The Bug: Complete Season One by Barry J. Hutchison Page A

for shopping wise at Shop Wise.”
    “Such a stupid motto.”
    “So fucking stupid,” Jaden agreed. “Hundred and sixteen times, though. Impressive.”
    They sipped their drinks again. Another flashing blue light passed on the street beyond the car park. “Reminds me. See the news?” Col asked.
    Jaden frowned. “The news news?” He snorted. “No. Of course not. I’m a loveable eternal man-child. I don’t do the news. We’ve discussed this.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” Col said, rolling his eyes. “There was a school killing thing down in Franklin. This morning. A dad took out his kids and a few others.”
    “Jesus. He shoot them?”
    Col shook his head. “Nope. Tire iron.”
    “Fuck.” Jaden sucked a dribble of Gatorade from the rim of the can. “That’s messed up.” He rummaged in his pocket for his phone. “Are there pictures?”
    “You’re sick,” said Col. He finished the rest of his drink and crushed up the can. “And no. I couldn’t find any.”
    Jaden tapped on his phone’s screen a few times. “No network. What the fuck does this mean? ‘No network’?”
    “It means you’ve got no network,” said Col. He took out his own phone and checked the screen. “Huh. Same here. Must be a fault.”
    “Hang on, I’m going to tweet to their customer support.” Jaden tapped an icon on his screen, waited a few seconds, then tutted. “Fuck. No network.”
    “Aaaand the penny drops,” said Col.
    They both put their phones away. “We should get back to work,” Col said.
    Jaden shook his head. “Why the rush? Are we not entitled to breaks?”
    “No,” said Col. “We took them like two hours ago. I want to get everything stacked up then go home.”
    “Your parents still away?”
    Col nodded. “Yeah. It’s their high school reunion tonight.”
    Jaden drew in a sharp breath. “Poor bastards.”
    “I don’t know. They think it’ll be fun.”
    “Fun?” Jaden spat. “Fun? They think it’ll be fun?” He shuddered. “They’ve got one seriously warped definition of fun. Even now I can feel our high school reunion out there somewhere. Waiting. Lurking. Like Jaws . And we’re Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, adrift on the ocean, knowing full well that the shark is out there somewhere, that sooner or later we’re going to have to deal with it, and that somewhere along the way we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
    Col frowned. “What’s the bigger boat represent?”
    “Nothing. I just felt the analogy needed rounding off,” Jaden admitted.
    “Fair enough,” said Col, nodding. “What about your dad?”
    Jaden shrugged. “What about him?”
    “You said you were going to try getting in touch.”
    “I said that? I don’t remember saying that,” Jaden said.
    “Well, you were pretty drunk at the time,” Col admitted. “But, you know, maybe you should.”
    Jaden yawned and stretched. “Nah.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because why should I?” Jaden asked, suddenly irritated. “He’s seen me, like, a dozen times since I was four. Why should I go chasing something he clearly has no interest in?”
    “I guess,” said Col. “In his defense, he does live in a different country. Maybe it’s not easy to get--”
    “Thirty-seven.”
    Col blinked. “Huh?”
    “Thirty-seven. That’s the number of flights leaving Glasgow every day that connect on through to Boston. Thirty-seven, many of them priced very fucking reasonably I might add.”
    “Oh,” said Col. He shrugged and took a sip of his Gatorade. “Guess he’s an asshole, then.”
    “I’ll fucking drink to that,” said Jaden, raising his can.
    A movement in the car park caught Col’s eye. He turned and gazed out. “What the Hell?”
    Jaden turned to look. A figure was racing across the car park, arms flailing wildly. “Is that Wayne?” Jaden asked. “I gotta hand it to him, for a fat guy who was dying ten minutes ago, that bitch can run.”
    “He’s not stopping,” said Col, standing up. “Why isn’t he