(no subject)
Backstory, Part the First
The first memory she has of anything being wrong is a day in late summer, New Orleans the humid swamp it always is around that time of year.
She’s got Julie’s hat-the ratty old newsboy cap she always wore because she thought it looked so cute and funky-and Julie’s chasing her around the warehouse to get it back, both of them giggling like lunatics, when Kevin’s voice comes from the TV area.
“Keep it down or take it outside, you two. I’m watching this.”
It’s the uncharacteristic sharpness in his voice that brings them both up short. Karla can count on one hand the number of times she’s heard Kevin snap at anyone, let alone someone from the warehouse. The hat forgotten, they move across the room to where Kevin, Ash, Elaine, and Isaac are gathered around the TV.
“What’s up, Kev?” Julianna leans over the back of the couch, bracing herself with her arms. “More people getting sick?”
“Too many people getting sick,” he amends, eyes fixed on the screen. “I don’t like this.”
Karla hasn’t paid much that attention to the outbreaks. Doesn’t pay much attention to the news in general. But Kevin’s seriousness is sobering, and she moves around to sink on the couch next to him, also watching the screen.
“Leprosy?” she asks after a moment. “I didn’t think people got that in...y’know. Non-Third-World countries.”
Kevin looks across at her. “That’s why I don’t like it. Either there is a leprosy outbreak in the States and Europe-maybe other places too, by now, and we just haven’t heard yet-or this is something else. Something we haven’t identified yet.”
“...Okay, that’s kinda creepy.”
“Yeah, it is.” He smiles, wry and faint, and then slings an arm over her shoulder. “Don’t get too creeped out just yet, though. There’ve only been a couple down here. And I’m gonna look after my girls.”
The contact, as always, makes Karla’s heartbeat speed up a little, and once you add in the “my girls” bit, she’s sure she’s blushing.
From his perch on the arm of the couch, Ash snorts. “What, so Isaac and I get to fend for ourselves?”
“Hey!” That’s from Elaine, cross-legged on the floor. “Since when am I one of his girls?”
Karla’s still looking down and trying not to blush, but she smiles.
They’ve got each other. They’re gonna be okay.
None of them have left the warehouse in days. They’ve got dry goods and canned goods and a CB radio that lets out occasional bursts of static-garbled noise that just confuse and worry them more. Julianna’s cried herself to sleep the past few nights, and Karla’s no longer at all shy about reaching for Kevin’s hand whenever more grim news comes in on the radio.
Ash disappeared before they went into quarantine. Kevin spent hours out looking for him, thick gloves on his hands and a cloth mask over his mouth and nose, until Julie begged him over walkie-talkie to come home, looking guilty as she played her trump card-“I can’t lose you, too.” Kevin came home, and padlocked the door from the inside, and it’s only opened once more after that, when Elaine left.
Elaine. They would have taken their chances with the disease rather than make her leave, and Karla thinks that’s part of why she insisted on going, arguing with Kevin in front of the door and doing her best to cover her mouth completely when the coughing fits took her.
“Kev-“ she’d said finally, voice harsh and final. “Whatever it is, I’ve got it. You want all the rest of you to get it, too?”
He’d had no answer to that, and Karla could see from across the room how much he’d hated it. But he’d unlocked the door, and Elaine wouldn’t let him touch her hand as she hurried out.
They all jump when the banging on the door starts, and Julie actually lets out a little scream. In the wake of that, though, comes a familiar voice.
“Anyone home? Open up, I’ve got presents.”
Kevin looks up, and then strides toward the door. “Lavinia?”
Lavinia-Karla suspects that might not be her real name, but she’s ben using “Gabriel”, with Kevin and Julie’s approval, for a month now, so maybe she hasn’t got any room to talk-is an infrequent visitor to the warehouse, her visits usually including bouts of flirting with everyone and the presentation of large, cash-filled envelopes she always has to badger Kevin into taking.
After the first of these visits she’d been around for, Karla had gotten the story from Julie. These days, Lavinia’s got a wedding ring with an obnoxiously large diamond, a house on St. Charles Avenue, and an apartment in the Pontalba building, right on Jackson Square in the Quarter. But before that, she used to stay in the warehouse, and she used to go out in fishnets and eyeliner and come back with money and have long arguments with Kevin about how she was doing what she wanted with her own body, and who asked him to get involved? And now the money in her Italian leather wallet comes from a rich husband, and she comes back to share it with the warehouse, and Karla’s never been sure why.
She somehow doubts Lavinia’s here to bring them her husband’s money now.
Kevin removes the padlock and slides the door open, and Lavinia shoulders past him without waiting for further invitation, dressed as sharp as ever but uncharacteristically makeup-free. She’s lugging a suitcase-it’s big, and whatever’s in it is heavy.
“Are you-“ Kevin starts, probably meaning to ask if she’s all right. Lavinia never lets him finish.
“You’ve been okay, here? Power, food?”
“We’re fine. What about-“
Lavinia cuts him off again, this time as she lays the case flat on the floor and opens it. “Okay. I managed to get a piece for everyone, but ammo was harder to find, so don’t go wasting it. I got some blanks, too, so you don’t have to spend real ammo practicing.”
The case is full of guns. Different sizes, different makes, randomly tossed in on top of each other. Kevin stares at them.
“What the hell is this?”
Lavinia sighs. “Spare me the pacifist lecture and just take the damn guns, okay, Kev?”
The rest of them are crowded around now, tense and drawn. All of them know Kevin’s views on guns, most of them share them.
“Lav-“ Kevin looks at her, arms folded across his chest. “I’ll accept that things have got to be pretty bad out there. None of us has been outside for weeks, so I guess you’ve seen more than we have. But...this is still a city. It’s not a fucking war zone.”
“-Oh, it’s not?” Lavinia shoots him a challenging look. Then, for the first time since walking in, she smiles. Wide enough for all of them to see her teeth. “You really haven’t been out enough to know what’s going on.”
The first memory she has of anything being wrong is a day in late summer, New Orleans the humid swamp it always is around that time of year.
She’s got Julie’s hat-the ratty old newsboy cap she always wore because she thought it looked so cute and funky-and Julie’s chasing her around the warehouse to get it back, both of them giggling like lunatics, when Kevin’s voice comes from the TV area.
“Keep it down or take it outside, you two. I’m watching this.”
It’s the uncharacteristic sharpness in his voice that brings them both up short. Karla can count on one hand the number of times she’s heard Kevin snap at anyone, let alone someone from the warehouse. The hat forgotten, they move across the room to where Kevin, Ash, Elaine, and Isaac are gathered around the TV.
“What’s up, Kev?” Julianna leans over the back of the couch, bracing herself with her arms. “More people getting sick?”
“Too many people getting sick,” he amends, eyes fixed on the screen. “I don’t like this.”
Karla hasn’t paid much that attention to the outbreaks. Doesn’t pay much attention to the news in general. But Kevin’s seriousness is sobering, and she moves around to sink on the couch next to him, also watching the screen.
“Leprosy?” she asks after a moment. “I didn’t think people got that in...y’know. Non-Third-World countries.”
Kevin looks across at her. “That’s why I don’t like it. Either there is a leprosy outbreak in the States and Europe-maybe other places too, by now, and we just haven’t heard yet-or this is something else. Something we haven’t identified yet.”
“...Okay, that’s kinda creepy.”
“Yeah, it is.” He smiles, wry and faint, and then slings an arm over her shoulder. “Don’t get too creeped out just yet, though. There’ve only been a couple down here. And I’m gonna look after my girls.”
The contact, as always, makes Karla’s heartbeat speed up a little, and once you add in the “my girls” bit, she’s sure she’s blushing.
From his perch on the arm of the couch, Ash snorts. “What, so Isaac and I get to fend for ourselves?”
“Hey!” That’s from Elaine, cross-legged on the floor. “Since when am I one of his girls?”
Karla’s still looking down and trying not to blush, but she smiles.
They’ve got each other. They’re gonna be okay.
None of them have left the warehouse in days. They’ve got dry goods and canned goods and a CB radio that lets out occasional bursts of static-garbled noise that just confuse and worry them more. Julianna’s cried herself to sleep the past few nights, and Karla’s no longer at all shy about reaching for Kevin’s hand whenever more grim news comes in on the radio.
Ash disappeared before they went into quarantine. Kevin spent hours out looking for him, thick gloves on his hands and a cloth mask over his mouth and nose, until Julie begged him over walkie-talkie to come home, looking guilty as she played her trump card-“I can’t lose you, too.” Kevin came home, and padlocked the door from the inside, and it’s only opened once more after that, when Elaine left.
Elaine. They would have taken their chances with the disease rather than make her leave, and Karla thinks that’s part of why she insisted on going, arguing with Kevin in front of the door and doing her best to cover her mouth completely when the coughing fits took her.
“Kev-“ she’d said finally, voice harsh and final. “Whatever it is, I’ve got it. You want all the rest of you to get it, too?”
He’d had no answer to that, and Karla could see from across the room how much he’d hated it. But he’d unlocked the door, and Elaine wouldn’t let him touch her hand as she hurried out.
They all jump when the banging on the door starts, and Julie actually lets out a little scream. In the wake of that, though, comes a familiar voice.
“Anyone home? Open up, I’ve got presents.”
Kevin looks up, and then strides toward the door. “Lavinia?”
Lavinia-Karla suspects that might not be her real name, but she’s ben using “Gabriel”, with Kevin and Julie’s approval, for a month now, so maybe she hasn’t got any room to talk-is an infrequent visitor to the warehouse, her visits usually including bouts of flirting with everyone and the presentation of large, cash-filled envelopes she always has to badger Kevin into taking.
After the first of these visits she’d been around for, Karla had gotten the story from Julie. These days, Lavinia’s got a wedding ring with an obnoxiously large diamond, a house on St. Charles Avenue, and an apartment in the Pontalba building, right on Jackson Square in the Quarter. But before that, she used to stay in the warehouse, and she used to go out in fishnets and eyeliner and come back with money and have long arguments with Kevin about how she was doing what she wanted with her own body, and who asked him to get involved? And now the money in her Italian leather wallet comes from a rich husband, and she comes back to share it with the warehouse, and Karla’s never been sure why.
She somehow doubts Lavinia’s here to bring them her husband’s money now.
Kevin removes the padlock and slides the door open, and Lavinia shoulders past him without waiting for further invitation, dressed as sharp as ever but uncharacteristically makeup-free. She’s lugging a suitcase-it’s big, and whatever’s in it is heavy.
“Are you-“ Kevin starts, probably meaning to ask if she’s all right. Lavinia never lets him finish.
“You’ve been okay, here? Power, food?”
“We’re fine. What about-“
Lavinia cuts him off again, this time as she lays the case flat on the floor and opens it. “Okay. I managed to get a piece for everyone, but ammo was harder to find, so don’t go wasting it. I got some blanks, too, so you don’t have to spend real ammo practicing.”
The case is full of guns. Different sizes, different makes, randomly tossed in on top of each other. Kevin stares at them.
“What the hell is this?”
Lavinia sighs. “Spare me the pacifist lecture and just take the damn guns, okay, Kev?”
The rest of them are crowded around now, tense and drawn. All of them know Kevin’s views on guns, most of them share them.
“Lav-“ Kevin looks at her, arms folded across his chest. “I’ll accept that things have got to be pretty bad out there. None of us has been outside for weeks, so I guess you’ve seen more than we have. But...this is still a city. It’s not a fucking war zone.”
“-Oh, it’s not?” Lavinia shoots him a challenging look. Then, for the first time since walking in, she smiles. Wide enough for all of them to see her teeth. “You really haven’t been out enough to know what’s going on.”