Epilogue

Epilogue 2.07

---Em---

     First good sleep I've had in weeks, and it ends with somebody shouting my ear off. I think what I really miss most about my pre-apocalypse life is sleeping in. Much better than spending the first few waking minutes of every day trying to figure out whether or not you're under attack.

     I can already feel the dream starting to slip away. Quickly, I plug my ears and squeeze my eyes shut, doing my best to tune out the shouting. Rock my head back and forth, gently. A technique I picked up off the internet. Start at the end and work backwards.

     Something about intellectual meatloaf. Before that, Colby and I were working in a crime delicatessen, researching felonious pigmentation. I was there because I had to get a tune-up, because the tyrannosaurus rex wouldn't let me play with his hula hoop. And Olivia said something about...

     "Are you going to help me or not?"

     Damn it! It's no use; the memory has already faded. I glare at the guy responsible for making me forget my dream. Slightly older than I am. Jun, I think his name was. Great, I can remember that, but the important stuff...

     "Well?" Jun's chest rises and falls heavily as the rest of us wipe the sleep out of our eyes.

     "What's all that noise about?" Comma half-mutters half-yawns. Her eyes have an almost greyish hue to them, and her skin's got a sickly look to it. Her symptoms aren't supposed to start showing for another two days. But then, who's to say rat-plague'll affect an alpen the same way it'll affect a human? Bottom line, we need to get her some of that antidote as soon as possible.

     "Jewel's missing," says Jun.

     Crawford scratches the back of his head. "So you want us to... go on a treasure hunt?"

     Jun doesn't seem to appreciate the joke—assuming it even was a joke. You never know with Crawford. "She told you what they did to... to our people. If anything's happened to her—"

     "Talk to Wates," Comma suggests with a little venom in her voice. "Don't you know? He calls the shots around here."

     "Wates isn't taking any visitors." Jun's eyes dart back and forth between mine, Comma's, and Topher's. Trying to figure out which of us is the leader, I bet. Good luck. "I think she might've run away."

     "So go find her." Comma crosses her arms. Unapologetic as always, I see.

     "That's why I'm here." Jun takes a deep breath. Swallows. Good move—losing his cool will do him no favours with this group. As evidenced by our not-so-friendly countenances after having been so rudely awakened. "I tried. But the tunnel entrances are guarded. Apparently, we're not allowed to leave without permission."

     Topher grins. "And you want us to open up a can of permission, huh?"

     "That is what I had in mind, yeah."

     "Fine," says Comma, massaging her temples. "But only because I need some fresh air."

     We file out of the subway car and make our way across the underground lot. A couple of charred logs lie in the fire pit, the embers from last night's blaze still glowing beneath them. The community's already begun to wake up; off in the opposite end of the lot, a couple of survivors are rationing out tin-can breakfasts. My stomach growls, but the prospect of possibly out-of-date canned fruit isn't exactly appetizing.