“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Your mask is pretty awesome, looks like the one the main cyborg hunter wears in Space Wars,” says Mike as he looks at my white Ghost mask.
“Isn’t his red and black though?” I ask.
“You know Space Wars?” asks Mike.
“Yeah, I love those movies,” I answer Mike.
“Who is at the door?” shouts Whitney from inside the orange house.
“It’s Matt and Ryan!” shouts Mike.
“Well either let them in or shut the door, the smell is starting to get in the house!” shouts Whitney.
“That might be coming from Mike!” I shout.
We hear Whitney chuckle and Mike says, “Come in, but just for a second.”
“What’s the rush?” asks Matt to Mike.
Matt and I enter Whitney and Mike’s house and Mike closes and locks their white front door.
“I was in the middle of working on something for my robot,” answers Mike.
“Then you don’t want this?” asks Matt as he holds up a medium sized box in his right hand.
Whitney walks over to us and asks me, “What’s up with the mask? You hideous or something?”
Mike grabs the medium sized box from Matt’s right hand and Matt shouts, “What the hell!”
Mike looks at Matt and doesn’t say anything.
I look at Whitney and see that she is dressed in hunting clothes and boots that have pink shoelaces, and I ask Whitney, “You going out for a hunt or just get back?”
“Take that dumb mask off,” answers Whitney.
Mike starts to open the box that he took from Matt.
“That better not be that Bryson guy that you brought over here before,” says Whitney to Matt.
“His name is Brody, and no it’s not him,” replies Matt.
“Prove it,” says Whitney.
I look at Matt and Matt nods his head for me to take off my Ghost mask.
I slowly remove my Ghost mask and Whitney looks at me and says, “Just had to be sure.”
I get a sense of cautiousness from Whitney and I kind of like that she isn’t just trusting us blindly. I say to Whitney, “Brody won’t be coming back here again. I’m Ryan.”
“Nice to meet you,” says Whitney.
Matt walks over to Mike and they work on connecting the piece of equipment that Matt just brought Mike.
“I met you before actually Whitney,” I say.
“Oh yeah, when?” asks Whitney.
“I don’t remember the day, but you had a dead deer, and we were taking care of something at a house in your neighborhood,” I answer Whitney.
“I kind of remember,” replies Whitney.
“You said something about the bow that my wife uses and that you have a bunch of them,” I say to Whitney.
“Yeah, I remember that,” replies Whitney.
“I’ve seen a couple people go back into that house where you killed that guy. Who was he?” says Whitney.
“He killed my father, but who did you see go into that house?” I reply to Whitney.
“A couple different people, but mostly it was an older woman and a younger woman,” answers Whitney.
“When was the last time you saw them?” I ask Whitney.
“I don’t remember the exact day, but it was about a week or two ago,” answers Whitney.
Mike and Matt finish connecting the new piece of equipment and Mike says to Matt, “Now I have to install the drives and we should be good to go.”
“What’s up with the mask? Trying to cover up that beard of yours?” asks Whitney.
I chuckle at Whitney’s questions and answer, “No, the mask helps me see things better.”
Mike and Matt, who are by Mike’s computer setup, are looking at Mike’s oversized computer monitor, and Mike’s computer monitor turns on after Mike restarted his computer.
“What will this actually do?” asks Matt.
“It should drastically improve my range of access into things,” answers Mike.
“Like how far?” asks Matt.
“We shall see,” answers Mike and then Mike enters a couple keystrokes on his keyboard and a screen changes on his monitor.
“Well, nice talking with you Ryan,” says Whitney.
“It was nice talking with you as well, but how are you and Mike holding up?” I ask Whitney.
Whitney looks at Mike and jokes, “Well, besides him taking minimal showers, we are hanging in there.”
“Any health problems or anything?” I ask Whitney.
Whitney looks at me and with a sarcastic tone she asks, “You a doctor or something?”
I smile at Whitney’s sarcastic tone and I answer, “Actually I am.”
Whitney gives me a surprised look and says, “You don’t look like a doctor.”
I ask Whitney, “What does a doctor look like?”
Whitney looks at my katana, my beard, and my gear and jokes, “Well I doubt they carry a sword and have a straggly beard.”
I laugh and reply, “Not normally, but these are crazy times.”
“I’m about to head out, I have to finish getting ready,” says Whitney.
I say goodbye to Whitney and then Whitney goes into a bedroom.
I walk over to Mike and Matt as they are still over by Mike’s computer.
“The piece you brought me is definitely working,” says Mike as he clicks on his mouse.
“What new things can you do now?” asks Matt to Mike.
“Let’s find out,” answers Mike and then Mike clicks on his mouse and types a couple things on his keyboard.
I look over Mike’s equipment and notice that he has some high-tech stuff that I’ve never seen before.
As Mike clicks, types, and looks over at his computer, I can’t help but to get distracted by the smell coming from Mike and Mike’s clothes. It smells like old dirty socks mixed with ranch dressing and body odor.
Mike
