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Open your eyes, Grey

He did; he opened his eyes His vision crawled into focus A dark for fan

He blinked the grime away A bitter taste, like wet ashes, painted the walls of his mouth The room where he lay possessed the unmistakable sense of a chain motel-the scratchy coverlet and cheap foa above, the smell of recycled, overused air in his nostrils His brain felt as eelatin Even to th beyond his power The rooh the drapes Above his face, the fan spun and spun, rocking on its bracket, its worn-out bearings rhythht was as abrasive to his senses as s salts, and yet he could not look away (And wasn’t there so in a dreaer recalled)

"Good, you’re awake"

Sitting on the edge of the second bed, eyes downcast, was a e in its casing One of the civilian employees of Project NOAH, known as sweeps: men like Grey whose job it was to clean up the piss and shit and back up the drives and watch the sticks for hours and hours, slowly going loony; sex offenders to a one, despised and forgotten, men without histories anyone cared to remember, their bodies softened by hor

"I thought the fan would do it Tell you the truth, I can’t even look at the thing"

Grey tried to respond but couldn’t His tongue felt toasted, as if he’d sain; his godda It had been years since he’d drunk s, you were too sleepy and pretty -but Grey reover was That’s how this felt Like the worst hangover in the world

"What’s the ue?" The man chuckled at some private joke "That’s funny, you know Under the circuht now" He turned toward Grey, his eyebrows arcing "Don’t look so shocked You’ll see what I mean Takes a few days but then it kicks in, real hard"

Grey renacio that Grey remembered was older, more worn-doith a heavy, creased brow and pores you could park a car in and jowls that sagged like a bassett hound’s This Ignacio was in the pink of health-literally pink, his cheeks rouged with color, skin baby ser But there was nowho it was, on account of the tat-prison ink, blurred and bluish, a hooded snake rising up his neck from the open collar of his juular riot, you know that? We’re at the Red Roof"

"The what?"

HeRed Roof, Grey What did you think, they’d send us to the Ritz?"

They? Grey thought Who were they? And what did Ignacio mean by "send"? Send for what purpose? Which was thein his hand A pistol?

"Iggy? What are you doing with that thing?"

Ignacio lazily raised the gun, a long-barreled 45, frowning at it "Not led his head toward the door "Those other guys were here for a while, too But they’re all gone now"

"What guys?"

"Coe Eddie whatzisname Jude, with the ponytail" He looked past Grey toward the curtains "Tell you the truth, I never did like him I heard about the stuff he did, not that I’"

Ignacio was talking about the other sweeps What were they all doing here? What was he doing here? The gun wasn’t a good sign, but Grey couldn’t call up a singlehe recalled was eating dinner in the coravy, with a side of scalloped potatoes and green beans and a Cherry Coke to wash it all down It was his favorite h as he thought about it, its greasy taste, his stomach clamped with nausea A squirt of bile shot up his throat He had to take a ave his pistol a halfhearted wave toward the door "Look yourself if you want But I’one"

Grey sed "Gone where?"

"That depends Wherever they’re supposed to go"

Grey felt totally at sea He couldn’t even figure out what questions to ask He was pretty sure he wouldn’t like the answers, though Maybe the best thing was to lie quietly He hoped he hadn’t done so terrible, like in the old days The days of the Old Grey

"Well," Ignacio said, and cleared his throat, "as long as you’re awake, I guess I better bewalk ahead of un "Here"