Ill go ask him if its okay first.
You got any idea where he is? Cause I aint seen him in hours. Isnt it morning? Did he come to the top of the stairs yet? Is he still summoning you that way for a quickie over his desk, or have you graduated to, like, getting banged in a bed and everything? Whats he got, some kind of progressive ranking system? If you last a whole week, you get to do it in a chair, and if you make it two
Now youre just being mean, she says. Stop it.
Just saying. Id like to see you get some real romance, Jo. You deserve it. Youre the prettiest girl in here and everybodyd love to date you. Do you know he has steak and milk and bread and stuff? I had the best meal today. Does he feed you like that?
She tries to mask her surprise but doesnt succeed. Isnt he still mad at you?
Dont look like it from where Im sitting.
Steak?
I lick my lips, still tasting it. Rib eye.
Milk?
Dude. I nod. Look, all I want to do is run by Dancers and get the lists.
He really gave you steak and milk today?
Id laugh but its sad. Were all so fecking hungry for a home-cooked meal. When spring started to green things up out at the abbey, the girls started talking about growing veggies again. All the produce was gone within a month of the walls falling. If you want to bake something, you have to run a generator to power the oven. Either that or have whatever the feck kind of setup Ryodans got here at Chesters, and even then you can only bake stuff that doesnt require butter or milk or eggs. Jos almost as upset that he gave me good food as she is about him not romancing her.
Id call and ask Dancer to courier it over but, dude, no phones and no couriers. Can we just go? Well be back before anybody knows were gone. And if you and Ryodan really are a thing, he aint going to give you any guff. Hes going to appreciate a woman with a little spine and independence! Yeah, right. Ryodan despises spine and independence. He likes good little robots.
Did he give you anything else?
If I was having sex with somebody and they gave someone besides me awesome food, Id be ten kinds of furious. The way I see it, intimacy should entitle you to privileges. If it dont, its just skintimacy like on TV with folks always swapping partners and hurting each other. Fresh strawberries and ice cream, I lie.
Ice cream? Are you kidding me? What kind?
Its sleeting when we get outside. Abandoned cars are shiny with a layer of ice. Skeletal trees shimmer like theyre crusted with diamonds. Snowdrifts are piling up. Theres a group of people outside Chesters but its a somber, quiet crowd and I realize these aint partiers trying to get inside, these are folks looking to survive whats coming. I guess all the partiers have already been let in. Wrapped in blankets, wearing hats, earmuffs, and gloves, these are folks thatgot no generators at home, and the weather has turned dangerously cold, sending them out into the streets to look for a source of heat before its too late.
Jo and me look at the folks as we pass.
Let us in, they say. We just want to get warm.
You can tell theres heat in the cluband a lot of itbecause the area above Chesters is bare of accumulation. The pavement is an underinsulated roof, and the heat radiating up keeps melting the snow. Even that nominal sign of warmth is enough to keep folks standing around, hoping, waiting.
Theres old people here, with nothing to trade for food or drink or the privilege of hanging at Chesters. The big, brawny human bouncers Ryodan uses outside the club turn them back at the door, and a crowd has moved into the snow-free ruin of stone and wood that used to be the club aboveground. They got fires going in cans. Theyve gathered wood from surrounding buildings and piled it up. They look like they plan to stay a good long while. Like until they get let in. They look too defeated to fight. A cluster has begun to sing Amazing Grace. Before long fifty voices lift in song.
Maybe you could talk some sense into your boyfriend and get him to let those folks inside, I say.
I will, she says. Or we could bus them to the abbey.
What about WeCare? Dont they fecking care? Arent they supposed to be giving away generators left and right?
Even if they are, Jo says, some of these people are too old to get out and hunt down enough gas to keep one running. Youve been gone for weeks. A lot changed in that time. The weather is all anybody talks about anymore. Making it through last winter wasnt as hard because the stores were all still stocked and the nights were mild. But supplies have been wiped out. We didnt expect winter in June. All the generators are gone. People are changing. Theyre fighting each other to survive. We need a long warm summer to give us enough time to grow and stockpile food before winter comes again. We need to get out and hunt for supplies in other towns.
Theyre going to die, Jo. If we dont stop the Hoar Frost King, were going to lose the other half of our world. I look back at the crowd huddled around the fire cans above Chesters. A mom is helping her kids get closer to one of the barrels so they can rub their hands together over the flames. Old folks that look too frail to be hiking through this ice and snow watch the kids with weary eyes that have seen three-quarters of a century of change but never anything like whats been happening since last Halloween. Men that look like they were office workers at desk jobs before the walls fell hold the perimeter, encircling the women, kids, and old folks. Theyre all displaced now. No jobs. No paychecks. None of the rules they used to live by. They look exhausted. Desperate. It fecking slays me. Theyve moved on to a new song, another hymn. Folks need faith in times like these. You cant give somebody faith. They either got it or they dont. But you sure can try to give them hope.
You got any idea where he is? Cause I aint seen him in hours. Isnt it morning? Did he come to the top of the stairs yet? Is he still summoning you that way for a quickie over his desk, or have you graduated to, like, getting banged in a bed and everything? Whats he got, some kind of progressive ranking system? If you last a whole week, you get to do it in a chair, and if you make it two
Now youre just being mean, she says. Stop it.
Just saying. Id like to see you get some real romance, Jo. You deserve it. Youre the prettiest girl in here and everybodyd love to date you. Do you know he has steak and milk and bread and stuff? I had the best meal today. Does he feed you like that?
She tries to mask her surprise but doesnt succeed. Isnt he still mad at you?
Dont look like it from where Im sitting.
Steak?
I lick my lips, still tasting it. Rib eye.
Milk?
Dude. I nod. Look, all I want to do is run by Dancers and get the lists.
He really gave you steak and milk today?
Id laugh but its sad. Were all so fecking hungry for a home-cooked meal. When spring started to green things up out at the abbey, the girls started talking about growing veggies again. All the produce was gone within a month of the walls falling. If you want to bake something, you have to run a generator to power the oven. Either that or have whatever the feck kind of setup Ryodans got here at Chesters, and even then you can only bake stuff that doesnt require butter or milk or eggs. Jos almost as upset that he gave me good food as she is about him not romancing her.
Id call and ask Dancer to courier it over but, dude, no phones and no couriers. Can we just go? Well be back before anybody knows were gone. And if you and Ryodan really are a thing, he aint going to give you any guff. Hes going to appreciate a woman with a little spine and independence! Yeah, right. Ryodan despises spine and independence. He likes good little robots.
Did he give you anything else?
If I was having sex with somebody and they gave someone besides me awesome food, Id be ten kinds of furious. The way I see it, intimacy should entitle you to privileges. If it dont, its just skintimacy like on TV with folks always swapping partners and hurting each other. Fresh strawberries and ice cream, I lie.
Ice cream? Are you kidding me? What kind?
Its sleeting when we get outside. Abandoned cars are shiny with a layer of ice. Skeletal trees shimmer like theyre crusted with diamonds. Snowdrifts are piling up. Theres a group of people outside Chesters but its a somber, quiet crowd and I realize these aint partiers trying to get inside, these are folks looking to survive whats coming. I guess all the partiers have already been let in. Wrapped in blankets, wearing hats, earmuffs, and gloves, these are folks thatgot no generators at home, and the weather has turned dangerously cold, sending them out into the streets to look for a source of heat before its too late.
Jo and me look at the folks as we pass.
Let us in, they say. We just want to get warm.
You can tell theres heat in the cluband a lot of itbecause the area above Chesters is bare of accumulation. The pavement is an underinsulated roof, and the heat radiating up keeps melting the snow. Even that nominal sign of warmth is enough to keep folks standing around, hoping, waiting.
Theres old people here, with nothing to trade for food or drink or the privilege of hanging at Chesters. The big, brawny human bouncers Ryodan uses outside the club turn them back at the door, and a crowd has moved into the snow-free ruin of stone and wood that used to be the club aboveground. They got fires going in cans. Theyve gathered wood from surrounding buildings and piled it up. They look like they plan to stay a good long while. Like until they get let in. They look too defeated to fight. A cluster has begun to sing Amazing Grace. Before long fifty voices lift in song.
Maybe you could talk some sense into your boyfriend and get him to let those folks inside, I say.
I will, she says. Or we could bus them to the abbey.
What about WeCare? Dont they fecking care? Arent they supposed to be giving away generators left and right?
Even if they are, Jo says, some of these people are too old to get out and hunt down enough gas to keep one running. Youve been gone for weeks. A lot changed in that time. The weather is all anybody talks about anymore. Making it through last winter wasnt as hard because the stores were all still stocked and the nights were mild. But supplies have been wiped out. We didnt expect winter in June. All the generators are gone. People are changing. Theyre fighting each other to survive. We need a long warm summer to give us enough time to grow and stockpile food before winter comes again. We need to get out and hunt for supplies in other towns.
Theyre going to die, Jo. If we dont stop the Hoar Frost King, were going to lose the other half of our world. I look back at the crowd huddled around the fire cans above Chesters. A mom is helping her kids get closer to one of the barrels so they can rub their hands together over the flames. Old folks that look too frail to be hiking through this ice and snow watch the kids with weary eyes that have seen three-quarters of a century of change but never anything like whats been happening since last Halloween. Men that look like they were office workers at desk jobs before the walls fell hold the perimeter, encircling the women, kids, and old folks. Theyre all displaced now. No jobs. No paychecks. None of the rules they used to live by. They look exhausted. Desperate. It fecking slays me. Theyve moved on to a new song, another hymn. Folks need faith in times like these. You cant give somebody faith. They either got it or they dont. But you sure can try to give them hope.
