Page 37 (2/2)

In Case of a Failed Cleaning:

Prepare for War

17

"Poor living corpse, closed in a dead h the hole in the server rooeway that led to thirty-five, a part of thirty-five she suspected was not accessible froh the narrow passageway and followed a twisting and brightly lit corridor A blockage see a lone-stricken torrent He talked about the servers above thes that eway opened into a cluttered roo his hands There was a ledoff Aunits: jugs of water, canned food, empty jars and boxes The place was a wreck and sured Solo couldn’t see or smell any of that There was a wall of shelves on the other side of the rooe ratchet sets, some of them partially open

"You live here alone?" Juliette asked "Is there no one else?" She couldn’t help but hear the thin hope in her voice

Solo shook his head

"What about further down?" Juliette inspected her wound The bleeding had almost stopped

"I don’t think so," he said "Soure it’s the rats" He stared at the corner of the room "Can’t catch them all," he said "More and more of theh? More survivors?" She wished he would focus

"Yeah" He rubbed his beard, looked around the roo for her, sos hts left on Then I rehed to hi she’d seen hi a lot of it over the years You either laughed to keep yourself sane or you laughed because you’d given up on staying that way Either way, you laughed

"Thought the knife in the door was so I did Then I found the pipe Wondered if it was left behind by a really, really big rat"

Juliette smiled "I’m no rat," she said She adjusted her tablecloth, patted her head and wondered what had happened to her other scrap of cloth

Solo seemed to consider this

"So how many years has it been?" she asked

"Thirty-four," he said, no pause

"Thirty-four years? Since you’ve been alone?"

He nodded, and the floor seemed to fall away from her Her head spun with the concept of that much time with no other person around

"How old are you?" she asked He didn’t seem all that much older than her

"Fifty," he said "Next " He pointed around the rooht at her "I’ood whistler"

Juliette realized she probably wasn’t even born hatever happened here took place "How exactly have you survived all these years?" she asked

"I dunno Didn’t set out to survive for years Tried to last hours They stack up I eat I sleep And I--" He looked aent to one of the shelves and sorted through soed open, no label, and held it out toward her "Bean?" he asked

Her ier look on his poor face made it iry she was She could still taste the brackish water fro of sto into the wet juice in the can and careen bean She popped it into her mouth and chewed

"And I poop," he said bashfully while she ing "Not pretty" He shook his head and fished for a bean "I’o in apartment bathrooms until I can’t stand the smell"

"In apartments?" Juliette asked

Solo looked for a place to set down the beans He finally did, on the floor, ae and bachelor debris

"Nothing flushes No water I’m by myself" He looked e done the o?"

He lifted his aro crazy It only takes once" He set no credit Even froether and I make it another day, another year, and there’s no reward Nothing great aboutcrazy" He frowned "Then you have one bad day, and you worry for yourself, you know? It only takes one"

He suddenly sat down on the floor, crossed his legs, and twisted the fabric of his coveralls where they bunched up at his knees "Our silo had one bad day Was all it took" He looked up at Juliette "No credit for all the years before that Nope You wanna sit?"

He waved at the floor Again, she couldn’t say no She sat doay froainst the wall There was so est

"How did you survive?" she asked "That bad day, IIt wasn’t ili in this place could be worse than dying on the outside

"Staying scared," he said "My dad’s caster was the head of IT Of this place" He nodded "My dad was a big shadow Knew about these rooms, one of maybe two or three who did In just the first few ave me his keys He made a diversion, and suddenly I became the only one who knew about this place" He looked down at his lap a moment, then back up Juliette realized why he seeer It wasn’t just the fear, the shyness, that made him seem that way--it was in his eyes He was locked in the perpetual terror of his teenage ordeal His body was sihtened little boy

He licked his lips "None of theot out?" Solo searched her face for answers She could feel the dire hope leaking out of his pores

"No," she said sadly, reh theo rather than days

"So you saw them out there? Dead?"

She nodded

He dipped his chin "The view didn’t stay on for long I only snuck up once in the early days There was still a lot of fighting going on As time went by, I went out more often and further I found a lot of the ht carefully "--maybe twenty years?"

"So there were others in here for a while?"

He pointed toward the ceiling "Soht They fought everywhere Got worse as it went along, you know? Fight over food, fight over wo" He twisted at the waist and pointed back through another door "These rooms are like a silo in a silo Made to last ten years But it lasts longer if you’re solo" He sle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>