Chapter 3: Rock Steady
Yan woke up feeling refreshed. Only one day to go until the big concert in the lunch hall, he could hardly wait. Even a couple of Vykkers would be there, I guess it's not every day that a Slig band shows up in a factory to play to the workforce. I bet this was Sernek's idea... it's typical of a Glukkon to think of a cost-effective way of boosting morale without breaking the bank. The Slig band was probably promoting it's new album. Yan was going to download it as soon as it was uploaded onto the megaNet store.
Yan started singing one of their songs, taking his yPod with him to the laboratory. As soon as he entered, he could smell something bad. He ran into the other room to see the Vykker looking at the Scrabs. "This is a problem", the Vykker said. One of the Scrabs was lying on the floor, his blood oozing on the floor. The other Scrabs were a bit shocked by this, pacing around the cell in a menacing fashion. "I can't see a wound anywhere, it must have been ill or something". Yan nodded. "Get the Oddnesium, we need to tranquilize the rest and separate them from the body. Yan nodded and ran into the other room to get some supplies.
They analyzed the body for a few hours, turns out it had some kind of medical condition that was not detected by conventional scans.
"Some kind of rare disease", the Vykker theorized, "Thankfully it isn't contagious so we don't have to quarantine anything". Yan then proceeded onto his daily routine, checking supplies, looking at the Scrabs behavior, feeding them. The Vykker came to him just before lunch. "I trust you'll be going to see the Meech Munchers tomorrow evening?". Yan nodded enthusiastically. "I see, well that isn't a problem. Are you willing to do some overtime tonight to cover your time off?". Yan nodded again. "Alright. One errand for you, go to the Stockyards Officer and get a Scrab from him. I'll need a replacement", Yan mumbled and left the room.
Finally he finished his work and crashed out on his bed. He woke up the next morning and got ready for a very entertaining show tonight.
He went into work as usual, completed his chores, getting ready for the show.
He met Drew in the lunch hall that evening and they both got some good seats in the lunch hall.
There was a big crowd of people there. About a few hundred Sligs, fifty Interns and ten Vykkers. There was a massive black stage where the lunch tables at the far end of the room normally resided. The band's symbols, a red pitchfork and a black shield logo were placed on either side of the stage. There were big TV monitors at the back of the stage which showed zoomed-in footage of the band.
A smoke machine was turned on, people started cheering. Suddenly, the lead guitarist Manny walked onto the stage his metal pants whirring, lots of applause was heard. He did a couple of guitar riffs and then shouted to the crowd, "EVERYONE READY TO ROCK?!". There was a loud cheer.
Yan was going to enjoy this night very much.
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