6.w.
“What’s
happening to him? What’s going on?”
Franklin Buck squeaked.
“Take a
guess. You saw what we saw,” Business
Woman said. “Those things are inside
him. Nothing good’s coming that’s for
sure.”
Fair Wage
threw his head back, his arms shot out from his side, strained and
epileptic. There was a tearing, ripping
sound, like perforated paper, splitting pant seams, and high pressure flatulence.
He screamed.
His body
spasmed, slammed back against a carpeted wall, fingers digging into the
fibers. Fair Wage’s eyes went wide and
pleading, glancing at his teammates, bouncing from face to helpless face.
A soft whimper.
Then a
paralyzed silence.
A gash tore
him open from crotch to throat, splitting his chest wide. A noxious gas and a mist of vaporizing blood
sprayed from the ragged wound. A brown
mass convulsed inside Fair Wage’s torso and then it climbed out roughly leaving
a skin husk in a frayed brown suit on the floor beneath it.
The mass had a
face and terribly greedy eyes. When it
spoke it used the voice of Fair Wage only deeper and choked with gurgles.
“I feel….
Better,” it said.
“Fight it Fair
Wage. You can–”
“Fair Wage?”
the thing growled. “Not hardly. I want more!”
It roared and
in that terrible moment its mass doubled, swelling until its head nearly
touched the ceiling and it’s outstretched arms pressed against the sidewalls.
Corporate Man
stood his ground and yelled, “You’re the best of us Fair Wage. The honest one. The–”
A squelchy,
slapping thud snapped through the corridor as a big messy greed-infected fist
slammed into Corporate Man, hurtling him down the long hallway where he nearly
collided with Franklin Buck.
Franklin Buck,
not needing any sort of physical prompting, had turned and run at the moment
the Greedy-Wage first chortled its initial sentence. The rest of the Union adopted The One Hundred
Dollar Man’s tactic and broke into a sprint in an effort to catch up to Franklin,
though their main goal was undoubtedly to increase their market share in
distance from the horrible greed-thing.
They scooped
up Corporate Man in mid-stride.
The
Greedy-Wage chased after them, howling and snarling its belchy-farty sounds and
threats.
“Franklin !”
Business Woman yelled as they closed the gap on him. “Get back there and stop that thing with your
powerful pennies.”
“Screw you!” Franklin
called back without actually turning around.
“I don’t see you doing a whole lot.
Any of you. I mean what the
hell? We’re economic superheroes. Why are we just running around chasing and
fighting instead of doing something businessy?”
“Business
isn’t all about copper coinage,” said Senior Executive as they caught up with Franklin . They raced around a two tight corners,
through a small set of cubicles, and down another hallway.
“Well, what
else is it then?” Franklin Buck asked, panting.
“Oh there are
all kinds of hostile maneuvers and power plays.”
“Like
retreat,” said Business Woman.
“When it’s
tactically advantageous,” said Corporate Man.
“Yes. And there’s negotiation, acquisition, merger,
and–” Senior Executive said but was cut short by a loud trilling breet from his
smart phone.
“Mexico . Are we go?” he said into the device. After a moment he added, “Good. Stand by for instructions.”
