why did nobody tell me?"

Josephine coughed and looked down at her feet. "It happened two months ago but it was very embarrassing and I don't want to talk about it."

"Then why is Eleanor angry now?"

"Because she, uh, she found out yesterday."

Jin couldn't help flailing his arms around in confusion. "Why would you tell her?"

"I didn't. I would never have told her. The decision was taken from me by, well, as you know, this is a place that frowns on people achieving their happiness."

Jin couldn't help grabbing at his own face. "Everyone has kissed Angharad but me."

"Ah, well, I would not say... Well, anyway, that is why Eleanor decided to kiss Mac, and then I felt it would be more sensible if I broke things off. I, perhaps, have no right to be hurt, but it was upsetting to see. That's not..." Josephine coughed into her fist, a conspicuous, awkward noise. "It's not what I like to see."

"That's stupid. Be hurt if you like. Nobody's stopping you feeling pain."

When Jin looked back to the tables Gael had already left the area, without even putting his finished bowl of slop in the dirty dish tray.

Jin rolled his eyes and grabbed Josephine by the arm. "You can come with me."

*

Josephine was no help. She was even worse at being quiet and inconspicuous than Jin was. In the time they were trying to watch Gael he managed to slip into the industrial field, which was the exact opposite of what anyone wanted.

Jin ran after him.

Gael tried to touch one of the machines. The machine raised one of its chains and hit Gael until he hissed and stepped back.

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"You're an idiot," Jin said.

He grabbed Gael by the elbow to drag him out.

"Hey, I was trying to investigate," Gael said.

"You're terrible at it."

In the grey-yellow morning light outside the maze of machines Gael's small wound looked almost like he'd been bitten by something. It made no sense. That chain had no metal teeth, only its round curves and raised edges where the metal loops were welded together.

"You need to go to the hospital," Jin said.

"I'm fine!" Gael protested.

"If you get gangrene and die people will blame me. I'm not giving you a choice," Jin said.

"Do you think Angharad's at the hospital?" Josephine asked.

"Probably," Jin said.

Josephine nodded and ran off elsewhere. Annoying. At least he never had relationship drama that stupid.

Jin pushed Gael in the direction of the hospital, no matter how much he protested. That was even more annoying. Did Gael think that was going to help?

That new guy, Niall or whatever it was, stood in the hallway trying to talk to Angharad. So Jin pushed Gael at Niall and told him to fix it, so Angharad could be spared his attention. Niall looked like a creep. Jin didn't think he could be trusted with teenage girls.

"What happened?" Angharad asked. She looked amused, if tired.

"He's even more stupidly curious than you are. One of the machines attacked him," Jin said.

"I don't get attacked by robots," Angharad said, her voice infuriatingly superior. "I make friends with robots."

"And Josephine broke up with her girlfriend again, so you need to avoid them."

"Why? They'll be broken up for, like, two days, max. Their break ups never last. They should just stop doing that."

"Did you really kiss Josephine?" he asked.

That made Angharad drop her superior look. Her eyes narrowed, then one side of her face dropped into a rueful expression. "It was more like the other way around. Whatever, it was ages ago. I barely even remember it."

"What's so great about you that everyone wants to kiss you?" he said. He nudged her shoulder with his own.

She smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe one day Freya will let you find out."

His imagining of whatever that was supposed to mean got interrupted by Gemma and Mac, heading straight for Angharad.

"You look insufferably smug," Angharad said to both of them.

He didn't get how girls could say stuff like that and make it sound like a good thing. But she wasn't wrong. They did look smug.

Mac bounced on her heels. "I got to kiss Eleanor Kim."

"Wow," Angharad said, eyes going big. "Everyone really is kissing everyone. I revise my estimates for how long until they get back together. At least a week this time."

"Oh, but Gemma has better news," Mac said. She usually didn't get that excited about things. That was one of the things that made her annoying.

Gemma blushed. "Theo and I got engaged."

"Wow, that's..." Angharad looked at him. "Isn't that amazing, Jin? It's so touching. It's so..."

"Fast," he said. "It's fast."

"I don't normally move this fast, but when you know, you know," Gemma said. "You know?"

"Oh, yeah, totally," Angharad said. "Wow, congratulations."

She hugged and congratulated Gemma, but when Gemma and Mac were gone – probably to tell everyone else who wasn't gossiping already – the wide open smile on Angharad's face turned into something wryly amused, and she laughed. "Engagement after two months. Straight people are fucking crazy."

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