Sunny

  Table of Contents

  CH 1

  CH 2

  CH 3

  CH 4

  About the author:

  CH 1

  There were two things Zach was not: a summer person and a morning person.

  Standing in the hallway of his ancient rental home, built somewhere in the time gap of 1950 and early paleolithic, he helplessly fidgeted with the thermostat. Mid-July in New Mexico was not the time of year for a human to be denied air conditioning, and he was growing more desperate with each new drop of sweat.

  His boxers were sticking to his thighs. One sock had been torn from his left foot as he violently kicked his blankets off, and the numbers on the stupid thermostat were blurry. Reaching up to adjust his glasses, he realized he wasn’t wearing them. He mumbled some curse words and lazily pulled the fabric off one thigh.

  “Morning, roomie!”

  “No,” Zach responded without looking over, still squinting at the dial. “Leave me alone.”

  “Yeah, the AC kinda sucks this time of year. I’m gonna top it off with freon later, but you may wanna get yourself a fan. Hey, you want some protein shake? I made too much this morning.”

  Zach turned his gaze to the cause of his morning onslaught. Brad had the nerve to not only be wide awake at seven in the morning, but wasn’t sweating a goddamn drop. To top it off, he was wearing one of those stupid, overly huge tank tops that hung off his perfectly crafted, overly beefcake torso with “TAPOUT” on the front.

  He looked like a douchebag.

  Zach made a point of glaring for a long moment, or trying to glare since he was sleepy, sweaty and blind. Unlike his muscle-head roommate, Zach was a skinny nerd who didn’t drink his food. He liked coffee in the morning like normal people.

  “No, Brad. I don’t want protein. I want coffee and cold air.”

  “Coffee’s not good for you, man. Bad for your heart. Hey, you can start going for runs with me in the morning! It’s a great way to get the blood pumping.”

  Zach gestured down his scrawny body with one hand. “Do I look like a runner?”

  Brad didn’t have an answer for that. With a sigh, Zach tried one last time to get the air to kick on by sliding the little dial over lower numbers. When he was once again met with resistance, he turned back towards his room.

  “So, the game is this Sunday and I’m thinking about throwing a little shindig at the house.”

  Turning, Zach was surprised that Brad had followed him down the hallway.

  “Game? Like...sports or something?” Zach rubbed at his eyes.

  “Yeah, like you know, football.”

  He couldn’t be too sure with his crappy eyesight, but it almost seemed like Brad looked hopeful. Despite the fact the man was huge, played first person shooters on his Xbox like it was his religious duty to do so, spent 98% of his time in the gym and wore TAPOUT shirts un-ironically, he did have the big, brown, puppy dog eyes thing down. It was startling.

  “I don’t care about football.”

  “I know, dude. But it’ll be fun. Lots of food and shit.”

  “And shit,” Zach said dry, tugging his boxers off his thighs again. “Great.”

  “So, is that ok?” Brad hovered by Zach’s door as he searched his room for his glasses. Slipping them on, he blinked at the marvel of seeing reality through the lenses of clarity. Brad was in fact doing the puppy-eye thing, which was irritatingly effective.

  “Sure.”

  “Great!” Puppy dog eyes melted away as he smiled. He hadn’t shaved yet, so his dark brown whiskers made his face seem less boyish. Normally, Brad never did anything without a dumbass, baseball cap on with a flat brim. This morning, his messy, sandy hair was all over the place.

  “You’re going to look into the AC thing, right?”

  Brad gave him a salute. “I’ll get on it today.”

  “Great. I need to shower.” Zach cringed as he ran his fingers through his sweat slick, brown hair.

  “Oh, you might wanna give it a second. I took a long shower after my workout. It might be a little cold.” Brad gave the doorframe a pat before taking his leave.

  I hate Brad.

  After a very short, cold shower that actually was kinda refreshing, Zach tossed on his best button down and slacks and headed out into the New Mexican heat. It took his Honda longer than it should to cool down, but once he got on the highway it wasn’t so bad. The commute to work was just long enough to get engrossed into a good sci-fi audiobook or true crime podcast before pulling up to the security check in.

  Zach scanned his ID badge and pulled into the back parking area, since the IT dudes went in through the side. TruTech wasn’t a bad place to work by any stretch. Most of the time, people left him completely alone. The only time he was called or summoned was when a lab geek locked himself out of his laptop or new cyber security set up was needed on the computers.

  Other than that, Zach had the bliss of solitude.

  And air conditioning.

  It was sort of neat to be asked into the controlled labs, since they usually were working on some really fascinating stuff. Like all scientists, they were always more than happy to explain whatever the hell it was they were working on. One afternoon, Zach sat with a woman who was working on inverting the gene in a rat’s thumb to give it a second set of digits.

  The only downfall was seeing the poor animals locked in cages. Zach wasn’t a huge fan of seeing fuzzballs and the like being used for the betterment of science, but they didn’t pay him to grow attached. They paid him to be a computer nerd.

  “Ok, Mr. Nguyn. I’ve got the updates installed for you.” Zach got up from the man’s chair and offered it to him. “You’ll need to update your passwords.”

  Mr. Nguyn, a man with few words but a kind smile, thanked him briefly before taking his seat again. For a guy who worked with brain chemistry, he was garbage when it came to security. His passwords were written on sticky notes stuck to the screen of his computer, and usually contained the word “password”.

  Zach slipped his own laptop back into his shoulder bag and flipped it closed with the long flap. Along the outside were a couple buttons and pins from various shows he adored and a sticker or two that held on for dear life. Since everyone was issued the same plain black bag when they start, he had to add some flare to tell his apart from everyone else’s.

  The cool brain science wing of TruTech was near the basement area of the complex. There were a couple labs, each with their own offices and set ups, and an entire room filled with animal habitats. Most of the animals were rats and mice, sometimes different breeds of each, with a couple wild cards thrown in. Zach unfortunately had to pass through the little zoo on his way in and out of the brain wing, which always made him feel a little bad.

  Instead of glancing at the cages and running the risk of making eye contact with a rat he’d mourn for a week after its cage was empty, he focused on his phone and tried to walk past the cages at a brisk pace. At the far end of the zoo, one of the little cages was giving off a soft blue glow. There was no way in hell he was going to look inside, and told himself this over and over again as he walked closer to it.

  He’d keep watching his phone, checking Reddit threads mindlessly, and not look at whatever the hell was in there.

  Somehow, he was standing right in front of the goddamn cage, staring inside of it, before his brain caught up with what he was doing.

  Inside the cage was what looked like a bunched up ball of white rubber. The strange thing was glowing a serene, almost melancholy pulse of blue light. Along the sides, small swirls of sad little blue lines squiggles in slow circles. It was the weirdest nightlight he’d ever seen before. Somehow the color was making him feel so incredibly...well...blue. He could feel it from his chest, like the light was reminding him of a
ll the things that ever made him want to curl up in a ball and lie there alone.

  He remembered swinging alone at the playground as a kid, when no one wanted to play with him. He remembered his sister leaving and how empty her room was afterwards. He remembered how it felt when his dad stopped calling him after he brought a boy home from college.

  Zach was pushing up his glasses to wipe the mist from his eyes when the ball of rubber inside moved. At first, he thought it was his eyes being tradiorious bastards, since they clearly had it out to make him look like a wuss who cried at nothing, but then the damn thing moved again.

  A wide, eyeless head poked up from the bunch as the body shifted around. It almost looked like a snake at first, from the diamond shape of its bulbous head and little smile-like curve to its mouth, but four limbs soon became apparent as it moved about. Its limbs were stocky and bent at the elbows and knees, with fat hands and feet. The fingers and toes had rounded, gecko-like pads that stuck to the plastic cage as it moved.

  Even though the odd animal didn’t have eyes, Zach could feel like it was watching him. Three little fin like tendrils unfolded from either side of its head and moved like wispy feathers. Each tendril had an iridescent, pink sheen, that seemed to almost ripple in the soft blue light.

  “Wow,” Zach breathed, moving his head to mirror that of the creatures. It wiggled its tendrils again and tilted its head to the other side. Zach did the same. The blue light began to fade, and a cautious pink began to blossom, replacing the sorrow with something else entirely.

  Zach could remember seeing a kid walking over to him on the swingset and asking him to play. He had been so worried it was a trick, but he so desperately wanted a friend. Kids were so mean. He remembered getting an unknown call on his phone, and wanting it to connect to his sister’s voice. He remembered a handwritten envelope in his mailbox with the penmanship being so similar to that of his dad’s.

  Hope.

  He was feeling hope.

  “How the hell are you doing that?” he whispered quickly, putting his hand to the plastic door of the cage. The little creature wiggled its fins and placed its tiny, sticky hand against the warm spot were Zach’s hand was. It could understand him—or at least connect to him in some way. It didn’t take a genius to realize the odd creature was asking for help out of his cage, and that Zach was probably its only real hope for escape.

  There was a chance that this small, somehow adorable, eyeless salamander was an evil alien creature using telepathic powers to manipulate him into doing its bidding. Zach was no novice when it came to weird, sci-fi plotlines but he was also a big fan of 80s kids adventure movies. Either this bizarre animal was going to eat his face the moment he opened up the cage, and he’d be the first casualty in the beginning of the hundred year alien war against the humans, or he’d befriend this odd thing and go on wild adventures together. They may even find some old pirate treasure or something.

  It was absolutely worth the risk. Plus, he wasn’t going to let the poor thing get stabbed with needles and dissected, even if it might destroy the planet. Fuck that.

  Whether it be blind luck or master-mind level planning, the maybe alien salamander chose one of the few people in the building that knew and understood the building security. Yes, Zach was the IT guy, but literally everything in the building ran on computers. He knew where the cameras were, knew which areas had the most security, and came and went through the back of the building all the damn time.

  If he ever wanted to be a thief, he’d get pretty far. Zach had never stolen anything in his life before—well, besides downloading music for free back in the early 2000’s and maybe pirating a movie or two—but nothing physical.

  This was going to be a first.

  Zach pulled his laptop out of his bag and eyed the space inside. It was going to be tight, but he sure as hell couldn’t hold the animal like a teddy bear during the smuggle. Setting the laptop down, he took a breath and squared his shoulders.

  “Ok, dude. We gotta work together here. A couple ground rules: one, don’t eat my face. Two, you gotta cool it on the glowing if you can, at least until we get out. Three, no noises. Four, don’t piss in my bag. We good?” He had been listing out the rules with his fingers as well, watching as the creature tilted its head and wiggled its tendrils curiously.

  I’m totally going to get my fucking face eaten.

  The plastic cage wasn’t locked, because people don’t often waltz in and steal animals, but it did have a hefty latch. Zach winced as the clack of the latch echoed a bit down the hall, causing him to pause and listen for footsteps. There were not any cameras in the animal section, but there was some posted at every major entry and exit and around certain hallways. It was going to be dicey getting out without incident, especially if the little guy decided to freak out in mid-heist.

  Zach eased the door open, and leaned away carefully in the off chance tentacles or teeth flew at him. When neither happened, he peeked back into the cage to see the happy little wiggle of his new friend. The pink glow turned into a warm yellow, like the color of pure sunshine, and Zach could feel a blossom of joy open in his heart.

  It felt like the first day of summer vacation, roller coasters, blue snow cones and first kisses all wrapped in one. He wanted to laugh and hug everything, and he was not a hugger. At all.

  “Ok, dial it back. I don’t need to make new friends today.” Zach held his bag open in front of the cage. “Climb in. I’m breaking you out of here.”

  Apparently, the glowing creature didn’t need to be told twice, because he jumped into the bag like an excited puppy. Zach let out a very masculine “oof” and nearly dropped his laptop as he struggled to keep the bag steady. It shouldn’t have surprised him that the thick little beast was as heavy as it was.

  His shoulder bag looked stupidly obvious and ridiculous. Normally the thing was flat and still, but it was currently lumpy, squirmy, and giving off a happy, sunshine glow.

  “Chill,” Zach hissed, flipping the flap over top and giving the side a pat. “We gotta play it cool for about fifteen minutes, or I’m fired and you’re a lab experiment.”

  After a couple more little wiggles, the bag stilled and glow eased. Zach could still feel the sunshine vibe from inside, but it was clouded over with a sense of caution. It could understand him, and that was both awesome and scary as hell.

  No looking back now.

  Zach was no actor, but he knew that trying to “act normal” when freaking the hell out, usually resulted in people acting not normal. Normally, he’d he casually strolling down the hall, looking at his phone, thinking about lunch. That was not his life right then. He was carrying his laptop for some reason, and his bag was lumpy and weird.

  He looked suspicious as fuck.

  The great thing about people and in particularly scientists and general nerds, they typically zero in on whatever it is they’re working on. Zach was the same way. If he was working on a problem, watching something or reading about fan theories the internet, the world could be on fire and he’d never know. All heads were typically down at TruTech, because these people were doing some science shit and didn’t have time to care about other crap.

  Like an IT guy stealing a glowing maybe alien thing from the lab.

  Zach got all the way out to his car before he let out the breath he was holding. Once inside, he shot a quick text to his boss letting him know he had to leave due to being sick. It was a dick move, and it put Daniel in a shitty situation of having to come pick up his slack, but Zach never called in. He’d cover for him later or bring him some Bawls energy drinks. He’d be forgiven.

  The security guy didn’t even look up as Zach cruised past him, giving him an overly friendly wave to add to the totally not suspicious vibe he already had. While it seemed like everything went off without a hitch, Zach’s stomach was in knots as he scanned the area behind him in the rearview mirror. For some reason, he still expected a hundred cop cars to flood out from the abyss and swat teams to descend on his
car by the time he reached his house.

  “Ok,” he said as he exhaled. “We’re safe for now...I think.”

  The bag jostled to the side as the little head poked out from under the flap. Its tendrils wiggled as the sunshine glow came back, causing Zach to smile.

  “Yeah, yeah. You can glow again if you want to.” He chewed on his bottom lip a moment before asking, “Do you have a name? Can you talk? Are you from another planet? How the hell can you connect with me like that?”

  Instead of blowing Zach’s mind or any sort of answer, it just wiggled and continued to glow. It was happy and relieved, and seemed damn content in the bag. When Zach pulled up to the house he noticed Brad’s truck was parked outside. Luckily, it didn’t seem like any of his loud, obnoxious friends were over, but that also meant he was likely playing Xbox in the front room.

  With a groan, Zach shouldered his salamander heavy bag and gave the side another pat. The warm sunshine vibe made him feel sappy and annoyingly happy. He almost, almost, kinda wanted to see Brad. The guy wasn’t that bad. Sure, he was a giant, muscle head who drank his breakfast, yelled in Halo matches and was slow to fix the AC, but he was always friendly to Zach.

  He had a nice smile. And pretty eyes. And even though Zach couldn’t stand the hyper macho muscle dude culture, Brad did look damn good in basketball shorts. The man had a habit of walking out of their shared bathroom in just a towel, and for some goddamn reason always wore it so low on his hips Zach could see the beginnings of his pubic hair. Who even fucking does that?

  It was glorious and sexy but what the fuck? He does that casually around his roommate?

  It had never been brought up that Zach was gay, so Brad likely had no goddamn clue. It’s not like Zach was swarming in dates or anything, and he sure as hell wasn’t into the hook-up scene. Per nerd usual, he was single, had a relationship a couple years back that fizzled and died, and had been sexless pretty much ever since.

  If it wasn’t for the sunshine warmth cancelling out the self reflection he was doing, he would feel pretty blue right then. Instead, he let it roll off his back and smirked down at his happy little friend in his bag.