Fiction: S&B Part 2

Here's part two of what I'm calling Stew & Boss. It's a working title. Yeah.

Same as before -- this week is unedited, raw writing with next week's installment being cleaned up a bit. I'll likely keep this up until I have a better idea of what to do with the post. Or time to do it properly. Whichever comes first.

Stale air and dust flowed out from behind the kicked-in doors. Stew coughed and covered his mouth before inching slowly inside the doorway, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness and listening for any signs of life or movement. The hallway was in better shape than most he had seen – the old stone floors still glistened with the light from the entryway and the walls were still intact, the soft color of their paint still visible through the dust. Even the benches and seats still sat in their places as they have for thousands of years, though Stew doubted whether they would be able to hold his weight now. He suspected this was like one of those things Boss mentioned before – a time cap-sol, or cap-sull. A box that holds memories and objects from the past. This hall was just like that.

     Stew walked as quietly as was possible for his size down the hall to where it ended, perpendicular to another, larger, hallway. He took a moment to look around for any giant, menacing robot guards and noticed an old poster on the wall – it featured people, ancestors, with flags and weapons and things Stew had never seen before. They looked tall and strong in their proud poses. The poster was also covered in letters, but Stew was unable to read them – most people could not. Still, the poster seemed similar to ones Boss had pointed out before – ‘War Recruitment’ posters he called them. The ancestors used them to gather support for the War. Stew always wondered how such scraps of paper had the power to do that – maybe its power was in the letters. More reason to never learn to read, he thought.

     Before Stew could get too caught up in his thoughts Boss crackled over the ear piece, “Stew, you past the guards yet?”

     “Uh, not quite Boss. Workin’ my way through the hall still.”

     “You’re still in the hall?! Get a move on!”

     Stew cringed at the loud blast in his ear, “yes, Boss!” he shouted before remembering his situation and clamping his mouth shut, looking around quickly for any sign of the guards. After a few moments of silence he crept around the corner to the left, leaving the forgotten poster to continue its rest.