Monsoon

It was quiet in the lab. Akio Sato sat at his desk, filling out numbers on sheets and calculating chemical ratios regarding plant hormones. It was getting on pretty late, past nine o’clock, so the lab was mostly empty. The only light was his desk lamp.Mitch came up to his desk and tapped on it. “Alright there, buddy?”“Yeah, yeah,” said Akio hastily, straightening his spine. He subtly reached under his goggles and glasses to scratch an itch under his eye. “Why?”“You stay late all the damn time,” said Mitch, his hands in his pockets. “You ever go out or something?”Well, he usually went out to the bar after he left work at ten o’clock and got completely hammered, but he’d learned during his time in America that most people here thought that was unhealthy. “Uh, sometimes.”“Alright, pal, just… take it easy, hey?”“Yeah, sure. Th

Ryan Reeves was too young to drive, but he wasn’t the type to believe in limitations like that.“ What can I get you? ” asked the voice through the tinny drive-through speaker.He grabbed the lever and cranked the window off the car down the rest of the way before leaning out towards the speaker. “I’d like two Big Macs, two boxes of twenty-piece Chicken McNuggets, two large fries, and two large cokes.”“ Alright, will that be cash, debit, or credit? ”“Cash.”“ Super, please pay at the next window. ”“Sure thing.” He put his foot onto the gas and rolled forward in line. He was lucky that he was tall for his age, and he prayed that nobody would question why somebody so young was behind the wheel with no adult present. He even de

Pain shot up Akio’s forearm with every step like a rusty nail jabbing into his flesh. Subject Seventeen’s hand was as good as an iron shackle around his wrist. Every time he tried to twist away, a spike of agony went straight through his bones when their grip tightened.“Keep walking, pint-sized,” they growled.Akio had never been so terrified in his whole life. His heart pounded in his throat. Every iota of his being was screaming that he was going to die . He was going to suffer a tragic death at the hands of this lunatic, and there was nothing he could do about it. Nobody would even miss him.He could picture the funeral, attended by two coworkers and a hobo with nothing better to do. His tombstone would read, “ Here Lies Akio Sato - He Died as He Lived; Lame and Alone ”.“Stop wriggling, 

“Smooth.” Ryan leaned against the car, his hands jammed deep into the pockets of his rain jacket. “That was therapeutic.”Levitan walked away from Akio’s corpse, still puffing on the cigarette. “Yeah, well, I’m still feelin’ kinda fucked up ‘bout being a prisoner for five years.” They leaned against the car, next to Akio, and pulled on their leather jacket. It was chilly out.Levitan could hardly believe that Ryan had held onto that jacket for all this time. It can’t have been easy. It was one of their most valuable possessions. When they checked the pockets, they’d found the pack of cigarettes, and even their wallet. There was no cash in it, but there were a few photos.“Lev?”“Yeah, Squirt?”“What did they do to you, in there?”They blew a smoke ring. “The list of things they didn’t do to me is shorter than the list of stuff they did.”“Dang. Well, what didn’t they do to you?”“They didn’t treat me nice or give me candy.” They chuckled.Ryan huffed and folded his arms. “It ain’t fun

Akio woke up in the motel room, which was weird because he was pretty sure that wasn’t where he fell asleep. He was on the floor, still wearing his bloody button-up, grimy bowtie, and stained lab coat. A grey towel that had once been white had been thrown over him in lieu of a blanket, and there was a small pile of clothes next to his head. His glasses sat on top. There was a teeny crack along the edge of one of the lenses. Great.He sat up and yawned, scratching the back of his neck. Light was streaming in through a gap in the curtains. On the bed, the lump of blankets and pillows shifted. He put on his glasses so he could see.Levitan and Ryan were tangled up together, pressed so close it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Ryan had his limbs wrapped around Levitan, whose head was tilted back. They were snoring loudly.The clock on the side table said 8:40 in little red LED digits. Akio’s clothes were gross and crusty and he was pretty sure he had blood and g