Reaper Society

Chapter 12: Trainee

My stomach growls so loudly it dispels the terrifying look in my mentors' eyes. His red-tinged gaze flicks down to my stomach and an amused smirk turns the corners of his mouth up. A grim look seems to take root in his face as he looks back up to my face.

"Using portals will zap your energy reserves. Make sure you eat." Asher tells me in a clipped tone, though the roughness of his sex-operator rasp has returned to normal. He stands without waiting for me to uncurl from my spot on the bed and turns on his heels to walk out of the infirmary.

My stomach roars again, sending painful aches through my nerve endings until I finally get off the bed and stumble after my mentor. When I do manage to catch up with him, he's already out the door and strolling down the hall. We walk in silence for a second before reaching a junction I hadn't noticed before. I'm about to ask Asher where we're going when he speaks, telling me there's a mess hall to the right.

After giving me a short set of directions to the mess hall, Asher heads left, disappearing in the opposite direction before I can ask him to show me where the room is. I replay his vague words in my head. Down the hall, take a right, then left, then another left. It seems so simple, too simple... I can't help but wonder if this is another test of sorts, but my stomach's protests have me moving down the hall before I can think too much about it.

My bare feet scrape against the cold floor, the air pleasant without being too warm or too cold. I tuck my hands into the pockets of my now-shortened jumpsuit, trying to ignore the rough seams that scrape against my still-sensitive calves. Asher had removed the shredded ends of the pant legs, leaving them about ten inches shorter than before. My mind drifts along aimlessly as my stomach groans again.

I speed up, taking the turns Asher told me to, and freezing when I find myself standing in the open-archway of a large room, filled with dark-clothed Reapers. I don't take much time to study the twenty-something people in the room as the scent of cooked food hits my nose. I all but run to the far wall where a metal grate is half-way opened to expose a classic cafeteria serving line with a shelf built into the wall.

On that shelf are plated portions of steaming spaghetti with a hearty-looking meat sauce and thick slices of garlic bread in baskets every other plate. At the very end of the line is a little trough with ice and assorted canned, bottled, and boxed beverages. As I lurch into the line, right behind a couple of chatting Reapers, one of the Reapers behind the serving counter passes me a long tray. I look to the man with a look of what I hope comes across as gratefulness, but by the quirk of his eyebrows, I know doesn't quite get past awe.

"You must be Puppy-Chow." The man nods to me in greeting. I feel my expression warp into an annoyed death-stare, but once again, I'm too hungry to make the effort of actually putting any emotion behind it. "I'm Reginal," The man laughs, his dark eyes warming a few shades to flash a light amber at me. "Just grab whatever you want and bring your dishes back before you get seconds." He tells me with the remnants of a grin on his middle-aged face. He looks to be middle aged, brown hair strewn with a little white and face lined with age, but there's a sort of ancient quality to him that goes beyond a human fifty.

"Thanks, Reg." I tell the man, pulling the tray into my arms before moving to pile a plate of spaghetti, a whole basket of garlic toast, and one of each drink onto the surface. Reginal laughs good-naturedly and waves me off before offering a tray to the next Reaper.

I turn to find somewhere to sit, my eyes skimming the taken seats all around the room. There are more than twenty tables neatly lined up in rows on either side of the room with long, attached benches where Reapers are slowly settling into. I'm about to head to the back of the room, far away from anyone so I can eat without making idle chit-chat, when I spot a Reaper waving at me excitedly. I blink as I recognize the face of a Reaper-in-training from earlier. Actually both of them are here.