In The Heat Of The Night Chapter 1
Title: In The Heat Of The Night Chapter 1
Author: TalliW
Characters: James Lester/Connor Temple
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the wonderful Fredbassett for beta duty.
Summary: Lester and Connor have to fight for survival in a future where a climatic catastrophe has drastically changed the world.
AN: I started writing this story before season 4 aired. So events in the new season have been ignored.
Written as a very belated birthday story for Deinonychus. As it took me a long time to finish this story I can only hope that you still ship this pairing.
The first blow split his lip, the next made him stagger and the third, well-aimed at his sternum, took his breath away. Gasping for breath, Connor tried to fight off the onslaught of blows raining down on him but a right hook brought him down.
Curled into a ball, Connor lay on the hard soil whilst the men continued to beat the crap out of him.
Delivering a last kick to Connor's back, one of the men said laughingly, "Welcome to Camp 7, newcomer," before he walked away with his mates.
"Fuck, they really got you bad. Next time look to the ground if you pass Johnson. That's the first rule you have to learn living here. He can't stand it if someone looks at him directly," a young man, not much older than Connor himself, mumbled as he knelt down next to him.
"I'm Mattie by the way, actually Matthew, but no one calls me that. I've been working here since I was 12. Have you come from one of the anarchist towns? From Birmingham or Manchester? No, you’ve got too much hair to be one of them. Maybe Leeds. Or Bristol? I heard all young men in Bristol wear their hair long this days and they have a tattoo of a black sheep on their right arse-cheek. Would you mind showing me yours if you’ve got one?"
Connor began to heave himself up, but sank back onto the ground with a cry. Wherever he had landed it certainly wasn't in the Pliocene. The people that had attacked him and the guy who’d introduced himself as Mattie didn't look like cave men, although the behaviour of the former hadn't been very far from that of a horde of uncivilised brutes.
"Where am I?" he asked croakily.
"Camp 7, area Covent Garden."
So the place was still right. He had stepped into the anomaly in a side street near the opera. But where was Becker and his men? They had been supposed to follow him. And more importantly in which time period had he ended up this time?
Connor tried to remember why he had insisted on going first through the anomaly or, more to the point, why he’d insisted on going at all. You would think after spending months with Abby in the Cretaceous, beleaguered by hungry velociraptors half the time, he’d prefer the sidelines like Abby now did.
Instead he had wanted to play Superman. Somewhere in his now horribly pounding head he'd had the irrational hope that Danny would be waiting on the other side of the anomaly and would see him as his saviour. As if his attempts to impress his team leaders hadn't ended in disaster often enough already.
"Has someone else come through the anomaly?" Connor asked, breathing heavily.
"I don't know what you mean by anomaly. Is that a slang word for the lorries?"
Connor could recall a roaring in the distance. He had though it must have been come from some sort of predator and had started walking in the opposite direction to the noises. Then something had struck him from behind and the world had gone black. When he'd come around again he had been in front of the entrance gate of a fenced-off area.
Ignoring Mattie's question, Connor repeated with more insistence, "Was there someone else?"
"Yes, there was another newcomer. He arrived with an Interserve lorry. Why? Is that guy your keeper?"
"How did he look?"
"Black hair, black clothes. You know, the usual outfit for someone from the north."
So Becker was around somewhere. He had to find him quickly so they could return to the anomaly. His own handheld detector was gone, either taken by the unfriendly welcome committee or by the person who had clubbed him. But Becker had a spare.
After managing to stand up, Connor staggered further into the camp, in the hope Becker would see him. Mattie followed close on his heels, feeding him with information he thought important for a newcomer.
Connor ignored most of the babble. It was hard enough to stay on his feet at all.
After he had passed half a dozen of the stone shanties, Connor sunk down on the sandy ground and threw up violently.
"Shit. That was enough food for twenty pounds. These damned bullies."
With more strength than Connor had expected from the skinny guy, Mattie hauled him up and dragged him in the shadow of a building.
"Perhaps you should see a doctor. Have you got anything valuable you could give him as a token until you get your first pay? That clock on your arm, maybe?"
When Mattie made a grab for Connor's wrist watch, Connor pushed him away, angrily.
Scrunched down on his heels, Mattie looked hurt. "Calm down. I only wanted to take a look. I didn't try to take it from you. I'm not a raider."
"Help me find Becker and I’ll give you my watch," Connor mumbled, exhausted.
"Okay. I’ll get him for you. Just stay put."
Connor quirked his lips up into a half-smile. Even if he wanted to he wouldn't be able to move right now.
"Thanks, Mattie."
Mattie gave him an encouraging grin before he ran off to search for Becker.
"Here, drink that. You’re dehydrated."
The neck of a bottle was pushed against Connor's lips and half-warm liquid was trickling into his mouth.
Without opening his eyes, Connor sucked on the bottle like he was close to dying of thirst. As the bottle was snatched away, he followed it instinctively with his upper body until he was gently pushed backwards.
"Take it easy. You’ll get more later. How's your head? You’ve got quite a bump on there. I heard you’ve also made the acquaintance of the camp rowdies. You never do things by half, do you?"
Connor squinted through his eyelids at the man beside him who knelt silhouetted against the afternoon sun. Having slight difficulties in focusing he couldn't see more than a dark contour.
"Where are we? The anomaly should have led to the Pliocene."
"It's some sort of work camp. They are digging for metals, gemstones and other things of value."
"In Covent Garden?"
"This place doesn't look anything like London. There's only sand for miles. I didn't dare ask the date. But my guess is we are somewhere in the future. So how hard did you hit your head? Do you need a doctor?"
With a start, Connor opened his eyes wide as he finally registered that Becker's voice sounded rather odd. If he didn't know better he would assume it was Lester talking to him.
Lester raised his eyebrow inquiring as Connor gaped owlishly at him as his brain tried to catch up with the things his eyes were registering.
Connor blinked once then a second and a third time but the face of the person in front of him didn't change. He was stranded with Lester instead Captain Becker. Could it get any worse?
"I don’t suppose you have a handheld detector with you?" Connor said, on the verge of hysterics.
"No, sorry, I can only provide you with a pen, a package of Ibuprofen and a Blackberry."
Lester's answer prompted Connor to break out into a ripple of laughter. He laughed so hard his breathing became constricted and he started to gasp for breath.
Lester waited patiently until Connor had calmed down again.
"Don't think I'm happy about the situation, either. I certainly hadn't planned to get stranded God only knows where or when."
When Connor stared enquiringly at him, Lester adjusted his tie and explained, "There was an emergency. Two streets away, a group of children were attacked by ape-like creatures."
"Pre-hominids?"
"Maybe. Or creatures from the future. In any case, something went wrong. Miss Page must have opened two anomalies. I gave Becker orders to take care of the intruders at the second anomaly. Public safety has the highest priority."
Connor nodded in understanding and immediately regretted the hasty move. "And why are you here at all?"
"Well, someone had to recall you. It was scarcely to be expected that you would show common sense and return on your own when you finally noticed that Becker hadn't followed you. With the amount of paperwork I have to fill out when people go missing, I wasn't intending to risk losing another team member. Besides I thought it was time to see the other side of the anomaly for myself. I was expecting it to be a matter of minutes only. Step in, fetch you and step out again. I should have known nothing is ever easy if you are involved."
"I could say coming after me without back-up didn't show much commonsense either," Connor shot back.
Since Lester had put him up in his city flat when Abby had thrown him out because her baby brother had come visiting, Connor wasn't willing to endure Lester's verbal abuse any more. Seeing Lester slinking to the bathroom in pyjama bottoms, yawning heavily, had quickly eliminated his former anxiety towards the man.
"I didn't go without back-up," Lester declared indignantly. "The anomaly was closing. The soldier following me, the one with that crooked smile, I believe McKinney was his name, was halfway through when the anomaly vanished."
"And the soldier?"
"He didn't make it."
Tears sprung into Connor's eyes as he heard about the fate of the soldier. Beside Becker and Finn, Rob McKinney had been the only one in the current Special Forces team who had treated him as a friend.
"You were nowhere to be seen," Lester continued. "So I was waiting for the anomaly to reopen or for you to return so we could spot another anomaly with your handheld detector. Whatever came first. But before any of that could happen, a train of lorries emerged and I was picked up by the drivers. They thought I'd been ambushed by bandits on the way to the camp and were quite adamant that I come with them, saying it was too dangerous to stay in the heat for long without water. I was planning to leave the camp at the next opportunity only to discover that walking in is a lot easier than getting out again. The electric fence is active and the entrance gate is usually closed. So how did you get here?"
"I think the bandits knocked me out. Maybe they didn't want me to die and brought me to the camp. The entrance gate was open when I walked in. But they took my backback and my handheld ADD."
"So at the moment we have no possibility of detecting an anomaly?"
"Not by the look of it," Connor said, downcast.
After some minutes spent in heavy silence, Connor noticed Mattie watching them curiously from a few feet away. He opened his watchstrap and held the watch out to Mattie.
"Here’s your reward."
"Is that the man you were looking for? That Becker?" Mattie asked.
"No, that's Lester."
"Then keep your watch. Besides, I don't charge friends."
With Mattie's help, Lester and Connor managed to find a place for the night in one of the buildings. The bed wasn't more than a thin pad on the bare floor with a small pillow and a blanket.
"A little Spartan here," Lester mumbled and looked in dismay at the sandy floor, the bare walls and the metal locker cabinet, the only piece of furniture in the room.
"It costs £10 per night, per person, if you aren't working. Otherwise the company will pay lodgings for you," Mattie explained. "But you ought to check if someone is still at the Counter to register you. Then it counts from today and you can stay the night for free."
"Where's the Counter?" Connor asked tiredly. He had already sat down on a bed, ready to drop off at any minute.
"You stay here. I’ll go to the Counter by myself," Lester said.
"That won’t work. Everyone has to show up himself to get free lodging," Mattie said apologetically.
Lester fished two £5 notes out of his wallet and held them before Mattie's face.
"Will that be all right?"
"Of course."
Lester and Connor exchanged a look. If their banknotes were still valid they couldn't have landed very far in the future. But asking Mattie was out of the question. That would only raise suspicion.
While Connor sprawled out on the bed, Lester followed Mattie in the growing darkness to the Counter, which turned out to be a small grey building with four counter windows, three closed and one that was just about to close.
"Roger, here's a newcomer who wants to register himself and his boy."
The man behind the counter pushed the counter windows up again and peaked curiously out.
"Where's the boy? You know the rules, Mattie. Free lodging only after appearing in person."
"For tonight he's gonna pay for him. The boy needs rest. Johnson and his gang got him bad."
The man Mattie had addressed as Roger muttered a curse. "Johnson again. The damned bastard’s cost us two good men already this month. And now he's even attacking newcomers?"
With a sigh, the burly clerk behind the counter stared at Lester from head to toe. "Okay, I'll register you both. But that's a one-off exception so keep quiet about it." He pulled some sort of plastic pad out from under the counter and whipped out a pen. "Name and place of birth?"
"Lester, James, born in Aldershot," Lester said automatically.
At this Mattie and the clerk perked up.
"Didn't know some of you guys had survived the rebellion. I heard the army used mortar shells."
"I was underway at the time," Lester said in the hope that he wasn't making another faux pas.
Mattie started to grin and the clerk shook his head in amusement.
"Yeah, I can see from your clothes you’ve been in the north. You weird Rushmoor guys and your traditions."
Lester smiled politely, not having the slightest clue what the man was talking about.
"And your boy? Name and place of birth?"
"Connor Temple. He was born..." Lester tried desperately to recall where Connor was originating. All he could remember from Connor's personnel file was that it was somewhere in Lancashire.
"Somewhere in the north-west," he said finally to avoid trouble.
"Then he's probably from the Wyre district. There aren't many populated places in the west anymore."
Mattie made a face. "I 'd hoped he's from Bristol. He has shoulder-long hair like the Bristol Scouts."
The clerk chuckled quietly. "You kinky boy, you."
When Lester wrinkled his brows in confusion, the clerk declared laughing, "Mattie has a thing for tattoos. The day a tough Bristol boy shows up here he's probably dropping Beacher and Dafyyd on the spot."
"Not true," Mattie dissented forcefully, even though he still blushed furiously.
Unfazed by Mattie's reaction, the clerk said to Lester, "If you or the boy are infected with GRI, HIV or STK you’d better say so now or the company will not pay for the injections. Now sign here."
Quickly, Lester took the pen and scribbled his signature on the plastic pad.
"All right, that’s all. You are now officially a Garrard employee. Work allocation is in the morning, six o’clock sharp. Mattie can tell you the rest."
The man closed the counter forcefully, apparently not willing to give away any more information.
"It doesn't really matter which company you start with. The contract is only effective for a week, then you can switch to another," Mattie explained on the way back to the quarters. "They all pay £50 a week plus room and board. Working for Sotheby and Garrard is easier but they have strong safety measures. At Garrards they even check your arsehole for hidden gems every day. Best work you can get is Interserve. It's very demanding but in return they offer double food rations. And working for Corus will get you extra beer. But you have to be quick in the morning to get the good jobs. Five minutes too late and you'll only get the crappy midday shift."
By the time they got back to the building where Lester and Connor had found shelter, Connor had already fallen into a fitful sleep.
And after Lester had crawled into the makeshift bed, he wasn't far behind.
Author: TalliW
Characters: James Lester/Connor Temple
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Primeval is the property of Impossible Pictures. I write just for fun.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the wonderful Fredbassett for beta duty.
Summary: Lester and Connor have to fight for survival in a future where a climatic catastrophe has drastically changed the world.
AN: I started writing this story before season 4 aired. So events in the new season have been ignored.
Written as a very belated birthday story for Deinonychus. As it took me a long time to finish this story I can only hope that you still ship this pairing.
The first blow split his lip, the next made him stagger and the third, well-aimed at his sternum, took his breath away. Gasping for breath, Connor tried to fight off the onslaught of blows raining down on him but a right hook brought him down.
Curled into a ball, Connor lay on the hard soil whilst the men continued to beat the crap out of him.
Delivering a last kick to Connor's back, one of the men said laughingly, "Welcome to Camp 7, newcomer," before he walked away with his mates.
"Fuck, they really got you bad. Next time look to the ground if you pass Johnson. That's the first rule you have to learn living here. He can't stand it if someone looks at him directly," a young man, not much older than Connor himself, mumbled as he knelt down next to him.
"I'm Mattie by the way, actually Matthew, but no one calls me that. I've been working here since I was 12. Have you come from one of the anarchist towns? From Birmingham or Manchester? No, you’ve got too much hair to be one of them. Maybe Leeds. Or Bristol? I heard all young men in Bristol wear their hair long this days and they have a tattoo of a black sheep on their right arse-cheek. Would you mind showing me yours if you’ve got one?"
Connor began to heave himself up, but sank back onto the ground with a cry. Wherever he had landed it certainly wasn't in the Pliocene. The people that had attacked him and the guy who’d introduced himself as Mattie didn't look like cave men, although the behaviour of the former hadn't been very far from that of a horde of uncivilised brutes.
"Where am I?" he asked croakily.
"Camp 7, area Covent Garden."
So the place was still right. He had stepped into the anomaly in a side street near the opera. But where was Becker and his men? They had been supposed to follow him. And more importantly in which time period had he ended up this time?
Connor tried to remember why he had insisted on going first through the anomaly or, more to the point, why he’d insisted on going at all. You would think after spending months with Abby in the Cretaceous, beleaguered by hungry velociraptors half the time, he’d prefer the sidelines like Abby now did.
Instead he had wanted to play Superman. Somewhere in his now horribly pounding head he'd had the irrational hope that Danny would be waiting on the other side of the anomaly and would see him as his saviour. As if his attempts to impress his team leaders hadn't ended in disaster often enough already.
"Has someone else come through the anomaly?" Connor asked, breathing heavily.
"I don't know what you mean by anomaly. Is that a slang word for the lorries?"
Connor could recall a roaring in the distance. He had though it must have been come from some sort of predator and had started walking in the opposite direction to the noises. Then something had struck him from behind and the world had gone black. When he'd come around again he had been in front of the entrance gate of a fenced-off area.
Ignoring Mattie's question, Connor repeated with more insistence, "Was there someone else?"
"Yes, there was another newcomer. He arrived with an Interserve lorry. Why? Is that guy your keeper?"
"How did he look?"
"Black hair, black clothes. You know, the usual outfit for someone from the north."
So Becker was around somewhere. He had to find him quickly so they could return to the anomaly. His own handheld detector was gone, either taken by the unfriendly welcome committee or by the person who had clubbed him. But Becker had a spare.
After managing to stand up, Connor staggered further into the camp, in the hope Becker would see him. Mattie followed close on his heels, feeding him with information he thought important for a newcomer.
Connor ignored most of the babble. It was hard enough to stay on his feet at all.
After he had passed half a dozen of the stone shanties, Connor sunk down on the sandy ground and threw up violently.
"Shit. That was enough food for twenty pounds. These damned bullies."
With more strength than Connor had expected from the skinny guy, Mattie hauled him up and dragged him in the shadow of a building.
"Perhaps you should see a doctor. Have you got anything valuable you could give him as a token until you get your first pay? That clock on your arm, maybe?"
When Mattie made a grab for Connor's wrist watch, Connor pushed him away, angrily.
Scrunched down on his heels, Mattie looked hurt. "Calm down. I only wanted to take a look. I didn't try to take it from you. I'm not a raider."
"Help me find Becker and I’ll give you my watch," Connor mumbled, exhausted.
"Okay. I’ll get him for you. Just stay put."
Connor quirked his lips up into a half-smile. Even if he wanted to he wouldn't be able to move right now.
"Thanks, Mattie."
Mattie gave him an encouraging grin before he ran off to search for Becker.
"Here, drink that. You’re dehydrated."
The neck of a bottle was pushed against Connor's lips and half-warm liquid was trickling into his mouth.
Without opening his eyes, Connor sucked on the bottle like he was close to dying of thirst. As the bottle was snatched away, he followed it instinctively with his upper body until he was gently pushed backwards.
"Take it easy. You’ll get more later. How's your head? You’ve got quite a bump on there. I heard you’ve also made the acquaintance of the camp rowdies. You never do things by half, do you?"
Connor squinted through his eyelids at the man beside him who knelt silhouetted against the afternoon sun. Having slight difficulties in focusing he couldn't see more than a dark contour.
"Where are we? The anomaly should have led to the Pliocene."
"It's some sort of work camp. They are digging for metals, gemstones and other things of value."
"In Covent Garden?"
"This place doesn't look anything like London. There's only sand for miles. I didn't dare ask the date. But my guess is we are somewhere in the future. So how hard did you hit your head? Do you need a doctor?"
With a start, Connor opened his eyes wide as he finally registered that Becker's voice sounded rather odd. If he didn't know better he would assume it was Lester talking to him.
Lester raised his eyebrow inquiring as Connor gaped owlishly at him as his brain tried to catch up with the things his eyes were registering.
Connor blinked once then a second and a third time but the face of the person in front of him didn't change. He was stranded with Lester instead Captain Becker. Could it get any worse?
"I don’t suppose you have a handheld detector with you?" Connor said, on the verge of hysterics.
"No, sorry, I can only provide you with a pen, a package of Ibuprofen and a Blackberry."
Lester's answer prompted Connor to break out into a ripple of laughter. He laughed so hard his breathing became constricted and he started to gasp for breath.
Lester waited patiently until Connor had calmed down again.
"Don't think I'm happy about the situation, either. I certainly hadn't planned to get stranded God only knows where or when."
When Connor stared enquiringly at him, Lester adjusted his tie and explained, "There was an emergency. Two streets away, a group of children were attacked by ape-like creatures."
"Pre-hominids?"
"Maybe. Or creatures from the future. In any case, something went wrong. Miss Page must have opened two anomalies. I gave Becker orders to take care of the intruders at the second anomaly. Public safety has the highest priority."
Connor nodded in understanding and immediately regretted the hasty move. "And why are you here at all?"
"Well, someone had to recall you. It was scarcely to be expected that you would show common sense and return on your own when you finally noticed that Becker hadn't followed you. With the amount of paperwork I have to fill out when people go missing, I wasn't intending to risk losing another team member. Besides I thought it was time to see the other side of the anomaly for myself. I was expecting it to be a matter of minutes only. Step in, fetch you and step out again. I should have known nothing is ever easy if you are involved."
"I could say coming after me without back-up didn't show much commonsense either," Connor shot back.
Since Lester had put him up in his city flat when Abby had thrown him out because her baby brother had come visiting, Connor wasn't willing to endure Lester's verbal abuse any more. Seeing Lester slinking to the bathroom in pyjama bottoms, yawning heavily, had quickly eliminated his former anxiety towards the man.
"I didn't go without back-up," Lester declared indignantly. "The anomaly was closing. The soldier following me, the one with that crooked smile, I believe McKinney was his name, was halfway through when the anomaly vanished."
"And the soldier?"
"He didn't make it."
Tears sprung into Connor's eyes as he heard about the fate of the soldier. Beside Becker and Finn, Rob McKinney had been the only one in the current Special Forces team who had treated him as a friend.
"You were nowhere to be seen," Lester continued. "So I was waiting for the anomaly to reopen or for you to return so we could spot another anomaly with your handheld detector. Whatever came first. But before any of that could happen, a train of lorries emerged and I was picked up by the drivers. They thought I'd been ambushed by bandits on the way to the camp and were quite adamant that I come with them, saying it was too dangerous to stay in the heat for long without water. I was planning to leave the camp at the next opportunity only to discover that walking in is a lot easier than getting out again. The electric fence is active and the entrance gate is usually closed. So how did you get here?"
"I think the bandits knocked me out. Maybe they didn't want me to die and brought me to the camp. The entrance gate was open when I walked in. But they took my backback and my handheld ADD."
"So at the moment we have no possibility of detecting an anomaly?"
"Not by the look of it," Connor said, downcast.
After some minutes spent in heavy silence, Connor noticed Mattie watching them curiously from a few feet away. He opened his watchstrap and held the watch out to Mattie.
"Here’s your reward."
"Is that the man you were looking for? That Becker?" Mattie asked.
"No, that's Lester."
"Then keep your watch. Besides, I don't charge friends."
With Mattie's help, Lester and Connor managed to find a place for the night in one of the buildings. The bed wasn't more than a thin pad on the bare floor with a small pillow and a blanket.
"A little Spartan here," Lester mumbled and looked in dismay at the sandy floor, the bare walls and the metal locker cabinet, the only piece of furniture in the room.
"It costs £10 per night, per person, if you aren't working. Otherwise the company will pay lodgings for you," Mattie explained. "But you ought to check if someone is still at the Counter to register you. Then it counts from today and you can stay the night for free."
"Where's the Counter?" Connor asked tiredly. He had already sat down on a bed, ready to drop off at any minute.
"You stay here. I’ll go to the Counter by myself," Lester said.
"That won’t work. Everyone has to show up himself to get free lodging," Mattie said apologetically.
Lester fished two £5 notes out of his wallet and held them before Mattie's face.
"Will that be all right?"
"Of course."
Lester and Connor exchanged a look. If their banknotes were still valid they couldn't have landed very far in the future. But asking Mattie was out of the question. That would only raise suspicion.
While Connor sprawled out on the bed, Lester followed Mattie in the growing darkness to the Counter, which turned out to be a small grey building with four counter windows, three closed and one that was just about to close.
"Roger, here's a newcomer who wants to register himself and his boy."
The man behind the counter pushed the counter windows up again and peaked curiously out.
"Where's the boy? You know the rules, Mattie. Free lodging only after appearing in person."
"For tonight he's gonna pay for him. The boy needs rest. Johnson and his gang got him bad."
The man Mattie had addressed as Roger muttered a curse. "Johnson again. The damned bastard’s cost us two good men already this month. And now he's even attacking newcomers?"
With a sigh, the burly clerk behind the counter stared at Lester from head to toe. "Okay, I'll register you both. But that's a one-off exception so keep quiet about it." He pulled some sort of plastic pad out from under the counter and whipped out a pen. "Name and place of birth?"
"Lester, James, born in Aldershot," Lester said automatically.
At this Mattie and the clerk perked up.
"Didn't know some of you guys had survived the rebellion. I heard the army used mortar shells."
"I was underway at the time," Lester said in the hope that he wasn't making another faux pas.
Mattie started to grin and the clerk shook his head in amusement.
"Yeah, I can see from your clothes you’ve been in the north. You weird Rushmoor guys and your traditions."
Lester smiled politely, not having the slightest clue what the man was talking about.
"And your boy? Name and place of birth?"
"Connor Temple. He was born..." Lester tried desperately to recall where Connor was originating. All he could remember from Connor's personnel file was that it was somewhere in Lancashire.
"Somewhere in the north-west," he said finally to avoid trouble.
"Then he's probably from the Wyre district. There aren't many populated places in the west anymore."
Mattie made a face. "I 'd hoped he's from Bristol. He has shoulder-long hair like the Bristol Scouts."
The clerk chuckled quietly. "You kinky boy, you."
When Lester wrinkled his brows in confusion, the clerk declared laughing, "Mattie has a thing for tattoos. The day a tough Bristol boy shows up here he's probably dropping Beacher and Dafyyd on the spot."
"Not true," Mattie dissented forcefully, even though he still blushed furiously.
Unfazed by Mattie's reaction, the clerk said to Lester, "If you or the boy are infected with GRI, HIV or STK you’d better say so now or the company will not pay for the injections. Now sign here."
Quickly, Lester took the pen and scribbled his signature on the plastic pad.
"All right, that’s all. You are now officially a Garrard employee. Work allocation is in the morning, six o’clock sharp. Mattie can tell you the rest."
The man closed the counter forcefully, apparently not willing to give away any more information.
"It doesn't really matter which company you start with. The contract is only effective for a week, then you can switch to another," Mattie explained on the way back to the quarters. "They all pay £50 a week plus room and board. Working for Sotheby and Garrard is easier but they have strong safety measures. At Garrards they even check your arsehole for hidden gems every day. Best work you can get is Interserve. It's very demanding but in return they offer double food rations. And working for Corus will get you extra beer. But you have to be quick in the morning to get the good jobs. Five minutes too late and you'll only get the crappy midday shift."
By the time they got back to the building where Lester and Connor had found shelter, Connor had already fallen into a fitful sleep.
And after Lester had crawled into the makeshift bed, he wasn't far behind.