“Anything?’ Rox asked, sitting opposite Anita. The rest of the house was dark, and silent. In the middle of the table was a walkie. Anita’s hand hovered near it, even as she tried desperately not to look at it.
“Can’t sleep?” Anita asked.
“No. You?”
“The stress has my nerves a tangled mess. It’s messing with my foresight; I can’t see anything clearly, but seeing fever-dreams of Cris torn literally limb from limb in a concentration camp is a tough thing to pretend you didn’t see.”
“Any idea on the likelihood?”
“I wouldn’t put a lot of money on it. I mean, I have had cause to tear someone’s limb off. It’s not a simple task. Even cutting away a lot of the skin, there’s a whole lot of meat and sinew and… unless we assume it’s another Breed, or some very determined bigots, it’s probably a long shot. But I’ve seen a fair few of those come true in my day; your crummy President being exhibit A.”
“Yeah,” Rox said, giving a depressive chuckle. “I have to assume there’s someone else out there with an ability like mine, but in reverse- only they cursed the whole fricking country, maybe the planet.”
“That’d be kind of nice, actually,” Anita said. “There being some rhyme or reason to the world. Sadly, in my experience, there really isn’t. There are bigots, the congenitally cruel, the greedy beyond all understanding… but shit doesn’t happen for a reason. We suffer, pointlessly, until one day we stop.”
“Okay, we are switching you to decaf, and whatever the opposite of hard liquor is.”
“40 beers?”
“1 beer, if you promise to be less maudlin.” Anita glared. “Hear this with all due affection: I am a teenaged girl, on the run from my country, fighting against forces that would rather we stop existing, whose available romantic prospects are two dudes more interested in not showering than in me, and guaranteed friendship-ruining lesbian trysts. With all of that, you’re depressing me.”
“Fair enough. 1 beer.” Anita held out her hand.
“I’m not getting it for your lazy ass.”
Anita sighed, and kicked out of her seat. “Then what’s to stop me from drinking all the beer?”
“That somehow you have the second tiniest bladder among us, after Tso, and that if you try, I’ll focus my powers on you and you will have a hilarious accident. Or 39.”
“You’re a tyrant,” Anita said, dropping back in her seat with a beer, and handing one across the table to Rox.
“I’m just trying to keep us all sane in an insane world,” they clinked bottles.
“I don’t know. It’s a noble pursuit… but I’ve usually found there’s wisdom in embracing the insanity.”
“Yeah, well, most of us can’t see the future to avoid the worst mistakes that would come out of that.”
“You can, functionally,” Anita said. “And I’ve been nuts, off and on. I don’t think you go through what I did- what we did- completely whole. Sometimes you’ve just got let yourself be crazy. Not all the time, but… sometimes the most damaging thing you can do to yourself and those around you is deny how… utterly broken you are.”
“Isn’t that your whole thing, though?” Rox asked.
“You’d think, right?” Anita asked, and took a swig. “But no. Most days I’m on the same wavelength as Tso; the world, generally speaking, needs to relax, and not take itself so fucking seriously. Of course, the last few days he’s been more on my other wavelength.”
“He has been… distant. I figured he was just worried about Cris.”
“Right,” Anita said. “You don’t know yet.”
“Know what?”
“Ben’s having a really hard time. More than that, it isn’t my place to say. But he’ll tell you, when he’s ready. Until then, be extra gentle with him.”
“You know this is fucked up, right? He’s one of my closest friends.” She closed her eyes and sighed angrily. “Can you tell me anything?”
“It’s going to be a really long time before Ben’s world feels sane again. And in the interim, we really need to take extra care of each other.”
“Is that why you’re hovering over the radio?” Rox asked.
“The uncertainty kicked into high gear once we chose to use a walkie.”
“We knew they’d take his phone. And they have; he’s not responding to texts or calls- but we expected that. It was both gross and cool, your idea of implanting a gutted radio in his wrist.”
“We can only use it for Morse code, but that’s something. Of course, he’s only got enough battery to last a few days, even using it sparingly. And there’s always the possibility it broke when they kicked him half to death.”
“I meant it when I said less maudlin,” Rox said with a grin, taking a sip, “or I’m taking your beer away.”
“I’d like to see you try. I will bite your hand.”
Rox’s eyes narrowed.
“I mean, I’d lose a tooth doing it, but that sounds worth it to me.” Rox cocked her head to the side. “Yeah, that I could see clear. So, as long as it’s within the next ten seconds, and within five feet of me, my foresight is sharp as ever.” Rox took another swig, then gave the remaining half of it to Anita.
“Finish the beers, then get some rest. Maybe that will jog you. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll do you good to sleep. I’ll watch the radio.”
“What about you?”
“I always figured we’d take shifts; I figured I’d take the first one, but you’ve been guarding that radio like it was your only cub to survive the litter. I promise, the first yahoo who wakes up I will fill full of coffee and make take the next shift. Like you said. We’ve got to take care of one another, and to do that, we also have to take care of ourselves.”
Anita finished off both beers, then belched loudly. “I will take you up on it, but only because I’m seeing double, and I don’t think it’s the alcohol doing that.”
“Go to bed. And I better not catch you up there playing Nintendo.”
“You’re not my real mom.”
“It’s… and don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s hard to picture you having a mom. Like… I’m sure you did, but you feel more like you popped out of a factory fully formed.”
“Well, the me you know and… grudgingly tolerate, was born in a lab. Hardly recognize the girl I was, or the woman who stubbornly refused to raise me in any conventional meaning of the word.”
“That sucks,” Rox said. “Eh,” Anita said with a shrug. “It was another lifetime ago. And I don’t think we have enough liquor in the house to cover that conversation, so I’m going to bed.”