"So, that thing is a live bomb?" Carlos backed away from the coffee table with a frightened look on his face.
The man sitting at the table didn't look up from the knot of wires and LED counters when he answered. "Yes." He tightened down a wire and flipped a switch on the side of the device. Nothing happened. "Stupid piece of junk." He mumbled as he picked up a wrench lying on the ground and proceeded to pound a large piece of the explosive until it was hanging by a wire.
Carlos' eyes widened and he turned for the door. Leon stuck an arm out to stop him. "Don't worry about it so much, Steve knows what he's doing. You'll get used to him."
Rebecca also wore a worried look as Steve ripped off the smashed part of the bomb and threw it behind the couch. "Are you sure?" She bit her lower lip.
"Of course I'm sure, he's been blowing stuff up since he was nine." Leon looked around the room at the four people sitting around. "C'mon guys, don't just sit there, say something."
David stopped playing his guitar and looked at the group. "Hello everyone, my name is David and I'm an alcoholic and addict." He then went back to playing his guitar.
The group looked at him like he was crazy, then Rebecca stepped forward. "Hi Steve!" She said enthusiastically.
The younger kid laughed loudly. "He's just joking. He would never do those twelve step program things."
"Sure I would. The first step is admitting we are powerless, that our lives had become unmanageable." He continued to play.
The kid laughed again. "He went to one meeting, and started a fight in the first ten minutes. I'm Tinker, by the way; I'm the resident computer geek." He smiled shyly.
David stopped playing again. "Tink, you weren't there, that rat bastard made fun of me."
"How many times do we have to go over this?" Tinker pushed his glasses up his nose. "All he said was 'you have an anger problem', and you do."
David looked off into the distance for a second before going back to playing his guitar and not saying a word. Tinker went back to playing with his computer.
"Tinker? Where did that name come from?" Rebecca stepped in front of the table and looked at him with an intrigued look.
"I build computers, and tinker with stuff…David made it up." He didn't look at her, his eyes remained focused on the computer screen.
Rebecca leaned forward and looked at the computer screen. "Interesting…" She trailed off.
Tinker blushed slightly, but didn't say anything. "You'll have to excuse Tink, he's shy around girls, it took him about a year to get used to Annie over there." He pointed to the girl—Annie—that was sitting on the far end of the couch.
She stopped playing with her knife and looked at the group. "Yes, and once he warmed up to me; we started having sex on a regular basis." Her voice was deep, but in a feminine sort of way. Her statement caused Tinker to blush heavily, and he started typing nervously on his computer. "He may be shy, but he's an animal in the sack." She laughed.
Carlos opened his mouth to say something, but before anything could come out, there was a soft beeping emitting from the bomb lying on the table. "Finally!" Steve yelled, throwing up his arms.
Beep, beep, beep, beep…
Carlos stepped back. "So, are you gonna like…turn that off?" He had a nervous look on his face.
Steve looked down at the bomb. "Oh shit!" He yelled again.
Everyone except Leon, Annie, Steve, David and Tinker took off towards the bedroom hallway. When they were all out of the room, Steve smiled and flipped the off switch. "Just kidding."
Claire laid in her small cot with her eyes open. She'd been in same position for what felt like hours. She rolled off of the bed and stretched. All she could think about was Leon. She tiptoed out of the dark room and into the dark hallway, past the rest room, to the door behind the couch. She reached for the handle.
"He doesn't love you." A woman's voice came from the couch behind Claire.
Claire turned around. "What?" Annie was sitting on the couch; Claire hadn't even seen her.
She got up from the couch, knife in hand, and started heading towards Claire. "I've seen the way he looks at you." She put her face inches away from Claire's, and blocked her against the wall with her arms. "He doesn't love you."
Claire got right up into her face. "And he loves who? You?" Claire huffed.
"Did I say that?" Annie raised the knife the Claire's cheek and ran the tip down to her mouth. The look on Claire's face must have been frightening, because she immediately took the knife away.
She looked directly into Annie's eyes. "If you ever touch me with that knife again it will be sticking out of you in a very unpleasant place." The memories of Woodrow were still fading in her mind.
Annie licked the edge of the knife and smiled. "I'm sure." She turned and walked off in the other direction, towards a door Claire hadn't seen before. "Remember what I said little girl." She said quietly before leaving the room.
Claire had never wanted to punch something more in her life. Resisting the urge to scream, she opened the door that she'd intended to a few moments ago, then stopped. I was without him for nine months, but I can't go without him for a single night. She didn't want to be the love-sick puppy. She closed the door and made her way back to her own room. The cot seemed more inviting than before, and she laid down, closing her eyes, and dreamt about hurting Annie.
Sorry about the lateness and shortness of the update people. I think I was also responsible for the little….overload of the RE fictions. Sorries.