Jericho 04-01

Chapter 4:

            Max had a constant need to make noise. He whistled, hummed, chatted, and sang, he even managed to do most of these things in his sleep, which was impressively annoying.

            After two weeks of nonstop chatter I needed solace. So I took to the hallway and began searching for someplace quiet enough to calculate in peace.

            I was feeling lazy today, so the long walk across campus to my lab wasn’t in any way appealing but, there was a spare room at the end of our hall, I had never been in it, but it seemed like logical place to start… plus it had the distinct advantage of being within 20 feet of my dorm, so it was worth a shot.

            The door was locked.

            I tried the button several times, just to be sure, but it was definitely locked. Why a door to an empty dorm would be locked was beyond me, but I sighed and resigned myself to the long walk across campus to the labs.

            Before I could move, however, a voice called from across the hall.

            “Hey Newguy”

            The dark haired boy from Galton was standing in his doorway… well standing wouldn’t be the right word as his legs had disappeared and he was more or less balancing upon the remaining stumps.

            “Your legs…” I sputtered without thought.

            RJ shrugged, “I took ‘em off, you have no idea how annoying having bits of metal clamped to the ends of your nubs gets.”

            I felt like an asshole for even mentioning it, but RJ seemed unfazed.

            “So, what brings you to my end of the Hall?”

            This was the most that RJ had ever said in my presence. For the past two weeks every occasion I saw him he was elbow deep in his tablet, reading intently and occasionally giving hand motions to assure Max he was paying attention. The only time we had ever made eye contact was in the dining hall on that first day after I had seen her.

            I didn’t want to be rude more than once today so instead of saying ‘running away from my obnoxious roommate’ I went with, “looking for a quiet place to study.”

            RJ smiled that predatory smile of his and motioned for me to follow into his room.

            RJ’s dorm was another world.

            Our room was tidy, sparse, and mostly white. Max panicked if he saw a speck of dust or if any trash missed the bin.

            This room was packed with things. There were piles of clothes thrown every which way, bits of food and wrappers, holos covering up much all of the wall space, and large piles of bound paper that took me a while to register as books.

            I picked a book off a pile and examined it for a minute; I had only seen bound paper books in our local history museum. The cover was bound in soft leather and the pages inside contained a scrawling script in a language I couldn’t understand.

            “So, Max is getting on your nerves then?” RJ had pulled himself onto the pile of clothes that was once his bed and was now lounging peacefully with a book in hand.

            I gave him a look that expressed “how did you know?” but said nothing.

            “Zeus was his roommate when he first arrived, they used to fight all the time until we did a roommate swap.”

            Zeus was a titan of a kid from Segun, he had a deep booming voice that seemed very appropriate for a god of thunder. His side of the dorm was littered with snack wrappers to a point where it didn’t look hygienic.

            “Here, sit,” RJ gave his desk chair a half hearted shove and a book toppled off the seat.

            “You can work in here if you’re looking for someplace quiet. It’s a bit messy but Zeus is off with his girlfriend for the evening so there’s more than enough space.”