The Ability Era

10: Uncontrollable Forces

Neal – Year 59620 (Two years ago)

The incessant flickering of the lights above him bothered him to no end. He shook his head as he continued mopping the annoyingly muddy floor near the door that led from the prison to the mines. It was dead quiet in the building as Neal always worked the night shift. He didn't understand why they hired him instead of some android to do this menial job. At least he had a job. Neal was thankful even if the pay was the barest minimum. He didn't mind the job, his problem was the location. Lockup was probably the most dangerous place in the universe and it was pretty damn depressing too. Most of the buildings had no windows so Neal always felt like he was cleaning the inside of a metal box.

"Man I'm lonely," he said aloud.

He put his mop back into the yellow bucket at his side and then continued mopping the floor. He saw some sort of frame on the wall that he could not see clearly. He had seen it millions of times before and would talk to it on occasion.

"Why don't I have one of those zamboni things for this?" he said looking into the painting. It was a flattering picture of Mastermind in a dark office standing in a suit and smiling devilishly like some sort of vampire.

"You're my friend right Edward?"

The painting smiled back at him.

"Awesome!" Neal said raising his hand for a high five.

Someone coughed to his right.

"Oh hey Doug! Check out my new friend!" Neal said turning to his right.

In a pool of blood dressed in the clothing of a guard was a pale lifeless corpse lying on the floor. His mouth was open as if it was screaming and his head turned towards Neal.

...

Neal always felt something weird about the prison. Something evil.

It was probably nothing.

Neal closed the door to his room. He took off his boots and shuffled into the small washroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

The mirror kind of looked like the grey metal that Neal had been living inside all these years. A steely kind of grey. In the reflection he saw some people in dark blue jumpsuits lined up at a wall. A flash of light. Bright red. They tumbled to the floor like ragdolls.

Brush, brush, brush.

Neal realized he was running out of toothpaste. He noted that he'll get some tomorrow.

Neal shaved whatever facial hair had grown on his face that day and ran his hand through his long black hair. He stared at his brown eyes in the mirror.

"At least I made a friend today."

"Good job," his reflection said to him.

"Thanks," Neal said turning off the light and climbing into his bed. He closed his eyes.

Neal scrubbed the floor with the brush along with some soap. He wondered how Doug was doing. He seemed pretty sad lately. Neal decided he would ask him to get a coffee with him and maybe try to talk to him about what was wrong. If there was something wrong that is.

"Who spilled all this ketchup?" Neal said.

"That's not ketchup," the female guard said from behind him.