Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) by Rohan Healy, Alex Healy Page A

rolled his eyes and approached the counter. The employee had his eyes closed and was miming the lyrics to the song as he continued to drum, not noticing Miles. With his brow furrowed into a disgruntled expression, Miles stood at the counter impatiently before yanking one of the colourful sweets from the young man's hand. The employee looked up startled and removed his headphones, Miles could hear the fast punk rock music still playing through the speakers of the headphones and wondered how anyone could listen to music at such a volume.
    “Uh …hey, can I help you?” the young man asked looking slightly embarrassed. Miles took a deep breath, contained his frustration and replied.
    “I start work here today .”
    “Oh ,” said the cinema employee, taking a bite of his remaining candy, “you should talk to Mr Grayson, the manager guy. I'll go get him for ya,” and with that, the young man disappeared through a door behind the counter leaving Miles standing in an empty lobby with his lunch in one hand and a piece of stale candy in the other. Miles took this time to examine his surroundings, taking in the atmosphere of his new workplace. The dark green carpet, peppered with popcorn and countless sticky stains from a variety of beverages was certainly a change from the clean white floors of The Elissan Energy Department. Even the smell of the cinema seemed off, Miles always enjoyed the familiar scent of the theatre when he would go to see a movie with his family, but this place reeked of old popcorn and alcohol. A smell quite unfamiliar to Miles as Hellen would rarely let him drink other than to have a glass of wine on their anniversary each year. ‘How the hell am I going to last six whole months!?’ After a short while, the blonde haired employee returned with an older man whom Miles presumed to be Mr Grayson, ‘the manager guy’.
    He was a few inches shorter than Miles and a few pounds heavier by the look of it. He had a slick comb-over in an attempt, entirely in vain, to hide his balding head.
    “Mr Stanton is it?” the older man asked.
    “Please, call me Miles ,” Miles replied with a strained smile as he quickly put the piece of candy in his back pocket and extended his right hand.
    “Well Miles, I'm Ellis Grayson, the owner and manager of this fine establishment,” said Grayson somewhat ironically as he took Miles’ hand and shook it roughly, apparently acknowledging the fairly decrepit state of the cinema.
    “When you're ready, grab one of those uniforms from back here and start cleaning this place up, gotta look nice for the customers!” Mil es could hardly believe that Mr Grayson even knew what a customer looked like judging from the state of his ‘fine establishment’. He simply continued to fake a smile.
    “I t'll be a pleasure to work here Sir.”
    “That's what I li ke to hear from my employees Mr Stanton!” he said boisterously, “now, if you have any questions, I'm sure Ryker here will be able to fill you in,” continued Mr. Grayson, briefly putting his hand on the young employee's shoulder before returning to his office. ‘Grayson seems like a decent enough guy, could use a shower, but pretty harmless, could have been worse!’
    Miles took his un iform from behind the counter. It was a medium sized blue and red polo shirt with the Le Cinema Magnifique logo on the front pocket. He begrudgingly threw it on over his white long sleeved shirt which he was more accustomed to wearing under an expensive suit. As Miles buttoned up the shirt Ryker looked at him for a while before speaking.
    “S o you lost your real job huh?” Miles paused and stared at Ryker with a look of irritation, he wasn’t in the mood for making friends.
    “T hat's none of your God damn business.”
    “Sorry, man ,” Ryker apologized, “it's just that, I've seen guys like you before...they usually don't last too long,” he added, taking another bite of candy.
    “Well ,” said Miles, “that's because 'guys like me'