“You know, Grandpa Lewis built this house with his own two hands. He didn’t use the honeybees. He said he wanted to have something he made.”
Lulu gave me a sidelong glance. “He never told me that.”
“I know,” I said. “He never told me, either. But he wrote it down. It’s in that bookThe Colonist’s Guide to Settlement Defense. He wrote a bunch of things in the back of it. I just started reading it. He said that after he was finished building the house, Grandma Yolanda thought maybe she’d want a bigger family, and he’d had the honeybees build an extra wing to the house. But later, he tore it down again when he realized it was only going to be Mom. He had it torn down so it was just what he’d built.”
Lulu grunted. “Well, that was fucking stupid.” She wrapped her arms around my waist. She was crying now. “And so very Grandpa Lewis. He’d be so pissed at all of this.”
“I can’t even imagine what he’d say.”
“I can,” Lulu said, sniffing. “He’d huff and puff and blame Mr.Yanez for some reason and then he’d demand Roger give us a five-hour lecture about the famine wars or something before building a giant tank and single-handedly killing all the bad guys.”
I laughed.
Lulu sighed. “I guess I’m going to sleep in the control room tonight. I’m not sleeping in one of those bunkers. You can go sleep in your sex attic.”
“Sleep?” I asked. “What’s that?”
“What else did Grandpa say in his diary?”
“He said that you remind him so much of Mom that sometimes it made his heart hurt. He said that he was worried that he’d ruined Grandma’s life by making her come all the way down here when she could’ve stayed in Fat Landing and married some guy named the Chin. After she died, he said he wasn’t sure he could survive without her.”
“But he did survive. He did a pretty good job, I think,” Lulu said. She sniffed. “Anything else?”
“Yeah,” I said, “he said what rule number ten is.”
She pulled back from me, eyes wide. “What the fuck, Oliver? Are you serious? And you haven’t told me?”
I felt myself smile.
She punched me in the arm right where the shrapnel had hit, and I cried out in pain. She pulled back, and her fist was covered in blood. Her look of anger was replaced with wide eyes.
“Oliver! You’re hurt!”
I hadn’t even felt it until now. I looked down and laughed as she started shouting for Roger.
“What’s so funny?” she demanded as she pulled off my jacket.
“That’s a thing in old movies,” I said, also examining the wound. It burned, but it wasn’t that bad of an injury. “People getting shot, and them not saying anything until someone else notices. And then they shout, ‘You’re hurt.’ It’s supposed to be because they’re tough and were hiding it, but I’d literally forgotten. I think there’s so much adrenaline running through me, my body just stopped noticing stuff like that.”
Roger was suddenly beside us, clicking. He examined the wound.“You are triage level three, Oliver. Nonemergency. Proceed to the medical station when you’re called.”
I nodded as Lulu started to wrap my arm with something she pulled from the wreckage. It was a pair of her own stockings that had a black-and-white cow pattern on them.
Roger buzzed closer. “Most of the enemy is taken care of. However, I have received intelligence that should be discussed in a secure location. Furthermore, the communication tablet just received a message from Cordelia Black indicating that Eli Opel wishes to have another meeting.”
“I bet he does,” Lulu said as she worked. She cinched the stockings tight.
“Christ, Lulu, I don’t need a tourniquet.”
“And I don’t need a dead brother.”
Roger continued. “The timer on the communication pad has reset. Tomorrow’s raid will be open to all players who wish to participate. It appears the bulk of the existing players will be here. There were multiple battles similar to this throughout the planet today, and I am sorry to say we are the sole surviving stronghold. The peninsula remains blacked out, but players are allowed to spend the next day hunting down any pockets of survivors.” He paused. “In addition, Apex Command, as a surprise, has allowed existing players to use several of the new designs and weapons for tomorrow’s raid if they decide to sign up for Phase 2. This includes their build-your-war-machine-from-the-ground-up option.”
“Phase 2,” I muttered. “So, how many players will there be tomorrow anyway?” I asked.
“All of them,” Roger said.
The Rhythm Mafia Tapes. Scene twenty-four.
