Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Forty

As the day rolls on, the night gets closer and I'm starting to get really nervous about going to see Sakina. My worst fear is that she has forgotten me and what she told me and we'll be out in the cold (so to speak) again. I mean, I'm sure you can't just rent a hotel in the Badlands... Also, I've never been to a strip club, so I have no idea what to wear. Nalak just gives me a look as I look over my clothing options.

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"Dude, it doesn't matter what you wear. You're not a pimp and you're not trying to get noticed for a business deal or something. Just put on a T-shirt and jeans and go about your business."

"Well I'm trying to not look like a kid." I growl.

"Compared to the nasty old geezers who probably hang out in there, you'll look like a kid even if you were in your thirties."

"Pretty sure that's a nice strip club." Rocket says from the doorway. "I went to check it out while Trident was asleep and I saw some swanky people go in."

"How come he didn't know it was a strip club but you did?" Nalak asks as he puts his hand on his stomach.

"I deduce things much easier than him and I believe in the slight evils of the world. Trident is a softy and so he just didn't want to believe that a girl Ramey's age would be a stripper in a strip club when the reality is that in this place, so far into the city it's close to the Badlands, there's not really much choice on the matter. It pays well, they can use her Emptiness as an exotic feature, and because she doesn't have a swell, she's a commodity... at least until she's twenty-one. Then... well..."

"Can we not talk about my friend like that?"

"Like what? She's a stripper, that's how the game works. If you're going to be weirded out by it then what the hell are you doing trying to get in there then?"

"I just mean about the after twenty-one part... I don't want to think about that part."

"R, your friend signed up for it when she became one. It's in the contract."

"Do Altered strippers have to sign a contract like that?" Nalak asks.

I turn to them swiftly. "The Altered have strip clubs?"

"Yeah, they do." Rocket says with a grin so big I see his teeth under the mask. "And believe me, if you think this place is cool, wait until you see an Altered strip club. There's so many exotic things going on in there that it's like visiting a fantasy planet. It's the place where people who have closet fetishes come to play. We get a lot of Normal people there."

"And Zanni, it seems." Nalak says with a laugh.

"Actually, we are the bouncers. Because we get a lot of Normals in there, it can get rowdy and sometimes prejudices come out and all that jazz. We're there for security but we can also get a nice peepshow for our services. I saw this Stretcher-girl on the pole one time-"

"Yo! Shut up!"

Everyone starts laughing at me because blood is coming out of my nose and over my fingers but I'm trying not to imagine my friend as a stripper for the moment but it's not helping. I hold out a shirt.

"Is this good or what?" I growl.

"Formal... what's with the polo? Just wear something normal. You don't want to look too suspicious, like you're trying not to look suspicious. A kid in a polo at a strip club is weird."

"You know what? Someone come and find me something to wear while I go and clean myself up."

I go to the bathroom and start scrubbing my face. I dry my face off with a towel when I look in the mirror and see this weird thing on the ceiling. It's moving but it's covered in white cotton candy looking stuff. I realize that I haven't seen Trident all day... I don't do anything when I see it, coming down behind me. A giant pointy, segmented leg on an invisible string. I dare to turn around and find the hugest spider I've ever seen in my life descending gracefully down a web. It is a black widow from the red hourglass shape on the back, and she is looking right at me with all eight of her eyes. I slowly back out of the room and shut the door.