5.u.
“No!”
Corporate Man screamed, leaping into the room.
Supply caught him by the necktie and pulled him back up as more sharks
poured in from the conference room.
They fed in a
primal frenzy.
The sounds of
water churning and hulking fish slapping against each other as they slammed
against the office walls went on for long horrible minutes. A bloody foam lay on the surface of the water
and continued to rise, filling the room, subsiding once it reached the ceiling.
The Union
stood around the hole in the floor, gaping at the pool of recent violence;
shocked and unmoving.
No one spoke.
A dark form
burst up through the water and launched into the room. It slapped against the floor and rolled onto
its back, gasping and flailing, breaths only coming in hoarse gasps.
“Oh my god,”
Business Woman called out. “He’s alive!”
They rushed to
Fair Wage’s side and examined him for bites and other wounds. His hands bled, scraped raw on sharkskin, and
his forehead had a split over his left eyebrow where he’d been slammed against
something unyielding during the initial collision.
“How… How?” asked Senior Executive.
Fair Wage
smiled. “I don’t fear inflation. It
barely affects me.”
“But… all that
blood,” Supply said.
Fair Wage
opened his hand revealing a crystal clear debit card. He said, “It’s a diamond card. My purchasing power is quite formidable and
that shark’s belly was quite soft.”
“I’ll keep
that in mind,” Professor Inflation said, his voice booming and theatrical, “as
I devalue each and every one of you.”