“Boys, you know I don’t want any of this.”
The five men stopped, staring toward what would be the main entrance to the extension, where the impassive Crow stood watching them.
“Just keep working, and we’ll all be happy,” he said simply before leaving them.
“SHIT, I KNOW THAT this is supposed to be easier, and keep us from having to strip off and inflame the passions of these poor boys, but I really wish they could put some shade over this bastard. And it’s so damn loud,” Mildred complained as she shoveled another spadeful of sand into the cement mixer. The predark relic was turning erratically, but enough to mix the concrete that was needed for the construction. The ancient generator that powered it was coughing and spluttering, an ancient relic that was among the treasures amassed by Baron Silas to fulfill his ambition.
“I’m not one to complain as a rule,” Krysty said breathlessly as she tipped another bucket of water into the drum of the mixer, “but I think you may just have a point. There is one thing, though.”
“What’s that?” Mildred said, wiping the sweat from her brow.
“I’d love to know where this baron got all this stuff.”
She put the bucket down and joined Mildred at the side of the drum. They both watched the mix blend inside until it acquired a smooth texture that was thick and gloopy.
“Looks done to me,” Mildred said.
Krysty shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. This is one thing I can truly say I’ve never had to do before.”
Mildred grinned. “I must’ve spent a good part of my childhood doing this. My father was a great one for what we used to call DIY—do it yourself,” she explained, seeing Krysty’s puzzled expression. “Back before skydark there were a lot of people who liked to build and improve their homes as a hobby, and my father was one. Lord, the house always seemed to be like a building site.”
Krysty shook her head. “You know, sometimes the more I hear, the weirder the world sounds before the nukecaust. It gets too hard to imagine.”
“I guess you just had to be there,” Mildred said with a tinge of sadness in her tone. “Guess this looks done,” she said to change the subject, switching off the mixer and tilting the drum so that the mix spilled out onto a board laid in front of the mixer. The generator calmed down now that it wasn’t called on to power the mixer, and as that machine had now fallen silent, a relative calm fell over the site.
Hal came across to them, pushing a small cart with a shovel at the side. He joined the two women in shoveling the concrete onto the cart.
There was a strained silence between them, which Krysty attempted to break.
“How’s the work going?” she asked simply.
From the way Hal looked at her, she immediately knew that it was a mistake.
“Going well so far, as long as you don’t hold us up by not working quick enough.”
“You got any complaint yet?” Mildred countered hotly.
“Not yet, but it’s only the first day, right?”
“So what’s the problem?” Krysty asked.
Hal stopped shoveling and looked her up and down. “Ladies, you are. ‘Cause that’s what you is.”
“Say what?” asked a puzzled Mildred.
“Ladies…you sure as shit ain’t men,” he elaborated.
“Well ten out of ten for observation, dumbass,” Mildred hissed. “So what the hell does that have to do with anything?”
Hal looked at her in amazement. “Shit, girl, does havin’ a pussy make you stupe or somethin’? You ain’t gonna be able to keep up the pace, are you? And if you keep mixing slower and slower, it takes longer and longer to get the wag stop built. ‘Cause you got the crucial task, right?”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Mildred agreed, “but that don’t matter shit, does it? We didn’t ask for it.”
Hal was dismissive. “That don’t matter none. We’re on good shit bonuses to get this stop built real quick, and we was on target for a real big bonus. Y’see, we’s all been out here a long time now, and we ain’t had no pussy. That’s all there is to think about out here, ‘specially when there ain’t none. So the thing we all want is to get the hell back and get us some from a gaudy house.”