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It is our job to provide light for any vessels that ht accidentally find their way into our sector, so they will not crash into the exposed tops of underwater skyscrapers We are to aid in military operations, of course, but we have not seen another hule boat of any kind in more than a year We have not been officially contacted by the North Aovernment in ninety-seven days, nor have we been able to lobal communications have been shut down

Why?

We don’t know

But here’s the kicker: we do not care

We are happy

We are self-sufficient, stocked with fifteen more years’ worth of poly-frozen food packets

Scientists have proven that being exposed to so reat nuclear fallout clouds that drift aimlessly across Global Common Area Two, or what you call the Atlantic Ocean, will definitely shorten our lives quicker than sarettes a day, and yet we are at peace with our position and feel as though we have escaped--orin thethat so h the horrors that put us here, but as we had no control over those things, we sie

We spend our days in the boats searching the tops of skyscrapers for anything interesting, entering apartists These are the Egyptian pyramids of our time--"our underwater Machu Picchu," you like to say

You excavate ers" It’s like a gareatest form of entertainment" The three of you love to play Who Lived Here? and your answers are full of heroes and heroines who once did brave and noble deeds back before the sea sed up their entire civilization

There are a trillion stories to be found beneath us "Outpost 37 is perhaps the greatest interactive fiction library man has ever known"

You said that, by the way

I’ the future you

You’re quite quotable

You also love spotting dolphins There is a large school of theun to er than they used to be You often ride on their backs and call the to catch a bus," you’ll say to S and she’ll clap and laugh as you hop onto one, holding the fin, being sprayed by the giant creature’s breath We treat them like pets, sith them often, and cut off the red squidlike parasites whenever the dolphins roll and offer up their sside your boat everywhen you make rounds You named hi your best friend and call you Hahtly after all these years "It gives and gives," you say Just like your high school English teacher told you

But your favorite thing to do is scuba diving down into the city, exploring the watery streets that are still full of cars and hot dog stands and monuments and park benches and petrified trees and sports cos from our past, your present

We only have so o as often as you’d like, because you are saving a few for the future Rationing You believe in the future now It’s easy for you, because you love the present Also, because you have S now

You still get melancholy sometimes, especially when you think about the past, but ood, weird life

We are a happy little fah ti our late nights ht

Your past--what you are currently experiencing--would be hard for anyone to endure You’ve been so strong, e, and hope you can hold out a little longer Twenty years see time to you, I bet, but it will pass quicker than you can ever iine

I know you really want to kill that certain someone That you feel abandoned by your parents Let down by your school

Alone

Peerless

Trapped

Afraid

I know that you really just want everything to end--that you can’t see anything good in your future, that the world looks dark and terrible, and ht--the world can definitely be a dreadful place

I know you’re just barely holding it together

But please hold on a little longer

For us

For yourself

You are going to absolutely love Outpost 37

You’re going to be the keeper of the light

My first lieutenant

Our beam is quite impressive, even if no one ever sees it but us--we send it out every night religiously And e turn out the lighthouse to conserve power, you will see stars like you’ve never seen before Mind-boggling stars, the depths of which you will never e, beautiful neorld awaits, Leonard