The Yellow Pill Read Online Free Page A

and
motioned him to continue. They couldn’t afford to delay. Gunfights could
attract others, and another attack was something they couldn’t afford right
now.
    Jin gave her a thumbs up. They tipped the wagon
back up and began loading unspoiled contents back on. Frey pushed the pain to
the back of her mind as she followed from the roof, with the knowledge that the
extra food would be worth it.
     
    “Thanks, but no thanks,” Frey said for the final time. Having heard
enough she turned and walked out of the apartment, leaving the man sitting on his
couch, looking surprised and not very happy. The guard at the door let her
pass. She heard Jin mumbling something before following.
    Frey jogged down the stairs, wanting to be gone from this place as soon
as possible. She didn’t like it. Not one bit.
    “Frey! Wait up.” Jin ran up to her and the two of them walked down the
crowded street together.
    “I hope you’re not goanna question me…” she said, knowing he wanted to
lecture her in what an opportunity they were missing. “You know I don’t deal in
drugs, no matter how good the pay may be.”
    Jin closed his mouth again. He used his little finger to scratch his
ear. “Oh well… I would be better off arguing with a rock for all the good it’s
going to do me.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    Jin elbowed her in her ribs, nudging her arm on the way. “We’re goanna
go get that looked at,” he said when he saw her arm.
    “I’ll go get it done later,” Frey said, voice strained with pain, not
looking at him.
    Jin shook his head. “I’ll chuck you over my shoulder and take you myself
if you refuse to go.” He made a grab for her healthy arm and she danced to the
side.
    “I’ll go, I’ll go.” She didn’t admit he was right. “Like talking to a
rock.”
     
    “You saved my life out there Frey, the least I
can do is pay for a few stitches,” Jin said.
    “Yeah, well, I still think a cup of brown powder is too much to pay for
a few stinking stitches,” she said.
    “ Food’s getting harder to get…”
    Frey said nothing, although words were itching to get out.
    Jin handed her leather jacket back to her, and Frey winced as she
shrugged it back on, but said nothing about the pain. Showing weakness in Slum
City was a guaranteed way to meet your maker.
    Frey flexed her hand. “You wanna go scrap
hunting?”
    He smiled down at her, winking. “Alright.”
     
    The
scrap yard was a sea of metal, machines, junk, animal carcasses, wood, glass
and if you looked hard enough, the odd thing of value you could trade at the
markets.
    Jin walked in front of her, picking his way carefully among the unstable
piles of garbage, his eyes scanning a short radius around him. Miniature
avalanches raced down the steep slope, the clatter of metal blending with all
the other noises from the scrap yard. They were far from the only ones out here,
but the yard was vast and they ran little chance of bumping into strangers by
mistake. Frey moved as carefully as Jin. Stumble and fall and you would be
lucky to get away with a broken leg.
    Frey pulled out a
long cord, but when it had nothing of interest on the other end, it ended up
rolling down the side as well.
    “Hey, Frey,” Jin
said.
    She looked up and
saw Jin staring at a man balancing on top of a wrecked car. It was hard to hear
what the man was yelling, but it was clear he wasn’t quite right in the head.
The man was screaming at nobody and everybody, moving around in circles on top
of an upside-down turned car, waving his arms in the air like he was fighting
with someone.
    “Can you hear
what he’s yelling?” Jin asked.
    Frey strained her
ears, trying to pick out the words above the racket. “Eye? The eye… alone
something… don’t let them… spot? No, drop you…
took my-“ Frey stopped, shaking her head. “He doesn’t make much sense.” She
didn’t admit that even though he seemed to be spewing insanity, his words still
made her shiver.
    The man took a
step