By the 5th rectangular hallway that looked identical to all the others, Moriarty realized he had no clue where he was going. He didn’t remember what they taught in training about this. He wasn’t sure they taught anything at all. If only he had taken notes…
He started breathing heavily, and a slimy liquid appeared on his skin. He vaguely remembered this as being called “sweat,” one of the only things he remembered from training, because it oddly gross. Out of curiosity, he ran his finger across his forehead, stared at the sweat, and then licked it.
“Not bad.” He said out loud, in his still-trying-to-get-used-to-this-human-voice voice.
“What?” Another human head became visible from behind a wall. This head had long hair, and its voice was higher. Moriarty recognized this as a female human. “Did you say something?” The high-pitched voice asked again.
His brain spun. He tried to think. He squinted his eyes. His nose twitched. He hadn’t yet found the correct reaction.
“…No…?” The words came out of his mouth like an accident.
“Are you sure?” The human female’s whole body appeared now, dressed in similar attire as Jeff. She must be a scientist too, Moriarty realized.
“I mean…Hi…” He looked at her name tag. “…Molly.” He finished his sentence. He was proud of his better-sounding voice.
“Oh…” Molly’s voice trailed off. “Hi, Jeff.” She said. “What are you doing over in our neck of the woods.”
Moriarty tilted his head sideways. Neck of the woods. The sentence didn’t make sense to him. He repeated it internally. The language assimilation program had covered that explicit string of words. Nothing registered, so he picked a default response. “Just hanging out.” He said.
“Cool,” Molly replied.
He must have picked the right response.
“Well while you’re here, can you help me with these?” She turned behind the wall from where she had come and Moriarty followed. Behind the wall were boxes in a misshapen pile. The boxes were brown, and made of the material Moriarty recognized as cardboard, an incredibly inefficient means of packaging, he remembered from training.
“Sure,” he said, realizing he might be able to build goodwill with Molly, in return for a favor of his own, namely, escaping this place.
“This is all garbage,” Molly said. “It can be taken outside.”
“Outside?” His response sounded like a surprise. Moriarty recognized the word. Outside was where he wanted to go.
“Oh don’t worry,” Molly said, holding up her hands. “It’s non-toxic. We can just put it in the dumpster.”
Moriarty smiled. He stuck out his squishy arms and maneuvered his hand and fingers around boxes. Either his arms were strong, or the boxes weren’t very heavy, because he was able to pick up several at once. He watched Molly for any clues that he should be picking up boxes differently. There were none.
“So how have you been anyway? I don’t see you around much anymore.”
Moriarty stuttered and dropped a box. “Sorry,” he said, grinning and leaning over to pick up the box. He picked another default response. “Good,” he said, and kept stacking boxes on top of each other until his were as high as Molly’s pile.
“Really?” She asked, walking for a door nearby. “Even after what happened?”
“What happened?” Moriarty said. He was repeating Molly, word-for-word, but didn’t realize it sounded like a question.
Molly stopped and turned. Her box pile fluttered with the sudden change of direction. “It’s okay, you don’t have to be like that around me. I know how hard it is.” She balanced her stack of boxes on a forearm and reached her other hand out to touch Jeff’s. “I know,” she continued. “I know.” She stroked his arm once before taking it back to balance the load across both hands. He held back a desire to lick his own sweat off Molly’s fingers.
She re-balanced her pile of boxes and continued down the hall. “Did you get back today?”
Moriarty followed her. “A few days ago.”
“Why didn’t you stop by?”
“I was… busy.”
The two kept walking in silence.
“Well you know,” Molly finally said. “There’s been a lot that’s been happening here. And today the alien woke up.”
“I heard,” he said. He stepped funny so he could use one foot to scratch another. His human legs dry, they weren’t saturated like his forehead and arms. It was uncomfortable. He didn’t like it so far.
“We might go on lockdown if they can’t find it soon.”
“Him.” Moriarty said.
“I’m sorry?”
“The alien is a male.”
“Oh,” Molly said. “How do you-” she paused. “Nevermind.” She kept walking down the hall. “As long as they don’t go on lockdown before we can get rid of our boxes, I’m okay with it.” Molly giggled.
Moriarty laughed, this time more convincingly than before.