“Give me five reasons I shouldn't blow your head off.” Gary told him, his voice low and betrayed.

  Gary sat on the side of the table which he always does, pointing Proteus's laser pistol to Jimbo's head.

  John stood beside him, his leg functional, his arms crossed.

  Amy sat between Jimbo and Gary. There was no one else present.

  It was a tight-knit meeting.

  “Boss… put the gun down.” Jimbo says.

  “You're tired. You're angry. I can explain.”

  “Then you better start explaining quickly. Your next words might be your last.” John could sense the history. The time between the two. John felt betrayed, sure. But he couldn't quite imagine how Gary felt.

  Jimbo opens his mouth, staring Gary directly between his eyes.

  “All rebellion is fake, boss. It's fake. All of it. There is no such thing as a rebellion. All of this? All of what you see around here?! Guess who allows it to exist?!”

  Gary shakes his head, his eyes never leaving Jimbo as he continues.

  “Kubaal Aetheon allows it! They fund this shit! This entire obelisk? You think it just sprang out of the ground?! No, they built it here. And they had my number. And you were the best man who I thought could lead it!”

  Gary shakes his head again. His hand starts shaking. His eyes water just a little bit, but he doesn't dare shed a tear. Gary raised slowly, pacing around the table subtly, towards Jimbo. Jimbo followed him with his eyes until he stood behind. Jimbo feels Proteus's pistol place against his head.

  “This pistol…” Gary asked. “So this is your boss's pistol then?”

  “That's right.” Jimbo says, trying to appear a man even if guilt is written across his face.

  “Boss. There was no other way. Rebellion doesn't exist without approval.” John pipes up, his frustration growing just as Gary's does.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, a rebellion approved by the people we're rebelling against. Do you know how fucking stupid that sounds?”

  “Shut your face, John.” Gary tells him. He leans down to Jimbo's level, speaking very quietly.

  “I could've rotted away in a cabin in the woods somewhere. I could've become a degenerate and died happy like the rest of the youth.”

  He gets even closer, and whispers quietly. “...I could've just joined my wife and fucking killed myself. Left this shitty fucking world behind…”

  He rises back up, a tear escaping his eye despite his best efforts.

  “BUT YOU GAVE ME HOPE!!! YOU MADE ME BELIEVE WE COULD REVERSE THE SYSTEM!!! THAT WE COULD REVERSE THE DAMAGE! THAT WE COULD SEE THE FUCKING SUN AGAIN!!! FUUUUUUCK!!!”

  Gary screams at Jimbo at full volume, emoting with his arms to prove a point. No. Not really. He emoted because it was about all he felt he had left. The gun was just a prop now.

  Gary's breaths were quivered and shallow. He walked back to take his seat at the table.

  Jimbo keeps his eyes on Gary, his lips puckering as he tries to avoid crying as well. “That's because I did have hope, boss. I thought I could use the system to get us somewhere. I… I'm not a betrayer boss…”

  Gary raised his eyes back to Jimbo, his face contorting into to pure rage. He doesn't yell. He doesn't cry. He just focuses his stare of death as he says.

  “Jimbo. You've killed us all.”

  He looks back down, too tired, maybe even too old to protest.

  “...but what difference does it make.”

  The room is painfully silent for a moment.

  Only defeated snivels, signs of guilt, and a room feels like the roof is caving in. John stood there, having witnessed the whole ordeal. He stood there with his arms crossed, looking at the table just as the rest did. But an idea comes to him. He looks to his side, only to see Amy there. Her eyes with a twinkle. Her face, the look of doom.

  “No…” He says.

  “No?” Gary asks, looking up at him. “What the fawk is the point of it now? There is nothing left to do! There was NOTHING to begin with John!”

  Gary started yelling at the end of his sentence. He was a deflated, sad little man. Understandably so.

  “No.” Said John, looking from Gary over to that pathetic wretch Jimbo.

  “You Jimbo. You said you'd told them that you'd meet them right?”

  “Yeah…” Jimbo replies, his eyes staring into the void.

  John unfolds his arms and gets moving. First, he approaches Amy and leans down to her level.

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  “Amy. I'm going to need you to rally Lou and the others.”

  “Oh— okay?” She replies.

  John's eyes dart back to Gary who sits slumped in his chair.

  “Gary. Boss. I need you to—”

  “Don't fawkin 'call me that.” Gary interrupts him with.

  “Okay. Gary. I'm going to need you to tell everyone about what has happened. We need to prepare to evacuate this place.”

  “I'm not fawkin doing that.” Gary replies, his head in his hands. John doesn't accept that. “Look, you want something real?! You wanna have a reason to live?! Then get the fuck up off your ass and help Amy—”

  “John. That isn't helping.” Amy interrupts to make sure he doesn't say anything worse.

  John looks back at Gary, his head as low as his. “Look man… I'm sorry. Take as long as you need. I… I can't quite imagine how to feel right now, hence my… aggression. You're a good man Gary. Remember that.”

  John's eyes dart back to Jimbo, who looks back at him pathetically. “...as for you… sly fuck.” John says, walking with a stride to Jimbo's side. He gets as close as Gary did, though doesn't speak very quietly.

  “You and I are going to pay your… patrons a visit. I don't trust you to go on your own.”Amy's eyes dart to them both upon hearing that. She gets up immediately and grabs John from behind.

  “John?! What are you doing?! You can't go with him.”

  “I have to Amy.” He replies, turning back to face her, putting on a much softer expression. “The most important thing is getting everyone out. They know we're here. It's a miracle they haven't come already.”

  He grabs her shoulders and meets her eye-to-eye. “Jimbo can't be trusted. He's made that clear. If he goes, we will never know what to do from here. A rebellion can exist, we just have to become independent.”

  “What does that have to do with going with him?” Amy pleads, her eyes begging him not to answer. Unfortunately, John answers.

  “Because we can't fight without knowledge. And I can only truly know what I see with my own eyes.”

  Amy looks down, sobbing quietly. John desperately wants to comfort her, but he lets go, hearing the call to something bigger than his own wants.

  “First, we need to figure out a new place we can stay.

  Second, we'll… try and get Crosby to contact our old workmates.

  Third, we need to detach ourselves from the system and start making real plans.”

  “The hanger.” Gary says softly, gaining the attention of them all.

  He speaks as he faces them. “The— the hangar. We can go to the hangar. We should be safe there for a little while.”

  “Great. Thank you Gary.” John says, looking back down to Jimbo.

  “Now you. You are going to go and wait for me outside. If I hear any movement, an engine, anything I don't like… I will fucking kill you.”

  “Y— yeah man.” Jimbo replies.

  John points at the door, and so he gets up and does what he's told.

  “J— John…” He hears Amy from behind, the sobbing and sadness breaking his heart. He turns around to see her again. He gives her a hug she does not reciprocate.

  “I'm sorry Amy. I will be okay. I will keep in touch as much as I can with the digiphone.”

  “You— y— you… you won't back…” Amy replies, covering her eyes with her fingers. John gives her a few pats on the back. He tries to numb himself not because he wants to, but because he feels he needs to.

  “I'm sorry Amy. I promise I'll be back. You have to be strong, okay? We have to be strong.”

  Amy backs away from him, sniffling. She tries to clean her face as she replies to him. “You— you fucking better John. If— if you die I'm gonna fucking kill you.”

  John has a minor laugh at the joke, seeing that she is trying to come to terms with the new situation. “I will be back. I promise.”

  As he turns for the door, her voice stops him as she speaks.

  “Don't be too long. I hate it when you're gone.” John nods with a knowing grimace. Just before he leaves, he sees Gary. The old man nodded with approval and stuck a thumbs-up in the air.

  “Go get ‘em tiger. You have a job to fill once you get back.”

  “You will rest easy Gary, I'll make sure of that.” John tells him.

  He looks away. He gives the door frame a little tap. He exits into the hallway. He flies down the stairs like a rocket, a far cry from the crutch-bound waddle it usually is. In the hall is Gilbert, who spotted him do so.

  “Hey what are you doing?! You can't turn your prosthetics on!”

  “Now you can.” John replies, walking passed the wheel-chaired man. He yells back to him as he approaches the main exit. He feels a bolt of life emanate through him despite the poor circumstances.

  “There's a shit storm coming, bud. Prepare your anus!”

  He kicks open the door with his right leg and spots Jimbo near the door. He jobs over to him, loving the sensation of being able to run within the obelisk. As he gets closer he sees Jimbo both silent and totally deflated.

  John stops just before him, pulling his hand on the door handle.

  “Look Jimbo. I get it. And to be honest, I don't blame you. But you are an abject liar, and you have a lot of explaining to do on the way there.”

  “You got it.” Say Jimbo, extremely bitter and cynical. He pushes open the door, revealing the flood-levels of rain and dangerous fast wind, along with lightning. The Neosun sun has barely moved since he last came out here, and yet it has felt like an eternity.

  “Let's just get the fuck out of here before something even worse happens.” Jimbo adds on. John joins him in the rain, and they approach the Versa once again.

  The terms have changed a lot since they last rode together. Once, he was being taught how to use the mythical manual transmission. And how, he uses that very same vehicle on a fabricated death run.

  How ironic, John thinks. Yet as he gets in and the car roars to life, such ironies become exactly what they are. Fickle perceptions.

  Jimbo throws himself in the passenger seat slamming the door closed as he does. “We're going to the far side of North Platte. There is a facility on the left side of the highway we have to go to.”

  “Got it.” John tells him, throwing the Versa into reverse and letting the clutch out. “I can't guarantee you'll come back with me. You have an uphill battle when it comes to your worth.”

  “I don't want to come back. Nothing I say could possibly justify it to most of these people.” Jimbo admits.

  As they hit the road, Jimbo continues. “All I hope to do on the way there is clarify the truth. I suppose I've hidden it for long enough. So please, ask whatever the fuck you want.”