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Chapter 10 – Sponge Bob Square Pants

[Location: Decontamination Depot t3rm1nu5 - Cafeteria]

Ruben stood next to Jack as they waited for their food, and slightly elbowed him. “She’s a nice lady, isn’t she?”

Jack smiled. “Yeah, not too many like her around anymore.”

Ruben had grown up in Lubbock, Texas as the son of two hard working, God fearing, Christian parents. His siblings were a group of three brothers and two sisters all younger than him. His youngest brother and sister had both been claimed by the outbreak of Vermiculira in the early stages of the event. Since doctors hadn’t realized yet that a cure for the infection was not available, his sister had been taken to the Worldwide Health Organization facility in Houston in an attempt at treatment. The doctors informed the family that their efforts to save the girl had failed and they would be unable to view their daughter’s dead body due to fear of contamination.

His brother had contracted the infection as he walked home from school one day. He stumbled through the front door, red faced and filled with rage with his Sponge Bob Square Pants lunch box still in his hand. He became so violent, his father feared for the safety of the family and had to kill his son with his own hands. Whenever Ruben thought about the deaths of his brother and sister his heart would ache like a pulled hamstring, so he tried to flush the memory out of his mind as much as he could.

He was a bright kid but wasn’t able to finish high school once society began to crumble. He had hoped to relocate to Mars with what was left of his family, but drew a lottery ticket for the position as an underground composite fuel miner. The job was extremely dangerous and was considered a death sentence, with most miners being killed by a tunnel collapse or by inhaling toxic gas that frequently lingered throughout the mine shafts.

A few hundred feet below the red soil surface of Mars was an endless supply of methane shale oil (M.S.O.). The United States had set up twenty-four M.S.O. mining facilities across the planet of Mars where they extracted the methane oil from the shale material through the process of pyrolysis. The methane oil could be used in almost every type of compression-combustion engine and eventually became the fuel that ran the machines across the entire planet.

As luck would have it, Ruben’s cousin had been hired by Elixer Pharmaceuticals a few months before and was able pay off a few officials and help him get a job as a security guard. It was evident that the responsibilities of a security guard on a prisoner transport would test Ruben’s quiet personality, but it was a much better alternative than suffocating in a composite fuel mine.

In Ruben’s short twenty-two year life, he had experienced a plethora of horrific events and had been put in terrible situations which caused his personality to turn inward. He rarely said much to people and chose to follow the directions he was given without objection. His only friend since joining Elixer was his co-worker Jack Ford, who had taken on the role of his big brother.

Ruben leaned toward Jack. “Think they got meatloaf here?”

“Probably.” Jack nodded. “She said she could make almost anything.” He gestured toward Linda as she stood behind the grill. “Ask her.”

“I used to love meatloaf.” He sighed, “My mom would make it every Tuesday, with green beans and mashed potatoes.”

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