WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion: Part Four

0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:10.039
<v Speaker 1>Uh, I'm doing the intro right now. I'm Robert Evans.

0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:15.040
<v Speaker 1>This is the podcast. It could happen here book club edihione,

0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:16.720
<v Speaker 1>and that's my job.

0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:21.239
<v Speaker 2>I'm done. Yep. You know that's that's closer to true

0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.400
<v Speaker 2>than it usually is. That that that's my job or

0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:28.960
<v Speaker 2>that I'm done both. Oh good, okay, because Cool's own

0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.480
<v Speaker 2>book club is where at least this month is where

0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:37.280
<v Speaker 2>Margaret reads you stories. Oh yes, and particular I read

0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.519
<v Speaker 2>you from the Lammle Slaughter of the Lion my the

0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:45.240
<v Speaker 2>first book in the Danielle Kine currently duology of novella's.

0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.839
<v Speaker 2>A novella is a short novel. They're fun to write.

0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.160
<v Speaker 2>I recommend them. They're fun to read.

0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.200
<v Speaker 1>In the Spanish that a novella was a lady novel,

0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.200
<v Speaker 1>I don't. I hope that's a correct joke about Spanish.

0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:05.080
<v Speaker 2>I may be wrong. My Spanish is terrible, you know.

0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:06.640
<v Speaker 2>It's funny. It's like, for a little while I knew

0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.800
<v Speaker 2>enough Spanish to actually kind of answer these things about

0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.880
<v Speaker 2>like because I used to pay attention to old Spanish

0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.520
<v Speaker 2>fiction projects. But I don't know enough to play off

0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:17.800
<v Speaker 2>of that joke successfully.

0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:23.120
<v Speaker 1>No, no, so probably not a joke. No, was reasonable

0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:24.959
<v Speaker 1>or a good idea to make because I don't know

0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:26.440
<v Speaker 1>enough Spanish.

0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.080
<v Speaker 2>And here we are and it's a shame. There's no

0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:33.160
<v Speaker 2>it's been done live editing or we're just only forward.

0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.600
<v Speaker 2>The only direction, the only way out is through Robert.

0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.800
<v Speaker 2>That's right, that's right. What hand dare? Seize the fire?

0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.480
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I could seize the fire. I feel

0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.000
<v Speaker 2>like it wouldn't be hard. Yeah, yeah, what's that there's

0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.360
<v Speaker 2>that study that like it's like like twenty five percent

0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.720
<v Speaker 2>of American men think they could find a grizzly bear

0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:52.720
<v Speaker 2>or whatever it is.

0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.920
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean I I feel like I feel like

0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.640
<v Speaker 1>I have a shot. The other years ago, I read

0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:01.560
<v Speaker 1>a story there's a guy who got attacked by I

0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.640
<v Speaker 1>think it was a grizzly up in Canada. Like his

0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.320
<v Speaker 1>dog got attacked and he just like threw just a

0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:09.600
<v Speaker 1>sheer crapshoot of fate, swung at it with like a

0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.040
<v Speaker 1>stick he found on the ground and killed it, and like, yeah,

0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.560
<v Speaker 1>like I feel like there is some some percentage of

0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.079
<v Speaker 1>people who will get lucky. So all we need to

0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:21.720
<v Speaker 1>do is have enough of us try to fight a

0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.919
<v Speaker 1>grizzly bear. A couple of people will make it work right.

0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.600
<v Speaker 2>I have found I often run combat simulations and there's

0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.000
<v Speaker 2>always a five percent chance of success no matter what,

0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.680
<v Speaker 2>because if you roll a natural twenty, it's a critical hit.

0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.080
<v Speaker 2>That is that every time you do.

0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.079
<v Speaker 1>Occasionally come across stories like that where it's like, oh yes,

0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:44.320
<v Speaker 1>some dude just roll a twenty.

0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:49.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, good stuff. Well, shall we get

0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.359
<v Speaker 2>back into it. Yeah, we are on chapter seven out

0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.239
<v Speaker 2>of eight. So this is the last episode of the

0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.840
<v Speaker 2>Lamoslaughter of the Lion. Wow. And if you like this book,

0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.400
<v Speaker 2>you can go out and buy it. It's a book.

0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.880
<v Speaker 2>You can buy it in print. They can't stop you.

0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.640
<v Speaker 2>The man will try to stop you. Yeah, that's right,

0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.160
<v Speaker 2>but he hasn't the power. Yeah. The man might try

0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.360
<v Speaker 2>and stop you from stealing the book, but I'm not

0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:15.200
<v Speaker 2>going to stop you from stealing the book. Yeah either way. Yeah. So,

0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.400
<v Speaker 2>where we last left our heroes, they are in a

0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.280
<v Speaker 2>treehouse and they're like, ah shit, we figured out the

0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.400
<v Speaker 2>obscure clue, but it didn't really do us any good.

0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.480
<v Speaker 2>And truly the complicated thing. Eulixes down below the treehouse

0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.160
<v Speaker 2>waiting for him. What are they going to do? Well?

0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.200
<v Speaker 2>For an hour at least Brynn cried in the hammock

0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.840
<v Speaker 2>about the death of her friend as I tried to

0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.800
<v Speaker 2>comfort her. The sun set behind the hill after an

0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.080
<v Speaker 2>interminable day, and Eulyixi ran off into the gloaming, his

0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:48.040
<v Speaker 2>guardian bowl keeping pace alongside. The birds remained watching us

0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.280
<v Speaker 2>with their dead eyes, but they made no move to

0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:52.240
<v Speaker 2>follow us. As we went down the ladder and headed

0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.640
<v Speaker 2>for town. We were hungry and thirsty, and there weren't

0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.880
<v Speaker 2>really words left for us to say. By the time

0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:00.560
<v Speaker 2>we made it as far as the look out rock,

0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:02.920
<v Speaker 2>it was full dark and every light in town was

0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.920
<v Speaker 2>on the streets below us were swarming with a commotion

0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.680
<v Speaker 2>of lanterns, headlamps, and torches. Brynn broke into a run,

0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.120
<v Speaker 2>and I went after her down the hill, taking the

0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.360
<v Speaker 2>steps two at a time. The first house we reached

0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.280
<v Speaker 2>was a run down split level. A pickup truck was

0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.680
<v Speaker 2>idling out front, and a family was loading bags and

0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.960
<v Speaker 2>boxes onto its bed. What's going on, Brenn asked. A

0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.679
<v Speaker 2>white woman in her mid thirties set down a laundry

0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:29.520
<v Speaker 2>bag full of clothes and put her hands to her

0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.479
<v Speaker 2>head to rubber temples. Bren where have you been out

0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.599
<v Speaker 2>in the woods. What's going on? We're leaving, she said,

0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:41.480
<v Speaker 2>everyone's leaving. The cops are on their way. What that

0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.240
<v Speaker 2>punk kid, Eric, the tall one, he said he went

0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.080
<v Speaker 2>into town to cool off. Says he saw more cops

0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.000
<v Speaker 2>in the parking lot at Walmart than he could count.

0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.280
<v Speaker 2>The manager at the food bank, that old guy with

0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.000
<v Speaker 2>the ponytail, the one that likes us. He told Eric,

0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.520
<v Speaker 2>the cops are going to raid. He's lying, I said, what.

0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:00.920
<v Speaker 2>The woman looked at me for the first time. He's

0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.440
<v Speaker 2>fucking lying, I said, I looked at Brynn. He's just

0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.400
<v Speaker 2>trying to get everyone panicked so that we leave Doomsday alone.

0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, Brynn said. The next house down was

0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.080
<v Speaker 2>overgrown and covered in graffiti. Vulture and a stranger were

0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.280
<v Speaker 2>walking out of it, each with a sack of concrete

0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.559
<v Speaker 2>over their shoulder. Brynne and I saw them and started running.

0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.720
<v Speaker 2>Brynn Danielle. Vulture loped over like he wasn't holding fifty pounds.

0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.880
<v Speaker 2>You're all right, What the fuck? Brynn asked the cops.

0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.200
<v Speaker 2>Vulture started, we heard, Brynn said, who's watching Doomsday? I

0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.920
<v Speaker 2>asked Thursday, As Vulture said, the rest of us are

0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:40.640
<v Speaker 2>getting ready. Where's Rebecca. She's dead, I said, Doomsday might

0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.039
<v Speaker 2>end up that way too, and soon she was the

0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.479
<v Speaker 2>only one left who could dismiss Ulixey and Eric knew it.

0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.360
<v Speaker 2>Bryn stayed behind to help Vulture, but I ran down

0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.400
<v Speaker 2>the hill. Barricades of lumber, brick and trash blocked the

0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.200
<v Speaker 2>street at every bend, with only small gaps still left

0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.160
<v Speaker 2>open to let through the vehicles of those who sought escape.

0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.320
<v Speaker 2>Lengths of rebels are thrust forth from anchors long ago

0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.359
<v Speaker 2>embedded in the concrete. Freedom Iowa had been preparing for

0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.480
<v Speaker 2>this night since its first day. There was a fire

0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.000
<v Speaker 2>in the air, a certain spark that's only found in

0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.200
<v Speaker 2>the otherworldly calm of conflict. But it was all wrong.

0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.680
<v Speaker 2>It was all a distraction. The cops weren't coming. I

0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.880
<v Speaker 2>was sure of it. I ran downhill, my feet slapping

0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.159
<v Speaker 2>on the pavement. I ran past anxious people, excited people,

0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.480
<v Speaker 2>terrified people. I wasn't any of those things. I was furious.

0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.240
<v Speaker 2>The largest mass of lights and people was by the bridge,

0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.159
<v Speaker 2>the most logical choke point. Probably people there were getting

0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.240
<v Speaker 2>ready to delay the police long enough for Doomsday's ritual

0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.360
<v Speaker 2>and for everyone else to escape through the woods. That's

0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.039
<v Speaker 2>how I would have planned it. I reached the block

0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.920
<v Speaker 2>with Doomsday's house, but the place was unlit. It looked abandoned, No,

0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.080
<v Speaker 2>not abandoned. A hooded figure crouched over in the side

0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.599
<v Speaker 2>yard the wardstone. Whoever it was they were pulling up

0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.640
<v Speaker 2>the ward stone. My fast beating heart, my ragged breath,

0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.839
<v Speaker 2>and the rhythm of my feet were all I could hear.

0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.080
<v Speaker 2>My legs burned and ached, I could feel my pulse

0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.920
<v Speaker 2>in my wounded hand. My lungs had long since given

0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:17.120
<v Speaker 2>up complaint. Anger alone fueled my body. Hey, I shouted,

0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.560
<v Speaker 2>which was all I could get out between my failing breaths. Hey.

0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.120
<v Speaker 2>The figure stood up just as I started up the embankment.

0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.680
<v Speaker 2>They turned toward me, a crowbar in one hand. You

0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.960
<v Speaker 2>shouldn't fuck with someone who has a crowbar. I launched

0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:36.560
<v Speaker 2>myself toward them a desperate tackle. The crowbar struck my

0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.480
<v Speaker 2>left shoulder. I was lucky, I suppose, since as likely

0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.160
<v Speaker 2>as not they'd aimed for my head. The claw that

0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.280
<v Speaker 2>split my skin and sent blood into the air. My

0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.480
<v Speaker 2>antagonist went down me on top. I spun around behind them,

0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:52.320
<v Speaker 2>got their neck in the croak of my right arm,

0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:56.120
<v Speaker 2>and applied pressure a sleeper hold, choking off the blood

0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.360
<v Speaker 2>to their brain. Useful self defense for someone as small

0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:04.880
<v Speaker 2>as me. They fell unconscious. It wasn't Eric, it was Kestrel.

0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.720
<v Speaker 2>The white wardstone lay cracked open to a black geode.

0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.520
<v Speaker 2>The house was no longer protected. Shit. I stood up.

0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.960
<v Speaker 2>He wouldn't be out for long, just ten seconds or so.

0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.640
<v Speaker 2>I needed something to tie him up with. The world exploded,

0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.480
<v Speaker 2>sort of, it felt like it at the time. It

0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.280
<v Speaker 2>was a gunshot, really, but it was louder than noises

0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:31.600
<v Speaker 2>of any right to be. And the bullet crashed into

0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:33.360
<v Speaker 2>the wall of the house not two feet fet from

0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.440
<v Speaker 2>my head. Get down, I heard. I didn't register the command, though,

0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.600
<v Speaker 2>so I didn't follow it. Another shot, this time from

0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.959
<v Speaker 2>behind me. Gunshots are kind of like a nonverbal way

0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.000
<v Speaker 2>of communicating get down. And after that second shot, I listened.

0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.640
<v Speaker 2>I dropped down next to Kestrel. If he was conscious,

0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.760
<v Speaker 2>he wasn't showing it. I might have killed him. It

0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.880
<v Speaker 2>never killed anyone before. It turned out that I didn't

0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.920
<v Speaker 2>very much like the thought of having killed somebody. It

0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.720
<v Speaker 2>bothered me more than I expected. Then a rapid back

0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.360
<v Speaker 2>and forth of bullets, and I saw the squat figure

0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.160
<v Speaker 2>of Thursday on the porch, calmly firing and a two

0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.800
<v Speaker 2>handed grip. A figure ran off toward the tree line.

0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.480
<v Speaker 2>A tall figure, an Eric tall as fuck figure, more accurately,

0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.559
<v Speaker 2>his punk rock spikes gleaming in the muzzle flash as

0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.720
<v Speaker 2>he fired wildly behind himself. I staggered to my feet

0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.920
<v Speaker 2>to go after him. Then my brain turned itself back

0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.400
<v Speaker 2>on and I dropped to the ground again because there

0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.480
<v Speaker 2>might be bullets up there, and because I had just

0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.040
<v Speaker 2>taken the pointy end of a crowbar to my central mass.

0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.920
<v Speaker 2>So what the fuck did my body know about still working?

0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.320
<v Speaker 2>Eulyxe is the revolution, It was kestrel talking his mouth

0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.160
<v Speaker 2>right next to my head. Eulixe is the lamb that

0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.640
<v Speaker 2>will slaughter the lion. Doomsday is going to end it.

0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.720
<v Speaker 2>Doomsday is going to end the revolution. At least I

0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.599
<v Speaker 2>hadn't killed him. I was going to add it to

0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.200
<v Speaker 2>my bucket, right next to visit Antarctica and torch something

0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.040
<v Speaker 2>evil was going to be make it through the whole

0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.160
<v Speaker 2>of my life without killing anyone. You're fucking wannabe, he

0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.679
<v Speaker 2>whispered conspiratorily, like he was imparting the wisdom of the ages.

0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:17.720
<v Speaker 2>You act like you're a revolutionary, but you're a fucking poser.

0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:21.280
<v Speaker 2>On the other hand, maybe it would have been okay

0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:23.640
<v Speaker 2>if I'd killed him. It wasn't like I was probably

0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.640
<v Speaker 2>gonna make it to Antarctica either. I staggered to my feet,

0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:29.920
<v Speaker 2>then almost fell back over when the report of a

0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.160
<v Speaker 2>pistol exploded in my ear. Thursday was next to me,

0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.120
<v Speaker 2>his arm around my back supporting me. Get inside, Thursday said,

0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:41.440
<v Speaker 2>Jesus Danielle, Get the fuck in the house. Hestrol was gone.

0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.760
<v Speaker 2>I saw him running after Eric. What kind of asshole

0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:56.120
<v Speaker 2>calls someone a poser? No one's answering, Doomsday said. All

0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.160
<v Speaker 2>of her composure had been stripped away by days of

0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.200
<v Speaker 2>stress and fear. Her hair was a wild tangle, and

0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.240
<v Speaker 2>she clutched at her phone in a shaking fist. She

0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.520
<v Speaker 2>hadn't taken it well when I told her what Kestrol

0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.160
<v Speaker 2>had done to the Wardstone. She'd taken it even worse

0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.080
<v Speaker 2>when I told her what had happened to Rebecca. I

0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.120
<v Speaker 2>sat on the edge of the bathtub in my sports

0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.080
<v Speaker 2>brawl while Thursday cleaned the wound on my shoulder. They're

0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.480
<v Speaker 2>mixing and pouring cement, Thursday said, would you answer your

0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.480
<v Speaker 2>phone while you're mixing and pouring cement. Yes, Doomsday snapped,

0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.440
<v Speaker 2>I'd answer my goddamn phone. This is pretty bad, Danny,

0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.800
<v Speaker 2>Thursday said, trying to mop at the blood that dribbled

0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.839
<v Speaker 2>down my chest. Danielle, I said, for fuck's sake, my

0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.040
<v Speaker 2>name is Danielle. Like I can clean it out, and

0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.720
<v Speaker 2>if you want, I've got a sewing needle. I've never

0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.280
<v Speaker 2>been given no one's stitches, never even read a book

0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.800
<v Speaker 2>about it. The basic idea seems kind of simple, right,

0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.160
<v Speaker 2>Clay could stitch a wound. I mean, you're not like

0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.080
<v Speaker 2>bleeding out or something. I think I'm at least as

0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.599
<v Speaker 2>worried about the blunt trauma as the cut. Your confidence

0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.679
<v Speaker 2>is really inspiring, I said, Hey, I never signed up

0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.280
<v Speaker 2>to be a doctor. I'm just doing what needs doing. Okay, Sorry,

0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.720
<v Speaker 2>I said it didn't mean anything by it your hand

0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.280
<v Speaker 2>all right? I still had the bandana tied tight around

0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.800
<v Speaker 2>my right hand. The pain was a dull throb but

0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.080
<v Speaker 2>nothing compared to how bad my left shoulder hurt. It's fine,

0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.160
<v Speaker 2>Come on, come on, Doomsday said, praying to the room

0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.800
<v Speaker 2>with her phone to her ear. You ever read the

0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:30.000
<v Speaker 2>Man Who was Thursday Thursday asked, what I'm trying this

0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:32.760
<v Speaker 2>bedside manner thing. You're looking pretty pale, even for you.

0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.160
<v Speaker 2>I'm trying to keep you thinking about something else. No,

0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.960
<v Speaker 2>I've never read it. That's where I got my name,

0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.880
<v Speaker 2>Thursday said. It was written about anarchists, like a one

0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.920
<v Speaker 2>hundred years ago. There are these seven anarchist leaders, each

0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.719
<v Speaker 2>named after a day of the week, and Thursday, well,

0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.040
<v Speaker 2>the first Thursday. He's the only one of him who,

0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.040
<v Speaker 2>it turns out, wasn't a cop the whole time. You

0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.240
<v Speaker 2>know how the first Thursday gets it in the end, well,

0:12:55.360 --> 0:13:00.199
<v Speaker 2>actually the beginning how, I asked. He's so committed to

0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.000
<v Speaker 2>his ideals of anti oppression that he refuses to drink milk.

0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.200
<v Speaker 2>But since he is you know, British, he has to

0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.520
<v Speaker 2>like drink something I guess in his tea or whatever.

0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.560
<v Speaker 2>So he drinks powdered chalk all the time, and one

0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.600
<v Speaker 2>day it kills him. Huh, I said, No, seriously, it's

0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.040
<v Speaker 2>hilarious that shit was making fun of vegans before vegan

0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.679
<v Speaker 2>was a word. Okay, I said, Anyway, Doomsday named me

0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:24.480
<v Speaker 2>after the book. She told me I was the only

0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.640
<v Speaker 2>person in the world she knew wasn't a cop undercovers. Right,

0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.040
<v Speaker 2>they're lying anyway, so they'll swear up and down their

0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:34.720
<v Speaker 2>God's gift to revolutionary politics. Me. I was set on

0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.840
<v Speaker 2>this no politics thing for a long ass time. Now

0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.960
<v Speaker 2>I'm a damn third generation Central American leftist, and I

0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.040
<v Speaker 2>didn't even want to be a leftist at all. I

0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.920
<v Speaker 2>guess my dad would be proud. All right, Hey, look

0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.400
<v Speaker 2>at that. The bleeding stopped, he said, I smiled. No, no,

0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:55.080
<v Speaker 2>it started again. Shit, don't smile. The bathtub was slowly

0:13:55.080 --> 0:14:00.400
<v Speaker 2>filling with bloody toilet paper. God, God, God, fucking Doomsday.

0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.480
<v Speaker 2>Put her phone down carefully on the porcelain sink, barely

0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:08.680
<v Speaker 2>containing her rage. Clay's dead, Anchor's dead, Rebecca's dead. You're

0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.679
<v Speaker 2>not dead, and you're not going to be dead, Thursday said.

0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.280
<v Speaker 2>The wards are down. I don't even know how to

0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.319
<v Speaker 2>dismiss you, Lixy. And now now the fucking cops are coming.

0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.120
<v Speaker 2>The cops aren't coming, I said, Eric, he just said

0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.600
<v Speaker 2>that to stir up the town. You've been here two years.

0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.600
<v Speaker 2>The cops aren't coming tonight. If they were evicting us,

0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.560
<v Speaker 2>you'd have heard about it before tonight, probably been warned

0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:31.920
<v Speaker 2>to clear out, not unless the cops were serving a

0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.520
<v Speaker 2>warrant for something serious. Thursday and Doomsday looked at each other.

0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:43.800
<v Speaker 2>Someone's got a warrant, I said, Kestrel knew. Doomsday said, yeah,

0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:49.040
<v Speaker 2>Kestra would have known. Thursday agreed, knew what the cops

0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:54.080
<v Speaker 2>are coming for. Doomsday. Thursday said what I used to

0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.680
<v Speaker 2>live in Alaska. Doomsday said, I was married for fifteen years.

0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.120
<v Speaker 2>It was good for a while, but I couldn't get pregnant.

0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.040
<v Speaker 2>My husband got worse and worse. I shot him. He

0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.440
<v Speaker 2>deserved it. It wasn't self defense, not in the immediate sense,

0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.800
<v Speaker 2>not in the way that I could have proved in court. Jesus,

0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:16.160
<v Speaker 2>I said. Doomsday took a deep breath. Neighbors heard the shots.

0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.320
<v Speaker 2>I guess sheriff showed up. I tried to talk to them,

0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:25.200
<v Speaker 2>tried to make them understand. They didn't understand. Damn, I said,

0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.920
<v Speaker 2>you shot them too. I wasn't going to prison. Doomsday said,

0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:35.440
<v Speaker 2>for that, motherfucker. Okay, so maybe cops are coming, I said,

0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.200
<v Speaker 2>Kestrel must to snitched me out. I never would have

0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.480
<v Speaker 2>thought fucking hell. Thursday said, it's almost like you can't

0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.040
<v Speaker 2>summon other worldly beings into existence. Let them loose on

0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:47.840
<v Speaker 2>your enemies and set up a culture of worship around

0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.200
<v Speaker 2>them without people getting all crazy. You were in favor

0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.640
<v Speaker 2>of summoning him, Doomsday said, I know. Thursday said, Hell,

0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:56.600
<v Speaker 2>I'm still glad we did it. It was worth a shot.

0:15:58.080 --> 0:15:59.960
<v Speaker 2>I've got until dawn to figure out how to un

0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.480
<v Speaker 2>some in him. Doomsday said, what hand dare sees the fire?

0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.080
<v Speaker 2>I said, pardon? I told them what I learned from

0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.560
<v Speaker 2>Clay's notebook, which wasn't much. Doomsday put her hands to

0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.200
<v Speaker 2>her temples. I think you read the signs right. Clays

0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.600
<v Speaker 2>mis quoted poetry Rebecca's figuring Solstice's solstice? But how how

0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:20.560
<v Speaker 2>do we dismiss him? And with the police there as

0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.960
<v Speaker 2>likely as not, Oh Jesus, I said the cops. If

0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:29.800
<v Speaker 2>eulyxes around cops, he'll slaughter them, Doomsday said, and everyone

0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.680
<v Speaker 2>who's ever lived here will wind up running or in prison.

0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:35.720
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to be on the run, I said,

0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.360
<v Speaker 2>No one does. Doomsday said, then what's the plan? I asked.

0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.560
<v Speaker 2>We somehow get everyone out before the cops show up,

0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.760
<v Speaker 2>somehow on smmon Eulyxe before the river runs red, and

0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:51.800
<v Speaker 2>somehow evade the remaining police somehow. Thursday asked, all the

0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:56.440
<v Speaker 2>while avoiding Eric in Kestrel, I would go with stop

0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:01.520
<v Speaker 2>more than avoid. Thursday said, but yeah, what was the line?

0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.680
<v Speaker 2>Doomsday asked suddenly, what hand dare sees the fire? And nodded.

0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.199
<v Speaker 2>Doomsday got a Glinton Or I had never seen before.

0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.720
<v Speaker 2>It was frightening. Maybe Elixie took down Anchor for the

0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.200
<v Speaker 2>same reason I took down those sheriffs self defense. Maybe

0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.560
<v Speaker 2>we summoners can control him. Maybe I could turn him

0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.720
<v Speaker 2>on Eric Hell after that, when we summoned him in

0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.320
<v Speaker 2>the first place, we named these hills this river as

0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.120
<v Speaker 2>his territory. If I renew the summoning, I could name

0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.119
<v Speaker 2>a whole lot more than that. I could name the world.

0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.200
<v Speaker 2>The only way out is through. Thursday asked what hand

0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:43.879
<v Speaker 2>Dare sees the fire? Doomsday agreed no, I said. I

0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.040
<v Speaker 2>didn't want to fight with them. I just wanted to

0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:51.080
<v Speaker 2>go home. Only I had a home. What I've been

0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.119
<v Speaker 2>through Way too much shit for you to switch sides

0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.240
<v Speaker 2>on me now, I said, And I know what the

0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.680
<v Speaker 2>other side looks like. Eric Kestrel, All of them, they

0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.720
<v Speaker 2>say they want to make the world better, but they're

0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.399
<v Speaker 2>just supplanting one authority for another. And they'll fucking murder

0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.480
<v Speaker 2>anyone who tries to stop them, because that's what power

0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.800
<v Speaker 2>does to people. I believe in a messy, imperfect world

0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.760
<v Speaker 2>where we just collectively or individually figure things out. So no,

0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.399
<v Speaker 2>I'm not gonna let you switch sides. And what do

0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.040
<v Speaker 2>we do? I don't fucking know, I said, we figure

0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:23.960
<v Speaker 2>something out, Brennan. Vulture came in, slamming the door behind

0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.960
<v Speaker 2>them and startling all of us. Brynn took the gun

0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.120
<v Speaker 2>from Thursday, knelt with one knee on the dining room chair,

0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:33.840
<v Speaker 2>and started reloading the mag How many bullets do you

0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.480
<v Speaker 2>think Eric shot? I asked four in Rebecca, and it

0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:38.560
<v Speaker 2>had to be at least three more outside the house.

0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.040
<v Speaker 2>How many can it's mag hold can't like think like that,

0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:44.760
<v Speaker 2>Brynn said. Bullet County is some next level shit. You

0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.359
<v Speaker 2>see some with a gun. It's loaded, same as you

0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:49.399
<v Speaker 2>treat your own gun like it's loaded, even when it's not.

0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.719
<v Speaker 2>Still I said, still nothing, Danielle. You see a gun,

0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.840
<v Speaker 2>it's got a bullet ready to shoot. Vulture, for his part,

0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.119
<v Speaker 2>took over treating my shoulder. He want stitches, he asked,

0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.040
<v Speaker 2>what are my options? I can stitch you up and

0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.160
<v Speaker 2>I'll probably do a decent job, but not a great job.

0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:10.000
<v Speaker 2>I could not stitch you up, maybe hit it with

0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.919
<v Speaker 2>butterfly bandages and splitting your shoulder and to keep you

0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.600
<v Speaker 2>from moving and reopening the wound. Or you do what

0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:17.399
<v Speaker 2>you should do, which is get someone to take you

0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.280
<v Speaker 2>out of here, get you to an emergency room. What

0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.520
<v Speaker 2>would you do, I asked? He bit his lip. If

0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.679
<v Speaker 2>I were you, just come to town chasing after your

0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.840
<v Speaker 2>old friend's ghost, I'd use the excuse to cut out.

0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:32.360
<v Speaker 2>You're not in any shape to stand behind a barricade.

0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.119
<v Speaker 2>You're not any shape to go to jail. There's no

0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.359
<v Speaker 2>shame in leaving now. He was right, of course, it

0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.280
<v Speaker 2>was a liability still just leaving after all of that.

0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.359
<v Speaker 2>But what I'd do if I were me, Vulture continued,

0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.280
<v Speaker 2>Let's stick around and see what goes down. I watched

0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.639
<v Speaker 2>Brynn through the open bathroom door as she loaded an

0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.159
<v Speaker 2>extra mag Dozens of cops were en route. A demon

0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.720
<v Speaker 2>slept nearby. I had seen two corpses already, and the

0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.480
<v Speaker 2>wards were down. I had already been bitten by an

0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.000
<v Speaker 2>undead goat, crowbarred by fanatic, and shot at by an

0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:10.880
<v Speaker 2>asshole fucket I said, I'll go down fighting. Vulture put

0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.560
<v Speaker 2>his fingers to his lips and hopped with joy. Then

0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.119
<v Speaker 2>he took out his phone and took a photo of

0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.200
<v Speaker 2>my wound. I've always wanted to stitch someone up, he said,

0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:23.000
<v Speaker 2>I'll do it before and after for Instagram. It turned

0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.000
<v Speaker 2>out he'd done it plenty of times on dogs as

0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.040
<v Speaker 2>part of an animal rescue operation in New Orleans. I

0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.879
<v Speaker 2>was long past the point of nervousness regardless, but he

0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.399
<v Speaker 2>did a fine job. You're right about kestrel, I asked,

0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.240
<v Speaker 2>as he was fussing with the last stitch. Well, I

0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.840
<v Speaker 2>thought I loved him, but I don't anymore. As easy

0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:47.320
<v Speaker 2>as that, as simple as that, not easy. He didn't

0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:49.120
<v Speaker 2>want to talk about it, and I realized I shouldn't

0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:50.760
<v Speaker 2>risk upsetting a man who was in the process of

0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.080
<v Speaker 2>reassembling my body with needle and thread. When he was

0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.480
<v Speaker 2>done with my shoulder, he unwrapped the bandana around my

0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.840
<v Speaker 2>bit in hand. I don't know what I'd expected, maybe blood,

0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:04.280
<v Speaker 2>maybe open wounds or teeth marks. Instead, my skin was whole,

0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:08.480
<v Speaker 2>already healed, but my hand was modeled with the pale

0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.000
<v Speaker 2>gray of overcooked steak, not the white of scar or

0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:15.159
<v Speaker 2>the pink of new skin. It hurt like it was

0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.280
<v Speaker 2>still healing, though, and I had the sudden fear that

0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.400
<v Speaker 2>the pain would never stop. Then I remembered the rest

0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.600
<v Speaker 2>of my situation, and honestly, my hand didn't seemed like

0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:27.520
<v Speaker 2>the worst of my problems. Vulture tied a spare t

0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:29.960
<v Speaker 2>shirt around my arm as a sling and chastised me

0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.240
<v Speaker 2>not to move my arm, and I stood up. As

0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.440
<v Speaker 2>a group, we made our way out to the front door,

0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.840
<v Speaker 2>heading for the bridge and the relative safety of the crowd.

0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.080
<v Speaker 2>The moon hung heavy and low on the horizon, and

0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.520
<v Speaker 2>I focused on my breathing, reminded myself just how tough

0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.760
<v Speaker 2>I was, how not close to panic I was. We

0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:51.840
<v Speaker 2>had it made it halfway down the block when the

0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.240
<v Speaker 2>cop cars poured out of the woods in a cacophony

0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.439
<v Speaker 2>of red and blue light. A crowd on the bridge

0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:09.040
<v Speaker 2>overturned a school bus and it began. Police raids are

0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.920
<v Speaker 2>always at like four am or some shit, always after

0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.240
<v Speaker 2>the witching hour, when they think everyone's not only asleep,

0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:16.320
<v Speaker 2>but going to be groggy as hell when they wake up.

0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.480
<v Speaker 2>It's honestly pretty smart. That's actually why Robert Evans stays

0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.840
<v Speaker 2>up very late. Just yeah, I don't I want to

0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:27.600
<v Speaker 2>go to bed after I know we're safe from a raid. Yeah,

0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:29.560
<v Speaker 2>there were a couple hours of night left, but only

0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.320
<v Speaker 2>a couple of hours. None of us were sleeping. We'd

0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:35.520
<v Speaker 2>had enough warning that most of the town had cleared out.

0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.040
<v Speaker 2>The fifteen or so who remained were there for the

0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.080
<v Speaker 2>same purpose. We were to keep Doomsday safe long enough

0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.320
<v Speaker 2>for her ritual whatever it was going to be safe

0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:48.320
<v Speaker 2>from the police, safe from Eric. Most of us were

0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:52.000
<v Speaker 2>veterans of riots and demonstrations across the country. It wasn't

0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:54.800
<v Speaker 2>going to be a mourning of civil disobedience. However, the

0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.119
<v Speaker 2>police were there and forced to arrest a cop killer,

0:22:57.920 --> 0:22:59.480
<v Speaker 2>and we had no way of knowing if they'd come

0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:02.280
<v Speaker 2>in with less ethal weapons like pepper spray, or just

0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.280
<v Speaker 2>come in guns drawn. The police were massed up on

0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.359
<v Speaker 2>the far side of the bridge, dozens of cruisers, four vans,

0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.080
<v Speaker 2>two swat humvi's, and a prison bus. It wouldn't have

0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:14.120
<v Speaker 2>been enough to handcuff and drag off everyone in town,

0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:16.000
<v Speaker 2>but it was more than enough to mass arrest those

0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.280
<v Speaker 2>of us who remained. Their preparedness to arrest us was

0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:24.040
<v Speaker 2>bizarrely comforting. They were stopped in their tracks, though by

0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:26.760
<v Speaker 2>an overturned school bus. You can block a hell of

0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.280
<v Speaker 2>a lot of road with fifteen tons of yellow steel,

0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:32.399
<v Speaker 2>And there was something beautiful about watching the military style

0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.440
<v Speaker 2>of police vehicles emasculated by something designed to get kids

0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.600
<v Speaker 2>to school. Brinn helped me get a black t shirt

0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:40.600
<v Speaker 2>oh it tied over my face as a mask, then

0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.280
<v Speaker 2>donned her own. The police had cameras, and it wouldn't

0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:48.160
<v Speaker 2>do much good to escape now, only to be arrested later. Still,

0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:50.639
<v Speaker 2>with everything that had happened, I couldn't bring myself to

0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.840
<v Speaker 2>believe it mattered. I had no real expectation of surviving

0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:57.080
<v Speaker 2>the coming day. We made it to the bridge just

0:23:57.119 --> 0:23:59.600
<v Speaker 2>as the police rammed the bus. The steel of the

0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:02.119
<v Speaker 2>humbva struck, the steel of the bus struck the steel

0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:04.600
<v Speaker 2>of the guardrail, and the whole bridge shook from the impact.

0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:08.200
<v Speaker 2>Townspeople lined up to push broken down vehicles up against

0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:11.280
<v Speaker 2>the back of the bus. A band's touring van replete

0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:14.359
<v Speaker 2>with black metal stickers, joined a DIY ice cream truck

0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:17.639
<v Speaker 2>and a box truck as reinforcements. We set the brakes

0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:21.080
<v Speaker 2>and slashed the tires. The police backed up to ram

0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:25.800
<v Speaker 2>again again with each impact. I prayed our side had

0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:29.919
<v Speaker 2>been smart enough to drain the bus's fuel tank. They

0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:33.280
<v Speaker 2>gave up ramming, leaving us with a moment's calm, presumably

0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:37.639
<v Speaker 2>while they awaited further orders. We crowded around Doomsday and

0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:40.119
<v Speaker 2>never realized she was so short, not until she was

0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:43.240
<v Speaker 2>masked and hiding. Most people had their attention on the

0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:45.399
<v Speaker 2>bus and on the bridge, and the police gathered on

0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:48.680
<v Speaker 2>the far bank. But my friends looked elsewhere. They looked

0:24:48.680 --> 0:24:50.760
<v Speaker 2>at the woods, at the street, at the masked figures

0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:54.400
<v Speaker 2>gathered around. They watched for hands that might reach for waistbands.

0:24:55.840 --> 0:24:58.000
<v Speaker 2>As unpleasant as it was to have the massed power

0:24:58.040 --> 0:25:00.760
<v Speaker 2>of the state waiting to take us into custody, waiting

0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:04.720
<v Speaker 2>for comrades to betray us was worse. The woods were inviting.

0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:06.959
<v Speaker 2>I could make my way over the hill, and by

0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:09.240
<v Speaker 2>daylight I might be out of range of police blockades

0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:13.560
<v Speaker 2>and eulyxes wrath alike travelers. They say, watch out for themselves.

0:25:14.160 --> 0:25:16.840
<v Speaker 2>The situation was hopeless, no reason for us to all

0:25:16.840 --> 0:25:21.160
<v Speaker 2>go down. Brynn found my hand with hers, and her

0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:26.120
<v Speaker 2>strength made its way into me. Collective safety sometimes Trump's

0:25:26.160 --> 0:25:30.280
<v Speaker 2>personal safety. Friends who aren't willing to fight alongside one another.

0:25:30.880 --> 0:25:36.280
<v Speaker 2>Aren't friends. Ten long minutes later, a helmeted cop stuck

0:25:36.280 --> 0:25:38.919
<v Speaker 2>his head over the top of the bus, then another

0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:42.960
<v Speaker 2>Things were about to get worse. A masked figure threw

0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:45.960
<v Speaker 2>the first stone. Her aim was true, and the cop

0:25:46.040 --> 0:25:48.760
<v Speaker 2>dropped down from the edge of the bus. More rocks

0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:52.080
<v Speaker 2>followed a hailstorm to keep them at bay. They were

0:25:52.080 --> 0:25:54.160
<v Speaker 2>too armored for us to hurt, but hurting them wasn't

0:25:54.160 --> 0:25:57.400
<v Speaker 2>the point. The point was to drive them back. Tear

0:25:57.400 --> 0:25:59.720
<v Speaker 2>gas canisters arked through the sky, and people with work

0:25:59.720 --> 0:26:01.960
<v Speaker 2>gloves throw them back or tossed them down to the river.

0:26:03.119 --> 0:26:07.800
<v Speaker 2>Then flashbanks. You never get used to flashbanks. It could

0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:09.840
<v Speaker 2>have been one, or it could have been several, a

0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:12.159
<v Speaker 2>blinding flash of light that stops her vision, like a

0:26:12.200 --> 0:26:15.159
<v Speaker 2>stuttering film that holds too long on a single frame.

0:26:16.000 --> 0:26:18.359
<v Speaker 2>By the time I regained my senses, several cops had

0:26:18.400 --> 0:26:20.919
<v Speaker 2>made it to the roof of the bus. Two had

0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:23.920
<v Speaker 2>riot guns aimed at us, one had his pistol drawn.

0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:27.520
<v Speaker 2>More tear gas rained down, and the poisonous smoke was

0:26:27.560 --> 0:26:31.640
<v Speaker 2>soon indistinguishable from the morning fog. Visibility dropped to only

0:26:31.680 --> 0:26:34.879
<v Speaker 2>a dozen yards, only enough to see the bridge and

0:26:34.920 --> 0:26:38.320
<v Speaker 2>the bus. The forest behind us was scarcely a silhouette.

0:26:38.800 --> 0:26:40.800
<v Speaker 2>The cars on the far bank were invisible but for

0:26:40.880 --> 0:26:42.680
<v Speaker 2>the red and blue light that lit up the air.

0:26:43.440 --> 0:26:47.000
<v Speaker 2>It wouldn't be long before dawn. If I were Eric,

0:26:47.040 --> 0:26:50.760
<v Speaker 2>I told Doomsday, it come now. With the fog and

0:26:50.840 --> 0:26:54.920
<v Speaker 2>the gas. I know five cops were atop the bus,

0:26:54.920 --> 0:26:56.640
<v Speaker 2>and enough guns were drawn that some of the fight

0:26:56.720 --> 0:27:00.160
<v Speaker 2>went out of us. Next to me, Thursday was sweating

0:27:00.200 --> 0:27:03.040
<v Speaker 2>with fear. Both his hands were in the kangaroo pocket

0:27:03.080 --> 0:27:06.120
<v Speaker 2>of his hoodie, holding the gun. He wanted to use it,

0:27:06.680 --> 0:27:11.439
<v Speaker 2>he knew he shouldn't. I was living a nightmare. When

0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:15.440
<v Speaker 2>Eulyxie comes, Doomsday said, I need three of you. I'm

0:27:15.440 --> 0:27:19.240
<v Speaker 2>standing guard, Thursday said, which left Vulture, Brynn and me.

0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:23.560
<v Speaker 2>A public address system on the hum v began an announcement.

0:27:24.240 --> 0:27:27.840
<v Speaker 2>I scarcely registered it, something about being under arrest, something

0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:31.399
<v Speaker 2>about her hands in the air. Eric says, he doesn't

0:27:31.400 --> 0:27:34.560
<v Speaker 2>want to hurt you. I whirled at the voice. A

0:27:34.600 --> 0:27:37.120
<v Speaker 2>masked figure stood a few feet from us. He must

0:27:37.119 --> 0:27:41.520
<v Speaker 2>have come from the woods. Kestrel. Vulture put his body

0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:44.600
<v Speaker 2>between Doomsday and his so recently ex lover, What the

0:27:44.600 --> 0:27:47.440
<v Speaker 2>fuck do you want? Look, just drop this, drop all

0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:51.040
<v Speaker 2>of this. Let you lyxe be. I heard Bryn's baton

0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:53.440
<v Speaker 2>flick open, saw a flash through the air. She put

0:27:53.440 --> 0:27:55.919
<v Speaker 2>all of her nod in considerable weight into the blow.

0:27:56.800 --> 0:27:59.720
<v Speaker 2>I saw Kestrel's face twist to the side, his body

0:27:59.720 --> 0:28:04.800
<v Speaker 2>soon follow He didn't fall, so she shoved him. He dropped.

0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:08.560
<v Speaker 2>You told the cops about Doomsday. You beat Danielle with

0:28:08.640 --> 0:28:11.440
<v Speaker 2>a crowbar. You think we'll listen to you? Do you

0:28:11.480 --> 0:28:15.359
<v Speaker 2>know who the fuck we are? Do you drop it?

0:28:15.800 --> 0:28:18.880
<v Speaker 2>A policeman atop the bus aimed his handgun directly toward us,

0:28:19.560 --> 0:28:22.439
<v Speaker 2>twenty yards through the fog. If he fired, there was

0:28:22.440 --> 0:28:26.520
<v Speaker 2>no telling whom he'd hit. Brynn dropped her baton. It

0:28:26.560 --> 0:28:29.359
<v Speaker 2>clattered to the pavement, not six inches from Kestrel's face,

0:28:29.840 --> 0:28:32.200
<v Speaker 2>and the shiny black steel glittered in the morning light.

0:28:33.359 --> 0:28:36.520
<v Speaker 2>The morning light, the small crew of us met each

0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:40.000
<v Speaker 2>other's eyes, and we waited breathless. Doomsday put her cold

0:28:40.000 --> 0:28:43.360
<v Speaker 2>hand in mine. I took Brind's and she took vultures,

0:28:43.680 --> 0:28:47.000
<v Speaker 2>and we were a circle. EULIXI crawled out of the

0:28:47.080 --> 0:28:50.880
<v Speaker 2>river to the bank, then leaped thirty feet to the bridge.

0:28:50.920 --> 0:28:53.680
<v Speaker 2>A policeman atop the bus, dropped his riot gun and

0:28:53.720 --> 0:28:57.600
<v Speaker 2>it clattered. No one spoke a word, only the sound

0:28:57.640 --> 0:29:00.760
<v Speaker 2>of idling police vehicles fought against the subtle of the river.

0:29:02.360 --> 0:29:06.080
<v Speaker 2>Eulixe bounded atop the bus began weaving his way through

0:29:06.120 --> 0:29:10.479
<v Speaker 2>the five cops eyeing them stop. An officer commanded, as

0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:13.720
<v Speaker 2>though he were speaking to a person. Eulixe lowered his

0:29:13.800 --> 0:29:18.320
<v Speaker 2>head three horns, facing the man, he edged forward. The

0:29:18.360 --> 0:29:20.840
<v Speaker 2>cop planted his feet, but the antlers pushed him back

0:29:21.240 --> 0:29:22.560
<v Speaker 2>back towards the edge of the bus.

0:29:23.320 --> 0:29:23.720
<v Speaker 1>Stop.

0:29:23.880 --> 0:29:29.640
<v Speaker 2>The officer shouted fired. Time froze, we froze with it,

0:29:29.720 --> 0:29:33.880
<v Speaker 2>but Eulixe kept moving. The officer tipped over, collapsing atop

0:29:33.960 --> 0:29:36.680
<v Speaker 2>the bus, and the demon punctured the man's chest with

0:29:36.720 --> 0:29:41.080
<v Speaker 2>his antlers. Time returned. Just as his death cries shattered

0:29:41.080 --> 0:29:45.560
<v Speaker 2>the air. Another officer opened fire. His gun exploded in

0:29:45.600 --> 0:29:47.360
<v Speaker 2>his hand, and his face went up at a flash

0:29:47.400 --> 0:29:51.400
<v Speaker 2>of fire, searing his flesh to the bone. He collapsed,

0:29:51.440 --> 0:29:56.600
<v Speaker 2>never to rise. I threw up fear revulsion. I don't know,

0:29:57.040 --> 0:29:59.200
<v Speaker 2>but the contents of my stomach were out on the ground.

0:30:00.040 --> 0:30:03.840
<v Speaker 2>I wasn't the only one. Eulyxe turned toward the police

0:30:04.240 --> 0:30:06.680
<v Speaker 2>raised his front hoofs and slammed them down onto the

0:30:06.720 --> 0:30:10.600
<v Speaker 2>steel of the bus like startled birds. The police scattered

0:30:10.600 --> 0:30:12.840
<v Speaker 2>to the woods, away from the river and away from

0:30:12.880 --> 0:30:17.400
<v Speaker 2>our town, leaving their cruisers and compatriots behind more of

0:30:17.440 --> 0:30:21.520
<v Speaker 2>Eulyxes's magic. The wounded officer on the bus continued to

0:30:21.560 --> 0:30:25.480
<v Speaker 2>cry out sobbing. He kept crying until Eulyxe pried open

0:30:25.520 --> 0:30:29.480
<v Speaker 2>his ribs and masticated his organs. I couldn't wish that

0:30:29.520 --> 0:30:33.040
<v Speaker 2>on a soul, no matter how much I despised them.

0:30:33.480 --> 0:30:36.120
<v Speaker 2>Doomsday started chanting, too low under her breath for me

0:30:36.200 --> 0:30:41.360
<v Speaker 2>to follow. Doomsday. The voice came from town, and it

0:30:41.400 --> 0:30:47.640
<v Speaker 2>was angry. Eric approached, unmasked and seemingly unarmed. He strode

0:30:47.720 --> 0:30:49.680
<v Speaker 2>up like he owned the place, like everything was going

0:30:49.720 --> 0:30:54.200
<v Speaker 2>according to plan, never mind the corpses. Thursday turned and

0:30:54.280 --> 0:30:57.760
<v Speaker 2>his hands started out of his pocket. Don't Doomsday, said,

0:30:57.840 --> 0:31:03.280
<v Speaker 2>dropping the ritual. He's goading you Eulxes watching Doomsday, you

0:31:03.320 --> 0:31:05.680
<v Speaker 2>pretentious fuck. You don't have an ounce of magical power

0:31:05.680 --> 0:31:10.520
<v Speaker 2>in your body. Thursday was twitching. I looked over my shoulder.

0:31:10.800 --> 0:31:14.280
<v Speaker 2>Eulixe was staring intently. Whatever we were going to do,

0:31:14.320 --> 0:31:16.240
<v Speaker 2>we had to do it soon. We had to do

0:31:16.280 --> 0:31:19.120
<v Speaker 2>it now. As soon as Eric was done trying to

0:31:19.120 --> 0:31:21.960
<v Speaker 2>wield Eulixe like a weapon, the demon was going to

0:31:21.960 --> 0:31:25.120
<v Speaker 2>turn on Doomsday. Who knew what would happen from there.

0:31:26.760 --> 0:31:30.280
<v Speaker 2>Eric was trying to wield Eulixe like a weapon. It

0:31:30.360 --> 0:31:33.800
<v Speaker 2>came over me in a flash. Oh fuck this, I said.

0:31:34.280 --> 0:31:36.240
<v Speaker 2>I dropped out of the circle and went to Thursday.

0:31:36.520 --> 0:31:38.840
<v Speaker 2>I reached into his pocket, took out the gun and

0:31:38.920 --> 0:31:42.640
<v Speaker 2>pointed it at Eric. Eulixe bounded down from the bus

0:31:42.640 --> 0:31:46.960
<v Speaker 2>and was halfway between us. Eric a grin across his face,

0:31:47.360 --> 0:31:50.880
<v Speaker 2>raised his hands in surrender. Eulixe looked at me, looked

0:31:50.920 --> 0:31:54.480
<v Speaker 2>at Eric. Don't hurt me, Danny, Eric said, in a

0:31:54.520 --> 0:31:59.600
<v Speaker 2>mocking tone. Eulixe charged Eric. The beast took the young

0:31:59.640 --> 0:32:02.440
<v Speaker 2>man by the throat and dragged him thrashing down to

0:32:02.520 --> 0:32:06.960
<v Speaker 2>the river. He didn't scream. As soon as his face

0:32:07.040 --> 0:32:10.320
<v Speaker 2>touched the water. He stopped struggling as soon as he

0:32:10.360 --> 0:32:12.560
<v Speaker 2>shot Rebecca. He must have known how he would meet

0:32:12.600 --> 0:32:15.920
<v Speaker 2>his end. He tried to meet it with dignity. We

0:32:16.000 --> 0:32:19.280
<v Speaker 2>watched from the bridge, all of us strangely calm as

0:32:19.320 --> 0:32:23.520
<v Speaker 2>Eulxe drowned him in the waters. After Eric was dead,

0:32:23.960 --> 0:32:26.680
<v Speaker 2>Eulxe let go of his throat, and the body lay

0:32:26.720 --> 0:32:29.280
<v Speaker 2>half in the river and half on the rocks. The

0:32:29.320 --> 0:32:32.320
<v Speaker 2>water's slow current tugged at him, gave him a strange

0:32:32.320 --> 0:32:37.360
<v Speaker 2>semblance of life and motion. Eulyxes stepped gingerly over the

0:32:37.400 --> 0:32:40.600
<v Speaker 2>corpse to stand knee deep in the water. He cast

0:32:40.640 --> 0:32:44.080
<v Speaker 2>a long look back at us. I can't pretend to

0:32:44.120 --> 0:32:47.280
<v Speaker 2>read a deer's expressions, and even less so a demon's.

0:32:47.840 --> 0:32:51.160
<v Speaker 2>But for once, the beast's eyes seemed passive. They didn't

0:32:51.160 --> 0:32:54.240
<v Speaker 2>pry into my soul anymore. They didn't read my thoughts

0:32:54.280 --> 0:32:58.720
<v Speaker 2>and desires. He stepped deeper into the river until the

0:32:58.720 --> 0:33:01.520
<v Speaker 2>water was at his neck. He ducked his head under,

0:33:02.160 --> 0:33:05.960
<v Speaker 2>and he was gone. Thursday took the gun out of

0:33:05.960 --> 0:33:08.240
<v Speaker 2>my shaking hand, and everyone turned their gaze from the

0:33:08.320 --> 0:33:12.160
<v Speaker 2>river to me. We thought he was hunting as summoners

0:33:12.160 --> 0:33:15.760
<v Speaker 2>to save his own skin. I said he wasn't. He

0:33:15.800 --> 0:33:19.360
<v Speaker 2>was hunting as summoners because his summoners were predators, hands

0:33:19.440 --> 0:33:23.200
<v Speaker 2>that dared seize the fire. He attacked Eric, not me,

0:33:23.480 --> 0:33:26.440
<v Speaker 2>because Eric was goading us to attack. Eric was trying

0:33:26.440 --> 0:33:29.440
<v Speaker 2>to use him as a weapon. Eulyxe knew that Anchor,

0:33:29.520 --> 0:33:33.880
<v Speaker 2>Rebecca and Clay used it as a weapon. Clay ran

0:33:33.920 --> 0:33:37.120
<v Speaker 2>when he figured that out. Then he killed himself because

0:33:37.120 --> 0:33:40.040
<v Speaker 2>he knew Eulxe was right to be after him. I

0:33:40.040 --> 0:33:42.120
<v Speaker 2>don't know how many times he and I talked about it.

0:33:42.720 --> 0:33:45.320
<v Speaker 2>The revolution is about taking power away from the oppressors,

0:33:45.360 --> 0:33:49.440
<v Speaker 2>not becoming them. Ourselves were in this case, not crowning

0:33:49.440 --> 0:33:52.680
<v Speaker 2>an endless spirit as king. I thought Clay had killed

0:33:52.720 --> 0:33:54.800
<v Speaker 2>himself because he couldn't come back to freedom. That wasn't

0:33:54.800 --> 0:33:57.400
<v Speaker 2>it at all. Clay killed himself because he recognized the

0:33:57.400 --> 0:34:00.720
<v Speaker 2>full weight of what he'd done to the world. I

0:34:00.840 --> 0:34:04.520
<v Speaker 2>was the innocent summoner, Doomsday said. Eulxe didn't kill me

0:34:04.560 --> 0:34:07.600
<v Speaker 2>because I was the innocent summoner. And you know it

0:34:07.640 --> 0:34:10.120
<v Speaker 2>don't need to go out like Clay either. Thursday said,

0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:15.560
<v Speaker 2>is Eulyxe gone? Then? Vulture asked on the twelfth page,

0:34:15.880 --> 0:34:20.480
<v Speaker 2>what hand dare sees the fire? Doomsday said, on Solstice today,

0:34:21.160 --> 0:34:24.399
<v Speaker 2>Eric tried to use him Today, Solstice thins the veil

0:34:24.480 --> 0:34:28.160
<v Speaker 2>between worlds being used like a weapon. Today it was

0:34:28.280 --> 0:34:31.680
<v Speaker 2>enough to convince Eulyxey to depart. Since departure was an option,

0:34:32.800 --> 0:34:35.520
<v Speaker 2>I nodded. That's what Clay was trying to tell us.

0:34:37.000 --> 0:34:39.200
<v Speaker 2>The world was quiet there in the morning. As people

0:34:39.239 --> 0:34:42.279
<v Speaker 2>limped to their feet, the sirens still flashed, though no

0:34:42.400 --> 0:34:46.680
<v Speaker 2>cops remained to drive the cars. Bird song came though

0:34:46.960 --> 0:34:49.560
<v Speaker 2>after some time, and the sun began to burn off

0:34:49.640 --> 0:34:53.880
<v Speaker 2>the fog. What will you do now, I asked Doomsday.

0:34:54.800 --> 0:34:56.640
<v Speaker 2>Five of us were crowded into a booth at a

0:34:56.680 --> 0:35:00.800
<v Speaker 2>diner in the middle of nowhere, Minnesota. Next Hi Brynn

0:35:00.920 --> 0:35:04.239
<v Speaker 2>was cleaning her nails with a folding knife. Across from us,

0:35:04.400 --> 0:35:09.240
<v Speaker 2>Doomsday and Thursday sipped black tea, their faces deadpan. Vulture

0:35:09.280 --> 0:35:11.520
<v Speaker 2>sat with his legs astride a backward chair, and he

0:35:11.600 --> 0:35:14.840
<v Speaker 2>was grinning like the sun had never been brighter. I

0:35:14.840 --> 0:35:18.960
<v Speaker 2>don't know, Doomsday said, find somewhere else, I suppose you guys,

0:35:19.000 --> 0:35:22.000
<v Speaker 2>You guys. Vulture tilted his chair dangerously forward and to

0:35:22.080 --> 0:35:26.240
<v Speaker 2>lean toward us conspiratorily. I was thinking, Clay and Rebecca

0:35:26.239 --> 0:35:28.239
<v Speaker 2>camp be the only ones who knew magic like that, right,

0:35:28.640 --> 0:35:31.319
<v Speaker 2>Elixie can't be the only endless spirit out there. So

0:35:31.360 --> 0:35:33.200
<v Speaker 2>I was checking my phone in the car right because

0:35:33.239 --> 0:35:35.080
<v Speaker 2>Doomsday told me I wasn't allowed to post any more.

0:35:35.080 --> 0:35:36.920
<v Speaker 2>Pictures that were going to incriminate us to Instagram, so

0:35:36.920 --> 0:35:38.840
<v Speaker 2>I had to waste my time some other way. And

0:35:38.880 --> 0:35:42.160
<v Speaker 2>there's this forum I found where people track things like

0:35:42.160 --> 0:35:44.319
<v Speaker 2>you Lyxi and most of his bullshit, but like, I

0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:46.600
<v Speaker 2>don't know, some of it's probably not. Like there's this

0:35:46.640 --> 0:35:49.000
<v Speaker 2>private club in Oregon and every couple of years local

0:35:49.080 --> 0:35:51.360
<v Speaker 2>kids try to sneak in, but most of them go missing,

0:35:51.560 --> 0:35:54.040
<v Speaker 2>and some of them just go crazy telling everyone about

0:35:54.040 --> 0:35:56.760
<v Speaker 2>a bear without any skin. And there's a coal mine

0:35:56.840 --> 0:35:59.960
<v Speaker 2>in West Virginia where translucent dogs had been attacking active

0:36:00.480 --> 0:36:03.200
<v Speaker 2>And there's this bank in Canada that's being guarded by

0:36:03.200 --> 0:36:07.920
<v Speaker 2>a headless man and and he was actually hyperventilating. He

0:36:07.960 --> 0:36:10.720
<v Speaker 2>waved his hands up and down, unable to control his joy.

0:36:11.920 --> 0:36:15.480
<v Speaker 2>And we could be demon hunters, I asked, coordinated. The

0:36:15.560 --> 0:36:19.000
<v Speaker 2>Days reached down and sipped their tea. Brynn folded, shut

0:36:19.040 --> 0:36:22.920
<v Speaker 2>her knife and put it on the table. Yeah, Brynn said,

0:36:23.560 --> 0:36:29.719
<v Speaker 2>all right, of course, Doomsday said. Thursday nodded. I put

0:36:29.760 --> 0:36:33.040
<v Speaker 2>my hand, still modeled with a lifeless gray though no

0:36:33.120 --> 0:36:36.200
<v Speaker 2>longer painful, in the center of the table. The rest

0:36:36.239 --> 0:36:39.320
<v Speaker 2>put theirs on mine. Vulture took a picture with his phone.

0:36:40.000 --> 0:36:42.880
<v Speaker 2>You can't be serious, Doomsday said to him. We're wanted.

0:36:43.200 --> 0:36:45.400
<v Speaker 2>We shouldn't even be talking about this here, let alone

0:36:45.400 --> 0:36:50.640
<v Speaker 2>taking pictures. Yes for Instagram, though she'd glared, buy, I'll

0:36:50.680 --> 0:36:54.520
<v Speaker 2>delete it. Jesus fucking Christ. He was still grinning. The

0:36:54.600 --> 0:36:57.000
<v Speaker 2>server brought her hash browns and refilled my coffee, and

0:36:57.040 --> 0:36:59.160
<v Speaker 2>I swirled the thick black stuff of life around the

0:36:59.239 --> 0:37:02.680
<v Speaker 2>mug as I sorted out my thoughts. Looks like we're

0:37:02.719 --> 0:37:05.239
<v Speaker 2>all outlaws now, I said. The police will be back

0:37:05.280 --> 0:37:07.480
<v Speaker 2>and they'll be investigating the hell out of Free tom Iowa.

0:37:08.520 --> 0:37:11.120
<v Speaker 2>It's not so bad as you'd think, Doomsday said. She

0:37:11.200 --> 0:37:13.279
<v Speaker 2>pulled her hand off the stack, and the rest of

0:37:13.360 --> 0:37:17.400
<v Speaker 2>us followed suit. Oh, no matter who you are, you

0:37:17.480 --> 0:37:20.520
<v Speaker 2>go through your life every day of your life, sure

0:37:20.560 --> 0:37:23.399
<v Speaker 2>that one day you'll die, One day the light will

0:37:23.440 --> 0:37:27.200
<v Speaker 2>be gone from your world and the grave awaits right. Well,

0:37:27.200 --> 0:37:29.040
<v Speaker 2>I don't think about as often as that, I lied.

0:37:30.040 --> 0:37:31.680
<v Speaker 2>I looked at each of my new friends in turn.

0:37:32.080 --> 0:37:35.399
<v Speaker 2>The days stern and serious brin As waled off as

0:37:35.440 --> 0:37:39.040
<v Speaker 2>me a slight smile on her lips. Vulture, who clearly

0:37:39.120 --> 0:37:41.080
<v Speaker 2>wasn't happy about being awake while the sun was up

0:37:41.120 --> 0:37:43.040
<v Speaker 2>and was just as clearly had as much energy as

0:37:43.040 --> 0:37:46.080
<v Speaker 2>the rest of us combined. It felt good to cast

0:37:46.160 --> 0:37:48.880
<v Speaker 2>my lot with them. It felt good even to have

0:37:48.920 --> 0:37:52.480
<v Speaker 2>friends to cast my lot in with. One day you'll die,

0:37:53.160 --> 0:37:56.120
<v Speaker 2>one day you'll be in prison. Doomsday Face was impassive

0:37:56.160 --> 0:37:58.600
<v Speaker 2>as always, but I was learning to read its warmth.

0:37:59.120 --> 0:38:07.759
<v Speaker 2>Today though you're alive, today, you're free. That duh dun

0:38:07.880 --> 0:38:12.600
<v Speaker 2>dunt dunt dun. Oh.

0:38:12.719 --> 0:38:15.480
<v Speaker 1>I am excited for the second one, which I've read,

0:38:15.520 --> 0:38:18.439
<v Speaker 1>and I'm excited to force you to write a third one.

0:38:19.160 --> 0:38:23.160
<v Speaker 2>Oh. I started drafting it. Oh, excellent, excellent, So I

0:38:23.200 --> 0:38:25.840
<v Speaker 2>may not need to actually invite you back here and

0:38:26.840 --> 0:38:31.400
<v Speaker 2>trap you and and and some sort of Yeah, the

0:38:31.440 --> 0:38:34.040
<v Speaker 2>book is just about escaping Robert Evans's.

0:38:33.960 --> 0:38:36.799
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly. It's like a reverse whatever that Stephen King

0:38:36.880 --> 0:38:40.640
<v Speaker 1>novel is. Yeah, it's very you know, I thought a

0:38:40.640 --> 0:38:42.200
<v Speaker 1>lot about that line that you had in there about

0:38:42.200 --> 0:38:44.640
<v Speaker 1>how you never get used to flash bangs, because I

0:38:44.680 --> 0:38:47.200
<v Speaker 1>had a slightly I have a slightly different relationship with

0:38:47.239 --> 0:38:50.000
<v Speaker 1>flash banks, where maybe it'll be different now, but I

0:38:50.040 --> 0:38:53.680
<v Speaker 1>got extremely used to flash bangs, but as a consequence,

0:38:54.200 --> 0:38:58.000
<v Speaker 1>got less use to everything else, Like the thing that

0:38:58.040 --> 0:39:00.480
<v Speaker 1>would particularly fuck me up was that the sound of

0:39:01.080 --> 0:39:03.680
<v Speaker 1>the sound of a flash bang grenade landing next to

0:39:03.680 --> 0:39:04.960
<v Speaker 1>you was almost the same as the sound of a

0:39:04.960 --> 0:39:08.560
<v Speaker 1>glass bottle hitting the ground without shattering, And anytime that

0:39:08.600 --> 0:39:12.160
<v Speaker 1>would happen, I would just like clinch up and immediately

0:39:12.200 --> 0:39:14.839
<v Speaker 1>be like in hell. And it was the same with

0:39:14.920 --> 0:39:18.279
<v Speaker 1>like little fireworks or poppers or anything like that, Like

0:39:18.719 --> 0:39:22.600
<v Speaker 1>it was it was everything. Everything that was vaguely similar

0:39:22.640 --> 0:39:25.120
<v Speaker 1>to a flashbang fucked me up. But the flash bangs

0:39:25.160 --> 0:39:26.759
<v Speaker 1>themselves I was used to.

0:39:27.400 --> 0:39:30.640
<v Speaker 2>Honestly, that makes sense to me, Like I've only had

0:39:30.680 --> 0:39:33.279
<v Speaker 2>my vision stuttered by a flashbang once, and actually it

0:39:33.280 --> 0:39:37.959
<v Speaker 2>was in Portland also, and yeah, we're a real flashbang town. Yeah,

0:39:38.480 --> 0:39:43.000
<v Speaker 2>two thousand three, March twentieth, two thousand and three, somewhere

0:39:43.000 --> 0:39:48.600
<v Speaker 2>in southwest Portland maybe northwest Portland. Before they charged us,

0:39:49.280 --> 0:39:54.480
<v Speaker 2>they flash banged us. And yeah that like that freeze frame.

0:39:54.840 --> 0:39:57.680
<v Speaker 2>I'm never forgetting that freeze frame, like I've forgotten most

0:39:57.719 --> 0:40:01.319
<v Speaker 2>things that happened twenty years ago. Yeah, yeah, but no,

0:40:01.440 --> 0:40:03.640
<v Speaker 2>that makes sense. The fireworks have never have not been

0:40:03.640 --> 0:40:07.040
<v Speaker 2>my friend since then, although I slowly, yeah, pulled out

0:40:07.040 --> 0:40:07.719
<v Speaker 2>of it a little bit.

0:40:08.120 --> 0:40:11.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I go back and forth on them. But yeah, Margaret, wonderful,

0:40:12.080 --> 0:40:14.840
<v Speaker 1>very excited to continue this. But next we will have

0:40:15.040 --> 0:40:17.439
<v Speaker 1>a different set of stories for you all.

0:40:17.560 --> 0:40:20.720
<v Speaker 2>So every Sunday we're being at either a different story

0:40:20.840 --> 0:40:22.720
<v Speaker 2>or a new start for a story that will continue

0:40:22.719 --> 0:40:26.240
<v Speaker 2>for a different length of time, or possibly sometimes Robert

0:40:26.239 --> 0:40:30.480
<v Speaker 2>and I will jabber about books, or maybe other people

0:40:30.520 --> 0:40:34.200
<v Speaker 2>will jabber about books. Yeah, exactly, it's a miss, So

0:40:35.560 --> 0:40:39.600
<v Speaker 2>look forward to that, everybody, and until next time, stay spooky.

0:40:40.440 --> 0:41:04.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah bye,