EJ003X | audio | night 011

[littlemissfutility]

Hello?

[ The voice is whispery right now, but it still sounds young and female. Enough talk, and some of the vowels might sound just a touch southern. ]

Is there anybody out there? Dawn? Is Dawn here?

[ A pause. ]

If someone's out there, I need help. And if whoever's out there doesn't wanna help - I'm armed.

Comments

[littlemissfutility]

We're all stuck here, right? So you probably can't help me get back to Atlanta.

[2199]

That's the only thing you need?

[littlemissfutility]

It's a start.

[2199]

When you look up, can you find the north star?

[littlemissfutility]

You draw a line from one of the dippers, right?

[2199]

Yes. And then you can chart north or south, right?

[littlemissfutility]

Yeah.

[2199]

Good. Keep track of what direction you're going. In the wilderness, most people die from getting lost in a relatively small area.

Do you know how to make a fire?

[littlemissfutility]

[ She's pressing the button, about to reply, when the woman asks if she can make a fire. Her laugh is a surprised little thing. ]

I know how to live in the woods.

[ Obviously. ]

[2199]

[Why? For any number of reasons, none of which Moss can fix or change. She can only grimly think good.]

The tropics? I was trained to survive in deserts. Arizona.

[littlemissfutility]

I told you, I'm from Georgia. It gets pretty hot.

[2199]

It's a completely different biome. Food that looks safe there won't be safe here. Boil your water. Stay away from roots and berries, just to be safe.

[littlemissfutility]

I'm not stupid.

[ She might have drunk some unboiled water, though, so, like. Maybe a little stupid. ]

[2199]

I didn't say you were.

[littlemissfutility]

Then why are you telling me to boil water? Are you gonna tell me not to eat mushrooms, too? It's been two years. I know what to do.

[2199]

I am going to guess that you've experienced some catastrophic event, taking place after 2015?

[littlemissfutility]

No. It was 2010.

[2199]

[It's moving up again.]

Last I remember, it was one-niner- [Oh, for-] Nineteen-ninety-seven.

[littlemissfutility]

Really? [ Weird. ] I was three then.

[2199]

Yes. I once knew a doctor-- a physicist who specialized in quantum mechanics. From what I understand of his work... whatever is happening here may be a temporal fracture.

And whatever has caused survival training to be basic knowledge... for me, that hasn't yet occurred. May never occur.

[littlemissfutility]

Walkers. Walkers happened.

What's a temporal fracture?

[2199]

It's... a heavy place in quantum gravity. Imagine time like a physical space. Timespace. A fracture is when that space grows heavy, and warps time around it like an orbit. You could see something that hasn't happened yet, or happened before you were born, or can't happen in the timeline you normally inhabit.

It's all theoretical, of course. But from what I understand, it's the only explanation that makes sense to me.

[littlemissfutility]

[ The silence stretches out between them, Beth considering this for a long time before she speaks. ]

Do you know what zombies are?

[2199]

The things on Iron Maiden albums?

[littlemissfutility]

What?