Blackbird's Song is Over Now.

Interview

Yuri looked at JJ and asked, "Hey, your partner said that you guys were on a tight schedule. What kind of schedule do you two have?"

"Well, I'm gonna explain to the best of my ability since it's a complicated process. With us recruiters, we spend most of the day, every day, outside. Everyone in the community has a job, doesn't matter what they are, just as long as everyone is active in it. What duties we have back at the community are in the middle of the day, of course. So what we do is spend the whole morning looking for survivors, go back to the community, do our jobs, have lunch, and go back out 'til night time and come back."

"I see," Yuri said.

"But then, every week, the schedule is different and everyone's jobs are switched with everyone's so no one has to do the same old thing every week, you getting my drift kid?"
Yuri growled from under his throat. He didn't like being called kid.

"Yeah, time goes fast in our community, so we have an hour to do one thing; if we don't have time for one job we leave it for the next day. Um, when we taking the photos of everything, either some people didn't want us in their rooms or the beds were being cleaned so we had to settle for that bed you just saw. The reason why things were tight is that we kind of pushed the photo taking to the last minute because we were repainting some house." JJ chuckled. He looked at Yuri.

"Kid? Dude? You okay?" JJ asked him.

"Don't call me kid!" Yuri hissed vehemently.

"What?"

"Or else you won't have any!" Yuri threatened, holding his machete up in the air.

JJ cried out, and that was when he heard a furious tap on the glass window from Otabek.

"What's up?" JJ asked, pulling down the window.

Otabek ordered him through the bandana he was wearing. "Whatever you are doing to make him upset, stop it."

Yuri was heard chuckling under his teeth. "Yeah, you better." He placed his bag on his lap and opened it up. Yuri pulled a potato chip bag and opened it. Yuri took a big whiff, indulging in what he had not had for many weeks now.

x0x

In about three miles later, both vehicles stopped before a large, steel wall. It was about the same size a military gate and was covered in rust. In large, letters at the top, written in a black substance was: "Ciao-Town."

Yuri licked his lips, taking a bite of his chips as he looked at the sign. He raised his brow at it as from the corner of his eye, Otabek got off his bike and walked up. He tapped on the hard metal gate three times, hoping for someone to come and open the door.

Yuri looked, munching. And then his eyes widen.

There was a small, face sized door on the gate, and it opened. Whoever was on the other side gasped.

"Otabek? Is that you?" asked a man with a Swiss accent.

"Yeah; JJ and I found someone; can you open the gate for us? So the person can get settled into the community."

Yuri knew that Otabek was talking about him. Who else could they have brought back?

"Sure," answered the mysterious man.

"Viktor! Come over here and help me with the gate!" The man sounded like he turned his head to speak to whoever this Viktor person was.

There was a small pause, and the mysterious man called back, "Don't worry about your dog's poop, JJ and Otabek found someone new today!"