"Frankie, then. The gate sealed behind us. There was a guardian at the exit and it had already killed one of us and it was going to walk out into California with nine dead kids behind it, and my options were a very short list." I shrugged, and my shoulder informed me that shrugging remained a bad idea for another two days. "I picked the one where everybody else got to go home. I'd pick it again, and I'd be annoyed about it again, but I'd pick it."
She set my plate down in front of me.
"That," she said, "is the exact tone of voice he uses."
"Yeah, I'm hearing that a lot lately."
The burger was obscene. Two thin patties with lace edges crisped into the cheese, a bun that had been on the flat-top in butter, raw onion, one slice of tomato, some kind of sauce that I would have committed light crime to identify. I took a bite and my body did something it had not done since I woke up in this frame six weeks ago, which was shut up completely.
◆ NUTRITIONAL RECOVERY ◆
