Stung (Zombie Gentlemen) by K.A. Merikan

a intensely green
leaf, glistening in the sun. The buildings were either bigger than any he had
ever seen, or it was just the impact of the empty space around them that made
them seem so massive. Either way, he found them unpleasant and intimidating.
Now that he was so close to them, the buzzing inside was so loud everyone had
to raise their voice when talking.
    Sadly, Tompson, with whom he was to consult about
the escape plan today, was delegated to a wood chopping station, while Victor
was brought up here along with two young women. They were supposed to extract
honey from the apiary. Victor didn’t quite grasp the logic behind keeping the
bees in this huge greenhouse, but it wasn’t for him to judge. He wasn’t staying
long anyway. There was talk on the topic yesterday, and the consensus was to
act as fast as possible. Within the next few days possibly.
    It made his situation with Crunch somewhat
difficult. The man promised to see him yesterday yet he didn’t show up at any
point, and Victor was sent out to work in the orchard again. His cheeks stung a
bit from the sun, but at least the skin wasn’t peeling. Did Crunch disappear
with the ring, or did he simply lose interest? Both of these perspectives
stung, but Victor was more concerned about his mother's keepsake than
rejection. Maybe he could somehow inquire about the man’s whereabouts?
    “Move your lazy arse, canary bird.” The rough
voice made him abandon fantasies and pick up the devices, rushing towards the
guard who was patting his thighs rhythmically. “This is not a holiday.”
    Victor bit his lip, stifling a moan of pain when
one of the metal cylinders banged into his shin, radiating pain all over his
leg. He opened his mouth to swear, but shut it when one of the female prisoners
assigned to work with him looked out of the open shed.
    “Coming,” he mumbled, finally walking into the
cool room that smelled of honey and dust with a base of rotting wood.
    “Finally,” commented the other guard.
    Victor froze, noticing the man’s hand around the
other girl’s arm, but didn’t say a thing and put the devices on the wooden
floor next to the one that was already there. He was relieved to see the guard
shoving the girl away. He wouldn’t know how to react if the man kept making
advances at her. She swiftly walked up to a wooden stool, bending her legs to
cover as much of her calves as possible under a wide skirt that ended just below
the knee and was torn on the side.
    The guard watched her legs even as he tilted one
of the cylindrical devices towards them, motioning for all three of them to
sit. The stools weren’t all that comfortable, but the work was miles away from
the hard labour Victor endured in the orchard, or the disgusting chores of the
pighouse.
    The guard showed them how to use the device to
extract honey from honeycomb with the iron extractors and as it wasn’t a
difficult feat, they were all soon furiously turning the handles and filling
jars with the sweet gold. While it wasn’t an arduous task, it was intense
enough to make Victor hot, and the handle eventually started hurting his hand.
At least he could sit while doing this job, but the lack of sufficient amount
of food combined with working far more than he was used to was already taking
its toll on him. It wasn't too horrible yet, he was simply feeling weaker than
usual, hungry, and his muscles kept stinging since he shovelled out pig shit
two days ago.
    A well known voice snapped him out of the grim
thoughts.
    “Put that down, canary. The ladies can carry on
without ya.”
    He almost got his hand into the processor, looking
up with surprise. His heart immediately went into gallop when his gaze met a
pair of familiar green eyes.
    Crunch looked like the dashing dandy of Honeyhill.
The brown shirt under his leather jacket  carefully starched, and he even had
his boots polished. Crunch yawned and stretched, probably trying to look
uninterested. “Come on. Don’t got all