Page 142 (1/1)
The whole ti up supplies andthee door Maggie and Alaric had done a lot of packing before the rest of us got there, but neither of thehtly--to go through everything and h supplies to reach our destination in one piece
"All right, folks," I said, breaking into the fifth near-identical arguos, the Newsies or the Irwins "I’e now, but the wireless booster is about to shut down froure we should wrap this up I don’t kno long it’ll be before they get our little slice of the Internet back online In the nments, and we have our temporary department heads Are there any questions?"
There were no questions That was practically a goddamn miracle Our three temporary department heads--Katie in Connecticut, for the Fictionals; Luis in Ohio, for the Newsies; and Dh that their tiny digital pictures looked faintly ill Still We wouldn’t have asked them to do the jobs if we didn’t think they were ready Not that anyone could really be considered ready to take over one-third of a e, but they were about as prepared as the rest of us, and no one was shooting at theoing to shut this baby down before soes to actually catch fire and we have to kill it with sticks" I looked at my screen The faces of After the End Times looked back at ht actually be ending That was a bitwith on a nore They need to hear it from you You’re the leader
That was a job I never applied for I ed to bite back the words "Like what?" before they could quite escape, and clearedto say Myto prod with a stick
You can do it, said George, quietly
I cleared ain "Guys…" Everyone loked atain: "This has been one hell of a year For those of you who hired on with us after the can, I’m sorry You’ve never seen me at my best Hell, if it weren’t for the fact that we have the best damn administrative staff in the known universe, you would never have seen o"
"He’s quite right about that," said Mahir
Ignoring him seemed like the best idea, so I did "And for those of you who’ve been with us since the beginning, I know this isn’t what you signed on for Hell, it’s not what I signed on for, and you’d think Iis, regardless of when you came on with us, whether it was day one or yesterday, you have all done an aether a team to record the end of the world, there’s not one of you who I wouldn’t want to have on board--and yeah, I don’t know all of you that well, but I know the people who recoure you’re worth taking the gahter followed this state That was sort of unnerving
"I don’t kno et better We’re in the sao--the dead are rising, the situation looks gri on I won’t lie to you If the first Rising is anything to go by, we’re not all going to live to see the end of this So up on the Wall before this is over" I paused, the litany of the dead running in the back of uards in Eakly, Oklahohbors back in Oakland Alaric’s family Too da is, that isn’t whate do We’re going to keep getting the news out We’re going to keep telling the truth And if we go up on the Wall, we’re by God going to know that we did the best we could--and that we’ve left behind as much information as we can for the ones who’ll tell the truth after us"
There was a long pause Well said, said George
And then someone--one of the Irwins, I think, since we’re the ones trained to start et the excuse--cheered Several more people joined in, and the ones who didn’t clapped their hands, or just grinned I stared at the
Mahir saved , "That’s the end of ourfor the day, and the end of our power supply, I’ with you all, and we’ll do our best to keep updating you as things progress here, but for now, assume that we’re off-line for the foreseeable future Ask your interim department heads if you have any questions or troubles, and stay safe" He moved his mouse cursor to the button for Terminate Conference, and clicked
The screen went black, all those little s inking out in an instant It felt weirdly final, like I’d never speak to any of these people again In sohed into htened