Gendry twisted a fistful of blanket at his side, sitting up on his bed. Five loud, consecutive thumps followed the first set that had startled him awake. He squinted at the glowing clock on his night table, barely able to make out what time the hands marked in the pitch dark. Another three knocks followed.
"Will you bloody wait!" He yelled out, flinging the blanket against the back wall and rolling off the bed. The concrete floor was freezing cold under his bare feet, which created a contrast with the warmth radiating off the furnace ducts.
He fidgeted with the latch and yanked the door open. It was Vlad, the Russian specialist from the morgue, looking frantic and fully awake.
Gendry slid a palm over his face in frustration. "This better be important, it's 3 in the morning."
"The equipment," the man said in his thick accent, "Is fail."
"Again?"
"Yes. And I was in middle of very important molecular cell dystrophy bon..."
"I don't know what the fuck that means Vlad, but can it wait until tomorrow? I'll check it first thing,"
"No it can not wait!" the man began cursing and shouting in Russian, grabbing Gendry's sleeve and tugging at him, urging him to "follow him now," as he wove a shambolic string of broken English and Russian words, of which Gendry tried to make sense.
"Alright, alright," Gendry shouted over the desperate man, asking for a moment to grab some shoes before following him down the corridor and up to the ground floor where the labs were.
"It's all fried," Gendry turned the large piece for the man to see and held the torch closer to the darkened parks of metal and wire. He's been carefully examining the innards of the machine for well over an hour. "The wiring in this building is too old, it's mucking up all the hardware. All of you, with all this heavy machinery, you're gonna leave us all in permanent darkness and cold one of these days."
"No, no. It's new. All of it, it's newer so it's less. It less to work and to run,"
Gendry twisted his face, "No exactly. And it's not that new. Some of this stuff is nearly a decade old. Maybe more. I mean, if you were using some really high-end shit that came out this year, maybe it's..."
"Sven before," Vlad cut him off, "he fix things once, and no more problems. Just once and that's it. This keeps happening to us and it's very frustrating for our analysis. Are you doing good work fixing?"
"For fucks sake, man." Gendry shook his head in disbelief, "I'm trying to tell you, all of this shit, all these machines and computers and everything you're all hooking up, it's too much. Unless you purchase a lifetime supply of diesel for the generators or get someone to come here and rewire the whole manor, I don't know what else to tell you, except it will keep happening. Even then, they'd need to shut sects of this place down while they work, and while they're rewiring they can flag us for other structural issues and shut us down completely. I think best case scenario, you all can work out a system and take turns using certain equipment so you don't strain the building and fry up your machines."
The man stood still for a moment and Gendry feared he'd said too much too fast.
"So... could you rewire?"
Gendry sighed, giving up. "no Vlad," he said in a soft, tired voice, "I can't fucking rewire this place. I'm going to bed,"
"But what about my work?" Vlad cried out.
"Look, we can request a replacement. I'm sorry, I'll talk to Harriet tomorrow," Gendry rushed out of the room before the man could say anything else.
It was quarter to 5 a.m. when he made it back to his room. Gendry cursed and tugged a towel off the hook.
He showered slowly, feeling lulled by the hot water on his back. He fully intended on taking advantage of the extra minutes he had. He decided to shave, which he hadn't done in about a week. He shaved slowly, reveling in the feeling of metal and plastic against skin. As he rinsed the hair and soap off the razor, he noticed the blades were beginning to rust at the edges, but he was sure he'd get a few more uses out of it so he hung it up to dry next to his toothbrush. He looked at his face in the mirror and realized how tired he'd grown over the past few months.
The kitchens were already filled with the aroma of fresh coffee when he walked in. He filled his thermos to the brim, gingerly sipping at the dark liquid, and capped the container.
He swiped his employee card over the reader on the wall and heard the mechanical lock on the fridge click. He pulled the door open and grabbed a jar of oats and a sealed bag of biscuits. He stood for a moment looking over all the illuminated food wondering if he should take something for Jax now, or wait until later in the afternoon.
He would have his hands full with all the repair request that kept piling up and didn't want to carry anything around with him all day, so he opted to grab Jax something later.
"This is the second time this month that you've requested a replacement on these safety cabinets." Harriet read over the request form Gendry had filled out. She looked up at him over the rim of her glasses.
"Yeah," he didn't know what she expected him to say.
"What's wrong with it?"
"It's done. Nothing I can fix. I went over to Harald up in hospice, but he's at a loss. William has been gone for two months now so there's no one else. I know these machines, and this one, like the last one, is fucked."
Harriet's icy eyes regarded him for a moment.
"Look, Vlad's driving me nuts. He wants his machine. He was in the middle of something when it fried up. I don't know what to tell you, except I'm just doing my job here,"
"We won't have the funds for a fourth one," she slammed the approved stamp over the form and filed it.
Gendry gritted his teeth at her tone, taking in a breath.
"Can you also get me a box of Marlboros."
Harriet held out her hand and Gendry placed his employee card on it. She swiped it and handed it back, along with the box of cigarettes.
Gendry took them and walked away, feeling angry, tired, overwhelmed and terribly sleepy.
When he clocked out that afternoon, he welcomed the walk along the canal with eagerness. The sky was grey and sunless. It was easily well past 7 p.m. He lit a cigarette and felt the smoke fill his mouth and lungs as he took a drag. The satisfaction snaked all the way down his limbs.
As he walked toward the ferret's usual spot, he noticed someone else was out in the field. They were kneeling on the ground. When he was finally able to make out their features, he realized who it was and noticed she had Jax in her arms.
"The wolves didn't get him," she said without looking up, caressing the bridge of the ferret's nose with the side of her pinky finger.
"What are you doing out here?"
"Came to feed Cornelius,"
Gendry chuckled. "That's not his name."
The girl grimaced. "You said he didn't have one."
"No, he doesn't, but that isn't it."
"How do you know?"
"Because its a stupid name."
"It's not stupid," she rose to her feet, "and besides, it's better than having no name."
"He has a name. It's Jax, alright,"
Her scowl quickly turned into amusement. She smiled, "Cornelius Jax."
Gendry frowned, shaking his head.
The girl carefully turned the ferret so she could see his face. "Cornelius Jax," she repeated in a serious voice, and looked the furry thing deep in its eyes as if she expected him to show a sign of approval.
"How long have you been coming out here to feed him?"
She shrugged and set the animal down on the ground. "A few days." It scurried over to Gendry's foot and climbed up the trouser leg and into his jacket.
The girl smiled.
Jax squirmed inside for a few moments before crawling out with the wrapped up bits of chicken Gendry had saved up for him. The ferret jumped to the ground and ran into the field, disappearing into a hole under a snow-covered shrub.
"We should get back," Gendry started up to the path.
When the girl joined him, Gendry held out his cigarette to her, but she shook her head.
"That's right," he said, sucking in the last part of the cigarette, "second hand smoking kills."
"It does," she said in a soft, solemn tone.
Gendry dropped the butt on the ground, making sure to turn his boot over it.
"How did you know about the underground tunnel?" he shoved his hands into his pockets. "You're fairly new. Not even some of the older staff members know about it. Mostly I think me and the other groundskeeper know. Maybe some of the chemists since their lab used to be in the old incinerator complex."
"I ran into it while taking a walk on my first day here,"
Gendry laughed. "No you didn't, the bunker has an alarm. So does the older complex across the field. You can't just run into the tunnel entrances, they're hidden,"
"Not if you're looking. They're not that hidden,"
"Even if you're looking," Gendry shook his head. "You can't find them on accident."
"Well I did,"
"I doubt that."
She was getting angry.
"I did. I don't care if you believe me,"
"Well I don't. And I really could care less if you don't tell me how you know. You don't have to lie about it though. Just make sure you keep your mouth shut about them."
"I have no one to tell. There's no one I'd want to tell,"
"Oh? Well you didn't seem to have a problem letting on that you knew they were there when I mentioned it."
"See? You're so stupid. You just admitted that you told me about it first. In the bunker, remember?"
"I only did because you were scared,"
She stopped walking and turned him to face her. "I wasn't scared," she lifted one eyebrow, as if daring him to repeat himself. When he didn't say anything, she rolled her eyes and walked ahead.
A small smile twitched up the corners of Gendry's mouth. He pulled out another cigarette and lit it as he watched her form grow smaller and smaller ahead of him. He sucked in the smoke deeply, and inhaled.