one order mark | day 457 | video

[honouraryfitz]

[The video feed opens on a twelve-year-old girl with bright red hair, a rather gaunt face, and dark circles under her eyes. She's working on fixing that, really, but it's been a long couple of days.]

Hi. I know it's been kind of lousy here for a while, but it seems like it's letting up. I got some sleep, anyway. I hope you guys did, too.

Anyway, I figured we should celebrate, and since it's basically summer now, why not have a bonfire? We could make s'mores or roast weenies and sing camp songs and stuff like that. It'd be swell.

So let me know if you're interested, and I'll start chopping firewood. [She gives the camera a grin.] And if you need some odd jobs done, can you let me know that, too? I gotta start making some money around here, or I won't be able to afford the marshmallows and stuff. I'm pretty strong, and I'm a good artist, and I don't mind getting dirty. So if you need something done, call me up, O.K.?

Comments

[honouraryfitz]

Sea-vacuee. [Which is still a word no one here seems to know, so she launches into the spiel.] My parents sent me to America during the war. I lived in Connecticut for five years.

[Her mouth drops open at Ellie's explanation of what was happening back home for her.] Yeah, that's definitely a different war. So they were like...like zombies?

[tonsofpun]

[She's right, and Ellie frowns, but starts nodding at the explanation. Makes sense, even if it would have never worked at home.]

Riley calls them squishy mushroom zombies, because of the fungus and crap that grows out of them.

[Maybe the shiver seems natural, but the sudden way she rubs at her arm might not be.]

... what was your war about?

[honouraryfitz]

That's disgusting. [She makes a face saying it. It's interesting, but it's disgusting.]

A couple countries decided to try to take over the world. Germany, Japan, and Italy. So the Allied Powers--that's the rest of us, pretty much--had to stop them.

[tonsofpun]

You should see clickers. Now they're disgusting.

... shit. Why would anybody want to take over the world? That sounds like something out of a comic book.

[honouraryfitz]

What're clickers?

'Cause they're greedy, I guess. And mean as snakes. Hitler was the worst of all of them.

[tonsofpun]

Clickers are like... a later stage of the infection. The plates start like... splitting their heads apart and coming out their eyes, so they can't see anymore. They can't breathe. But they make this clicking sound, like echolocation, so they can find their way around. Creepiest fucking thing I've ever seen.

... Hitler? Man, I've heard of him. That was a long, long time ago.

[honouraryfitz]

Ick. Sounds like something out of a horror movie.

Yeah, that's what I hear. [Sigh. Why isn't anyone around here from the 40s, like a normal person would be?] How long ago are we talking?

[tonsofpun]

A really good one.

Uh... probably about a hundred years or something. I'm from 2033. ... or 2034, maybe.

[honouraryfitz]

The kind that makes you feel kind of sick, anyway.

Really? [She oughta be getting used to being surprised by this place, but things just don't work that way.] I was born in 1933. And you're from a hundred years later.

[tonsofpun]

I wish I could tell you the future was cooler.

[honouraryfitz]

There's gotta be some parts that're O.K.

[That's how progress works! But zombies, Rusty.]

Or maybe not, I guess.