Stephen Ayres© All rights reserved.
Adam cracked a smile as the jellyman writhed helplessly under the sheet, although it was hard to see the funny side given the group’s near fatal encounter with the quivering guards.
“Wish we’d known about that trick when we first left the viro. Your tattoo friend could have told us.”
John Down prepared an incontinence sheet for the next jellyman, which was about to break free from the wall.
“Even without the sheets, the mucaloids are easy to out-run, or even out-walk,” he explained. “They are soft shadows of their former selves.”
“You call them mucaloids, eh? Is that a play on mongoloids? Bad taste if it is. Even if you are Mr Down Syndrome?”
“Hmm, I never thought of that, but I prefer it to the childish name that you have given them.”
“But they look like jelly. They even have that squelchy sucking sound that you get when you take a big spoon of jelly.”
“That is certainly true,” nodded John. “You know, Mary makes delicious strawberry and apple in aspic. She obviously gets it from the provider, but I pretend she made it herself. By Jove, that’s it! Aspic! We could call the guards aspickers! Far more acceptable than jellymen.”
“Ass-pickers!” Adam shook his head. “No…no…we’ll stick with what we’ve got. Although, you go ahead and use it if you want.”
Stephen Ayres: Copyright 2012