chapter eleven
Ugh, head hurts. What did I do last night? No, just... just gimme a minute.
chapter eleven
it's not getting better, the bad headache. "Constantine! Get food! And a... thing to stop the headache."
I can't remember the name, headache is so bad. The man was here after a few minutes with a pack containing a pill, a glass of water, and... I can't frickin' figure out what color this is right now. Heck it, let me eat this... whatever, give me... gimme another minute...
chapter eleven
I woke up with a third of a packet of green in my hand and half a glass of water on the floor. My head still hurt, but I didn't feel like some person with a really hurt head. You know the one. Huh, the words aren't good today. Maybe they'll get better. Hope I get better. "Constantine," I asked, "what happened last night?"
He re-entered the bed's room. "Hello... human!" Tammy Wilson, the owner of this residence, arrived at 02:17 this morning, called the Constantine unit "Conga Line", laughed at the wall for three minutes straight, and curled up in a ball on the floor after making a comment about having corrupt memor̵i͟es͠."
"Okay, maybe we shouldn't be saying that," I replied.
"I sent her to bed where she slept for... fourteen hours!"
"Wait, how many?!"
"14 hours."
"Wh... why was that a num—never mind. So, it's like... five in the evening already?"
"The current time is... 05:23."
"What day?" I asked.
Constantine did not reply, instead leaving the room. I got up, got dressed in the clothes Shim gave me the other day, and I figured I'd meet up with her and her friends.
Wait, can we do the title thing just one more time?
chapter eleven
Nice. I'm not going to go overboard on that one, don't worry, it's just cool I can do that. Weird that "chapter" isn't capitalized, though, has it always been like that? I mean, it is afterward so I'm willing to bet yeah, that's the case, and I just haven't been terribly observant.
I walked into the clothes shop and was immediately scooped up by Shim. "Cutting right to the chase?" I asked.
"Well, Memmi stopped by and talked all about what had happened to you."
"She did?" I asked.
"Yes! She went on and on abou--"
"Ｉ ｒｅａｄ ｔｈｅ ｐｒｅｖｉｏｕｓ ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｏ ｈｅｒ," Shaw said from behind the back room curtain.
"Don't!" Shim exclaimed, "She already can't remember anything to begin with, and now all of last night is gone to her, I was trying to--"
"No, it's fine. I kinda remember what happened last night, but..."
"Yeah," Jev said, "sounds rough."
"Does this mean that I am the Nexus?" I asked.
"You're Tammy!" Shim replied.
"No, is... Cal, is Calvin the Nexus then? I never got to ask Memmi."
"You think we'd know?" Jev said.
"Well, I... I need to go back and ask--"
"There is one other person you could ask," Shim replied.
"Who?"
"Linus Linoleum!" the three of them declared in unison.
"Why... why the fanfare?" I asked, legitimately as confused as you just were about the whole situation.
"He kinda earned it!" Shim replied, "he's why the afterward even exists!"
"What was here before?" I asked.
They had some answer, but I really couldn't get over the whole shouting out the name in unison thing. Like why, though? Do people cheer William Dampier's name to the heavens? How about Sacagewea? John Carmack? George? Like, is this a thing I forgot? My memory already was shot when I woke up some 21,747 words ago, and yesterday didn't help, I barely remember the whole point behind why I got so upset last night? Was it related to Cal
vin, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Horizon is going to rip you off. Have you seen how much they own?!"
"They own the station I'm working for, yeah, but I--"
"They also own teleporter technology! They're beaming people into computers! They make chemicals that control your emotions and plant cameras in people their doctors work on! This doesn't bother you, Scott?!"
"Cal, look, I... I get it. You're worried for my safety, I totally understand that. Horizon owns a lot of companies, they're not solely responsible for all of that. And you're worried their CEO's running for President? The guy has no legal experience and is up against Mr. Goldstein, who got his start helping America recover from the war. He's been in the game for almost 20 years now, he's guaranteed to win at this rate."
"Scott, the guy's name is literally Emmanuel Goldstein."
"And?"
"An—did you read that copy of 1984 I gave you?"
"I did, but that's a fictional character in a book over 100 years old, Cal, you're--"
"I'm what, Scott?!"
"You're... you're too stubborn about this, Cal. You're going to get yourself ki████
I came too, enough of that one, I kinda felt like I knew where that was about to end up. I looked around, Shim was still in the middle of talking about the afterward or whatever. "--and finally, he opened the first afterward! Of course, things started getting a bit weird with each following one, but he's been pretty keen on calling it a feature, not a problem. And besides," she said, gesturing to herself, "who doesn't love things a bit weird, am I right?"
"So, uh, how would I go meat him?"
"I'm sorry, say that again?"
"Meet him? How would I--"
"Oh, you used the wrong 'meet', totally threw me off--"
"No, hold on, I need to... how does that work?!"
"You're becoming a metamancer, Tams! It happens!"
"But, like, is there a reason for that?"
"...Well, if you want to meet Linus, he's probably working on the next afterward so you'd need to take the Metatrain. I don't know how to explain it, Tams."
"The Metatrain?"
"It doesn't exist! Or does it?"
"Would Memmi know?"
"I would!" she said.
(Just kidding, we're not doing that thing again.)
"I dunno, probably not."
"Huh. So who would know?"
"Ya want us to do the thing again, with the, y'know, the 'Linus!', we could do it again, if it'd help."
"No, I get it. Is there somewhere I can learn more about Linus, like, is there one of those-- ah, what are they called, they're like... hotels, for the books? And you kidnap a book and return it two weeks later having inspected its internals?"
"Tams, that's a grisly way to put it," Jev said.
"Yeah, but I don't... I don't words good, you know?"
I think you know well enough about that.
"Oh, like a library where you check out books instead!" Shim replied.
"Yeah, library!" I cried, "wait, hold up, instead? Instead of what?"
I literally don't remember what she said, again, whatever Memmi gave me last night is playing lacrosse with my memory. Heck, lacrosse? When did that enter my vocabulary? Do I even know what that is? What I do remember is that she said there was a library on the dock where the welcome center was. And I still have an errand I want to run up there, so I guess I'm headed back up that way for the first time in nearly a dozen chapters to learn about a man whose name is floor and see if he can help me with some confusing amnesia/bodyswapping/"I think my meat vehicle is being used by some terrible whatsit" situation. Do the other chapters end with weird little recaps? Is that a thing I do? I'm sure you'll figure it out, cut me some slack, trying to remember things right now is like trying to canoe upstream with your bare hands for paddles, it's mad
"He's gone mad," I told Jim that night.
"Who, Fel██?"
"Yeah, he went on and on about having to leave, he's not here anymore. He's senile, Jim. How old did you say he was?"
"He told me he was born around 1980, so he's about 90, Cal."
"Dude's one foot in the grave already!" I replied, "and you're not much better. I mean, how old's your daughter now? 75? And she's still not a grandmother?"
"Please don't talk about my Ashley that way, Cal. Look, I hired you to help me clean up some old blood on my hands, Fe███ has abdicated himself from responsibility on this one, and I can't do it alone. You're young, you didn't have to bunker down for years avoiding the storm I did. I'm lucky I've made it this far. And as much as you badmouth Horizon, they're why I'm still around and kicking, they've given me the extra few years I need to ensure I see through the atrocities that occured in ███ I██I█I██ get wiped clean. So that's my offer, Cal. Five hundred dollars from me and a whole lot of satisfaction from the rest of us if you put a stop to this now, or you can let it fester. The choice is yours, Cal, the clock is ticking."
"You know what, old man? I don't need you!"
"I think you'll find that you do. And you'll know where to find me."
"...Baker's Bar?"
"Yes. Until then
Just get this guy out of my head already, geez!
ns 15.158.61.51da2
