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CHAPTER SEVEN zapruder and frankel
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
IF SOMEONE WERE to claim that Nadine Vidal had a problem with guns, it would be an understatement. After the plethora of traumatizing events that had featured guns—being shot by Hazel and Cha-Cha at eighteen, army-crawling through the Umbrella Academy to avoid their bullets at twenty-nine, and evading Commission agents who sought her death in a bowling alley and theatre—Nadine didn't just have a problem with guns; she had a debilitating phobia. A week after she'd been launched into 1961, Nadine hadn't even been able to hear a balloon pop without reliving grinning cartoon faces and heavy-duty gas masks. Two years later, and she still sometimes flinched whenever the weapons showed up on television.
So when she arrived at Morty's Television to be greeted by a barrel of a rifle staring her down, it was safe to say that it almost sent her into a breakdown.
She'd spent the car ride there catching up with Diego, interested to see what he'd been doing since his arrival. It turned out that being locked up in an asylum made for some pretty boring stories—at least, right until he brought up the night of his escape. He'd been so determined to free himself from his straitjacket (and yes, they really did have straitjackets in the 1960s) that he'd dislocated his own shoulder, and clawed his way along the wall until he'd met up with Lila. There, they'd been confronted with three gun-toting maniacs who had attempted to take them down. It was only through their combined efforts—and the idea to unlock all of the cell doors—that kept them alive that night.
Nadine did notice the way Five tensed when Diego mentioned his attackers, but quickly forgot about it. She was too focused on Diego's thrilling adventure, and how he'd met up with Five again.
"Who do you think they were?" she asked, accepting a piece of spearmint gum Lila offered her. Diego shrugged.
"Dunno. Probably your average crazies. This place is a warzone, you know."
Then he'd asked Nadine what she'd been doing, and the bubble she'd been blowing popped. Flattening the piece with her tongue again, she gave a furtive glance at Lila. "I'm not sure I should say."
"Don't worry, you can trust her," said Diego. "She's spent the past few months with me at the asylum. I don't think anything fazes her."
"It's true," Lila said, giving Nadine a pearl-toothed grin.
So Nadine had obliged. She told them all about the aquarium and her sexist ex-boss, as well as the whole debacle with Thomas Clarkson and his infuriating marriage proposal. Lila—who Nadine was already beginning to like—burst into cackles when Nadine explained how she'd slammed him against the wall and seriously bruised his masculinity. Diego just shook his head.
"And Five says I'm impulsive."
"You two are made for each other," Five shot back, staring out the window. He was—understandably—not too focused on this conversation, as there were likely more pressing matters on his mind. But Nadine found that talking helped smother the persistent worries about the end of the world bouncing around her mind.
