The New Routine

Just as Asher had planned and predicted—the new routine perfectly stayed the course.

Knox County in east Tennessee remained as empty and as peaceful as it was during the first week of the new world—with glorious sunrises and sunsets on the horizon, no engines or car horns on the air, the Sunsphere glistening brilliantly as every day began.

During the time when Roman and Zach were staying in the cabin—still waiting for the convention that they'd likely never be able to attend—Elliot had taken on the task of completely rearranging his room upstairs, shoving the bed against the wall, pushing the dresser aside, and placing a desk perfectly in front of the side window, covering it in a dark sheet and shielding the room from the sun. Then, he began setting up all his equipment from home—his computer, police scanner, radio, extension cords, and more, plugging several power banks in alongside his other electronics. His walk-in closet was filled with all the firearms and bags of ammunition, and now—after three and a half more weeks of stashing looted goods—he had even more.

After all—Asher and Olivia's fun routine hadn't changed. The two of them set off every day, finding a new store to pilfer and filling up on gas while they did, taking as many gas canisters back to the garage as possible, all of them lined up on the ground beside Elliot's generator. With the garage filling up with valuable goods, they always kept it closed now. The deepfreeze was stuffed to the lid with frozen foods, and—after some immense difficulty looting an expensive hotel—Asher and Olivia were able to add another fridge to the home, placing it in the garage beside the deepfreeze and filling it up in no time.

Everything seemed to be working out incredibly well so far.

By day, Asher and Olivia would be riding around in a peacefully empty Knoxville, grabbing whatever food, clothes, weapons, and other random items they might need, often driving the van around so they'd have more storage space. It was his job now, one that finally gave him purpose, trekking off to the city and gathering whatever he and his friends could ever need, laughing and watching Olivia jam to the music in the passenger seat all the while. Elliot would be at the cabin guarding the home front, mapping out a detailed plan of exactly how to manage the electricity when and if the main power ever went out, calculating the voltage they'd have to work with if he ever had to rely solely on the solar panels and the generator, or he would be reorganizing all the stashed goods they had upstairs, as Asher and Olivia's closet was still overstuffed with a messy cavalcade of stolen goods from the gas station. Roman and Zach would sleep half the day away—as they were far from morning people—then wake up, cook some food for everyone, and begin their day of gaming. Everyone had their own routines to entertain throughout the day.

By night, everyone would be home. The hilarious noise from the gamers' room would be louder than ever, always echoing from down the hall, and at times, Asher, Olivia, and Elliot would wind down from the day by sitting together in the giant living room, which maintained a dim and cozy sort of atmosphere after nightfall, watching a movie or playing a game on Olivia's console, eating whatever foods the gamers had cooked a couple of hours prior. Sometimes, one of them—or all of them—would venture back to the gamers' room and join them for a while, making snide comments and joining in their joking or their gaming. When it was time for Asher, Olivia, and Elliot to head upstairs to bed, Asher admittedly felt more at ease with the gamers downstairs, as the two of them were night owls who were awake far longer than everyone else, which provided the home with an extra touch of vigilant security, whether the gamers even knew it or not. Elliot slept sprawled messily over his bed in the darkness, and Asher and Olivia carelessly alternated between their bed and their couch, sometimes both crawling into the bed without giving it much thought at all.

As Knoxville remained at its peaceful and uninhabited standstill, and as summer drifted easefully into autumn, everything in the world seemed oddly, yet gracefully, serene.

Asher and Olivia quite enjoyed their joyrides; while Elliot was planning the most unthinkable scenarios, loading his sniper rifle and stashing it behind the standing shelf in the corner of the living room, Asher and Olivia would be out in the city somewhere, rummaging through a grocery store, a thrift shop, a surplus store, a motel, or—once—even the Knoxville Zoo.

As he expected, Asher found nothing useful to take home inside the zoo, but it didn't matter. He enjoyed taking Olivia on a peaceful stroll down the little walkways inside, eyeing all the animals, many of them looking rather emaciated now. Whoever was running the zoo most recently left a note in the main office, stating that they were dumping all the animal food into the habitats before evacuation, though it looked as if they'd all exhausted their supply.

So—Asher and Olivia did some searching until they found the enormous keyring for the facility, and they stopped at every habitat, unlocking each one and leaving all the doors and gateways standing open, freeing the animals to do as they pleased. Once they were done, they quickly left, hoping not to be visited by one of the large felines, many of which had been eyeballing them rather hungrily through the metal bars.

Olivia propped the office doors open with all the rocks she could find, ensuring that the animals could walk directly through the front building and leave the zoo if they wanted to. And—aside from that one brief rescue mission—the two of them spent all their time filling the convertible or the van with everything they needed or wanted.

It seemed an incredible blessing that they hadn't run into anyone else in their time on the road, everything vacant and eerily silent, almost as if time had halted to a complete standstill, leaving Asher and Olivia the only two remaining souls on earth.

This illusion dissipated whenever they returned home, of course, but it was nice.

In fact—one of Asher's favorite things to do now was to simply stand on the edge of the deck, overlooking everything in the world and gently puffing on a cigarette, smirking and feeling entirely at home.

And all of them were very much at home, indeed; the living room, contrary to the spotless way it was when they first arrived, now looked very much lived-in, the coffee table inhabited by clutter, mainly a few dishes and a couple of abandoned glasses or soda cans, and even the tall green bong Olivia had claimed weeks ago. The booth in the kitchen was now covered in random jackets that belonged to Olivia—as the temperature was fluctuating between hot and cold outside now, and she was never sure when she'd need to wear one—and the bar in the kitchen was coated with dishes, pizza boxes, empty pizza roll bags, and other random assortments of garbage. It wasn't until halfway through week three that Olivia finally decided to power-clean it all when she got home for the night.

Whenever she went on an impulsive cleaning spree, she liked to insert one of Karl's or Elliot's CDs into the game console and play music from the enormous TV while she cleaned up the living room and the kitchen.

And today—as she and Asher had returned home hours ago—she was doing much the same.

Music echoed from the huge TV as she shoved all the trash into a large bag, scooping it off the kitchen's bar and cramming it inside, hoping to fit as much as possible. The sun was setting outside, creating the usual beautiful glow outside the humongous windows, the sky slowly darkening more and more.

Olivia had shed her jacket and pulled her hair back, wearing a dark tank top and a deep blue bandana on her head, keeping her bangs from her eyes as she cleaned.

Roman wandered into the room, wearing his jeans and his white sleeveless shirt, scratching his head and rolling his neck as he unleashed a loud, moaning yawn. "Aaawh… man, I need foods. Hey, where's Asher?"

"He's in the shower upstairs," Olivia replied, trying the bag off and setting it against the wall. "And El crashed early… so whatever you cook, you don't have to leave him any."

"Haha… you're mean," Roman laughed, popping the fridge open and searching the inside. "Mmm… oooh, dude, there's chicken in here. Hell yeah."

Olivia nodded, sitting at the bar and sighing, deciding to relax for a moment. She watched as Roman placed the long pack of chicken thighs on the stove, preparing to cook it and pulling out a pan from the cabinet.

"Did Mrs. Cooke specifically ask you to get chicken this time?" he muttered as he spread aluminum over the pan.

Olivia blinked. "What? Oh… yeah. Yeah, she said we were getting too much junk food, so she told us to get more meat this time."

"Oooh. Okay," Roman nodded, slapping the chicken thighs down one by one. "That's cool. I like chicken, I was just curious. The menu seems to change all the time. I don't mind, I was just wondering why…"

Olivia nodded silently, thinking of her and Asher's field trip earlier today, when the two of them breached the back of a restaurant and looted several meats from their cooler.

"I… am gonna have to… write her… a thank you note," Roman mumbled down at the pan as he spread the chicken out. "I never heard of an Air BnB person catering to their guests this friggin' hard, man…"

Olivia smirked and breathed out a laugh. "That's how they make their money."

"Yeeeah, that's for damn sure," Roman agreed, snickering and shaking his head as he slid the pan into the oven. "She is kinda robbing me blind, so…"

He pushed the oven shut, turned around, and leaned on it, folding his arms and facing her.

"You're not having problems getting gas, right?" Roman asked.

Olivia squinted at him. "Not… really. Why?"

"Well…" Roman pulled out his smartphone, swiping the screen and reading it intently. "I saw this thing earlier today, and it said gas prices in the… cluster zones… the fuck is a 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘻𝘰𝘯𝘦? Ah, anyway… it said all the gas prices in the cluster zones are skyrocketing right now."

Olivia nodded again, now thinking of Elliot, who had been listening to every radio station he could possibly pick up on upstairs. He knew what a cluster zone was, and he'd explained it to her days ago. It was a particular town or a county that inhabited all the people taken away from the evacuated areas, and those places were often suffering from every kind of shortage imaginable.

But here in Knox County—where everything had been abandoned and left almost untouched—they had no such problems. In fact, Asher had decorated the nearest gas station with several of Elliot's explosive shells. The gas station was covered with empty grenades and landmines that would never detonate, grenades dangling from the outdoor rooftop over the gas pumps, landmines scattered all around the parking lot. It was a precaution to keep other looters away—and, since the gas was always still flowing every time Asher showed up to refuel, it seemed to be working quite well so far.

"We don't have to worry about gas right now," Olivia knew.

Roman nodded down at his phone, then sighed and pocketed it, meeting Olivia's eyes again. This time, his somewhat jovial face had a strange sense of seriousness on it, an expression he rarely ever wore.

"I have this app that gives me updates on the convention I'm going to," he said. "And today, it sent us an update that said it was… cancelled. Indefinitely. Like, they're not even gonna try to have next year's convention. It's over for good."

"Aw… that sucks," Olivia frowned. "Did it say why…?"

Roman let out another sigh, scratching his faint facial hairs and glancing down to the floor, grimacing and nodding in response.

"Well… yeah… it did," he admitted. "It said there was nobody to run the convention center anymore… because everyone in Knox County is still gone. 𝘎𝘰𝘯𝘦 gone. Like… it's totally empty… and nobody's coming back."

Olivia slowly swallowed, just managing a nod and saying nothing.

"So… like… where are you getting 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 from?" Roman wondered, making a strange face and squinting questioningly at her. "Because the news apps keep saying that all the people bringing products here aren't coming into this area anymore, and nobody's even living in this area at 𝘢𝘭𝘭 anymore. It doesn't make any sense."

"Olivia," Zach entered the scene, stopping in the doorway and tilting his head, giving her the same warm and wide grin he always did. "My little queen bee!"

Olivia breathed out a laugh, thankful to be rescued from Roman's questions.

Zach swaggered around the bar, wearing a long dark band t-shirt that still smelled of marijuana from when the three of them smoked together the previous night, and he draped an arm around her in a quick hug like always.

Ever since she'd made friends with the two of them, they both seemed to give her a lot of positive attention, though it hadn't yet ventured into any other territories, which made her feel unusually comfortable around them.

Now, however, she felt a nervousness around them that she wasn't used to—as Roman was staring at her interestingly, still awaiting an explanation from her.

"Oh, hey… you left these outside," Zach remembered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the blue reflective sunglasses that Asher always wore. "They were on the floor in the garage."

Olivia's heart made a jump, slowly taking the glasses from him. "What… ahm… what were you doing in the garage?"

"Oh… Mrs. Cooke messaged me and told me there was some meat in the bottom of her deep-freezer that we could have," Zach explained, claiming the stool beside her. "Which I thought was weird, since she keeps telling you guys to 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘦 food in here, but still… I went out there, and I can't find 𝘢𝘯𝘺 of the stuff she was talking about, I shit you not. There's like… 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 of other stuff crammed in there."

Roman slowly reeled his head back, eyeing Olivia even more intensely.

Olivia kept her focus on Zach, pretending not to notice. "Yeah… some of the stuff we got had to go in there, 'cause there wasn't room in here. Hey, you guys wanna toke up and watch movies again? The munchies are gonna hit right when that chicken gets done. It'll be perfect."

"Oh, riiight, yeah… you just wanna make me cry at Free Willy again," Zach chided with a laugh. "I will only say yes if we watch a non-crying movie."

"Okay. Asher has this serial killer movie I still haven't watched yet," Olivia said, sliding off her stool and heading for the living room. "I wanted to watch it with him, but he should be out of the shower soon, so it won't be long…"

"Sooo… we can toke up and tweak out on the tunes," Zach cackled, following her out of the kitchen. "Hey, what're all the gas cans for?"

Olivia continued to walk toward the couch without showing a reaction, thought she felt her heart make another painful jolt.

Roman stared after them strangely, pushing off the stove and entering the living room as well.

"What… in the garage?" Olivia mumbled disinterestedly, bending down over the sloppy piles of DVDs at the end of the coffee table. "They're just… for… just in case."

"They're for… just in case?" Zach uttered, stopping beside the couch and leaning on it, releasing a few light chuckles. "For just in case of what?"

"Just… so we don't run out," Olivia mumbled down at the DVD cases. "Hey, you guys wanna watch a sitcom or something until he gets down here?"

Zach opened his mouth to reply—but his friend beat him to it this time.

"Why do you always do that?" Roman inquired, hunching on the back of the couch and eyeing her rather quizzically.

Olivia raised her brows at him. "Do what…?"

"Every time we ask you something like that, you always change the subject," Roman observed. "Like… 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 single time."

"Whoa… dude," Zach marveled, looking down and only just spotting the small black mini-fridge beside the couch, ogling it in surprise. "Was this always in here? Where'd this even 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 from? I seriously don't remember seeing this here."

Roman joined his friend's side, spotting the mini-fridge—and his eyes instantly shot back over to Olivia, his visage painted with even more skepticism than before.

"Okay—𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 is the deal?" Roman demanded, gesturing at her and giving her a look. "None of the stores are open, but you guys keep coming back here with all kinds of stuff that just magically appears outta nowhere. What's your deal? What're you guys doing?"

Olivia gulped roughly, her expression stony and unreadable as her heart began to pound. She remained knelt at the end of the coffee table, gazing up at him and struggling to reply.

"Th…" she breathed faintly. "The mini-fridge… came… from a motel…"

Roman shot her a baffled double-take, ogling her bizarrely. "A motel…? What… are you 𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 places now?

"Roman," Zach murmured, spotting the conflicted look on Olivia's face and appearing rather empathetic. "Chill…"

"No—I wanna know!" Roman commanded, taking a brisk stride past the mini-fridge and hovering over Olivia. "What is 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, man? Is he—is Asher making you do this shit, or what?"

Olivia didn't reply, her expression beginning to fracture as her heart throbbed harder.

Then, Roman's eyes flickered down—landing perfectly on the jagged, shiny scar that crawled up her forearm.

He glared down at it for several tense, silent seconds, his stringy hairs dangling over his angry face, his teeth beginning to grind.

Zach moved forward, following his friend's trail of vision down to the scar, and he gasped and winced at the sight of it. "Oh… 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵…"

Roman raised his head and met her gaze again, this time hushing his voice considerably.

"Tell me the truth," he said softly and seriously, pointing at the scar, his big brown eyes shining with severity. "Did he do that?"

Olivia's eyes began to water, her mouth drifting open—and something else caught her attention.

She raised her head, spotting someone standing at the second floor balcony, overlooking the three of them.

Roman and Zach both wheeled around and spotted him as well.

Asher leaned on the balcony with an emotionless visage, his hairs wet and slicked cleanly back, wearing his dark suit pants and white button-up, his navy-blue tie draped loosely around his shoulders. He remained there for a moment, not moving, merely gazing down at them with a cold, distant stare.

"Why don't you ask me yourself…?" Asher muttered with serpentine rasp.

Olivia was totally torn now, and Zach looked warily between them all, seeming worried that a confrontation might break out.

Roman, however, glared up at Asher fearlessly, striding toward the balcony and returning his leer in full.

"Not… that it's any of your business," Asher growled, his eyes locking with Roman's. "But, no. I've never laid my hands on her. I never would."

"Oh… really?" Roman hollered, swatting loosely back toward Olivia. "Then why does she look freakin' 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 right now?!"

"She's not scared of me," Asher stated, raising his voice. "She's scared for you."

A thick, horrible tension overtook the atmosphere of the home, Asher slowly beginning his easeful stride down the stairs, Zach stiffening in his stance and swallowing deeply, Roman's hands balling into fists as he watched the man approach him.

"Namely because… she knows what I'm gonna do," Asher uttered grimly, slowing to a stop just a few feet away. "If you piss me off too much."

"Oh… is 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 right," Roman chided caustically, laughing and tossing up his hands. "What're you, the hometown hitman? You sound like a fucking abuser."

"You don't know 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬-𝘢𝘭𝘭 about what you're 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵," Asher snarled through gritting teeth. "And you better think 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 damn carefully before you start picking a fight with me, boy."

"Ooooh, for real?" Roman mocked him, cocking his head challengingly. "Why, because you're the fucking 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘯 here?"

"Because I'm the only reason you're still 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 here," Asher snapped. "You don't know shit about fuck—so stop running off at the goddamn mouth, and 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 for once."

"What the fuck is your deal?!" Roman yelled, jutting out his arm and motioning to the stairs. "You brought a goddamn 𝘨𝘶𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦 in here—and they can't even hold 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 here anymore! You can drop that lie, because I know better now! So what the hell'd you bring all the guns here for? Huh? What—are you a robber? Are you just here to lay low? Does Mrs. Cooke even 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 you?!"

"Listen to me—"

"And what the fuck is 𝘩𝘦𝘳 deal?! Where'd she get that scar from? It doesn't even look that 𝘰𝘭𝘥, man! Did you cut her fucking arm open?!"

"𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯—"

"𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮!"

"Shut—THE FUCK UP!" Asher roared—lunging forward and bashing his hands into Roman's chest, making him stagger back and nearly fall over the mini-fridge.

Roman rebounded and reacted instantly; he dove forward and threw a haymaker—smashing his knuckles into Asher's jaw and making his head jerk to the side. Asher lost his temper at once—pummeling forward and shoving Roman over the back of the couch with all his might, throwing him over it and sending him crashing down loudly onto the coffee table—DVDs and dishes flying amok as the table loudly snapped and collapsed beneath him.

The tension in the room exploded—and Roman frantically scrambled to his feet to return to the fight—Zach hooking his arms around him and holding him back—

And Asher whipped out his pistol.

"DON'T!" Olivia shrieked—scurrying forward and planting herself firmly in front of Zach and Roman, tears streaming down her face. "Asher—𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘦!"

All at once—everything fell purely, deathly still.

Roman had suddenly frozen in his stance, hairs messily thrown over his face as he stared at Asher from over Olivia's shoulder, his eyes shining with shock as he found himself staring down a gun barrel. Zach—who still had a tight hold of one of Roman's arms—had fallen completely still as well, his hairs just as askew and his face stricken with the same grave anxiety, gazing into the gun and not moving an inch.

Olivia remained standing in front of both of them, trembling, her breaths and fists both shaking as she gave Asher a deep, heated stare through her watery gaze.

Asher stood perfectly still, gun still raised, chest rising and falling with every incensed breath, his teeth clenched and his damp hair now screwed up, a spot of blood slowly forming in the corner of his mouth. His predatory glare remained locked onto the gamers for several seconds, seething in silent rage, though his finger didn't dare graze the trigger.

With the angriest sigh of his life, he lowered the gun, rolling his neck and looking away, still feeling totally furious.

"Asher," Olivia exhaled, her voice trembling as much as the rest of her. "Go… upstairs… and calm down."

"Oh no… 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 no," Asher grumbled, shaking his head and facing them again. "I'm nowhere 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 done here—"

"You're too 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 right now!" Olivia shouted over him, taking a wide step forward and giving him a stern look. "You can't deal with stuff when you're too mad to even—"

"𝘏𝘦𝘺!" Elliot hollered from above them all, his hair wilder than ever, standing at the balcony and holding a pump-action shotgun as he glared pensively down at the others. "What's the damn problem here?!"

"Holy shit," Roman exhaled, he and Zach both inching backwards as they stared up at him in mortified horror.

"El—GO BACK TO BED!" Asher bellowed up at him, spinning on his heel and gesturing toward the gamers with his pistol. "Just a little misunderstanding with our roommates—which I 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 to get 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 soon!"

"Jesus—𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 Christ," Olivia gasped, springing forward and clasping her hands around the pistol, ripping it out of his hands. "Stop waving that around!"

"Hey!" Asher faced her and reached for his gun, but she stepped swiftly back and held it out of his grasp. "Gimme that back—!"

"𝘈𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳!" Olivia cried pleadingly, her tone cracking as another tear rolled down her face. "Just go calm down! 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦!"

Asher nearly reached for his gun again, but he halted, meeting her gaze and feeling suddenly disarmed by her stare. He felt a pinch of guilt as he gazed into her sad and conflicted expression, and he took in a deep, forceful breath, lowering his hand and gnawing on his lip, managing to give her a nod.

"Fine," he breathed, turning away and storming up the stairs.

"Ash, what happened?!" Elliot screamed down at him, raising his shotgun. "Did somebody get in the house?!"

"𝘕𝘰, dammit—put that shit away," Asher snarled, striding up to him and waving him back. "Go. Go. Show's over."

As the two of them vanished to the rooms upstairs—Olivia, Roman, and Zach remained in the living room, standing over the shambled remains of the broken coffee table and all the items scattered across the floor around it, all of them taking a moment to collect their composure.

Then, Olivia sighed shakily, turning to face them and holding the gun by her side.

Roman and Zach returned her stare, their faces still etched with anxious severity.

"Y'know what," Olivia murmured in a weak, wispy breath. "That just… really makes me sad."

The gamers continued to stare, saying nothing.

Olivia let out a pained little laugh, another tear cascading down her cheek. "I kinda wanted to tell you guys everything sooner, I jus… I just didn't wanna ruin it…"

Roman gulped harshly, slowly beginning to straighten up, Zach doing the same just beside him.

"'Cause I know… even if he doesn't see it, I know… it's been making him happy," Olivia mumbled, her voice lightening as more tears began to form. "All the stories he has that make him happy… they're all from a long time ago… when he had a buncha friends. And he's happier than he was when I met him. He's a 𝘭𝘰𝘵 happier… because he 𝘩𝘢𝘴 that again… and I just didn't wanna… I didn…"

Her eyes sealed shut, clasping her mouth and trying to force the cries down.

"I didn't wanna ruin it," Olivia cried into her palm. "He likes having a bunch of people around again… and he jus… he really is trying to help you guys…"

Roman and Zach merely stared, their expressions darkening, changing from anxious surprise to a grim sort of empathy.

"And he w… he wouldn't have killed you," Olivia promised, wiping tears away with her thumb. "The most he's ever done is just… hurt people… when we're in an emergency, or something… but he wouldn…"

"Olivia," Zach said in a soft, gentle voice, raising his brows and slowly reaching out to her. "What's going on…?"

"Why would…" Roman muttered, glancing down and swiping a few shards of glass from his blood-spotted arm, then facing her again and giving her a serious look. "Why would he hurt anyone? What're you guys doing that make emergency situations happen?"

"It's just… what we have… to do," Olivia said with some difficulty. "Everything's all up in the air now, and we never know when it's gonna be dangerous again…"

"When 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 gonna be dangerous again?" Zach asked, softly placing a hand on her shoulder. "And when was it dangerous 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦?"

"You guys… Asher only came here because he wanted to come here once a long time ago," Olivia told them. "He loved this house when he was growing up… and it was the best place we could think of… so we just… came here. We had nowhere else to go… and we weren't gonna just kick you guys out, either. That's why we didn't tell you… so you'd stay here… 'cause it's 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘳 here…"

"Olivia," Roman said intensely, grasping her other shoulder. "Tell us 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵?"

Olivia took in a deep, trembling breath, meeting both of their gazes and feeling almost wounded by the sincerity in their eyes.

"They didn't just evacuate some people… they evacuated pretty much everyone. Except for people like us," Olivia stated. "People who managed to just stay behind. And… people like us… have weapons… and go looting… and it gets dangerous whenever they run into each other. We haven't run into anyone in the past couple weeks, but we did before… and we never know when it's gonna happen again. The news isn't on regular TV anymore. The military trucks don't come here anymore. Everything's just gone… except for us… and whatever's left behind here. So… we just… take it… and bring it all back home."

Roman and Zach both reared slightly back, trading thoughtful glances with each other before looking to her again.

"It's not safe for you guys to leave," Olivia said sadly. "And I know you probably feel like you can't trust Asher anymore… but he just… we 𝘢𝘭𝘭 just… we wanted to make sure everybody stayed okay. You guys… and us. Just… 𝘢𝘭𝘭 of us. We're bringing everything we could ever need here… and we're making this place home. I don't know how long, but it doesn't matter. We're just… we're just trying to make it work… okay?"

Roman and Zach were silent for a moment.

"And… I promise," Olivia insisted. "He's not gonna try and kill you. He's trying to 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 you."

Roman bit his lip, giving her a deep, skeptical stare.

"How do you know…?" he muttered.

Olivia met his eyes, smirking and releasing a breathless little laugh.

"Because that's what he did for me."