Chapter 88: 88 And Afterwards You Wake Up, Part One

The set up in what was once just Tabitha's room got very crowded and increasingly messy as soon as Angharad moved herself and two other people in.

There was only one small set of bedside drawers to store things, so most people's bags were dumped on the floor. Angharad had a lot of stuff which felt like it took up half the room. Freya did her best to keep everything tidy – the gun collection was in the drawers where Tabitha's underwear used to be, and everything Tabitha had was back in her ugly Louis Vuitton luggage.

Freya took over all clothes washing detail, so Jin took over going to the cafeteria to get them food and bringing it back to the hospital to eat. As a split of duties it worked out nicely. Nobody had to worry about the kitchen robots smacking their hands if they tried to take too much food any more now that they were gone, but there was only so long you could linger at the food stations before the lids would slam down, and Jin didn't mind prising them open.

Not that they ate in the room – Angharad put her foot down on that, no matter how much Jin said it was okay. Instead they all ate food in Dr Yeoh's office, usually with the doctor when Angharad could whine and plead until the doctor actually ate something solid. Irene wasn't starving herself or anything like that, she just ran on spite and a surprising supply of gross midnight snacks.

"I hate this and I hate you," Tabitha said, but she laughed a lot more, so Angharad paid no attention to her complaints.

"It's mutual," Jin said. "Nobody hates you like I do."

Freya laughed and that started Angharad off. It really was kind of funny.

"I don't know why Dr Yeoh is so weird about not wanting people to take up rooms in here," Angharad said. "I mean, like, there's enough beds in this hospital for every person in Zapville to sleep on and we'd still have some leftover. Between all the beds here and all the beds in other buildings we could fit hundreds of people in here."

"It's creepy," Tabitha said.

*

Not that everything was perfect in their cosy four bed room. For one thing, they kept having to deal with Rod Spark going past every time he'd visit the hospital to talk to Dr Yeoh, and he could make even just walking down a hallway into a gigantic production.

One morning, while Angharad and Freya were creeping about, trying to figure out everything they could about how Zapville was built and all the people that had been dumped in it, taking notes and whispering, they spied Rod Spark around one corner, doing his own whispering to Dr Yeoh.

Angharad leaned back around the corner in the hopes that they hadn't been seen. Not that it mattered whether they maintained their stealth – it was just more fun that way.

"What do you think they talk about?" she asked.

Freya tilted her head and bit at her thumb. "I think they're discussing Yong Jie's arm. Spark did make his own prosthetics."

"Do you think he could make a robot arm with the stuff here?" Angharad asked.

"Of course he could. Whoever is in charge made entire robot exoskeletons for the cyborgs we fought. The materials are all here, even if the end result might not look like the sleek lines of something you might make in a factory."

Angharad nodded. "That does make sense."

*

Freya pressed the walkie talkie on Angharad again and told her, "Keep it with you this time," so Angharad went out to check the barrier again, while Freya went to the other side of Zapville.

The barrier was vibrant, almost beautiful as it hemmed them in. It rippled and shone, unchanged from the last time she looked at it, but she strolled near its edges just to make sure.

"Do you think it's darker than usual for this time of day?" Angharad asked, into the two way radio.

"No, it's lighter than usual," Freya said.

Angharad stopped walking and looked over the camp again. She couldn't see the other side properly with too many buildings in the way but she squinted at it nonetheless.

"So, you're suggesting that maybe Zapville can be different times of day in different places?" Angharad asked.

"Am I? Can it? Maybe we should test that!"

"Okay! I am totally for this. How do we start?" Angharad asked.

"Hmm, I know! I can go in the communications room and check all the monitors," Freya said.

"How can you be sure they're all playing current footage? I mean, this place does like to trick us."

"We can't be sure but we can take notes and check in with each other until I get there."

It felt like Freya checked in every ten steps with another joke each time. Angharad knew she shouldn't admit it, but she felt less lonely than she ever had in her life. She wondered if Freya had been waiting all her life for a friend like her, too, or if only Angharad felt that way. Not that it mattered.

"Okay, I have entered the communications room," Freya said.

"Is it still as weird as it was the last time you went there?"

"Yes. One of the monitors is playing an old animated movie."

"Really? Wow, I guess whoever is in charge wants to catch up on their cartoons. Any hints as to if Zapville has different lighting conditions in different places?"

"Hmm, no. Suddenly all the monitors are showing indoor rooms. Except for one that is now showing me you."

Angharad looked around, then shrugged it off. "You know, I'd totally wave but I don't know which direction to wave in."

"Just keep smiling. It's what I like to see! I should warn you, though, somebody is walking toward you."

Angharad turned around again, ready to run if she needed to, but it was only Josephine walking in her direction. Josephine waved and sped up her steps. Angharad paused with the walkie talkie held by her side.

"You can see all the rooms. Is there a place I can talk to her without anyone around to watch?" Angharad asked Freya.

But Freya only laughed.

"We could go to my room," Josephine said, face hopeful. But then she cleared her throat and added, "No, uh, it's small and dark and I suspect Mac is lurking down there."

"She does lurk. I guess I'll take you to my room," Angharad said. "But we'll go the back way."

"There's a back way?" Josephine asked.

"Oh, yeah. But I'm not sure a lot of people know about it." Angharad clipped the walkie talkie to her belt, then started off on their path and waited for Josephine to catch up. "I mean, actually, I'm not sure there was always a back door to the hospital. Sometimes I wonder if it's paranoid to think things like that, but then I remember where I am and that paranoia is actually a totally valid response to the situation I'm in, and I just go back to wondering."

When Angharad looked back Josephine had one arm across her body and the other against her chin – the thinking pose she liked to do. There was something cute about it, though Angharad couldn't explain what. It made her want to smile, but she bit her lip to hold part of the smile in.

"Hmm, I do think things like that happen," Josephine said. "In fact, I think, perhaps, my room... Well..."

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"You thought it, too? Like, the thought that maybe there wasn't always a ground floor in that building? Because I know there was always a door that didn't want to open, but..."

"Yes, I was surprised to discover a ground floor, also. Perhaps it was always there but merely inaccessible."

Angharad looked forward to check their way as they walked. The buildings they walked around could be dangerous, their materials not always secure. "I mean, I guess? Why else would we all have been up on the first floor above ground anyway? That door that leads to the internal stairwell was always there, but it never actually unlocked when I tried it. I guess it's always unlocked now."

They reached the edge of the industrial field. Angharad wasn't sure if it was safer to walk behind it or cut through it. Either way, nowhere in Zapville was really safe if it wanted to attack them. Even a closet door could be a trap.

"Should we walk this way after what happened to Yong Jie?" Josephine asked.

Angharad looked at Josephine again, at the trepidation in her eyes. "You can hold my hand if you're scared."

Josephine started to blush, all the way down to her collarbone. "Yes, I... I would be amenable to that."

Josephine's hand was warm and her fingers firm. Nothing touched them as they walked through the maze of equipment, and the area behind the hospital building, when they reached it, was silent but for the buzz of the barrier and the faint hum of their footsteps.

There were voices in the hospital, the regular sounds of day to day life. Josephine let Angharad's hand go as they neared a corner, and then Niall and Irene went past them, arguing about something.

Angharad sighed. She walked to her room with Josephine by her side. When she opened the door to find Tabitha still inside, she breathed out in relief.

"It looks like we've come to visit you," Angharad said.

"Of course you have. I'm the most interesting person here," Tabitha said, as imperious as ever.

Angharad grinned and sat down by Tabitha's side.

Josephine lingered at the doorway, so Angharad rolled her eyes and patted one of the beds. "You can sit down, you know. Like, there are no rules against it."

Angharad looked through her bags while Josephine sat, with a thump, on one of the beds.

"Tabitha, should I paint your nails the purple or the red this time?" Angharad asked.

"Only the purple is regal enough to suit me," Tabitha said.

Angharad took everything she needed from the bag on top of the dresser and set to work, quietly painting colour on each of Tabitha's nails. Tabitha's hands shook, but Angharad held them steady and didn't worry about mistakes.

"Angharad, I'm surprised you don't paint your own nails. That seems like the sort of thing I would expect you to do," Josephine said.

Angharad sighed and sent an amused look toward Tabitha. Tabitha smirked right back.

"The doctor doesn't let me," Angharad said. "She acts like I'm going to have to scrub up for surgery at any moment, even though I don't actually know how to do surgery, so that would be not all that good. I mean, she did teach me how to sew up a wound, though. Antoine was, like, really patient."

"I remember, when I saw you in line, your nails were painted every colour of the rainbow," Josephine said, voice soft.

Angharad stilled for a moment. The nail polish brush nearly dripped on Tabitha's hand towel.

"In another life, where we didn't end up here, I might still be doing that," Angharad said. She screwed the bottle tightly closed and put it back on the dresser behind them.

"If that leaders of the future camp had been real, would you have liked me?" Josephine asked.

"I like you now," Angharad said.

"I would like to have a nap while my nails dry, so you can go have sexual tension in the empty room next door," Tabitha said.

"Yes, your highness," Angharad said, mocking, but she kissed Tabitha's hair and walked out of the room.

The room next door had nothing in it but a folding table. Jin had dragged the bed that used to be there out only a week earlier, but already it felt like it had always been empty.

At the soft click of the door closing, Angharad turned around. Josephine's hands wrung together like she was nervous, but she stood tall and stepped close.

"If that camp had been real, you still would have been in love with Eleanor," Angharad said.

"I like you. I would definitely have known I was meant to like you if we'd met that way," Josephine said.

"You know, you don't even have to imagine a timeline splitting back that far. What if you'd done the right things at that party a few months ago?"

"What did you want me to do?"

Angharad put her hands on Josephine's strong shoulders. "Dance with me."

"I don't know how to dance."

"It's simple, see. Like, you put one hand on my waist, like so, and then your other hand in mine. Just move a bit and then you're dancing. You don't even have to be good at it, because I'm not."

And then they started a slow shuffle around the room. Josephine moved like she wasn't yet sure what to do with her feet. But she looked at Angharad with those intense, dark eyes, until Angharad's knees felt weak and her feet became as clumsy to match.

"Nobody's ever told me these things before. What would I do without you?" Josephine asked.

"Probably whatever you did before you knew me."

"I only watched people from afar, wishing I knew how to do all the things they did. It wasn't the same. Ah, but I don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Right, because it's not like I'm going anywhere." Angharad looked down, so she wouldn't have to be pinned by Josephine's gaze anymore. "But in that alternate universe where that camp really existed, I would definitely have seduced you away from Eleanor."

Josephine stopped dancing and pulled Angharad so close there was no space left between them.

"I'm going to kiss you again," Josephine said.

Angharad slid her arms around Josephine's neck and made it easy for her.

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