High Pressure System: Part One Read Online Free Page A

picked up as the dogs ran through the doorway with their tails tucked between their legs. They weren’t the only animals to come in the door. A few birds and a squirrel followed. Jim and I put our weight into shutting the heavy metal door. Two more birds flew in, and a rabbit squeezed through just before the door slammed shut. We shoved the heavy bolts into the wall just as the thick, dark clouds blotted out the sun.
    “That’s more than last time,” Jim said, as he shooed the birds and the rabbit into the lobby.
    Loud music blasted overhead like it usually did when a storm rolled in. It kind of helped distract from all the rumbling. The dogs freaked out barking at the squirrel and the rabbit. I grabbed Yodel. Jim scooped up Dobbers. We held their mouths shut whispering for them to stop barking. I had to bite my lip not to scream as the squirrel climbed up my leg to my sweatshirt and it burrowed in my hood.
    The lobby lights rattled. The birds hunched down in the fake ficus trees, nervously looking about.
    “The little guy is scared all curled up in your hoo,.” Jim whispered in my ear handing me Dobbers. He collected the rabbit that hid in the corner then placed it in an animal carrier. “You should take the boys to your apartment. I can catch these guys. I’m well practiced now.”
    “Do you think Wanda and Ben mind the extra animals?”
    “They haven’t minded yet. I think they like to hear the bird songs. You should go down and hang out in
Live Food Management
sometime.”
    “Okay, they seriously need to rename it. Why not just call it
The Farm
?”
    “I don’t know. You should talk to Brandon, I bet he named it.”
    “I can never find him and I can’t stand the smell down there anyway. Maybe that’s where Brandon’s been hiding.”
    “You want to take the squirrel down there?”
    “I’ll just take him to the vet.I might ask if I can keep him.” If my arms weren’t full of dogs, I would have plugged my ears as I descended the stairs. The blasted music echoed even worse off the cement walls in the stairwell.

4
To flirt or not to flirt
    I wasn’t allowed outside with the dogs anymore. I went to the vet every day and begged her to let me keep the squirrel while he was quarantined. The vet gave in to my pleas telling me Rocky was easy to handle and he seemed to have bonded with me quickly. The Agriculture Floor gave me a dwarf lemon tree for Rocky the day I brought him home. I hung a plastic bowl on a branch with zip ties and he promptly made a nest out of cotton balls.
    Brandon ran lock down drills far more often than was necessary over the next few weeks, driving everyone nuts. Mainly because of his choice in music. The drills started with
The William Tell Overture
blasting over the PA. We stopped whatever we were doing, returned to our apartments right away, and pressed our thumbs into the simple recognition pad on the wall to trigger the door to lock us in.
    When I was exploring one of the vacant floors one day, I tried staying in one of the empty apartments. I locked myself in as if I was in my own home. It was quite nice too because the music wasn’t blasting as loud as it did in mine.
    I sat on the floor waiting for the all clear when the door swooshed open. The dogs barked protectively at the intruder. When I got a hold of them both, I wanted to die when I looked up.
    Brandon stood in the doorway with clenched fists, glaring at me with fire in his eyes and fury reddening his face as if I had committed the ultimate sin, defied the laws of God, and anything else he thought was holy. I broke one of the Brandon Commandments.
    “If you pull something like this again, anyone that wants to see you will have to come to your new room in the security hall.”
    I stood up so he wasn’t looking down at me. I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me like that. “Geez, Brandon. Lighten up a little. It wasn’t like I tried to defy you by roaming the halls. I still locked myself in a safe place. It would