Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

his shirt, but Larry teetered back at the last moment, laughing even louder and with more delight.

With each failed grasp, Kev got more riled-up. “FUCKING STOP IT WILL YOU! LARRY!” He grabbed a fistful of shirt, but Larry pushed him away and the force sent him back into one of the tables.

Larry laughed at Kev’s embarrassment and hopping on his right leg, pulled up his shirt and swung it above his head, his man-boobs jiggling as his orangutan chest went round the room.

Sanders squirmed from behind the serving table. Dale made a half-assed attempt, but Larry jumped back once more. Then they had him, squeezed him in until he was cornered. Kev closed on his left and Dale edged around the back, Larry’s face still full of infant joy when Kev eventually grabbed his wrist.

I waited for him to react at the man almost a foot and a half shorter- but he didn’t do anything, and allowed himself to be pulled back around the table, his upper body naked, his shirt in his left hand, that innocent smile still etched on his face. Dale locked in his other arm, and as they walked towards the corridor, Larry’s fat, sweaty chest at their eye level, it slowly dawned on him where he was going, and his smile dropped, and he whined and whinnied like a horse. “No! I don’t want to go back!” He thrashed only his head and shoulders, seemingly unaware of the strength of his own body. “No! Let me finish my breakfast.”

Everyone in the room watched him go.

“Let me finish my breakfast!” Larry wailed again. His head dropped submissively. He looked about to cry.

“Are you going to behave then?” Sanders shouted.

The three of them halted. Sanders walked in front of them and stared at Larry. “Yes. I will.” he pleaded. “I will. I will. I promise.”

 “You know how seriously we treat broken promises?” Sanders warned.

“Yes. I will behave! Let me go, please.” His upper body wriggled but his arms stayed rigid.

“Okay.” Sanders nodded. Kev and Dale let him go. “Sit down at the table and finish your breakfast.”

Larry turned, his face earnest and heeding her words, his arms swinging determinedly as he made back for his chair. He sat down with his food.

The staff went back to the serving area. Sanders frowned at me. “Morning, Aisha. Liz, you got hers there?” she said in the same breath.

I collected my tray and went over to join Sandy, sitting down next to him, our backs to the room. But he glanced at me coldly and looked away.

“Okay?” I asked.

“Fine.” he grunted.

But he was annoyed at me for some reason. Or annoyed with something else. His body was tense. He kept his face turned away as he ate his porridge.

Maybe he hasn’t slept? I thought. I let him be and ate my own food silently.

The room fell back into its usual flatness. The TV droning above everything, the staff chatting away.

I had almost finished my food. Sandy had almost finished his. “Where’s Nina?” I asked him at last.

“In her room.”

“How come?”

He sighed, turned slowly and was just about to reply when someone’s scream pierced our ears, “THEY’RE WATCHING US! THEY’RE WATCHING US!” I looked round at a guy in the TV crowd, - his face was contorted, his hands around his horrified mouth- he looked like The Scream painting I once saw in London.

Sanders ran over, “We need more medication,” she shouted to Liz, “Where’s Jean?”

I looked at Sandy and he looked back at me. His tired head rolled on his shoulders. His eyes were almost shut.

“THEY’RE WATCHING US!” The man screamed again. His mouth was so wide it seemed dislocated. His eyes looked demented.

“Who’s watching us?” Larry stood up.

“ALL OF THEM!” The man screamed.

Larry held his hands over his ears. Liz joined Sanders in holding onto the man while Dale and Kev ran for Larry, but too late, he put his hands under the table and with the smallest of efforts flipped it up and over. It crashed down. Plates and cups and food went flying. Larry stomped his feet and joined the man in screaming and Kev and Dale threw themselves upon him. A gasp of shock went through the room as Larry keeled over like a fallen tree and smashed onto his back, narrowly avoiding cracking his skull on the edge of the table. Dale took his legs, Kev took his arms and sat on him, his right knee crushing into his chest. A pained veil came over Larry’s bulging eyes and he seemed to lose all sense. “AAAARGGHHHHAAAAGHH!” he writhed and struggled, for real this time. Kev bore his knee down harder and pushed his palm over his face, pressing his head into the floor.

Larry’s screams were terrible. But the other man’s were even worse. Then another patient joined in. Many of them were panicking. I saw a lady double over in pain, holding her stomach.

Kev’s sparkling eyes scanned the room, absorbing the moment with what seemed like pleasure, as he pinned Larry down. Then those blue eyes glared down into Larry’s face, he pressed the bone of his knee down deeper and pushed his weight into his hand. “Watch his fuckin head!” I found myself shouting. I couldn’t hold it in and raced over and beat Kev’s hand away and leaned over Larry, trying to calm him down. His petrified eyes flashed before me.

“THEY’RE ALL WATCHING US!! I SEE THEM. I SEE THEM.” Sanders and Liz had their hands on the man’s shoulders, going “Ssshh, shhh, hush, hush.”

A fourth person joined the screams, the horror filling the air. It was chaos. Dale struggled to hold Larry’s right arm down, Kev tightened his grip on his left and pushed all his weight into his knee, and I squeezed in between them as Kev’s lips curled into a grin. “Watch what you’re doin!” I shouted