LITMIR.BIZ

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       Just like me.

      When she notices my attention, her demeanor suddenly changes. It’s as if she suddenly sees herself through my eyes and the reality of it is confusing and clearly unnerving. She awkwardly folds her arms across her chest and slowly backs away.

      “I told you when that light flashes we have to hide! Didn’t I? From the look on your face I can see that you forgot. Well, anyways when that light flashes we have to hide, so hurry up and get in the bathroom.” She cringes. “Okay, that sounded really weird too, but it’ll make sense after you come with me to the bathroom—oh just forget it and follow me!”

      With that said, she dashes out of sight.

      I stumble out the door and drop my shoes and coat to the floor as I go.

      She begins to put on the normal attire I am used to, complete with scarf and floppy hat.

      She spins, and sees me staring again. “Come on idiot! We have to go!”

      She hits a switch beside the couch, which causes it to spin into the floor. A wall slides into place, hiding the kitchen from view, and her bedroom lowers itself into the floor.

      “Holy crap!”

      Lyssa races back and smacks me in my arm. “Will you shut up, stop ogling me and get in the bathroom! You’re really creeping me out.”

      I barely have time to grab my coat and shoes before she drags me out of my room and into the bathroom. She slams the door behind us, and then moves a towel on the rack out of the way to hit a hidden switch. I hear another wall sliding into place, along with a loud BOOM.

      “What was that?”

      “You really don’t know how to follow instructions, do you? Shut up!” She pushes past me to the corner and opens up a cabinet; there are several military-style rifles and plenty of magazines. She throws a rifle to me, followed by a magazine. “Load it like I showed you!”

      Then she hits another switch and the wall opposite the tub slides down into the floor, exposing a staircase that leads down a few steps into a room full of television screens all stacked on top of each other, along with a keyboard and a joystick sitting on top of a desk.

      “Whoa!”

      Lyssa shakes her head and quickly punches a few keys and all the screens come to life. It looks like a video security system. I can easily pick out several buildings from the compound. She types a few more buttons and the scenes change.

      There isn’t much to see for a while because the snow is still really coming down, but then finally, on one of the screens, we see two figures step into view. She types a few buttons and another scene appears. In the distance, we see three men on horseback, with two other men walking in snowshoes behind them.

      All of them appear heavily armed.

      “Wait, where is this?” I ask Lyssa.

      “Relax. They’re still miles from the compound. There’s no way they could’ve seen the lights or heard you snore with the wind and snow blowing like it is. So, we’re good.”

      “Wait, I snore? Nevermind, why are we hiding? Shouldn’t we try to make contact?”

      Lyssa snorts. “Were you born this stupid or did you fall on your head or something as a baby?”

      “So we’re just going to automatically assume they’re bad guys? It’s a blizzard, we should try to help them.”

      She laughs. “Dude, you really need to go back to the bunker. You aren’t going to last ten seconds out here!”

      I really hate it when she talks about the biosphere like that. They are a heck of a lot more than just a stupid bunker. I roll my eyes. “Why, because I don’t want to assume everyone is trying to kill me?”

      She gets serious. “Look, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hide like this from everyone. I helped you, didn’t I? But you have to understand, most folks that are left, if they aren’t trying to kill you and take what you have, it’s because they haven’t seen you yet.”

      I shake my head. “I can’t let myself believe that.”

      She sighs. “Well, you’re going to have to take my word for it then. You see that road they’re on? Well, it leads to a village not far from here. Last year, these model citizens of yours passed by along the same road. They went to that hamlet and found Mrs. Johnson. A nice old lady my father and I used to take care of. They raped her, and then cut her up and ate her.”

      I’m instantly nauseated, which is exactly the reaction Lyssa’s looking for.

      She spins back to the screen. “I could smell her burning flesh from here. You never forget a smell like that, I can promise you that.”

      I’m speechless, which is rare for me. My whole life I never heard anything as horrible as that. Not so long ago, a bad day for me was when I couldn’t get a clear signal out to get to the Nexus. Well, that’s not true. I mean, I lost my parents, but other than having to deal with their deaths on my own, my life has been relatively tame. I definitely didn’t have any friends cannibalized and cooked so close to me that I had to smell their burning flesh. The suddenness of just how little I understood the world around me stuns me into silence. My appreciation of her resiliency and her heart grows by about a factor of ten.

      “How can you be so sure these are the same men?” I ask tentatively.

      “Slick, has anyone ever brutally killed and raped a friend of yours? Someone you’ve had dinner with a million times? No? Well, I’ll tell ya, that kind of event has a way imprinting certain things into your memory. I saw them pass this way last year, just like we’re seeing them now. Trust me, those are the same butchering bastards and every single one of them deserves to rot in hell! But due to some weird twist of fate, they just keep existing. If I weren’t such a coward, I’d kill them myself. But I saw what happened to Mrs. Johnson when they were done with her and I don’t want any part of them, thank you very much.”

      I walk back and sit on the toilet just at the top of the stairs. I don’t like this, but maybe she’s right. I put the rifle in the tub and as I lean over I feel a distinctive pressure in my abdomen that can mean only one thing. “Um, I have some bad news.”

      Lyssa doesn’t take her eyes off the screen. “What?”

      “I have to go to the bathroom.”

      “Go, I won’t look.”

      I look at the tiny room and back to her. “Um, I have to um...”

      She spins and looks at me in disbelief, “Seriously? Now? Of all times now? What are you, like, five?”

      “I know. I’m really sorry. But I haven’t gone in a couple of days.”

      She rolls her eyes. “Great! So you’ve been saving it up for just the right moment? Nice. I’m sure the smell is going to make me vomit, but go ahead.”

      She then spins back to the monitors. I’m stunned. “What? You expect me to go here? With you right there?”

      “Trust me, I don’t like it anymore than you do, but we don’t have a choice. It’s the protocol. When bad guys are in the area, we go on lockdown. There could be scouts out looking around that I haven’t found on the cameras yet. Maybe, they even spotted the cameras and are avoiding them altogether. In fact, like I told you ten minutes ago, we need to go silent from here on out.”

      “But what about the toilet?”

      “True, the flush might be too loud. I guess we’ll just wait to flush until they leave.”

      “You mean sit here with the smell? No way!”

      “Yeah, you’re right. You need to hold it,” she says, and then spins back to the screens.

      “Look, I don’t know how much longer I can.”

      “Shh!”

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