Ish. Nineteen. Most of us feel that we’ve bivouacked during a lull as the mighty forces of the AI war machine regroups for the last cleanup mission. No matter what any of the flyers dropped by drones say or their mass evacuation, this is the what everyone has been talking about for ten years! So, no, we’re not safe here or anywhere. Eavesdropping tech from a mile up, thermal imaging, spy bots, as small as bugs both arial and ground, intentional seeding of dangerous hybrids and decoy set randomly to ferret us out of hiding, usually a human screaming in pain.

  We’re tired, bruised, some badly maimed, confused on mixed messaging, kind of at the end of a long rope, hanging, waiting for the next superbug to erase the remainders. The tripledemic got the old, that weird flu that sent peoples body temperature soaring in minutes geared for the black race or the killer house fly’s loaded with poison for everyone. So many of us think this won’t keep us safe for long.

  Zenith was kind enough to allow us to stay as we trickled in but made us strip and scrub down before we entered naked. Weird, but we all got it. Luckily, she had found chests of what she thinks are goodwill clothes from when things were cool. All our cloths were returned after washed.

  So, as many will say here despite what I just wrote, we may exist in some kind of obtuse time limbo, not knowing exactly if we were too late for the party or too early. Are the bad guys still bad or are they good now replaced with another type of bad person. If our nemesis has switched sides while we were doing anarchy and blowing up their oil installations, how could we not know that! How could we have missed our victory while others were quickly replacing them and for what purpose- to slow down restoration! If not the oligarchs, then who. Jagger, another who found his way here has his own alternative opinions which you’ll hear about but just saying, he brought good jackle with him, so.

  Sorry got off track there but we’re still fresh off the battlefield so lots of unwinding going on. Never been married, never had kids, never been anywhere except on east coast, have read a lot, SM a lot, bisexual, mostly a loner but not a lone wolf, don’t mind the company of people but too many meaningless words make me hide. Inconsistencies make me become overly obsessive. Stupidity just angers me but naive ignorance doesn’t.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  For the last five years I’ve created memes that have rocked the world, more hits, star influencer that moves mountains but not even these people know that but they do now. My handle has always been Rocketman, simple anonymous. I don’t mind this. I don’t go outside. Nobody does until we get a plan. The library has a lot of nooks and crannies including a game room downstairs and twenty rooms that some one partitioned off as bedrooms. Also there are five greenhouses on top that came with a file full of seeds and a skid of compost so whenever I want to do something to unscramble, I go up there and work. We couldn’t do this without that.

  Zenith is cool. Level headed, grounded despite all the shit we’ve been through. There are a few here that I can have a conversation with and not want to shout at them which I’ve never done. And I’m a fairly good cook of simple vegetarian dishes. Not much to eat yet but plans are being made to search area buildings despite noticeable threats. Zenith has two working pistols that she found when she first entered this place while others continue searching for any more that might be hidden. So far, we’ve discovered a stairway inside a closet that leads to a large workroom where once books were repaired that has the feel and smell of a museum. One girl here has decided to be the new librarian and is beginning to use that room for repairs. There was a leak in the back left hand corner that was repaired but not before damaging some nonfiction on the R and S shelves.

  We have enough electricity from an elaborate solar array and batteries, all shielded as are the hot houses, that when full, we have lights, refrigeration and one tv station that shows The Word which shows peoples video footage of climate catastrophes worldwide, not inspiring but at least a peak into our deteriorating conditions. And a thing called a lozenge that can only share your videos. Water bottles and canned food packed into a storage room, attached to the back sticking out into a parking lot full of rusty vehicles. The supply is amazing like back up to a grocery store, what Zenith thinks was intentionally built for survival by the last residents. Most stuff is outdated by a year or two but still good.

  We’ve only been here a week but have had two meetings on both ground rules here and plans to survive however long the siege lasts. We watch The Word hoping that more information on just what the hell is happening becomes available. During the last few weeks we were protesting, most of the corporate buildings were roof evacuated by helicopter and the rumor mill was heating up to a frenzy so we’re like stuck here until we find out what’s up. If I were still creating Memes, I’d use one shot one of us took of a large evacuation going on with a caption beneath, NEXT!

  Again, just to be clear, them leaving might indicate that the last clean-up is about to start and not that we won.