The fridge stops with a distinctcrunchof cracking plaster or drywall.
She stops.
I smush against her.
The fridge rolls again.
And then something bashes me in the head, powder exploding in my vision.
I suck in a breath and choke on—cheese?
Is thatcheese?
Bad cheese.
“Oh,fu—” Sabrina starts, and then she coughs.
And coughs.
I suck in another breath, and I come up choking too. “What—” I start again, but I can’t finish.
An orange cloud is eating us.
It has swallowed us whole, and it is devouring us, choking both of us.
“Drop roll,” I croak. “Drop roll.”
“Not smoke,” she gasps between coughing fits. “Outside.”
“What?”
“Cheese.”
“I donotwant to know what I just walked into,” Zen says from somewhere beyond the orange haze.
Oh fuck.
Ohfuck fuck fuck.
“Fridge wall!” Sabrina shrieks, and then she doubles over coughing again.
I shove my dick back in my pants. “Mainte—”
Can’t get it out.
Can’t saycall maintenance, because I’m choking again.
It’s up my nose.
It’s in my eyeballs.
It’s all over my fingers.
“Is that powdered cheese? Like on cheese puffs?” Zen asks.
I can’t see them.
My eyes are watering too hard, and if I keep coughing like this, I’m going to send myself into the bad kind of head rush.
