Ch 14 Laughing virus

With the a noticeably disgruntled grimace, Eury accepted, downloaded and agreed to all the terms and conditions needed for her new identity as Steno. She was only 3 or 4 when she lost her sisters to the harsh whims of the middle floors, and the image of the stampeding crowd was still pulsating in her mind. At least the screams dulled over the years.

At the sight of her new name, the girl felt a nostalgic emptiness in her belly.

Eury- " Steno's wish as a kid was to be live forever with the family…so I guess wish granted", she said to no one specifically.

Diaz, on the other hand begrudgingly accepted the name, not feeling any kind of attachment or dismay towards it. It was a common, normal, name around. All of ire was reserved for Zuwa, who had promised him a serious talk afterward.

As for Sammy, he didn't mind it. Names and identities were still transient to him, like small packages going down the endless transport pipes that he had in his former home. Anyone could pick one up, take it as their own, and after a while throw them back into the pipes for someone else to find.

Or at least, he never thought about it. But now, faced with that decision, something about made his skin itchy.

Sammy- "…But I don't really like it though. The name…can I change it?", the boy thought to ask after get an earshot away from his guardians. " Do you like your name, Rrrrr…rdium?"

The sect leader was surprised to suddenly find the little overdressed child speak to them directly. The Noble's eyes narrowed and, unlike the discussion with Eury, the tone they took was a mellow one.

Rhodium- " No…and yes. It was the wish of the original to have a tradition us, his clones, to follow. As a means to expand our critical thinking. Or at least, that's my hope for his reasoning."

A bit lost, Sammy took a seat on one of the four stair leading to the leader and listened. " Oh…what's a clone?", thought the boy and stretching a finger as a way to keep track of his questions.

Rhodium- " I think Noble One wanted us to grow apart from him, but whatever road we take, it should still be connected to the larger path. Like…" Rhodium pondered, thinking of a fitting comparison for a child." Have you ever seen a map of an electrical circuit?"

Sammy- " No sir."

Rhodium- " Well, let me get a visual. Let's say this circuit is Noble's plan, right? But in this room let's say there's an unseen gas pipe, and in the circuit path overlaps with the pipe. What do you do?'

Sammy- " You…go another way?"

Rhodium slowly nodded and drew extra lines that curved around the danger zone. " You might loose some power this way, but the electricity would still keep running. I, on the other hand though, was thinking that if there's space, to put something like a safety wall between them and let them go side by side." The leader stroke their skeletal chin and finished the lesson with the downside of their approach as well. " But if there's a spark, there might be flare-up. Or explosion."

Sammy- " That would be bad", the boy concluded in awe.

Rhodium- " Yeah. But it could also help speed up finishing the circuit."

Sammy- " Ahh…So you like the circuit then?"

Rhodium- "Got me. I don't know; but it's a certitudine in my life. The circuit is the purpose, and in this time and age, people would kill for such an opportunity."

The boy felt smarter after that explanation. It was surprising to find an older person that tried to explain to him confusing concepts with such ease. But now he felt that something was missing " I…do not like my circuit because I feel like I haven't got one. Is it bad that I want one?"

A brief smirk etched on the sect leader waited for a brief moment, to let those feeling simmer for a bit. Then, with the snapp of a finger, called for an assistant. " Get the requests for editing", Rhodium demanded and then turned to Sammy-" And how about we make a deal? Until you find your circuit, we'll share the name of Sammy- keep you safe in case someone pokes their nose around?"

Sammy- " I don't mind. But how can you take my name away?"

Rhodium- " Easy, we split it from the root. Your name comes from several sources, but your birth one is Samson. And I kinda like Samuel. Do you like that? And you can give up on the Robert one, it irks a bit. "

Sammy- " Same."

….

Before being shown out, Diaz and Zuwa had a stare off contest, with the sect agent not really grasping what the teen's issue with him was. " Are you really that upset with me, boy? For real? After every-"

That was all it took for Diaz bottled up feelings to explode out in the open, and then a loud grow-like "Yes" blurted out of him. " Yes, dam it. Because…because-", but once it became clear to him that his headspace was not ready for it, he proposed something else. " I'm hungry. We're going for a bite. Me, Eury and Sammy. "

Zuwa- "Sure…want some credits?"

Diaz- " Yes. Actually, I want my payment in advance for a month. And I'll take the month off. PAID VACATION!", to which Zuwa rolled his eyes but agreed to it.

Zuwa- " Maybe eat my hand for that matter."

Diaz- "And!", he ignored the previous comment- " We'll meet at the usual fast-fooderia. A month from now."

Zuwa- "…Right. Sounds fine with me. See ya then then", replied the old man while massaging his neck.

….

A few suspicious looking under-levelers stared at them with glinting eyes, but even after double and triple checking the bounty board, they still got the same message: " RETRACTED". Dimotelo even made sure that a rumor was started about how they accidentally "killed" Sammy while chasing him through the tunnels.

-" Kid slipt and got impaled by some junk", he kept repeating to everyone skeptical of his words.

Now that they were free from that curse, Eury realized that her and Sammy were once again without a place . " Fuck. I made my plans with the assurance that Zuwa could keep us in the tower for a few more days. Diaaa- I mean, Rodrigueeezzz, what do we do now?" She grabbed his arm and agitated it in desperation.

A quick jolt of joy passed through the boy's stomach, but he got used to such sensations by now. " Yeah, regarding that", he then started playing with a set of keys. " Zuwa threw me the keys to the tower. Said it's ours for the 30 days; but only if we keep it maintained."

Eury- "…Didn't you demand him to give you some vacation time?"

The worker smirked and pulled out a hammer and a screwdriver from his vest pouch. " One for you and one for my new apprentice. I'm gonna supervise, but no manual labor for me on the tower. And just think about how much energy I'll have to for my second job on the maintenance on the other tower!" He spoke as if a rock was lifted from his shoulders and he could finally feel the natural relief of a normal human body.

Sammy- "…The elevator? You mean you don't have vacation from that?"

For a moment, Diaz was confused by the question but then remembered how sheltered Sammy actually was. " No. Time off from one service is so you can better focus on the other ones. It's quite normal around here."

Eury- " Yeah, no, it's an average practice up there as well. After my greeter job I would then go on to my cleaning duties in he parish. Can you image that it paid for a personal room, with a mattress and a toilet?"

The underground worker scratched his head, having heard the word so rarely he could barely remember what it meant. " Toilets were those chairs with holes where you can-"

Sammy- " Do your duties? Yap.", he finished with haste, feeling proud of it as well.

Eury- " Guess that works for an explanation. And while true, it's a rare convenience even in the middle houses. Ugh, I'm going to miss some of the bonuses I used to have in my old staying."

She then clenched her nose at the weird smell coming from a barrel they just passed by, and she tried to kick away a slimy being that slowly crawled toward them. The Underlevel was everything she was warned about in terms of grossness and unsightliness; most of the people there side eyed her every step and the amount of knifes and smashing tools out in the open would still make her uneasy and a bit paranoiac.

Diaz- " We never got the chance to talk about, but how did the job hunt go? Did that rusty traitor at least kept his word with that?"

As if she was just pinched out of her blurred vision of her surroundings, she took a long stare at Diaz and felt her breath getting thinner for a moment. Most of his clothes were brown and other dark colors, but now somehow they had little glitters reflected off of them.

Eury- "…Right. Yeah. That was great, actually; I helped out a lot of people, actually. Even got paid for some of my impeccable birocratic skills."

The worker smiled and giggled: " Finally. Those guys needed all the help they could get, and with you there maybe they'll be able to make the lines faster."

A sudden stampede of workers with shovels instead of hands cut right in front of them, leaving a ditch behind them, on in which Eury was just about to fall into from the sudden appearance and disappearance of the workers. Sammy stopped midway by his own, while Diaz lunged right after her, catching Eury mid fall by stretching his arm in front of her and acting like a cushion.

Everything went down in slow motion for the two, as once the two got captured by the color of each other's eyes, the fall, and shitty Underlevel got erased for that brief moment of peace.

A second later, they felt soft soil of the 10 centimeters ditch, getting both of their sides covered in freshly dug out dirt, but neither moved. They felt comfortable in the silence, just looking at each other and studying each other's glassy eyes. Eury slowly moves her hand up to Diaz's chin, over his lips, but aiming for the top of his nose.

-"Bop", she said in a very dry voice, which immediately cracked the worker's paralyzed in bewilderment face. He started to giggle and laugh his lungs out, and as infected by the laugh, the girl followed in suit.

-" Did, did, did you just 'bop' my nose?" , Diaz tried to ask through fits of laugh, unable to lock it back in. " What does that even mean?"

Eury had to hold herself by his shoulders as to bend her back too hard from the giggles. " I don't know", she yelled out after a catching a break. " I just thought-whynot?"

They carried their laughing fit under the gleaming oversight of Sammy, who was also infected by the giggle virus after a while. The trio continued like that for a while, scaring idle passerby and making a few wonder if there was something in the air. But nothing was wrong, as some things have finally started to make some sense.