Earl laughed. “But not as closely as the bosses monitor us.” The other two laughed, as well.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Earl waved his hand dismissively. “It’s nothing. Inside joke.”
“Our employers just seem weirdly concerned about our wellbeing, is all,” said Hitchcock. “They give us, like, a two-minute physical a couple times a day: pulse, blood pressure, temperature. And in the morning, they take height and weight, too.”
“Well, it’s not just us,” Melanie said. “They do it to the nonk staff, too.”
“But not the senior staff,” Earl added.
Melanie shrugged. “They probably do it to them where we don’t see. In the offices or something. Plus, all the senior staff are Plants. I heard the new-version Wellplants run constant diagnostics. So I bet they don’t have to take their temperature or whatever, because it’s already being uploaded automatically.”
“That makes sense,” Earl said. “Maybe that’s what’s going on when they zone out.”
“Zone out?” Claudia asked, her eyes intent on Earl.
Hitchcock glanced at Earl, then said, “The last week or so, all the senior staff, they’ll come into the coops to take readings or whatever, or even if they’re just out and about, sometimes they just seem to stop all of a sudden, stare off into space. I mean, they’re probably like, reading their mail or whatever, but the shit is creepy.”
“It is creepy,” Melanie said. “Sometimes they’re like, in the middle of a sentence or something, then they’re just…gone. Somewhere else.”
“At least they seem happier now,” Hitchcock said.
“You mean your bosses?” I asked.
“Yeah, the folks running the place,” Melanie said. “When we first started working here, what’s it been, a month or so? All of them seemed really stressed out.”
“I think they were overworked,” Earl said.
“Are you kidding me?” Hitchcock shot back with a laugh. “They hardly do anything, as far as I can tell. How could they be overworked?”
“Yeah, I know,” Earl said. “But as soon as they brought in the extra help, the bosses started to finally relax a little.”
“Which makes no sense, because the newbies hardly do anything, either,” Melanie said. “They’re so damn sick all the time.”
“I know, how about that, right?” Hitchcock laughed. “We’re doing all the work and they’re the ones getting sick. And right away, too. I would have thought they was faking it if they didn’t look so terrible.”
“Sick how?” I asked.
Melanie shrugged. “Just sick. You know, coughing and sneezing, aches and pains, upset stomach, fever. But even the ones who aren’t sick hardly do anything.”
Earl shook his head. “Right? And the bosses don’t even ask them to.” He turned to us. “Like I said. It’s a weird place.”
“And you’re not allowed to leave?” Ogden said. “Isn’t that what you said? What’s up with that?”
Earl and Hitchcock looked at each other and shrugged. Melanie looked away.
“That’s just the deal,” Earl said.
Hitchcock nodded. “That’s the deal going in. They said they need us to commit for eight weeks, no leaving the facility. But the pay is alright. They gave us five hundred up front, and the rest when we’re done. Plus, it ain’t like I got anywhere else I got to be, so…”
“But you’re working for Howard Wells, the biggest chimera-hater in the world,” Ogden said. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Hey, screw you,” Hitchcock said, bristling. “Just ’cause I got spliced don’t mean I don’t gotta eat. You do what you gotta do.”
“But it’s not just the H4H stuff, right?” Claudia said. “Did you hear about what happened at Omnicare? At Pitman? How do you know something like that isn’t going down here?”
Hitchcock shook his head, dismissively. “Yeah, I heard about that. Not sure I believe it all. But this isn’t like that. My cousin did a gig here. Eight weeks, got his five hundred up front, cash, and the rest at the end. He said it sucked, but when he was done, he went on his way with money in the bank. So that’s what I’m going to do. Besides, it’s just chickens.”
“But they are up to something, though,” Melanie said without looking at anybody.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean they’re raising all these chickens, and the bosses don’t seem to be doing anything with them. They’re just keeping them. The chickens hardly lay eggs, and they don’t seem to be selling them for the meat. They don’t even seem to be experimenting on them. They just…keep them.”
Hitchcock looked like he was struggling not to roll his eyes. “She thinks they’re working on some kind of secret plan.”
“Wellfood is owned by Wells Life Sciences,” she said. “They’re not keeping these chickens as pets.”
“What do you think they’re up to?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I have no idea. But I don’t think the change in the bosses’ mood has anything to do with their workload.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, like I said, this isn’t a chicken farm. There’s too much money involved, too many Plants in white coats monitoring everything, so they’re up to something else. And they really did seem frustrated before, like whatever they’re trying to accomplish just wasn’t working, you know? And since they started bringing in those nonks onto the custodial staff, I mean, it’s no joke, those guys are actually sick all the time, so they’re basically paid to do nothing, as far as I can tell.”
“Well, for as long as they’re here,” Earl said. “Lately they only seem to stick around for a day or two.”
“Exactly,” she said. “Apparently, they don’t have to make the same time commitment as the chimeras. But even so, it seemed like once they came on board, the bosses got happy. Like they’d figured out whatever the problem was and fixed it.”
Earl nodded. “Yeah, I got that sense, too.”
“Any idea what the problem was?” I asked.
They all shook their heads.
“At first I thought maybe it was about the chickens getting sick and dying all the time,” Melanie said. “But they’re still getting sick.”
The barn went quiet for a few moments, then Earl said, “We should get back to the bunk house before they come looking for us. And you folks should get out before anyone realizes you’re here. I don’t know how you got through the fence undetected, but they’re serious about security. If they find you, they’re going to come down pretty hard.”
Ogden nodded. “What about you, though? What happens after your eight weeks are up?”
Hitchcock shrugged. “I told you. They pay us what they owe us.”
“They said they might offer us another eight weeks, or they might not,” Earl added. “They’ll let us know when we were done.”
“Would you take another eight weeks?” Claudia asked, not quite hiding the judgy tone in her voice.