kick names and take ass

“Once, yeah. I was fixin’ some pipes a couple weeks ago and a giant one just popped out. Didn’t even know it was coming until someone yelled out to warn me. I’d consider myself lucky, but then the next week, I was over at that center for all the science-y shit— was doin’ some work there when I got interrupted by—” Aiden paused. His jaw clenched at the memory. When his voice returned, moments later, it was lower in volume, but harsher in tone. “Never mind. Don’t think you need to hear about that one.” He pressed his lips together and wet both of them before turning sharply. “Bet this isn’t what you were expecting when you moved in, huh?”

“Hell no, but I don’t have enough saved to relocate just yet,” he chuckled drily, without humor. “Picked one hell of a spot, apparently. What about you, how long you been in town, Aiden? I can’t recall.” Dominic thrummed his fingers on the counter and the bartender gave him a look of disgust, so he stopped. Instead, his leg began jittering thanks to the topic of discussion but hoped he could distract Aiden here with something else. “Want another round? Lemme get another round.” Both men had a little under half of their drinks left, but Dom still felt obligated. He gestured to the bartender who had just shaken her head at him and put up two fingers to indicate refills. He pulled out his wallet from a back pocket and placed cash on the counter, inching it closer to the barmaid with two fingers. She slammed a hand on the counter to get him to stop.

“Ain’t nobody invited those damned things— or, I dunno, at least I don’t think anyone did…” Aiden fell silent as his brow furrowed deeply. The people in town couldn’t be crazy, right? As far as he was concerned, Perfection Valley was as boring as it was desolate. He shook his head, shook the thought away, then continued, “That sounds about right, though. I heard some things. First time was some chick running into the bar screaming about a truck being eaten whole. Then I found some dude hiding up in a tree and— oh man, I seen some weird shit.”

“Yeah? Have you seen the worms?” he asked, taking a sip of his beer at the saloon. Dom had seen a friendly face at the counter and gone up to sit next to him. Somehow they were on the topic of the gross intruders of Perfection Valley. Dom needed to be drunker to talk about it. “Yeah, I guess since we’re not stationed in any one place, we get around town and see shit. I’m not sure what good climbing in a tree is gonna do. Those things are vicious and strong and big.” A chill went down his spine as he pictured the face and tongue of the ugly bastards.

“Uhhh, yeah, sorry, that might have been me?” Gwen said, her tone playful. “Meant to call big foot, must have gotten the wrong number.” She rolled her eyes, but smiled at Dom. 

“Ain’t seen you ‘round here, you new?” 

He simply blinked a few times before it clicked that she was joking. It took her bringing up Bigfoot for him to realize as such. Dom simply smiled back, embarrassed. “Yeah, I’m Dom. I’ve been here since February. I’m a construction worker, so I’ve... seen them roaming, y’know? Ugly beasts. What about you?” he pointed to her uniform, but didn’t want to assume incorrectly.

“Wait- you’ve actually seen them?” He had stopped chewing to ask, fascinated by the words of the other. He kind of wanted to see a worm, but mostly from a safe distance. Like, if they were behind strong glass at the zoo. “Maybe they’re aliens and they invited themselves. I don’t know why they would be aliens though. From what I’ve heard they don’t seem intelligent enough to travel here. Imagine just a ton of those giant worms on a spaceship. That shit sounds hilarious. What were we talking about?” 

    “Maybe they were laser-beamed down? Space ships have those light beams that suck people up, right? Maybe it was the opposite. I don’t know why aliens would want to give us giant worms though— ” they pondered on that thought for a second. “Global warming? That’s a new one. It makes the most sense so far.“ Charlie’s lips curved in to a small smile at the mention of Pacific Rim although it was fleeting. ”We better get Jaegers because I was this close—” they use their hands to emphasise, “this close to being worm food and I didn’t appreciate it.” 

“Oh right, derp. I didn’t think of it because the technology is beyond me. I barely know how to use Spotify!” he chuckled, fingers fidgeting with the cool glass sitting on the counter. “I dunno, global warming mutating our species? Is that a thing? Isn’t there a bio lab in town I can go ask the scientists there?” he laughed and shook his head. “Oh my God what happened?! Oh, I’m Dom,” he extended his right hand to the other. “Pleased to meetya. I’m pretty new in town and haven’t received such good conversation in awhile. So what’s your story about almost getting eaten?” He suspected its because of the giant worms freaking everybody out, but shouldn’t that make people want to band together? He had no idea, the town was still new and he was fresh meat, so to speak. Dominic leaned down and saw the shoes Charlie was wearing. “In those heels? Damn girl, you’re a badass?!”

    “I don’t know who’d want worms in this dusty old town though.” Charlie scrolled through their phone before stopping and looking towards the other. “Ok but like the real question here is where did they come from? Some people are saying they’re mutated so a mad biologist? Maybe ET brought them from space? Or— man, what if they’re dinosaurs? Like the bottom of the sea type of thing. We don’t know what’s down there. Probably bigger worms.”

Dominic scoffed at the abundance of ideas. They all sounded about right. “I was thinking Pacific Rim,” he began, turning to face the other. “But what made them wake up, come up all of a sudden? Has global warming finally bit us in the ass?” And why Perfection, of all places? He shivered when the other said ‘bigger worms,’ but smiled through the discomfort. “We haven’t found any ‘ships.’ Were they just...hibernating? Its straight outta a horror show if ya ask me.”