“Things were cool when there was so much to do,” she said, “and nobody knew how to do it. They’re fine now. They don’t need me around. Somebody gets sick, the Red Cross is here. Mold comes back, go ask The Disaster Fund. Meanwhile, there are no huge waves, no space dives, no life or death, you know? That’s what I need. That’s what I have to go find.”

Two days later, she packed up what little she had and said goodbye. She had never needed the building like the rest of us did. Some people were sad to see her go, and hugged her and thanked her. Some wanted to throw a party for her before she left, but Kristin said that wasn’t necessary and would just waste lots of resources. Makayla stayed up in her room until the very last minute, and when she did come down, she stood across the lobby with her arms folded over her chest and nodded at Kristin.

Makayla was weird, that was for sure, and after the whole thing with Drusilla, she got weirder. I mean, she didn’t like me or José or Sebastian, that wasn’t the problem—lots of people don’t like us. She started staying up in her room and only coming down at night to do the work she was assigned, or to check the supply closet. She checked that thing like fifty motherfucking times a night. She and Jaden fought a lot, too, not huge fights, but little shows of dominance on her part when the whole building was together, to show who was boss. She was constantly undermining whatever he suggested.

Jaden, for his part, stayed cool. He was a pretty rad fucker, I have to say: easygoing and smart and nice to everybody. When Makayla started shit with him, he just walked away, or stood his ground without getting pissed off. He still talked to her the same as when they lived together, calm and chill as a motherfucker.

Eventually, Makayla stopped letting anybody go into the closet at all. She would drag supplies out into the middle of the lobby and let us collect them there.

“It’s less of a risk for everyone,” she grumbled when someone asked her one night. “I should be the only one who goes near that thing.”

The closet situation wasn’t exactly horizontal leadership, but in the end it didn’t seem like a battle worth fighting. We all got what we needed, and were pretty sure Makayla’s intentions were legitimate. So everyone let it be.