Explore Correspondence

00:18:12:55 SINCE DISPERSAL “You don’t need us to, like, come in with you, right?” Lindsey scoffed. Her voice was still a little wet, which wasn’t good, but on the whole, she sounded much better. “I’ll be fine, Blair.” Shoving the other girl backwards, she stuck her tongue out and slammed the door shut. Blair waited until she could hear the bath start to run before turning on her heel and stalking back out into the living-room, which opened out onto Lindsey’s immense patio. Isabelle was on the balcony, sprawled out over one of the loungers. She turned as Blair made her way over to her. “Showering?” “Yeah.” Blair settled onto the lounger beside Isabelle’s and exhaled gustily. “So…” “Yeah.” Isabelle held up her phone. “I’ve ordered a bunch of stuff. Kale salad, smoothies, yoghurt, fruits, more salads…” “It’s a start.” “Mm-hmm.” The two girls sat in silence for a moment. “You know, I used to think I was the heaviest.” Isabelle looked up, eyebrows raised. “You’re shorter than

00:13:24:49 SINCE DISPERSAL There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” “Robert?” “Ah.” Robert looked up from his desktop, rising to meet Gilbert as he strolled into his small office/apartment. The lights hummed above, glittering over his thick, dark hair, cropped-short just recently. “When did you get back?” “Ten minutes ago.” Gilbert tossed a small, whirring device at Robert; as he plucked it out of the air, the two men moved to the couch. “Just got this from the freshly-formed Tracking Division. It’s quite, uh, bare-bones. They just jury-rigged this, actually.” “I thought you could track affected individuals?” “That’s only if there’s an available broadcaster to discharge a certain signal. We’ve got access to telecoms within our borders. Outside? Less so.” “I heard that the PM’s already authorized raids overseas.” “Yeah, uh…” Gilbert scratched his jaw. “He has. And you’re going to be using one of these when you go hunting.” He pointed at one of the many finicky little items

“So, do you want pizza?” her nanny asked. There had once been a time when Abby would have grinned and nodded profusely, Ken and Em bobbing their heads beside her, lined up like three peas in a pod, but that time had come and gone. She’d gone through too much for that. Besides, nannies weren’t… they weren’t… authority figures… she couldn’t trust them. They weren’t trustworthy. They just weren’t. “Yes,” she admitted grudgingly. A wider, more accommodating wheelchair had been provided for her, and her nanny had helped her to dress. She’d offered to give her a massage, too, but Abby had refused, and her nanny hadn’t insisted, which mollified her somewhat. She still wasn’t going to be trusting her blindly, though. “Okay. What sort?” Abby opened her mouth, closed it, and rattled off a string of numbers by heart. “Tell them it’s Abby. Tell them I want the usual.” When the pizzas arrived - all four of them - her nanny arranged them on the table and took a slice for herself as Abby got