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"Why?"

Hope interjected, "No elevators Nobody wants to troet to their room Everybody would prefer to just pile down at the bottoood floors"

I said, "Why did I wind up back at the asylued "Like they’d tell us Loudspeaker caate Truck hauled you away That was Fridaycan we keep this up? Before the food and everything runs out?"

TJ said, "They dropped in supplies Truck duain"

"Yeah, but I’ure out a cure or even a reliable test for the infection They keep du the suspects here in the quarantine and … what? We’re still here ten years fro into his cup, TJ said, "What would you do?"

"Drop a nuke on it Write a letter of apology to the surviving family members Send ’em some coupons to Outback Steakhouse as coh of relief"

He shrugged "That ru that shit everywhere Man, people got a low opinion of the armed forces, don’t they? Watch too et aith that in the real world"

Hope said, "What if they cover it up? Make it look like soas line explosion?"

"No, all they have to do is poison our food Then say the infection did it"

That brought silence to the room

TJ said, "Both of you think you bein’ cynical, but you’re not Reality is, if they wanted us dead, they don’t have to do anything Situation we got here is what cops call a self-cleaning oven Sohborhoods, they’d just let be Come back in five years and it’s all quiet, all on its own You know, because everybody shot each other It’d be just like that here, because instead of organizing and figuring out hoork together, we all got paranoid, like Owen"

He stood up

"It’s early, but I’oin’ to bed No TV and it too dark to read What else ahts are the worst I’ as nobody dies But the nights go on forever"

TJ said, "I agree And yet, the night coive a shit e think"

Hope was hts were the worst I realized when TJ left that I was also exhausted, but it was only after I went to bed that it becahts and no heat and were basically living in a third world gulag I tried to remember what day TJ said it was Sunday? So the rest of the country was probably watching Sunday Night Football Or were they? Maybe it was like this everywhere Everyone in A

TJ and Hope left the roouessed it was my room I wrapped myself up in as many blankets as I could find I knew exactly where to find them, just as I knehere to find the hunk of particle board we used to cover the brokenMy specific memories never carammed in I suddenly re a little television out of it I couldn’t remehter

We had a bunch of eency kerosene space heaters that had been left behind in a storage building, but not much kerosene to fuel them Here on the fifth floor we had two of theht to take the chill out of the air, but that was it People set pots of water on top to heat, killing two birds with one stone Some people slept in the hall to be closer to the heaters, but the kerosene fuave me a headache TJ pointed out that the stuff was jet fuel, after all

I shivered Couldn’t get war else So da clock No soft whoosh of heat blowing through vents Not even the reassuring huister until it’s gone