The Living condition

20

The snow crunched under each footstep while you wandered the debris-filled terrain. Where the hell were you supposed to go? Where was there left to go, what wasn't broken? What wasn't up in the sky, floating above your head? Outpost three. Maybe. A hard maybe. A hard thing to tell, it wasn't far from the industrial area, far enough.

A hell of a walk you didn't want to take. Exhaustion had taken root in your bones and just about poisoned you through. You were tired.

A hell of a walk you were pretty sure you had to take. The rumble of the ground, snow being kicked up into the air, the clash of metal on metal–you're fairly sure it's in your best interest to avoid it.

In fact, you're confident it was in your best interest to stay the hell away from the fighting. Sure, in an ideal world, you could survive being in the vicinity of a confrontation between robots fighting to save their world. You're confident in them, no doubt about that. But yourself?

Fleshy and irreparable. The stinging pain in your arm,dulled after the days, and the fresh new wound on your palm reminds you perfectly of that.

Best to keep away. Best to find a safer area away from the fight.

Not south. South–or at least you think it might've been south? Certainly feeling a little directionally challenged what with the torn up planet and pieces of land floating in the sky. South(?) was the first direction you headed, and it was nothing but broken up land floating in the air, hovering dangerously over your head. If gravity returned..Well, you turned right back around and set off in another direction.

The ground shakes under your feet while the wind howls. Something was happening, no doubt about it. You don't want to look. You shouldn't look. You knew so much better than to get curious like this. It wasn't good for you.

The wind just about knocked you off your feet while you kept walking.

You shouldn't go looking for trouble.

It wasn't good nor safe anywhere.

If gravity were to fix itself–or be fixed, whichever, then you would be pancaked between gigantic landmarks falling straight on your head. Not ideal.

Maybe waiting was the best thing you could do.

Hold out and wait for it to die down, figure things out later.

—-

The library was a safe space. Somewhere quiet and familiar to be with someone familiar to you. It was a place easy to breathe, far from home and far from the stress of guardians who you couldn't figure out. Safe.

It was safe and easy to read with N. It had taken some time to get used to him, to the fact that he was loud in his niceness and that he was nothing short of just a good person. Not a mean bone in his body. Sure, it made him a target when faced against J, but he was good. Simple. Not innocent, but unknowing.

It was safe.

You think you need that. You're glad to have it.

Curled up with your back against a bookcase in the library, you read with N, picture books and wordy novels, reading aloud to each other in the safety of a hidden-in-plain-sight space.

"I missed you," you admit, flipping through the pages of a wordy book. Some mystery novel. It was more Tessa's sort of thing, but you could admit just fine that the appeal of something to solve with the main character was SO appealing.

"Missed me? Where do you think I've been?" N asks,looking up from his book.

"Dunno. Just one of those feelings." you reasoned,setting the book down while you thought about it. How DO you miss someone you're always around. "I guess it's..because we don't get much time to talk lately?"