New Recruits

Chapter 3

The first impression Sonya got of what was going to be her home for the time being was somewhat encouraging. The apartment block it was in didn't seem to be notably rough or rundown. There was no graffiti that she could see, and there had been no shady characters hanging around outside.

"Do you know much about the area?" she asked Mandy as they climbed the stairs to the first floor, where their apartment was.

"It's not supposed to be too bad," Mandy replied. "It was the one thing I insisted on when I was looking for somewhere. I had enough in my budget to avoid the bad areas, but not enough to get much of a place in the nice ones, if you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Sonya said with a smile, glad they had the same priorities when it came to living conditions. A substandard apartment she could deal with. The same could not be said for living somewhere surrounded by drug addicts, violent criminals and noisy neighbours.

"I managed to talk them into giving me a three month lease, too," Mandy said. "I'm hoping that by then I'll have enough money saved to move somewhere better."

"Definitely shouldn't be a problem with two of us," Sonya thought aloud. "If we still want to live together then, of course."

Mandy laughed. "I'm sure you'll have had enough of me by then."

"Or you'll have had enough of me," Sonya countered with a smile.

Now on the first floor, Mandy reached a door with black metal numbers screwed into in, denoting it as apartment 104. "This is us," she announced. "A good distance from the stairs, which is a good thing. Not as much noise back here."

Mandy unlocked the door and led the way inside. The first thing Sonya noticed was the smell of plug-in air fresheners. There could definitely have been worse welcomes. She found that the front door opened into a combined kitchen and living room, with the two areas separated by a breakfast bar. The kitchen was small, but usable. The living area also wasn't very big, but it was furnished, albeit cheaply. There was a well-worn brown couch and chair set, with a wooden coffee table in front of the couch, at a right angle to the chair. There was also a smallish flat screen TV on the wall opposite the couch.

"Hey, this looks okay," Sonya said pleasantly.

"Yeah," Mandy said, standing for a moment while Sonya had a look around. "It's hardly a life of luxury, but it's somewhere to crash."

A door opposite the kitchen led through to the rest of the apartment. "Bedrooms and bathroom through here, obviously," Sonya said.

Mandy nodded, taking the lead once more. "There are two bedrooms, but one is completely unfurnished. I guess they thought someone might like to use it as an office or something. Anyway, I dumped my stuff in there last night, and I guess we'll bring yours up when we unload your car. We'll have to buy a bed and a mattress from somewhere for you. For a start, you'll have to have the couch I'm afraid."

"Hey, it's better than sleeping in my car," Sonya said appreciatively. "Once we've got things sorted, I'll look for somewhere to buy a bed."

Both bedrooms were small, like every other room in the apartment, Sonya soon saw as Mandy showed her around.

"And lastly, this is the bathroom," Mandy said, stopping in front of the one door that remained unopened. "Brace yourself."

Sonya gave Mandy an uneasy look before opening the door. That kind of warning was not what she had wanted to hear. Inside, she found that the bath, sink and toilet were all filthy, especially the toilet. The tiles around the bath were also in need of a clean. The toilet, though, was what made Sonya gag. The white enamel in the bowl was stained a horrid brown colour, so long had it been since anyone had cleaned it. "Mandy, that's fucking vile," she moaned.