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

[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?

[2199]

Nevermind. You're implying some kind of... zombie apocalypse happens? Tell me, did the dead run into the ocean? Were there crucifixions?

[littlemissfutility]

I wasn't by the ocean. But we're not from the same place.

[2199]

How do you know?

[littlemissfutility]

Because you didn't have to ask me what a zombie was.

[2199]

I- oh. [The cleverness surprises her. Maybe she was underestimating this kid. Terminology is one of the easiest ways to track variance between IFTs.] Good thinking.

If you come across some ruined buildings near the beach, a restaurant and some kind of resort, I've left a stash of supplies there. Radio me if you find it, and I'll tell you where it is.

[littlemissfutility]

[ Under other circumstances, maybe she wouldn't be that cunning, but talking to other people has made the question of walkers more complex than it already was. It might just become her litmus test. ]

Okay. You're...what was the word for "S"s?

[2199]

Sierra. Sierra-Sierra, and you're Echo-Juliett. I think you got the better deal.

[littlemissfutility]

I dunno. Sierra's kind of nice.

[2199]

I've certainly been called worse.

Be careful out there, Echo. Hail me-- or whoever you think best-- if you need an assist. There's no prize for going it alone.