Just Add Water

[MalReynolds]

Just Add Water
Part 1

The door to Auditorium 11 opened very slowly, letting in a thin ray of green light which splashed against the floor. Max’s shadow entered the frame, blocking the ray off, before he reached into his pocket and removed his flash-light. He made his way up the carpeted darkness, to the first row of seats, smiling. He loved the fact that the theater he was employed in used stadium seating. He loved coming in during the morning, before anyone else got there and just sitting in the darkness, light pointed at the screen, smiling.

His light swept over the stairs, down in front of the screen, across the tile. There was something laying across the floor; he couldn’t make it out at the distance he was. He moved forward, carefully down the stairs, the thing on the floor coming into focus. His light hit the floor, spinning, as he sprinted through the darkness, out the door, out of the cine-plex, through the street, and into his apartment.

Max sat in the shower with scalding hot water pouring over him for over an hour.

He called in sick that day.

-

Jeremy found the body, clueless to the fact that naught two hours before, Max found it first. Jeremy, tall, wavy hair, dressed in a managerial suit with a small dribble of vomit over his lapel, sat in the corner of concession room, frowning.

The Cine-Plex 11 sat on the edge of the waterfront, overlooking the bay. In the moonlight, the interior of the theater was bathed in a green glow, ever moving with the wind chopping and breaking the surface of the water. It was exquisite when you came to catch an evening show and were greeted with the majesty of the green-hallway. The location of Cine-Plex 11 was lauded in several magazines, and considered one of the greatest movie-going experiences one could have.

The lobby housed the box office and a set of escalators that led to the first theater-floor, containing the concession stand and the first five theaters. On the second theater floor, theaters six through eleven sat, eleven being the largest, and that is where the body was found.

The police arrived, taking a look inside the theater, turning the cleaning lights on, examining the body.

Within an hour, the Center for Disease control had been dispatched to the Cine-Plex 11.

And in the span of three more, a specialized team was sent out.

The CDC had various branches dealing with various toxins and diseased, but when it came down to something they couldn’t place and didn’t know what to do about, it went down the pipe-line to Doctor Jonathon Dwells and his team.

Dwells stood at six feet, often hunched over. He couldn’t be bothered to shave his face or grow a beard; an almost permanent 5 o’clock shadow plastered onto his weary face. He had almost been dismissed from the CDC for giving misinformation about a less than deadly disease in order to keep Frankie Frakes under cuffs. He cut a deal, and now lead the team.

Janine Franklin was a foot shorter than Dwells, but looked older. She swore off make-up and often times didn’t bother fixing her hair after a shower. She was, in fact, younger than Dwells, and higher on the pay-roll. Her eyes sparkled blue against her brown hair, making one forget about the general frumpiness of her everyday attire.

Timothy Swift was the guy on the team that was sent in first; not that they didn’t like him and wanted him out, he was just the youngest, most brazen, and would lie about drawing the short straw so he could stick his neck on the line… And this was a fact he wouldn’t let anyone forget.

The final and fourth member was James Watts, longtime friend and partner of Dwells. He knew how to get on Dwells’ bad side, how to get on his good side, and how much the stupidity of people royally pissed Dwells off. Watts was younger, and Dwells considered him a protégé of sorts.

A prime example of Dwells’ dislike of stupidity was his first meeting with Jeremy. Jeremy stood behind concession, sipping down a courtesy cup of club soda.

“Hi there,” Dwells stopped, his team behind him, glancing down at the name-tag that adorned Jeremy’s coat, “Jeremy. We’re here with the CDC. Can you show me where the body is?”

“The CDC? Why are you here?”

“Well, sometimes, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they want to express their love physically –“

“No, I meant the CDC! I called the police!”

“You called the police to deal with a potentially deadly fungal outbreak. You know, Jeremy, there’s a reason they didn’t put the ‘special’ kids in front of the Enigma machine first.”

“I just want that stupid body out of my theater!”

Dwells frowned. “So, no love lost between you and your dead co-worker?”

Jeremy scoffed. “Terry wasn’t my co-worker. I was his boss. I was in charge of him, and he was a slacker. Now, can we get that body out of here, or are you just going to be snarky?”

“I do enjoy my snark. The police contacted the CDC, correct, Jeremy. Do they usually do that?”

“I wouldn’t think so, but –“

“Do you know what they found?”

“No.”

“Well, they found something interesting next to Terry’s body. And not ‘used condom in an all boys school rubbish bin’ interesting. Interesting as in ‘unclassified fungal outbreak’ interesting. So, we’ll deal with that first. Then we’ll see if we can’t get your theater back into working order. Now, please, take me to the body.”

-

Watts had found the entire exchange more than amusing. He stood behind Dwells, smirking. If there was one thing that pissed Dwells off, it was the disrespect of a co-worker. In their line of work, co-workers were the only people you could really count on. The fact that Jeremy could disregard the body like that clicking in Dwells’ head, and Watts could see that.

Janine, however, was not in the building. She was outside trying to find a place to park the car. She would have found the exchange less than amusing; she favored strict professionalism in the face of danger, or ass-hole-ism. Kill them with kindness, of just leave and let the disease do the job.

She was able to join Swift, Watts, and Dwells as they rode the escalator up the next floor. They walked down the hallway, silently, until Jeremy pointed to the police tape at the end.

“The body is in there.”

Dwells took a step forward. “You sure you don’t want to come in here, Jeremy? I hear it’s a real blast.”

Jeremy walked away wordlessly.

Swift walked past Dwells, ducking under the tape.

“Woah, Swift. I think this one calls for the suits.”

Swift frowned.

Ten minutes later, the white bio-hazard suits entered the theater in 2 by 2 formation, making their way up the slope.

Swift moved to the front of the group. “Stadium seating, man, just makes movies more enjoyable, you know?”

Dwells moved down in front of the screen, to the body. The clothes were particularly smooth, but that was the only part of the body that could have been considered normal. The body was shriveled, the arms moved up near the chest, the legs bent back at an odd angle. The eyes were sunken in, the hair was laying on the floor in a clump next to the body.

The only way anyone could have known this man was Terry was the name-tag, still pinned to his shirt.

“Well,” Dwells turned to the group, “It killed him fast.”

Watts turned to the body. “How do you know?”

“Well, I’m assuming that white substance in the corner is the fungus. The body is about three meters from it; he didn’t really get very far.”

Swift moved his light along the ground to the corner, where the white substance shone and twitched. “Jesus, it’s reacting to the light.”

“Yes, well, maybe it’s epileptic. Someone tell it no more video games.” No one moved. Dwells turned away from the group, “Oh, come on, that was funny. You all need to lighten up. Throw one corpse into a room, and suddenly everyone’s a critic.

“Swift, get a sample of the fungus, send it to CDC. Let’s just figure out what this is before we go about getting rid of it.”

“Well, what should we tell Jeremy?”

“That he can’t open his theater for a few days until we get the results. Janine?”

“Yes?”

“Mark the floor three meters from fungus. If it starts spreading, I want to know.”

Janine nodded, going through her bag for a piece of chalk.

“Watts?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Keep looking pretty.”

-

“So, Jeremy, as you can see, there’s no way you could possibly open the theater to the public. You’re going to have to keep it closed off until we can get rid of the fungus.”

“Mr. Dwells, you’re telling me that –“

“’Doctor’ Dwells.”

“You’re telling me that I have to shut down? You know what that is going to do for business?”

“Well, I’m no business major, but I’m going to say shut down business for a few days.”

“You can’t do that, Dwells.”

“If I have to, I can get a judge to tell you you’re wrong. Would that make you change your mind?”

“You get a judge down here, and then we’ll see. In the mean-time, I’m opening up the bottom five theaters.”

“Jeremy, did anyone ever tell you that you’re an idiot?”

Jeremy didn’t have time to respond before Dwells walked away.

-

The elevator door slid open, and Janine stepped in, eyeing Dwells, who was eyeing a magazine.

“What are you doing in here?”

“The elevator gives me the tickles.”

“Dwells.”

“It’s the only place I could go to hide from my nosy team and read. Ollie-Ollie-Oxen-Free.” He flipped the page.

“How can you stand to read in the face of this?”

“There’s no chair.”

The elevator dinged, but Janine slammed the “Emergency Stop” button.

“Janine, we’ve dealt with worse. The only thing we can do is sit on our hands until the other guys get back to us with the results. What do you want me to do, pace and act worried?”

“I just wish you would CARE for once –“

“Well, hello, there. Listen to this: ‘The Cine-Plex 11 is one of the most desirable locations on the east coast if you’re a movie-going patron, and lets face it, you are. From the cheery interior, to the lush green natural nocturnal lighting, you get more than your monies worth when you come to the Cine-Plex 11. Featuring 11 high quality screens, and ‘Closed Captioned’ events for the hearing impaired, you’re going to find what you’re looking for in the cinema experience.

“’Outside of the obvious vanity, you’ll find an extended concession stand, offering nachos, pizza, hot-dogs, and on some nights, Mexican dishes in Styrofoam containers. Complete with individual climate-control per theater, we’re going to have to give the Cine-Plex 11 two thumbs up.’

“No wonder Jeremy didn’t want the place shut down. An article like that has to be good for business, doesn’t it?” Dwells reached out and pressed the “Start” button, moving the elevator.

“A wonderful discovery, due to reading. Who would have thought reading would have been good for research?”

The doors slid open and Janine stepped out, stumbling.

“Janine, lay off the booze before work”

Dwells glanced at the ground.

“Wait, wait. The carpet in the elevator is different than the carpet on the main floor.”

-

“You called us all together because the carpet doesn’t match? Don’t you have anything better to be doing with your time, Dwells?” Swift rolled back in his chair, hitting the window in the café area of the Cine-Plex.

“It’s important. Trust me...”

[Tasuke]

Ooooooh, a cliff-hanger. Damn.

[MalReynolds]

Just Add Water
Par II

Dwells turned towards the window. “First things first. Earlier today, I got the results from the CDC, but I’m pretty sure we all know what they say. They have absolutely no clue what the fungus is, and their help will be minimal. To be expected.

“Second, they want us to remove the body, so I’ll get to tagging it later, but we’re going to have to move it ourselves. They don’t want to risk infecting a paramedic, so we’re going to suit up and carry it out of there. Janine, has there been any progress on the fungus? Any outward growth?”

Janine frowned. “No. It’s just staying in the corner.”

“Well, that means one of two things; either it’s not going to move, or the conditions aren’t right. Let’s just assume the worst case scenario on this one; that the conditions aren’t right, and that it will, eventually expand.”

Swift jotted the information down in the notebook, as a cheery young man in a work uniform walked up to them. There was a thin line of drool running down his chin, his moon-face shining in the light. His eyes were too close together, his nose too big. He was the very definition of “special” that Dwells had brought up earlier.

“Guys, do you want a popcorn?” He pronounced “popcorn” as “puhpkurn.”

Dwells smiled. “No thank you… Eric. But thank you for offering.”

Watts stood up, moving to Eric. “Eric, what do you do for the theater?”

“I tear tickets and tell people where they can go.”

Watts clapped Eric on the back, and watched as he waddled down the hallway back to his post.

Dwells turned back to the group. “Tell me what this means.”

No one moved. “You’re telling me none of you can come up with a few words as to what this means?”

There was an incredible stillness that covered the group.

“Well, first things first; they employ someone that is less than useful in this situation. Very rarely will he direct someone to the right theater, but the customers are too polite to say anything. The Cine-Plex 11 is well thought in the community because of it.

“Which brings me to the carpet. Not only is the panel in the elevator different than the carpet on the regular floor, but the carpet on the regular floor is about half of an inch taller than the carpet in the elevator. Which means that they put new carpet down, but they didn’t bother to pull the old carpet up. It means they’re cheap, and they care what other people think about them.

“A Jew at a back-alley plastic surgeon. Stingy, but they care what people think.”

The group sat, staring at Dwells. “What? I can say that. Watts is Jewish.”

“No, I’m not sir.”

-

Dwells tagged the body, and with the assistance of Swift, was able to move it onto the stretcher. They rolled it down the aisle, and out of the building. The driver of the ambulance checked the tag.

“You don’t want an autopsy?”

Dwells opened the body bag, revealing the shriveled corpse.

“I think the cause of death was ‘dehydration.’ Either that, or ‘raisin syndrome.’ But I’m no expert.”

The ambulance drove away, sirens off.

-

Dwells approached Jeremy later that day. “So, Jeremy, I have a question. Is there any reason you didn’t pull up the old carpet before you put the new carpet down? I assume it was so you could save money, and you think it’s not a health hazard.”

“It’s not a hazard, is it?”

“Of course not. Until you spill something potentially volatile and it gets trapped in the glue between layers of carpet. Then you just have a breeding ground for a lot of icky things that you don’t want to touch.

“It’s amazing what science can teach you, isn’t it, Jeremy?”

Dwells looked up at the wall behind concession, eyeing the health-inspection certificate in a cheap frame. “And that’s a fake.”

“What? It is not.”

“Considering you have incredibly high marks on the certificate, the carpet is dangerous, and the frame you have around it is plastic, I would say you didn’t really care enough about the ‘excellent’ rating to buy a wooden one. Which means it is of little value to you, because it’s fake.”

“You can’t prove that, can you?”

Dwells smirked. “You’d be surprised at what a phone call can get you.”

Once again, Jeremy was at a loss for words as Dwells walked away.

-

Dwells was sitting in the cargo bay for the building when Watts approached him.

“I thought this was a better hiding spot.”

“Well, we checked the elevator and then spread out. I get five bucks from Janine because I found you.”

“So, what’s up?”

“Janine needed to see you. She says it’s about the fungus.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s in the elevator, waiting for you. She thought you might have gone to the bathroom.”

-

The door slid open, and Dwells walked inside, taking a place beside Janine. She pressed the button for floor 3, and they waited.

“I was under the impression that this was urgent. Shouldn’t we be bounding up stairs?”

“Elevator is faster.”

The doors slid open, again, and they walked down the hallway to the auditorium in the back.

“I thought it would be better to show you than just to tell you. If I told you, I would probably just get a snappy one-liner and you would walk away. But if I show you… That’s an entirely different matter, now, isn’t it?”

She opened the door before Dwells could open his mouth, walking him down the stairs.

“Do you see my chalk mark anymore?”

Dwells frowned. “No.”

“Do you know why?”

“Not for nothing, Janine, leave the rhetorical questions to me. Yeah, the fungus is spreading.”

“So, what do we do about it?”

“That’s a good question. Alright, get Swift and Watts up here. We’re going to try taking all of it out of here at once, see if that works.”

“If it doesn’t?”

“Crossing that bridge when we get to it. Who knows? Maybe there isn’t even a bridge to cross.”

Dwells walked out of the theater, as Janine turned back to the fungus. “But you know there will be.”

-

They spent the better part of the afternoon carefully removing the fungus using tongs and Tupperware, labeling each section based on a grid. When the final square was removed, they sealed their bio-hazard suits and had them shipped off to the CDC. There was a large section on the floor, in front of the screen without carpet.

“What now, Dwells?” Swift asked, turning.

“Get a job at a restaurant. Either way, you’re getting paid to wait.” No one moved. “Come on, that was funny. You guys are just tired.”

They made their way out of the theater in two by two formation, Swift looking at the floor and Dwells staring at the ceiling.

“Wait a second. Wait a second. Do you see what I see?”

Janine looked up, with Watts. “A camera?”

“Yup. For security purposes, I assume. I’m sure there’s a very good reason Jeremy didn’t bring up the fact that we could watch the tape from when Terry died immediately. Who wants to talk to him?”

No one moved.

-

“Just give me the tape from the day he died, Jeremy. I could get a judge down here tomorrow to not only shut the theater down permanently, but also make you hand over the tape. Stop being an ass and help me with the investigation.”

Jeremy scoffed. “I would give you the tape, Doctor, but the way the system works deletes the tape every other day so it can be over-written. The tape no longer exists.”

“I doubt that, Jeremy. You’re too stupid.”

“Come again?”

“When the police came, you got rid of the tape in case they needed to see it. But you’re not smart enough to burn it, just like you’re not smart enough to put down carpet properly. You’re still in possession of the tape.”

“And if I am?”

“I’ll pull your pants down in front of a crowd.”

“What?”

“It’d be funny. And then I’d get the judge down here to get the tape. Get me the tape, and I’ll just go back to investigating my deadly fungus with my team. Put up a fuss, and you get pantsed by me and a judge.”

“I’ll give you the tape.”

-

The tape revealed more than Dwells would have hoped. He watched on from the CDC van as Terry brought in a crowd of at least 200 people to the theater. They all walked inside, and left three hours later. Watts watched behind Dwells, taking notes.

“Alright, Terry threw some parties in there. Can we get an ID on any of the people on the tape?”

“No, most of them are facing away from the camera. Terry’s facing the camera because the door is open, and when they leave, the light is distorting the camera. All we have is that Terry threw a party.”

“Which makes our list of contagions incredibly long, doesn’t it?”

Dwells frowned, turning his chair around to face Watts. “Put a line in to CDC, get them to test the carpet the fungus was growing in. See if they can’t find anything useful.”

“And when they don’?”

“Well… Let’s see. Contagion wise, we have marijuana, beer, whisky, liquor, vomit, human saliva, possible semen and vaginal excretions, and blood. Until we can narrow the list down, we can’t really figure out what made the fungus, can we.”

Watson shrugged as the back door of the van opened. Janine stood, holding the door. “The fungus is growing back.”

Dwells frowned. “We expected that. Why do you seem so –“

“Because it’s growing faster.”

-

“What do we know about the fungus?”

Swift rolled his chair back, hitting the concession window. “Not much. It’s growing faster without the carpet or the body there.”

“And it didn’t seem to grow at all when the body was cornering it,” Janine offered.”

“Okay, so, it won’t grow over things.”

“No, that’s not true,” Janine shot back. “It’s making it’s way up the stairs right now.”

Watts spoke up next. “Is it growing faster or slower on the carpet on the stairs?”

“I don’t know. I’ll keep an eye out?”

Dwells nodded. “Has anyone tried to burn it yet?”

Swift looked up. “Yeah, the other day when you weren’t in the room. The flame wouldn’t take; it’s inflammable.”

“Okay, Swift, if you ever try to burn a volatile substance again without my permission, two things are going to happen. If it makes a cool flame, I’ll give you a high-five. If you kill us all, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Noted.”

“Watts, what did the tape tell us?”

“Well… I watched it when you left the van. Three things; Terry walked into the theater but didn’t walk out. Everyone from the party left; Terry was the only one that died. And that someone else walked into the building, into the theater, and ran out, I assume when he found the body.”

“Do we know who that might be?”

“No, not yet. I think someone’ll have to ask Jeremy.”

Dwells sighed. “NOT IT!”

Watts followed, as did Swift.

“Godammit,” Janine muttered under her breath.

[MalReynolds]

Just Add Water
Part III

Janine walked away from Jeremy that day with the employee’s name and Jeremy’s phone number, despite her insistence that she was better off without it. He slid the number over with the name of the employee scratched above.

“Is that Max’s number, or yours?”

He winked at her and walked away, leaving her to dig through the employee registry to find Max’s number. Jeremy had pointed out that while the video footage had been rather blurry, there was only one person to ever come in the building that early, and that was Max. Max came in the check to see if 11 was clean, and to sit in one of the theaters.

“Why would he need to check if theater 11 is clean?” Janine had asked.

“Because I have a feeling people were throwing parties in there. And after looking at the footage, it’s a good thing I had those cameras put in, isn’t it?”

Janine shrugged.

-

“Alright, let’s just assume Jeremy did something with the body after he found it,” Dwells said, turning to the group in the same concession area they had been meeting at day after day.

“Why?” Watts piped up.

“Because he’s an asshole and probably wanted it to look like something it wasn’t.

“But that’s something we can’t really worry or prove now that the body is gone. CDC just got back to me,” Dwells removed a vial from his pocket. Inside was a sample of the fungus, preserved. Without hesitation, he hurled it at the wall, shattering the vial and throwing the fungus against the window. Within seconds, it had dried and fell to the ground. “They say they can’t run any further tests because of the condition of the fungus. It’s dead. It died as soon as we put it in the container, which is a problem. It’s thriving in theater 11, but it dies whenever we move it. We removed all of it, and it’s still growing back.

“A real head-scratcher, isn’t it?

“Which leaves us with Max. Someone talk to Max, find out what he knows.”

When no one moved, Dwells shrugged. “Max can’t be worse than Jeremy. I’ll do it.”

-

Max was a nervous wreck. It had been a few weeks since he initially found the body, but assumed that the police had closed their investigation and that he was in the clear. When Dwells showed up at his house without warning, he sprung from his chair and locked the doors, forcing Dwells to scrounge around the yard. After overturning several rocks, he finally found the Hide-A-Key and opened the front door, letting himself in.

“I’m not the police, Max, I’m just a trespasser that’s trying to fix the theater you work at.”

“Are you the projectionist?”

“No. No, I work with the Center for Disease Control. They seem to think the crazy idea of a young guy getting killed by a fungus is cause for alarm, but I think we know better. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have fled the scene. I just assumed you were late for a Marathon.”

Max scoffed. “Try going into a theater early in the morning, having it hot as hell, the lights on the fritz, and finding the body of one of your co-workers. That’s nothing you want to be around.”

“Must have felt like you were doing an awful lot of E, then.”

“What?”

“Causes you to overheat. The theater temperature was fine when I checked in later, Max.”

“Maybe that’s because there was a party in there before I got in.”

“Either that, or you do E.”

“Never before work like that.”

“So, was it a special occasion?”

“I had a marathon to run.”

Dwells smiled. “You weren’t on anything? The theater was hot, the lights were freaking out, and you found a dead body. Do you remember what position the body was in?”

“Yeah. It was near the corner. One of the legs was bent back… That’s something you don’t forget, man.”

“I can only imagine. After all, I had to move the body. But thank you for your time, Max. I have to get back to the theater and figure out what the hell is going on.

“One last question. Jeremy, is he a good guy?”

“What? Hell no. I let the air out of one of his tires one time.”

Dwells leaned in. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Max. So did I.”

-

Dwells walked up to Jeremy, who was fervently trying to change the tire on his car. “Well, Jeremy, it looks like someone let the air out of your tire.”

Jeremy grunted.

“I decided I’d do things right this time instead of asking you. In my hand, I have a court order to cut the power to the building for a short period. Max says he saw some problems with the lights and the temperature, so we’re going to give those a drastic change and see if the fungus won’t shrink.”

“Shouldn’t you be telling your team that?”

“They already know. I just thought I’d tell you I went over your head personally so I could see the look on your face.”

The man on the ground looked up, sighing. “Do you have a cell phone or something, man?”

“Yup,” Dwells nodded, before walking away.

-

Swift sat in a dark theater on the first floor, trying to find his hand in the cave-darkness. Dwells was in the stairwell, sitting down with a magazine. He had assigned Janine and Watts to monitor the fungus; if anything important should happen, they should separate and find him immediately. Naturally, he picked a hiding spot where they would have to expend the most energy to find him.

But he was surprised after a few hours that his team hadn’t come looking for him. So concerned, that he left the stairwell and moved to the third floor. Janine was standing outside of the theater with Watts, his hand was on her shoulder. Dwells frowned, stepping forward.

“I don’t mind people from my team getting close, but how is that fungus coming?”

“Don’t worry, Dwells, it’s not progressing any faster or any slower than it used to,” Janine said, looking up and blushing.

“Well, the window in the door would beg to differ,” Dwells said, motioning to the entrance. Growing over the glass on the inside of the theater was the white fungus, expanding at a rapid pace.

“Do I need to hire another girl for these duo assignments?”

Watts moved forward. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Don’t worry about it. We have more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.”

“Like what,” Swift called from behind Dwells.

“Oh, you know. The fungus that seems to have completely overtaken theater 11. I don’t think we can safely set foot inside anymore. It would appear that the cold air is helping the fungus expand, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Swift said, moving towards Dwells.

“I realize, Swift, that with Watts and Janine getting close, you feel the need for symmetry, but I really don’t –“

“Dwells, it’s spreading to Theater 10.”

-

They all sat in concession, Dwells with his back to the window, facing the other three.

“Cold helps it expand, and it’s moving through the building. What did the checks of the other theaters turn up?”

“Not much,” Swift began. “It seems like it’s coming from both the ceiling crease/corner and the floor crease/corner in theater 10, but that’s about it. It’s still expanding very rapidly, but just into theater 10. All the other theaters checked out.”

“Alright, Watts; get the power turned back on, and we’re going to crank up the heat on the upper floors and the managers office.”

“I get that we’re going to turn the heat on to stop the spread in the theaters… But why the manager’s office?”

“Because it’s funny and we can, that’s why.”

-

The next time Dwells saw Jeremy, he was sweating like some kind of water-based sweat monster. Those were the exact words that Dwells had used to describe the way Jeremy looked that Friday afternoon, much to the bemusement of Jeremy, who was growing more and more frustrated with the lack of income and derring-do attitude from the man in charge.

“God, Dwells, can you turn the AC on in my office? Please? It’s so hot in there, I can’t get any work done.”

“There’s no business; what work is there to do? I don’t really understand why you’re still here.”

“Because I can still operate the first floor normally. Just turn the AC on.”

“Oh, we can’t. It’s broken.”

“Really?”

“Totally.”

“Man… Where is that repair guy? He was supposed to be in here the other week! What the hell is the deal with everyone all of a sudden? Just because we’re not fully functional doesn’t mean the rest of the world can slack off. I’ve been sweating my ass off everywhere for a while just because the stupid AC people couldn’t manage to find their elbow with a road map and a GPS locator.”

Jeremy kept on complaining, staring at his shoes, for about three minutes. When he looked up, he was surprised to find Dwells gone. He had expected some kind of come-back, and Jeremy had one prepared as well. Jeremy was disappointed, defeated. He turned, and walked into the kitchen, before sitting down and continuing to sweat.

-

“The air conditioner was broken before we got here.”

Janine looked over at Dwells. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“The article I read said that each theater was climate controlled individually; I think that’s a lie. Each side of the hallway is connected by the same AC units, which would also explain why the fungus is spreading to the adjoining theater, and not everywhere. It has to do with the AC system.

“Swift, Janine, go into 10 and get a water sample from the AC system bulk-head. You’re going to have to go into the system through the curtain under the screen. There should be a door there; it’s easy to spot if you’re looking for it, but invisible otherwise. Only one of you will fit, but I need another lookout in there. Just try and get a water sample from the system for the CDC to test, and see if you can’t find something wrong with the system.”

“How do you know so much about the setup?”

“I had to put myself through beauty school somehow, didn’t I?”

-

Janine, having the smaller frame, climbed through the small door in the dark auditorium. She found the AC bulk-head and frowned. The system was dropping water onto the ground, which was seeping out under the walls. She stood in the small back room, noting which theaters the AC bulk-head connected to. The water, it appeared, was seeping first and foremost into 11.

“We’ll get the results back in a day or so for the water. The fungus is spreading using the water, but that still leaves a question or two.

“Mainly, why isn’t the fungus spreading to the AC room? But, some good news. As long as we keep it warm in the theaters, not only will chicks be 75 more likely to take their clothes off, the fungus won’t move into theater 9 for at least a week, give or take.”

Watts smiled and laughed.

Swift was about to ask what they should do in the downtime, before remembering what Dwells had told him last time.

“Witty comment and wait.”

[FoJaR]

wish i had time to read all of that.

netcafes and whatnot/