Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 1

Windy days aren’t usually a sign of a good day. For some at least it’s refreshing; for a sensitive to the bones and weather, bum living in their parents’ old home, it’s not so welcome. If the hired handyman who came a few days before did his job, things would’ve been different. Betts had had about enough of the cold floor. That became her inspiration to, eventually, pick up the handyman mantle. Even if she had been the least helpful with chores for several years now, nothing says unlucky coincidence more than having her old mother also break her ankle. Not on the same day as the heater broke, but days before its tantrum. Mother had better instincts with the house. Betts inexperience with house “things” made her agree with her siblings, who unabashedly describes her as a voluntary pathetic coward in the presence of responsibility. Dressed in drab sweats and a ragged loose shirt, she has been the owner of a long oily hair for three years now, and not one attemp

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 2

Holding a printed movie ticket in Dr. Munar’s old hands felt like a robbery in C-city compared to A-city where he lived and worked. He has kept this routine his whole life. Notwithstanding how he looked, alone or lonely, he kept doing it because he knew there was no point denying that he loved movies in theatre more than watching them at home.Movies teach him to see life differently. A way to learn empathy, as his deceased wife often described it. But buying it five times the usual price he’s always known seems like a wake-up call he didn’t need in his life.Tickets of any kind, for any event in C-city, have always been pricey. Lifestyle and livelihood costs are considered expensive for outsiders whenever one does come to C-city. Since their value differed, a wealthy man in another city is middle class in theirs. That’s how Dr. Munar finds this place; he felt needlessly costly and upscale that it felt like a joke to stay here coming from A-city

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 3

Memories are reliable for humans who give time and focus, or specifically, the greater the fixation, the more accurate the memory becomes. It’s believed to be one of the foundations of how one can be identified as a “human,” at least that’s what they say.Every single time Betts heard her heartbeat as she hid behind doors and broken hospital walls, she remembered the times she played hide-and-seek in the south A-city graveyards. Being a child was always an excuse to fill a gloomy land with laughter and games. Hiding behind statues of human busts or sculptures of divine beings felt thrilling and nonplus to her four-foot-less self.Back then, she’d only been friends with her neighbors and her younger brother’s friends; and be a part of the group only to gain numbers. To her brothers’ friends or that specific group of children, the more kids they played with, the merrier. Part of this bundle of joys was Trust, a kid her age, joini

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 4

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 5

Slurping dried-up tapioca pearls from a small bowl in front of a closed office door sent Dr. Munar no relief from the warm aircon breeze. The aircon had stopped working for one hour to annoy every person in the room. He, and four other people, have been seated in the conference room of **** for more than an hour now. The incident of the aircon failure heightens how uncomfortable their silence has been since.Stifling was a word that best described the majority of the time these five people spent in the room since his arrival. None guessed why, nor spoke first; although, Dr. Munar felt their tension resulted from the confirmed “Dimension Pocket” incident within C-city. Having it confirmed the previous evening felt like a reality check the gods scripted.It had not been past twenty-four hours of this new day in C-city, and they’re already in a deep conspiracy. Or a “science experiment gone wrong,” which was preferable to the latter.T

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 6

Tired eyes opened slightly as the cold breeze of the night brought a chill on Betts body. Blurriness wrapped her vision where certain things near her face were clear to her sight. She felt another relaxing warm feeling surge through her body, making its way from the tips of her toes to her cheeks that felt flushed. Sweat trickled down her forehead from the heat inside of her, a feeling that hadn’t settled. As if her body automatically knew that she needed the warmth to keep herself afloat, not awake but enough to stay away from hypothermia. Darkness still enveloped the world as little sound from all over echoed like a muffle. Betts didn’t know what was happening during this half-awakened state. The senses that heightened hours prior now dulled in a much-relaxed manner. Except for the feeling of her hunger and thirst, sleep crept over her from her tired body. The floor that she laid on was hard but believably better than the rest of it. Even if the floor colle

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 7 (part 1)

Chapter 7 Everything starts with a pin drop. Thrown, haphazardly, in a stack of hay outside the “titular” barn. Surrounded by multiple similar stacks of hay, you give a condition. Like, a reward, where you leave your hands clean of hunting down the thin, pointy thing in the multiple stacks of hay. People desperate for this pin but found themselves unable to look for them pay you to locate this imitation of a pin. Above is the vague descriptive feeling each member of the Good Will has to the mission at hand. No, there was no ill-will to read between the lines. Just weak and hopeless importance to the job at hand, planted into them by the situation none of them created at will. Sure, they disguise their motivation by succumbing to the greed of seeking money and knowledge, but at a cost, none can assess. Much like an elephant in the room. The mission brief simplified their operation by describing their goal a

Suitable Bags of Flesh   Chapter 7 (part 2)

The chance of this current mission going down the drain has a high percentage. Since many aspects of the Primer and “Dimension Pocket” remain under study and research, their incentive needed a higher deal. Money was an impetus for some, but the majority of people in this group are loyal to C-city, that it reflects well in the incentive versus equal performance rate. Somehow this made their group look like volunteers compared to the Hunters, as Prof. Tenorio remarked previously. As Dr. Munar recalled Prof. Tenorio’s words before they left to each other’s assignments, “Rest assured, Kelvin. These men are trustworthy. Unlike them, mercenaries are worse. But...” His words cut off. The next was mumbled under Prof. Tenorio’s breath that time, but Dr. Munar was sure he heard him say, “at any rate, they’re better fodder.” The Captain continued discussing with the surveyor lead the situation. While the rest settled inside the cafe, a few did ground recon from