Page 7 of All Your Days (Mayhem Manuscripts Season One: 1nf3ction #4)

Chapter three

Jacob

Guards work on every level of The Facility. We’re not just there for general security—our main job is to keep the residents safe in case our system fails and someone turns without warning. For one reason or another, my crew rarely gets assigned to the Lab and Ag levels.

On one hand, it’s a good thing, because being underground all day is the worst. On the other hand, it’s fewer hours in a day that I can keep watch over Eli.

It’s a special kind of torture that I put myself through.

At least I’m not alone in my awareness of him—he manages to attract the attention of every available person in the compound.

He takes advantage of it, too. But he doesn’t always seem to appreciate the dangers lurking around the corner for a pretty face like his.

Moby knows. It’s why the older scientist keeps him close in the Labs all day.

I don’t know the scientist well, but I do know that he came to us from another Union facility from across the country.

And I get the distinct feeling that he’s seen things like I have.

Things that you don’t forget, and can make you see monsters hiding in every shadow.

It’s not even just the zombified. Humans are fucking awful.

After all, it was humans that released the virus into the world.

For better or worse, ever since that first day I arrived at The Facility with Sarah, I’ve been drawn to Eli. Compelled to keep watch over the terrified boy trapped on a pile of trash staring down a zombified snake.

In the beginning, Eli took my hovering as a sign to try and make friends.

But I’d been too scared and to hurt to let him get close, so I turned down all his attempts at friendship.

The problem is, I’ve never been able to truly shake my obsession with him, while he does his best to pretend I don’t exist.

Tamping down the racing of my heart with a couple of steadying breaths, I press the entry buzzer for the doors to subbasement four.

I have the completely irrational impulse to do something about my hair.

Thankfully, the doors buzz and the metal lock releases with a loud thunk before I can start fussing at myself.

The vials clink gently in the cart as I drag them into the Labs.

“Ah! The samples! Excellent.” Moby claps his hands and gets off his stool, an island in a sea of technology I can’t even begin to understand, and shuffles over to check on the samples.

“Oh. Didn’t manage to get them all, I see?” Moby looks a little disappointed as he picks up one vial after another for a quick inspection before replacing it.

Considering that it’s mostly my fault, I feel the flush of embarrassment.

“Uh, yeah, nah. Sorry. We weren’t able to get some of ‘em. They, uh, you know….” Fuck, it shouldn’t be so hard to explain that they were having sex but the man is old enough to be my father, judging by the creases around his eyes.

“Ha!” Moby doesn’t seem to experience any of the same awkwardness about it that I do. His face splits into a wide smile to accompany his loud laugh. “Yes, I understand. Never mind. We’ll get them another time. Take them over there, would you? My assistant’ll get them all sorted.”

Moby waves his hand carelessly around the lab, shuffling off to the machine he was using when I arrived.

It’s a strange device. Moby’s eyes are pressed against the black tubes—they look kind of like the binoculars we use on watch.

But they are too small and attached to an arm that points more tubes towards a plate.

Moby hums to himself while he looks through the device, occasionally adjusting the knobs on the side.

“So are you gonna hand those over or what?”

I didn’t see Eli when I came in, but now he’s right here, behind me. Turning to face him, my nerves pulse anxiously in my throat.

Eli looks just as perfect as he did this morning.

His soft brown hair frames his face, with a swoop at the part from where he’s shoved his hand through repeatedly while working.

He bats his big brown eyes at me, apparently completely unbothered by my staring.

His mouth is even quirked up in the corner with a little smirk.

Does he know? Does he know just how badly I want him?

Eli crosses his arms over his chest and I’m mesmerised by the sight of his forearms, where he’s pushed up the sleeves of his shirt while he’s been working.

Does he know how fucking sexy that is? And his hands .

They are stained black around his nails, despite the constant scrubbing he has to do down here, and I’ve spent far too many nights picturing what they’d look like wrapped around my cock.

Or his cock. Fuck, wrapped around both our cocks, with both our cum spilling over them.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yes .” I answer when I finally remember he asked a question.

Eli takes the trolly, not commenting on my stammering answer. He does give me a look, though, like he’s wondering if I’ve gone mad. I’m kind of wondering the same thing.

I blame it on the chaotic feelings of my morning.

On finding out Eli is going out with Daniel on the weekend.

I know it’s not my place to have feelings about it, about any of the fellas Eli’s been with over the years.

But I do. And then spending too long underground.

That always messes me up. And then spending time with Kelly.

Seeing someone so young, with his entire life ahead of him and having it all ripped away… It’s set me on edge.

Because sometimes I feel like one of the zombified down below, rattling the bars of my cage, just going through the motions each day, waiting for the end.

“Were you on guard downstairs this mornin’?” Eli asks, when he realises I’ve lingered behind.

Despite knowing better, I latch onto the excuse to stay.

He stands at a tall desk, cataloguing each sample into a ledger. Nobody should be beautiful under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the Labs, but somehow, Eli manages it. The light creates the perfect shadows to highlight the pouting fullness of his lips and the sharpness of his jaw.

Walking closer to the workstation, I shove my hands into the pockets on my uniform pants to keep myself from reaching out. A stray lock of hair has fallen over his face, and my fingers itch to tuck it behind his ear.

“Yeah, I was just bringin’ the samples on the way to level nine.”

Eli looks up, pulling a face. “We’re not exactly on the way. What do they want? They sendin’ you away again?”

There is a forced casualness to his voice that gives me pause. Does he notice when I’m gone?

The idea that he might not only know but also care sparks an awful kind of hope inside me. I hate it, and the way the part of my head I’ve never been able to control runs away with itself with all kinds of fanciful ideas. Nothing good lies down that road.

“I dunno, probably. It’s that time of year,” is what I say instead.

“Oh. Well.” It really sounds like Eli is going to say more, but he doesn’t.

He doesn’t say any of the things imaginary Eli says, like, ‘What’s it like out there?’ or ‘Please, please be safe.’ Or the one I dread the most, ‘Please don’t go’. Because I know that if real Eli ever asks me the things that imaginary Eli asks me, I’ll do it. In a heartbeat.

But real Eli never asks me anything.

He just keeps processing the samples with the same exact precision, the awkward tension building between us made worse by Moby’s humming while he works.

“Oh, shit. Kelly. Huh.” Eli pauses with the final sample raised high. His voice fractures when he reads the name.

“Did’ya know him?” Seizing the opportunity to talk more, I step closer again, until I’m leaning against the table, too, only opposite him. It’s the closest we’ve been in I don’t even know how long, and I can feel every millimetre of the distance between us.

“A little. We went to school together. But his brother, Felix, got me to draw him. For Kelly’s wife. She’s not doin’ well with him going down there.”

Eli uses writing down the details of the samples as a cover to get himself back together. What I wouldn’t give to be able to comfort him. To be able to even just reach out and pat his hand. But I’m scared that if I start, I’ll never be able to stop. It’s too dangerous to even consider.

“She can probably go visit soon. He’s still… he’s in shock. The transfer isn’t easy.” I offer instead, even though it’s a small comfort.

Visitations can be arranged, but only for so long.

It’s a difficult balance to manage. I’ve never been tasked with the removal of residents from their families, and I’ve only ever supervised visits on less than a handful of occasions.

I’m grateful for it, too. It’s an awful business.

I don’t know how the guard’s stomach it.

“He okay, though?”

“As okay as he can be.” Our eyes meet across the table, the samples forgotten.

For a moment it feels like the earth is falling away from beneath my feet and Eli can see the storm inside me. I can almost convince myself that Eli is tumbling with me, and that the sympathetic softness in his eyes will catch us both.

“So what’ll you do with the samples?” I ask, clearing my throat and breaking the moment.

The table is cluttered with all kinds of things. Ledgers and lists are scattered amongst other sample trays from other infected levels and residents, and assorted sciencey tools.

“I won’t be doing anything with ‘em. I’m just here to make the notes and clean the vials when the docs are done with ‘em. As for what Moby and the others are doin’? I got no idea.” He laughs and runs his hand through his hair again, mussing it up.

I laugh with him, a soft chuckle that catches his attention. My stomach flips violently when Eli’s eyes catch mine for one tiny moment before flicking away, a hint of pink colouring his cheeks.