Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) by Rohan Healy, Alex Healy

guns being fired inches from his ears and the various bruises and cuts from the previous day’s fight forced him to limp and wince in pain.
     
    As Miles approached the cinema he could see Ryker sprinting down the street from the opposite direction.
    “I got it ,” said Ryker quietly as he tried to catch his breath.
    A cting as naturally as they could, Miles and Ryker walked through the doors of the cinema and greeted Mr Grayson.
    “Looks like you two enjoyed your bonus!” Grayson laughed before returning to his office behind the counter. Ryker and Miles chuckled nervously until he closed his office door behind him, their faces suddenly becoming dead serious. Ryker opened his backpack, pulling out the almost empty bottle of Raxxin and a small plastic bag containing three round, white tablets.
    “Are you sure this stuff will work?” Miles whispered as he tapped the counter top anxiously.
    “Well it should, this shit's expensive,” Ryker replied as he crushed the tablets into a fine powder by rolling the bottle back and forth across the bag. Ryker opened the bottle and carefully poured the white powder into it. He screwed the lid back on to the Raxxin bottle and waited a while for the dreamscape to fully dissolve before looking at Miles.
    “Alright, you wait here and I'll go give this to Grayson .” Ryker approached the door to Mr Grayson's office nervously and knocked.
    “Come on in ,” said Grayson cheerily from behind the door. Ryker looked back at Miles one last time before entering the office, giving an almost undiscernible nod. Miles' heart began to beat even faster as he listened to Ryker presenting the bottle of Raxxin to Mr Grayson, who seemed quite pleased with the gift. After about a minute and a half, Ryker returned giving another small nod to Miles as he closed the door behind him.
    “We should just get to work like normal, I'll let you know when he drinks it ,” said Ryker quietly.
    “Are you sure he'll drink it at work?” inquired Miles .
    “ I don’t see why today would be different to any other.”
    ‘Yeah, good point ,’ thought Miles remembering Grayson’s affinity for strong spirits. And so Miles began to work just like any other day, cleaning the various rooms of the building and making sure everything was in working order, except today his stomach churned and his armpits sweated profusely as he anxiously waited to hear from Ryker. ‘What the fuck have I done? I am so screwed! Oh God, I never should have gone through with this!’ Hundreds of thoughts flooded Miles' head as he scrubbed the heavily stained carpets of the cinema floor. Miles knew that there was no turning back now, Mr Grayson had the drugged Raxxin in his office and it was only a matter of time before he consumed it. ‘What if the drugs aren't strong enough? What if he notices them?’ As Miles started to sincerely regret everything, he suddenly remembered why he was going through with all of this. It was to speak to his son, to let Chet know that his father is okay, that he still loves him, that he misses him and that he will be coming home soon. Miles had to do this, there was no choice involved.
     
    He was cleaning the floors of cinema 2 after an afternoon showing when he heard the door open behind him. He looked up to see Ryker standing in the large doorway, gesturing for Miles to follow him. Miles dropped what he was doing and hurried out into the lobby.
    “Okay man, Grayson's out cold. We gotta do this now ,” whispered Ryker nervously. Miles' heart picked up the pace once again, this was it; the time had finally come. He reassured himself that Mr Grayson would remain unconscious, dreamscape is used to put patients under for serious surgeries after all. Miles and Ryker looked at each other silently for a few seconds before slowly opening the door to Grayson's office. They found him slumped over his desk, unconscious, snoring loudly. The large blue bottle of Raxxin was now completely drained of its contents and