A Little More Dead

by Jordaina Sydney Robinson

  “I need tea,” I said. My supreme hatred of her would simmer down to major dislike when I had enough tea in my system. I turned toward the door and Oz gently wrapped his hand around my bicep to stop me from moving. The comfortable warmth from his fingers seeped through the sleeve of my jumpsuit. It was all I could do not to snatch my arm out of his hold.

  “If you want tea I’ll get you some,” he said quietly. “But you still need to stay here.”

  “Can you also get me some conversation with Sabrina?” I asked.

  Oz opened his mouth to speak and I had the impression it wasn’t going to be a compliment about Sabrina that came out. Instead, he closed it, exhaled slowly through his nose and disappeared. Before I could even react to his disappearance he was back with a box of teabags in his hands.

  “Fine, I’ll stay,” I said, taking the teabags, “but I have questions.”

  “About what?” he asked.

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “Really?”

  “Tell you what – I’ll answer yours as fully as you answer mine,” he said.

  “I thought that already was how you answered them,” I said.

  “Oooh, is that tea?” Lucy called across the kitchen before Oz could reply.

  “Yes, would you like a fresh cup?” I asked, turning my back on Oz and reaching into the cupboard for the bread to make some toast.

  “Two slices?” Oz asked quietly, taking the loaf from my hands and dropping the brown bread in the toaster. I was so very tempted to snatch the bread back off him and tell him I could damn well make my own toast but that seemed extremely petty. If it had just been a little petty I’d have totally snatched it back.

  “Please. Anna doesn’t make it very well,” Lucy whispered and suddenly it made sense why she’d offered it so readily.

  “And me,” Petal said.

  “And me,” Pam joined in.

  “What am I? The tea lady?” I asked, banging another three mugs on the counter probably harder than I should have but I still hadn’t had any tea yet, damn it.

  “Since you’re making …” Oz said, placing his mug at the end of the line.

  “Me too, please, hon.” Anna placed her cup next to Oz’s mug, her red lipstick on the rim.

  I pointed to her cup. “I’m not putting tea anywhere near that until you wash it.”

  She looked inside, quickly rinsed it and put it back. “Is it okay now, hon?”

  I looked from her to the still lipstick-stained mug and back to her. She genuinely didn’t see a problem with it. I swear dying seemed to suck all the common sense out of people.

  “Are you having toast?” Lucy asked and I nodded.

  “You’d be better with an omelette, hon,” Anna said, passing me the milk from the fridge. “The wholemeal will make you bloat.”

  “Can I have a slice too, please?” Lucy asked.

  Oz dropped another piece of bread in the toaster. “Anyone else?”

  “Can I have white bread please?” Pam asked and Oz obliged.

  “Isn’t this fun?” Petal asked as she came up and hugged me from behind while I was adding teabags to the cups. I stood there. With her arms wrapped around my waist and her head pressed against my shoulder blade. There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t abandon my tea station. I needed my tea. She gave me a gentle squeeze. “We should all have breakfast together all the time.”

  “That’s a great idea, Petal,” said Pam.

  “We should ask Mark,” Lucy suggested. “I’m not bothered about inviting Clem, though.”

  “How do you think they’re settling into their new lives?” Petal asked no one in particular.

  “I think they’re doing just fine, Petal,” Oz said. “And you can invite them back for breakfast any time you like.”

  Lucy snorted. “I don’t see why we have to. They don’t live here now so I don’t have to pretend to be nice anymore.”

  I doubted that Lucy had pretended to be nice when they actually lived here but I didn’t say anything.

  Petal and Pam began telling Lucy off for not being inclusive of our two male ex-housemates and Anna joined in. I couldn’t take this every morning. I just couldn’t. There was absolutely no reason to believe that Crazy Katie was out to kill me other than she was crazy and my general bad luck – but if she was, another of these breakfasts would save her the trouble.

  Oz nudged my hand. I turned to see him grinning at me. I frowned at him for a long moment, then turned my back on him to finish making the tea. Why did everyone find my discomfort so entertaining? I imagined stabbing him to death with the butter knife he was using, but there was no way I could do that and not get myself covered in blood. And I was running short on unstained uniforms.

  “So, my questions,” I said once we were all seated around the centre island and everyone had their tea and toast.

  “Do you have some questions, hon?” Anna asked, leaning her elbows on the counter while noisily sipping her tea. Did the woman have no class?

  “Me?” I asked her, shaking my head. “No, I don’t have any questions. Why would you think that?”

  “Because …” Her forehead wrinkled in confusion and she let the sentence hang as she looked around the group.

  “So, my questions,” I repeated, trying to squish down my annoyance. Tea only had so much power. “Since we all know that Crazy Katie, the serial killer who offed three and a half people, escaped last night, I’d like—”

  Oz choked on his tea. Anna rushed straight over to him and began alternately rubbing and patting his back. I waited until his coughing fit had finished. What was it about this Katie girl that caused that reaction in everyone? She was only a crazy serial killer, for heaven’s sake! Who hadn’t faced down one of those before?

  “I’d like to know exactly how much of a threat she poses to us,” I continued, undeterred by Oz’s reaction.

  “I don’t think we should talk about this, hon,” Anna said, still rubbing Oz’s back, though he’d quite clearly gotten over his choking. “It’s not really any of your concern. It’s best to leave it to the people who have all the facts to deal with how best to approach this situation.”

  “Do you agree with that sentiment?” I asked Oz. “That only the people with all of the facts should deal with the situation?”

  “Of course he does, hon,” Anna said. Her rubbing of Oz’s back had turned into more of a stroking motion.

  Oz moved out of Anna’s reach and across the kitchen. He grabbed a glass and drew some water from the tap, his broad back to us all. I wasn’t sure if it was an excuse to get away from Anna’s stroking, because he really needed a drink of water or because he was stalling in answering. Maybe it was all three.

  “Oz?” I pressed.

  He turned. He looked at each of us, though his gaze rested a little longer on Petal. “Katie escaped last night.”

  I waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t. “I believe we’ve already ascertained that without your help. I asked how much of a threat she poses to us.”

  “Hon, you don’t need to worry about this,” Anna said. “You’re with me all day and I am fully briefed on how to deal with agitated situations.”

  “The very fact that you think meeting a serial killer could be described as an ‘agitated situation’ tells me just how unequipped you are to deal with this,” I pointed out.

  “I’m trained to not let it become anything more than an ‘agitated situation’,” Anna said with a sugary sweetness that implied I had no idea what I was talking about. It was almost enough to hope that Crazy Katie was trying to kill me so I could throw Evil Barbie at her and observe her dealing with it. “As for the other girls, they work in incredibly secure environments, so you’re all perfectly safe.”

  “Whoa, wait a minute,” I said, waving a hand at Anna to quieten her and turning to my housemates. “Your departments are ‘incredibly secure environments’? What do you guys do?”

  Petal opened her mouth to tell me but Anna clapped her hands above her head before windmilli
ng her arms around. “No! You are not allowed to discuss this. Enough questions. I think it’s time for work now, so—” Anna motioned for everyone to clear the table.

  “I’ve not finished,” I said, lifting up the piece of toast I’d taken one bite out of. Never mind the list of questions I still had.

  “It’s for the best, hon,” she whispered and gave me a knowing smile. She clapped again and motioned for the others to move. “Let’s go, dishes in the sink and off to work.”

  Grudgingly, all three of my housemates cleared their plates under her supervision. I watched as Petal and Pam pottered around the kitchen and for the first time realised I’d never seen either of them in a uniform. They wore their own clothes all the time. I’d thought that had just been the effect of years of badgering Oz for shopping rights. Oh, we were so having that conversation later.

  Oz moved to the table to grab some of the dishes. “Everyone is perfectly safe. The only person I’m worried about is you.” Oz spoke so quietly it was barely audible over the clattering of the dishes into the sink.

  “Why me? Katie doesn’t know me. I’ve done nothing to her. Why would I be on her ‘to murder’ list?” I asked. Oz moved to join the melee tidying the kitchen without answering but I grabbed his sleeve before he could join in. “Hey. Why me?”

  “Because you’re you,” he said with a sigh.

  “Well, maybe if you had told me the whole truth in the first place I’d be better equipped.”

  “How?” Oz asked. Which really was a fair question. I’d have been no better prepared for her escape by knowing she was a serial killer weeks ago, but I was still annoyed that he played me so easily, damn it.

  “I’d have been mentally prepared,” I snapped. It was a poor comeback but since I didn’t really have a leg to stand on it would have to do.

  “Or maybe you’d have told Sabrina and then gotten yourself in more trouble looking into that instead of focusing on passing your assessment.”

  “That doesn’t mean it was okay for you to lie to me.”

  “Okay, well how about when you voluntarily start telling me the whole truth I’ll return the courtesy?”

  And once again I had no better comeback than “touché”. Which I was absolutely not giving him, so I just scowled in silence.

  “Thanks so much for making me breakfast, hon. And don’t worry, I’ll keep us both safe,” Anna said, coming up behind Oz and kissing him on the cheek, her bright red lipstick clearly marking out her territory. “Are you ready, Bridget?”

  Something clicked in my head. I turned to Oz but jabbed my piece of toast, which I was absolutely not surrendering, at Evil Barbie. “She knew?” I asked, and I felt very proud of myself for keeping my tone level. “Before us. You told her?”

  “About Katie?” Anna asked with a smug smile and small shake of her head. “Of course I knew, hon.”

  I didn’t acknowledge her response. I stared at Oz and waited.

  “As your adjustment companion she needed to know,” Oz said.

  “You told a stranger before you told us?” Lucy asked, moving to stand next to me and face Oz. “We had way more right to know than her.”

  “I’m not a stranger to Oz, hon,” Anna said and stepped subtly closer so that no one missed that implication. No one spoke as Anna let everyone draw whatever conclusion they wanted. The awkward silence lingered.

  “I think we should all get to work,” Pam said finally and took Petal’s hand. Pam pulled Petal past Oz and Anna, giving them an awesome dirty look as she went. It wasn’t as good as mine but it was enough for Oz to take the hint.

  “I’m taking you three to work,” Oz said. With his long-legged stride, he was at the back door ahead of them.

  “No, thank you.” Lucy folded her arms and arched an eyebrow at him. “I’d rather not ride the chariot of Judas Iscariot to work.”

  “Oh, that was a really good comeback,” I complimented Lucy. I didn’t even try to hide the envy in my voice. “I might have to borrow that.”

  “Feel free,” she said with a regal hand gesture.

  “I’m taking you three to work,” Oz repeated as though Lucy hadn’t spoken and opened the door. He didn’t say anything else, he just waited for them to move.

  It was the shortest standoff in history. Maybe two seconds passed before my housemates filed outside. They all had their arms folded and scowls on their faces, but they went. I followed, with Anna tailing me.

  “Just be careful today, okay?” Oz called to me as he stepped out of the kitchen after Anna.

  I gestured to Anna without looking at Oz. “I think he was talking to you.”

  “I love mean Bridget,” Lucy mumbled.

  I smiled at her, gave the three of them a finger wave and tunnelled to the bureau without checking what either Oz or Anna were doing.

  Evil Barbie appeared a few seconds after me. I moved off the tunnelling circle and headed to reception to get my assignment sheet. My job title was a fancy sounding facilitator of pre- and post-life affairs, which basically meant I collected a piece of paper from reception each morning with a list of places I had to go and a list of things I had to move at those locations. Things like glasses and keys and mugs. I had no idea why I had to move these items and no one had been forthcoming with an explanation.

  “Stay on your circle, hon,” Anna said, flipping through her pink notebook patterned with red hearts.

  “I need my assignment sheet before we start,” I said, not even bothering to hide my eye-roll at the notebook. I mean, she was an adult, for god’s sake.

  “We’re going on a field trip this morning.” Anna beckoned me back without looking up from her flipping.

  I didn’t move. “Where?”

  “Somewhere that will help with your adjustment.”

  I folded my arms. “Does Oz know about this?”

  Anna glanced up from her notebook to look at me for the first time. “Oz has entrusted your adjustment to me. I have his full support in how I choose to help you acclimatise.”

  “I’m going to take that as a ‘no’,” I said without moving any closer to her.

  Anna snapped her notebook closed and tucked it away in her trouser pocket. It completely ruined the line of her trousers. If I’d liked her I’d have told her. She beckoned me to her again. “Come on, hon, we don’t have all day.”

  “You’re cutting it a bit fine, aren’t you, Bridge?” Pete, another facilitator, called as he walked into the room, his own assignment clipboard in hand.

  Pete was mid-fifties at a guess and had a buzz cut of grey hair that, I assumed, he wore that way to hide his receding hairline. He had the type of hard, weathered face that, if you met him in a dark alley, or even a brightly lit street, you’d cross the road to avoid him. But he was actually a pretty friendly guy. Mega-opinionated, but friendly. And I was pretty sure he was nursing a crush on Sabrina.

  “Apparently, I’m not working today,” I said and stepped onto the circle next to Anna. It wasn’t like I thought Anna was going to drag me off into the woods and dismember me or anything, but somehow having someone I knew, and liked, know I was going to be elsewhere made me feel a little more secure.

  “Oh?” Pete’s attention jumped to Anna and then back to me. “What are you doing then?”

  I looked to Anna and gestured for her to explain to Pete. And me.

  “Something else,” she said and then took hold of my wrist and tunnelled us.

  We landed in a heavily populated room no larger than my bedroom with no windows and a very low ceiling. Oz, at his six feet and change, would probably be able to stand up but the top of his head would’ve been grazing the ceiling. The walls, ceiling and floor looked like they were metal and I had a very silly vision of being cooped up in a metal matchbox. And then a scene from a film, whose title I couldn’t remember, where the main characters were stuck in a rubbish crusher and the walls closed in on them, flitted through my mind. I’d never suffered with claustrophobia, but suddenly I was feeling a little short of br
eath.

  It didn’t help the matchbox was filled with at least thirty other people. All the faces I could see wore either expressions of varying degrees of panic or something that bordered on indifference. I didn’t care that Evil Barbie had “sanctioned” this. My internal panic response said this was not a good situation to be in. Just in case the metal walls, floor and ceiling hadn’t alerted me to that fact.

  “Bridget!” I whirled around and came face-to-face with a man in his late fifties with salt-and-pepper hair and a kind face. He grinned at me and held his arms out wide for a hug. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “Tommy!” I said and stepped into his embrace. In other circumstances, I wouldn’t have hugged him. In other circumstances, I wouldn’t have hugged anyone. But Tommy and I had survived an acclimatisation assessment together. I’d previously suspected him of murder until he’d hinted that he might be some sort of law enforcement agent. But since he wasn’t a police officer or GB, I wasn’t exactly clear on what he was. Still, it was nice to have a friend in the possibly crushing metal matchbox of death.

  “I was hoping I might see you here,” he said, holding me at arm’s length so he could look me over. “How’s the leg?” he asked.

  “It’s nearly healed up, thank you.”

  “Who’s this, hon?” Anna appeared at my side and looked Tommy over.

  “He’s a fellow maladjust,” I said and Tommy barked out a laugh that echoed loudly back at us from the metal walls and made the rest of the room’s inhabitants cringe away. Not necessarily a bad thing.

  “Is that right, hon?” Anna asked, her forehead wrinkled up, clearly not impressed. “And how do you know each other?”

  “I suspected him of murder,” I said and everyone took another step back from us. Weird how that happened when you mentioned murder. In all fairness to Evil Barbie, though, she didn’t step back. She stayed exactly where she was. I think she might have subtly even squared her shoulders. Maybe she considered this one of the “agitated situations” she’d been fully trained to deal with.