<strong>JACK</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">"The fuck's a parasol?"<br/><br/>"Like that umbrella she's got."<br/><br/>"It don't hardly ever rain," Mimi says.<br/><br/>"Gets like a sauna when it does, maybe it's better this way."<br/><br/>"A what?"<br/><br/>They chatter like that for a while, leading through the hold.  Now and then, when Jack gets to far ahead, Barker scolds him, like, "Hold up," or "Hey, I ain't fucking around."  What's important is, after a bit, they have to reign Jack in 'cause he's getting ahead, but where he thinks they're going and where they're going aren't one in the same.  Where did Jack expect to find Madison, anyway?<br/><br/>Instead, they divert toward a little ramshackle mess of hovels, this little dwellings people put together out of whatever the fuck they can find, places where when it <em>does</em> rain, having an umbrella's pretty nice because most of these places aren't gonna keep the water out.  One of these hovels is humming.  That's where Barker and Mimi lead Jack, to this humming hovel, just this little one-room space, maybe fifteen feet by fifteen feet.  The door's a heavy sheet of metal, and Barker pulls it open with a grunt while Mimi leads in, lettin' Jack take the middle and followed by Barker.<br/><br/>Inside, the place is certainly unique.  The hum is louder in here, and it's coming from a little generator that grinds along.  And there's Madison, dressed for all the world like she stepped out of an old picture book, practically sepia-toned herself save for the pale, pale skin of hers, the kind that blisters in the sun, and the mop of red hair atop her head.  She's settled in on a chair, talking to somebody Jack's never seen before, a wiry guy of maybe sixteen or seventeen, though they stop when Mimi and Jack and Barker all show up.<br/><br/>She's even got that parasol in hand, poking down into the dirt floor below, and she's holding a glass of water with <em>ice cubes</em> floating in it.<br/><br/>"Just like that?" Madison asks, and Mimi says, "Just like that."<br/><br/>So the girl with the parasol, she looks right at Jack, and she says, "Boy, what do you know about God?"<br/><br/><strong>Jack</strong>, that's pretty weird, huh?  What do you do?</div></div><br/><strong>RUTH</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">John's running around, doing all these little errands Ruth's got for him, but he's still muttering these little curses, rambling to himself about who and why and what to do.  The rambling's pretty normal, but he usually isn't this disturbed by a little battle damage.  Apparently when it hits closer to home, it really hits home for him.  Coming back with a metal tray with all these tools on it, bandages, shining clean well water, narcostabs, he trips on a fucking bucket full of soiled bandages soaking in so much water, step one in the recycling process (good bandages are hard to come by!)  He falls forward, drops the tray, shatters the glass full of water.  Curses: "Fuck!"  Then he picks himself up, gets all of his stuff piled back together, takes it over to Ruth, goes to get more water.<br/><br/>Anise doesn't love all this stuff Ruth's got to do, she likes it even less that it's gotta happen before the narcostabs really kick in, but she knows the drill; there's the occasional pained grunt while Ruth is yanking her arm around looking to see just how far the damage goes, but nothing so bad.  Worst, she just bites down and growls; regardless, she lets Ruth work.  She knows what she's gotten herself into, and she knows Ruth is her best bet for not healing into something broken.<br/><br/>Between those efforts, though, and the numbing effects of the narcostabs, she repeats herself: "I'm going to kill her, going to smash those black teeth out of her skull."  The way she casts those blue eyes onto Ruth, there's no way she's kidding, but then they kind of go glassy as the narcos sink in.<br/><br/>Where the heck are you getting ice, <strong>Ruth</strong>?  Keeping a freezer active ain't cheap, and in case you haven't noticed, it's pretty damn hot out there!  Anise will be settling in soon; what do you do?</div></div>