In an attempt to calm myself, I closed my eyes, and under way too stimulating pictures in my head, I sohow drifted to sleep.
"Kenny, we have arrived!"
I raised my head, seeing impatient soldiers standing in line between the seats and a way too handso puppy beaming at .
I nodded groggily and waited for Henry to stand up.
He gave the soldiers a death glare, and they made space so we could leave the now-empty bus.
The groups of workers that would usually get separated were now still standing together, with the guy who called weak standing on top of a barrel.
He gave us a reproaching glance and then started to talk.
"Today everyone will work together. The steel beams will be anchored on the roof till next week to build a whole new level! No antics; do what you are told, no bawls!"
What a nice way to bid us farewell, a new story on top of the usual occupational therapy.
And what antics or bawls? Everyone was emaciated and had dead eyes; where did his need to warn us co from?
But the puppy nearly started purring, apparently very happy that we would work together.
"Everyone goes up!" the man yelled as if he expected cheering, but everyone remained silent; only the soldiers moved, building a line to let the people board the elevator one after another.
Henry hung on and took two helts from the wagon we passed before we stood in line until it was our turn for the elevator.
The puppy knocked on the helt he had put on my head, and I asked absentmindedly,
"Who’s there?" thinking he would co up with so naughty joke he would have to get beaten for again.
But instead, there was silence before Henry burst into laughter, stirring everyone’s gazes to us.
"No, I didn’t expect you to ask."
I held onto the helt and turned around.
"So, who the fuck is there?"
"I didn’t co up with anything. Your puppy~ is there?" He continued to laugh even with my elbow in his stomach.
Although we whispered, while being on the elevator, we were still the main attraction. Yeah, figured.
Henry had an arm around my shoulder while taking in the view that beca more spectacular the further up it went.
When we arrived at the top, we slowly walked after the soldiers while Henry asked directly,
"Was that one of the walls you made?" pointing to the side.
"You an one of the walls’ remnants you pulled from my hair for your new hobby? No." I chuckled, but Henry pointed directly at the next one we passed.
"This one?"
"Nope."
We turned from one of the big open corridors to the next, revealing a bunch of new walls that Henry could point at and ask about.
"I’ll show you later," I promised, and only then did he stop being annoying.
Well, if I wanted to see which steel beams he had carried, I just needed to check the engravings the naughty puppy left behind, while with my exemplary work ethic, there was no way for him to find what I had worked on.
The soldiers led our batch of workers to a room similar to the barrel room, except that here there was no dirty water stored; instead, there was a ladder leading to the opening in the ceiling.
We all climbed it one after another to then get whipped by the wind.
On top of the skyscraper, without even half-finished walls but just a flat surface, one really felt like standing on top of the world.
I turned my body, letting my eyes wander over the city I had lived and grown up in.
It suddenly felt like a pity not to stay and fight for it.
"You don’t want to leave?" Henry spoke in my ear, his hands on his back as he bent down to .
I stopped circling and looked at his face.
"We’ll co back anyway, won’t we? Maybe then as a chief and vice-chief?" I smirked at him.
"Sounds good." Henry grinned, one of his hands lifting my helt, the other stroking the hair obstructing my eyes backward before lowering the helt again.
"HEY, YOU TWO! NO FLIRTING, LISTEN HERE!" The asshole that had called weak on the first day yelled at us and pointed at the opening we had just climbed up from.
He repeated a short explanation that translated to us having to pull the steel beams through the opening to get them upstairs.
He said that each steel beam had ropes attached and that our big group was the one that would pull while the downstairs group would push.
A little rope tugging in this abyssal height...fantastic.
Work gloves must have been deed a luxury, as we didn’t get any.
I conjured up so in my pant pocket and gave them to Henry.
He chuckled euphorically and put them on as we were directed to stand and the first rope was brought through the opening.
Then we pulled, Henry behind , and even without showing off our strength, the work proceeded very smoothly, so much so that I heard a few lifeless exclamations on how this was easier than expected.
For , however, the work continued to turn stranger. The more I looked, the more gay I found it sohow?
What is this pulling sothing long and thick through a hole?!?
Fifteen steel beams later—with the preparation, bringing, positioning, and attaching ropes from the group downstairs taking way more ti than the pulling itself—it was ti for the lunch break.
I went down with Henry, whose eyes had turned hungry when looking at ...?
After getting our lunch boxes, I nodded at Armless when passing him and pulled the puppy to the room I had worked in.
"Did he give you his number?" Henry asked when we were out of the others’ hearing range.
"Didn’t I tell you? Yeah, he did." I pointed at the walls I had ’made’ during the last week.
"Here you go." I watched his furrowed brows relax as he stepped closer, removed his glove, and slid his hand over the smooth surface.
"You really are a master," he praised, walking through the room with his paw still on the walls.
"I see I can leave the responsibility of building our future house into your hands~"
Heh. I stood upright and nodded proudly.
"Leave it to ."
Then he suddenly stopped.
"Hmm~But what about this one?"
I squinted my eyes and ca closer, not rembering ever making that shitty of a job... ah.
The obvious cuts in the surface, the uneven thickness, the bumps...
I pressed my lips together.
"Soone else made that."
"Soone worked with you? Who?" he turned to .
"..." I groaned in annoyance.
"That’s the work of yesterday. Happy now?"
The puppy finally clamd his mouth shut, then looked at the wall and laughed deeply.
"You were so distracted? I wonder why~~" He ca to with a way-too-smug grin.
"Be quiet, or I’ll throw you down here." I pointed with the lunch box in my hand to the direction of the non-existent floor-to-ceiling window.
"You couldn’t bring yourself to do that~"
Working with the puppy was super annoying.
He rubbed himself against .
"First, you enticed my body by standing in front of , and now you directly attack my heart? What should I do~?" Feeling the evident bulge against together with the scorching whisper made really lose it.
"CONTINUE WORK!" The yell pulled out of calculating if we could speedily teleport ho and maybe do it very, very quickly.
Though it wouldn’t have worked out anyway with all the preparations, and then we’d also have to change positions so that we both could make a move, AAAHH!!!!
I raised my head.
"Tonight, when we take a break on the journey, we’ll teleport ho."
The puppy looked at dazedly and nodded very, very eagerly at the plan.
"Alright." Walking back, we returned our untouched lunch boxes—which was a pity, but there were too many people and too many eyes to leave the food in the barrel room for others.
Then we went upstairs again, pulling steel beams up.
When the big empty space filled itself slowly, work had already ended, marking the beginning of our big ’relocating’.
I had expected sothing to happen in the last ters, like the elevator breaking for real, but surprisingly it did not.
Nor did the bus get attacked on the way back.
Ethan had also not disappeared, so no need for a hasty rescue mission or sothing.
He waited in front of the city hall and brought us to the car.
We arrived, boarded it, and drove, soon leaving buildings as a whole behind us, and after seeing that Ethan seed to have recovered from the fatigue of correcting spelling mistakes, I asked him,
"Did Sven and the girls already leave?"
"No, after hearing my explanation, they wanted to stay and fight with the unrest."
I raised my eyebrows while the puppy snuggled against my shoulder.
"Really?"
Ethan nodded and looked at through the rearview mirror.
"Yes. So I only brought the twins, Patrick, Harry, Chealsea, and Dr. Lawrence to your grandmother yesterday..."
"Why are you hesitating?"
"Nothing... maybe it would be good if you used your power when we arrive to ensure the journey will be smooth..."
... Did he not notice until now that I am more on the paranoid side of paranoid and not paranoid people? Why do this to ?
"What does that an?" Henry asked sharply in my stead.
But Ethan didn’t answer; instead, he took a big curve, bringing us from fields and trees to a very big asphalted... landing strip.
Godfuckingdamnit.
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