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Ringing silence answered me I pulled e?" Still no answer "You’re starting to freak e What did I do to earn the silent treat up to the plate So could you stop fking around?"

She didn’t stop fking around She was still there--I remember what sane felt like, and this wasn’t it; sane didn’t co at the back ofI scowled

"Fine If you want to play silent treatment, we’ll play silent treat the ettin to the point where s ached I could already tell I was going to be applying Icy-Hot and gulping aspirin like M&Ms all day I guess that’s what you get when you go and outrun an outbreak

"And yet somehow better than the alternative," I ot open was answered by the stack of clothing and crap on the bookshelf just inside I sent a silent thanks to Maggie’s in-house laundry service--silent because with her coe of the laundry servicedressed Even the things I’d left in the bathroom were clean, down to the rust on my ancient Swiss army knife I shook my head Sometimes it’s possible to be a little too efficient It was unnerving to think of the house sending out tiny cleaning devices and using thee to a s into their respective pockets, fastened my belt, and sat down on the bed to put my boots on That’s when the reality of e-less brain:

I was the only person in the room Where the hell was Becks? I looked back at the bed, which didn’t offer any answers Fro to prove that anyone else had been in the bed to begin with That was a little worrisoe and started hallucinating being seduced by rando before I went totally insane was probably pretty low

With that cheerful thought at the front of et s, who thought attacking the laces was a fantastic gas that size and cats seems to be that cats, while crazy, are at least s seems to drive them insane "At least we have thatfor a final tiuest roos of a nice war at the kitchen table with his laptop, tapping industriously away A half a pot of coffee sat in front of hi the delicious smell of hot caffeine toward me as I entered I stopped to sniff appreciatively The sound got his attention; he looked up, nodded briefly, and looked back down again "Hey"

"Hey," I said I grabbed afrom the counter and pouredis the only ti froe wanted to sulk,back to Coke

A pang of guilt followed on the heels of the thought, although it wasn’t enough to stopliquid I’d rather have George than all the coffee in the world Still, if focusing on self-caffeination distracted me from the question of her silence, it hile Alaric kept typing as I sat down across fronore e didn’t say anything

This went on for a few minutes before I ct blaed my throat and asked, "So what have I missed? Other than the sunrise and, apparently, breakfast?"

Alaric raised his head "Maggie took Becks and the Doc into town to go grocery shopping Soe of that particular trio tackling the Weed super I paused for a rocery stores They eird, cra consumers--and of course, when the zombies came, they turned into effective little death traps, full of places for the infected to hide Even the sprinkler systeetables worked to spread the outbreak, since all it took was a few drops of blood getting into the water systehout the produce aisle It didn’t help that people kept freaking out and running for places where they could try to hole up until it was all over--like the nearest warehouseshort of stratospheric

For a few years post-Rising, everyone bought their groceries online Soe to the inherent risks of going out a the rest of the population Unfortunately for the lends itself to the online etables,thewith the word "bulk" attached to it are rocery store has been a reflection of people’s twin needs to eat and not get eaten The layout is closer to the oldelse, but only a certain number of people are allowed in each depart to the store’s floor plan, with air locks and blood testing units between each distinct part of the store The process takes hours Grocery shopping is not an activity for the faint of heart