"Nothing."
"Nothing? Really? That's funny, because I've been trying to figure out what I want, and I have to say, I've no answer either." He furrowed his brow with dark introspection. "Look, I've been thinking quite a bit. The things we talked about… the conversation we left unfinished. I know I didn't have the same rough life most have endured. When I joined the Scientists, you could have called me naïve, a braggart, and a fool, and you'd have been right."
He scanned the gaunt forms strewn about the alley before looking at Elizabeth. "But it was something you said. We were all arguing, like a week before Last Day, you remember? And you said… that's the way things are is not a valid argument. Simple, I know, but I think you meant so much more than just the words themselves."
She listened, still wary, but waiting for the rest of his thoughts.
He took a moment to breathe, blinking rapidly to keep his eyes clear. "I was happy most of my life with the way things are, because it all works great for me. There's lots of misfortune, sure, but that's just the way things are, they'd say; I'd say. But these people, starving in alleys… and the violence…" Hesitating, he glanced at Rolf for a moment. "I can't even begin to say where things went wrong, or what exactly the fix is. I don't know what we should do to make things better… but I want to try."
A moment of silence hung between the three of them.
Rolf glanced over at Elizabeth, unsure how to respond.
She looked around the alley. The zombies - mostly men, a few women, two children - were all watching their conversation with wide eyes. She turned back to Og. "This better not be another one of your passing crusades."
He slowly shook his head twice, and then held out his hand flat, palm down. "The things we talked about cannot be unsaid, or unheard. I don't know what I'm signing up for, but I can't go back to ignoring what's happening. Not anymore." He nodded to himself. "Yes. I'm on board. Let's take this right to the end, no matter how far that might be."
Wordlessly, she put her hand on top of his. They both waited expectantly.
Rolf locked eyes with each of them, and then stared at their waiting hands.
He'd been thinking about their heated conversation, too. He'd assumed it would be forgotten like every other talk about the unhappy way of things. He'd assumed their awkward tension would slowly fade into a happy dropping of the subject. Strangely, Og hadn't ignored it, hadn't just let it go… not this time.
It didn't make any sense.
But he didn't want it to make sense…
Against all his better judgment, he added his hand to the grip. "This is going to get us all killed, you know."
The tension shattered, all three shared a nervous laugh.
He put on a rare smile, strangely amazed at the new dynamics opening up before him. First he'd gained a job, and then colleagues, and now he had… friends?… like Og, he had no idea what he was getting himself into by actually getting involved for the first time in his life.
A grim and introspective silence hung over the three of them as they finished their break and left the alley.
The tension did not break until, sitting on three chrome toilets among ten lining the busy street, leaning back to avoid a momentary surge in the crowd accidentally milling against them, Og suddenly burst out laughing.
"Man, that got really serious there for a second."
Despite herself, Elizabeth's face screwed up and burned bright red, her suppressed laugh coming out as a squealing chuckle. "Yeah, wow, who knew you had it in you? So deep," she forced out, half-mocking - but half-hopeful.
Still laughing heartily, Og slapped him on the back. His sudden inclusion elicited a genuine smile of surprise. He raised his arms widely, mocking his own grimness back in the alley. "Ohh, it's going to get us all killed!"
An older man on the toilet to his right flinched at the sudden elbow in his face, and he frowned indignantly - but that only made them burst into painful fits of laughter that quickly left them breathless.
Og assumed the suddenly serious manner of a heroic Scientist from the stories, one fist raised in determination. "The world is in danger, and only we can fix it," he intoned deeply and mock-charismatically
Elizabeth cried out, laughing almost to tears.
Rolf watched both of them with a smile, pulling up his pants and letting the next waiting person use the toilet. The old woman had one eyebrow raised, staring at the three of them in annoyance.
He couldn't help but feel strangely optimistic. For a rare moment, life felt like life should feel.
He decided not to tell them that his comment about getting killed had actually been serious.
Mjögen
He stood between them under the streams of chilly water, glancing down to his right at Rolf's short black hair - streaked with telltale hints of blue - and down to his left at Elizabeth's rare unkempt blonde. They were not the companions the boy he'd been two years ago would have chosen, but he now saw a fierce honesty and spirit within both that he'd only begun to truly value.
Traveling to the Scientists' Atoll, forced to live up to his bold youthful claims and actually sit down, study, and learn the sciences, a dark suspicion had found seed within his heart.
Climbing up the Edge into a swarm of hungry laborers, walking the crowded streets, resting in an alley full of starving zombies… he knew his dark suspicion had been right.
The sheet metal in front of his face seemed to reflect his own charmed upbringing, forcing him to look away. Absently rubbing the shower water across his shoulders and arms, he watched the street for a moment, noticing among passersby sharp cheek bones, gaunt eyes, and a quiet overhanging exhaustion that belied the area's bright colors and loud clashing musics.
The problems he'd boldly promised to solve suddenly seemed too insurmountable to topple, let alone approach.
"What happened between you two?" he found himself asking as a self-diversion, glancing down at his showering companions. "What's with the insults and the bickering? You made me violate my promise and look at your logs, but there wasn't even anything there."
Rolf seemed slightly more bitter than usual. He'd already known. "Nobody made you do anything."
"Fine," he admitted, scratching his beard. "I care, and I broke my promise not to look at your lifelog. But there still wasn't anything there. You never even had a fight as far as I can tell. So what's all this back and forth about?"
Elizabeth turned her head away, dispensed more soap from the system, and worked on her legs.
Rolf gave no hint either, instead scrubbing at his hair with angry force, as if he could somehow remove his hated streaks of blue.
Their showers completed, they moved along the line of dripping bare bodies, passing by the blasting airdry vent and picking up their clothing from the autowash system.
They dressed in silence.
Soon after, he noticed an abrupt change in Rolf's manner. Without looking at his lifelog, all he could do was ask. "What's wrong?"
Rolf gazed down the street, his expression hard.
A furiously glaring young man about their age approached from three blocks away. His hair ran black, with light blue streaks.
"An acquaintance of yours?" he asked.
Rolf nodded, watching intently, but offering no explanation.
Unsure what the problem was, but certain the stranger seemed intent on violence, he wrote a text message. "Hey, leave my friend alone."
"It's not your business, Nord," the angry Subian wrote back.
"It is my business. He's a fellow Scientist. Get outta here!"
He looked down at Elizabeth, expecting her to offer some insulting suggestion to leave Rolf to his own problems, but she just stood watching in strange, silent concern.
"Fair enough, I can respect that," the stranger replied. His next message went to Rolf directly. "I'll be around."
They kept walking in silence for some time after the strange encounter, but Rolf refused to explain. Og even caught Elizabeth glancing over a few times with subtle comp
assion.
Before he had a chance to ask, a request interrupted his thoughts.
With a worried word to his two colleagues, he ducked into a rough-looking light green residency building. Moving between the huddled families sitting on the dusty floor, he kneeled before a group of four at the back.
Rolf and Elizabeth stood behind as he examined the injured woman.
"When did you break it?" he asked, gently probing her swollen leg.
"We can't pay," she mumbled, her forehead running with sweat. Her husband, also a young Nord, held her up in a sitting position. Their two children played a game with several rocks, oblivious.
He shook the concern away. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. Do you have…" He looked around, sighting something that might do. "Hey, Rolf, will you get that rod?"
Surprised by the request to help, it took Rolf a moment to comply, but he eventually stepped over to the wall. Pulling a cutting tool from his satchel, he finished the job corrosion had started, prying the corrugated rod from the crumbling stone.
"Thanks." He took it, mixed together a few liquids from his own satchel, and began rubbing the rust off. "Need that sleeve?"
The husband shook his head, tearing off his sleeve quickly.
Elizabeth held the woman's leg while he leaned down, setting the broken bone back into place. Not wanting to alarm her children, she bit her lip to bleeding - but she managed not to scream.
He quickly set the cleaned rod against her leg and tied it tight.
"Lay her down. Good. Now let her sleep. It didn't look infected. She should be all right."
"I was so worried," her