Then those people left. Traffic began to crawl forward at its glacial pace, slower and more awkward because of the damage, the pulverized cars, and the spiky outcroppings of wood that had to be navigated around.

All accepted with resignation, or quiet glares in our direction.

“We’ll talk about it,” I said, when I was sure the coast was clear. “After we talk to her. Because this situation as it is is untenable. If we’re going to have to take the high road again, I don’t want it to be because we’re accepting more losses. We might as well take the highest road and decide things.”

From Within 16.5

I took Kenzie’s keyboard-sized bit of tech that she’d brought with her, slinging it over my shoulder with a strap she’d attached. I would have let the others do the carrying, but the others were working. Huntsmen, Tristan, and Sveta pushed a car that had been put into neutral out of the middle of the road. Rain still had his silver blade and was chopping down the fully-grown wooden growths. With Backwoods out of the way, they didn’t seem to be triggering with proximity.

If I’d been in costume, I might have felt like I needed to do more while in the public eye. Instead, I surveyed and I took a break to cough violently for a minute. My head pounded. I’d taken the time to go talk to the people who’d lost property. Kenzie had taken pictures, she said, of the damage, license plates, and what she’d seen of the looting. I’d asked the car owners where they were headed.

Kenzie stood next to me, and it wasn’t the normal kind of standing-next-to. We all had our normal expectations of personal space, and she stood within mine, as close as she could get to hugging herself against my side without actually touching me. I’d nearly elbowed her in the head while attaching the strap for the keyboard not-cube.

I put a hand on her shoulder.

“Tonight?” Kenzie asked, looking up at me.

“Hm?”

Making the sound made me cough.

“Rain’s thing that we were just talking about. Tonight. Um. It’s about noon now, I think if I got some things together and checked old readings, ummmm… I think I still have readings from the Shin prison. And he’s slept over at other times. I have most of what I need. I could really use some tips from Ashley, um, Damsel, but that’s not super needed.”

“Tonight was sooner than I was thinking,” I admitted. “Damsel?”

“Tonight is better, isn’t it? They’re saying things could break like they almost did here, sometime today or tomorrow. Isn’t it better to be soon?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s better.”

“Cool,” she said, before dropping her head, hands up to her hair. “Shoot! Not cool, ugh.”