Power Outage

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – A Day Later Plus a Couple Flashbacks

                It’s around 8 A.M. and the only person awake at the moment is Marvin. He is on the balcony doing his morning calisthenics with his phone on the floor, blasting music. Carol wakes up to this, hung over and irritated. She takes the form of a certain famous baseball pitcher and grabs one of the cans from yesterday. She rips the tab off and heads out to the balcony. As Marvin turned to her direction, Carol threw the tab at his throat and the can at his abdomen. The hit was clean, as it knocked the air out of Marvin and he fell to the ground, choking. Carol changes to her usual form and reaches over to turn off the phone. She heads back inside to sleep.

                That was Carol, right? thought Marvin on his way down. He stays on the ground for a few minutes gasping for air, eventually crawling inside to the bathroom to vomit.

                At 9:17 A.M., Allen wakes up, his wounds healed and bandages dissolved (They were a special brand that dissolves after the wound it covers finishes healing). He can hear Marvin vomiting in the bathroom and also takes note of Damian not being in the room. Wonder where that guy went… He puts the thought aside and goes downstairs to explore the mall more.

                Alex’s morning starts slow, with her waking up at 10 or somewhere along those lines. She mutters to herself, “Damn yesterday was confusing…” She looks around and sees Carol, sleeping in her human form. Alex ponders about it, but doesn’t think it’s important. “Let sleeping dogs lie I guess…” She laughs to herself a little then heads to the bathroom to freshen up. After a shower, Alex comes out of the bathroom still brushing her teeth, fairly dry and wearing only a towel. She checks through the hotel guidebook and calls room service for a change of clothes and brunch. I wonder how the guys’ morning went.

                Damian is dressed as a waiter, holding a silver tray to his side. He is working at the first floor food court, in a moderately fancy restaurant.

                “Sir! We’re ready to order!” yelled a customer from a table nearby. Damian briskly walks over and asks what they want. “I’ll have the house special and she’ll be having the salad,” the customer answered while looking through the holo-screen on his side of the table and gesturing to the girl sitting across from him.

                “And for drinks?” asked Damian as he jotted down the orders on a digital pad he had in his pocket.

                “Two cups of coffee.”

                “Will that be all?”

                The customer nods.

                “Ok then, your order will be ready shortly,” Damian says while passing the pad over the holoscreens. The screens disappear and are replaced by a number stand on the table from either end.  Damian also brings over two glasses to the table then walks over to another table with a cart to clear it.

                “So this is where you’ve been,” says Allen, jumping out from the cart.

                “How long have were you under there?” asked Damian, crouching down close to Allen’s level, “By the way, why are you here?”

                “Just here to get a couple of drinks.”

                “You could have just ordered room service.”