Living in the Fray

Chapter Fifteen

'Cas. Cas wake up.'

Ronson was kicking his best friend in the arse. Quite literally booting her in the left arse cheek leaving a slight dusty print on the black knickers she had on. He carried on kicking her for a bit until she finally woke up, lifting her head from her pillow with a globule of drool stringing from her mouth.

'Jesus Cas how much did you drink last night?' Ronson asked.

'Yes.'

'That wasn't a yes no question.'

Ronson looked down at his friend who was tangled up in her duvet and was about to go back to sleep, until he yanked the pillow out from underneath her.

'Whatever. You need to get up and start moving around, so those nanomachines of yours know you're still alive and get working on purging you of the Smirnoff factory you drank.'

Krieger just gargled and coughed, noticing Ronson had placed a huge cup of coffee on her bedside table. He was already up, dressed, adequately caffeinated and was well on the road to recovery from his own monster hang over after taking Mikey's advice; a bunch of paracetamol and several pints of water before going to sleep. A few more pints of water when he woke and he was feeling better than ever. Well, better than he usually did after a night of celebration and karaoke. His nanomachines weren't working their best this morning but doing a typical "human" thing had stopped him from feeling as rough.

'Oh God we did karaoke in Hideki's bar.' Ronson thought to himself, kind of hoping someone did or didn't get footage of him and Krieger wailing some tune; he hadn't decided yet. It always happened though.

Krieger was banging about in her room attempting to get ready. Ronson however had already packed up some stuff to take down to the beach as the day after the Chase, was the day pretty much everybody who worked in New Edo's factories or on the many cargo ships went down to the beach to chill out; relax, have barbecues and as was standard for New Edo, get drunk. Krieger and Ronson didn't like the baking heat that much nor did they like burning or tanning, so they spent most of their time under their huge parasol; slathering SPF five hundred over each other.

'Are they always this late?'

Mikey was busy helping Justin set up the sun gazebos, tables and folding chairs they had got out of the Osiris land office. Not like there was much that needed doing all you had to do was carry the storage boxes to where you wanted to set up then push a button. The gazebos which were easily the biggest things, would unfold from the boxes and presto! No messing about with poles or fabric or making sure that everything was bolted together properly. The most important things they had brought however were the coolers. There were enough beverages of all kinds in there to fuel a small festival. And then there was the big speaker that was blaring out Galaxy Radio Network's main station, that was important too.

'Yeah, unfortunately they are.' Justin replied. The rest of the crew had turned up in dribs and drabs that morning, all bringing their own stuff and helping set up where they could. It was already pretty warm that morning so everyone had already undressed down to whatever beach clothing or bathing outfit they had chosen. Jess and Faye were obviously matching each other as per usual, with rainbow striped two piece bathing costumes. It was always easier for the men to dress for the beach as all they needed were board shorts or something. Justin, Tony, Devin, Mikey and even Zach were all out enjoying the sun; letting the steadily increasing heat warm them up. Jess and Faye had already set themselves up with beers and wide brimmed hats, ready to get a bit of a tan. Zach was already leering over all the scantily beach wear clad women who were walking past. Tony and Devin were busy discussing what books they had read recently.

'Oh my God they're here.' Tony announced as he cracked open his first beer of the day.

Ronson and Krieger marched down to the beach; both clad in black beachwear, bucket hats and sunglasses, with back packs slung over their shoulders. Krieger had a cigarette hanging from her mouth that was half burnt and Ronson was carrying a large cooler.