SILENCE I'VE NEVER FELT. His gaze is bruising, angry. His voice so eerily level and calm. "You didn't die, Kira?"
"Maybe I did."
He smiles a play-host smile again. It's been so long. Jason forgot his own role—somewhere between BP and Video City. "Kira. I'm warning you."
They're always warning you, Kira, Kira, Kira.
"It's hard believing such a story when you're here, alive and breathing, neither Dead or Undead, Kira Ryderson. I just... can't believe you." Pause. Dramatic. Ooooh. "Can I?"
"Hmm." I lean away, casually. Like Casey would've. "It was never going to be Normal again, Jason. Contain Corona-Z all you want. The World has changed." Power flipped. (Organized) Chaos.
"Perjury, you're committing, Kira," he hisses, slamming a palm against his desk, pencil-clattering, "if you admit you've just led us on, if you're lying, if you're helping hide Casey Kelly. Do you understand?"
My bottom lip sinks. I bite down. "Can I have a cigarette, Jason?"
Because I know.
"Yeah, yeah. Fuck it," Jason snaps, hoofing a crumpled pack of Newports. They land a dusty slap. Matches already in my palm, dragging, lighting, inhaling. My eyes close. "Kira."
Drowsy... "Yeah?"
"You're keeping somebody safe."
I snort. "I can barely keep myself safe, Jason. You heard my story."
"You're lying."
"Of course I am."
You have no idea who I am, do you, Jason?
"How did it End, Kira?"
Where is MOX's Leader?
"Who knows?"
His lips part. I see him reaching—
"Because 's not really The End, is it?" I shake my head, snickering quickly. Hair fell along my cheeks, dirty, crusted curls against grimy skin. Inhaling. Softening. A fucking Newport. "It's always just... a... Beginning of an End, Jason."
It's a Means To An End.
Bang!
Ringing. My body drops, eyes seeing brief, shuddering, gulping blinks, spasms:
MY LAST CIGARETTE YOONA
**SO... what really happened? *shrugs* THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO CASEY KELLY, JASON. (Or Yoona Lin. 👀)
This is a sloppy copy I wrote in... month or so, specifically for ONC, so I apologize, Open Novella Contest is always when I experiment LOL SORRY 😂
I have such a strange sci-fi spaceballs spaghetti 1984 Zombieland Christopher Nolan-esque idea with... THIS WEIRD ASS UNIVERSE. (So many odes to films I watched with roommates while quarantining in 2020.) There is some kind of revolution backstory budding, a socio-political somethin' somethin' I dunno, and I had a loooot of FUN—THE DECEPTION IS SO DEEP ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL, YO. But I did rush y'all 30K on a half-baked (heh) story, so if you've read and enjoyed, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! REALLY. Y'ALL ONE AND TWO AND THREE PEOPLE I SEE.
I probably would've abandoned lil ol' Kira and Casey before I really understood THIS STORY GUYS. The Beginning of THIS STORY. I deadass didn't understand anything until, like, a couple chapters before 'The End'. Interviewing Kira 175 Days after Initial Outbreak and Kira's story ending, supposedly(?) only 7 DAYS LATER. IDFK, OKAY? Maybe I'll write a sequel 😭😭
YOU ARE READING
AT THE END OF THE WORLD
AventuraRoommates Casey and Kira smoke their way through unimaginable stupidity in the COVID-19 Vaccine Zombie Wasteland of NYC, hellbent on seeing Breezy play in the Super Bowl. "I never saw Casey Kelly again."
