Skewed Slightly to the Left: The first good news

[Originally posted at Slacktivist.]

Dead arm after dead arm.  No watch.

"People just don't wear them as much anymore," Jane said.

Cameron took the cell phone from his pocket and said, "This is your fault," before putting it back.

Jane said, "The up side is that digital watches have gone out of style-"

"I still think they're a pretty neat idea."

"That's an amazingly primitive trait."

"But mostly harmless."

"Indeed.  But my point is that if we do find a watch it's likely to be analog."

"Hands frozen in place rather than blank screen."

"Exactly."

-

They did eventually find a watch, and concluded that Chloe probably took the impassible road before it became impassible, and so worked to get to the other side of the impassible section.

-

Cameron's cell phone rang.  It didn't feel safe to use an arm to talk on it while the motorcycle was in motion.  He asked Jane to stop then answered the phone, "This better be important."

"It is."

"Verna?"

"She's alive, don't know much beyond that."

"That's... that's..." the best thing he heard all day, so good he didn't know how to wrap his mind around it, incredible, exactly what he wanted to hear, and so many other things.  He wasn't able to say any of them.  Finally he did manage, "How do you know?"

"We intercepted a message.  She tried to put in a call to the office, but cut the call when she didn't recognize the voice."

"So the other side-"

"They consider her a low value target, and they want her alive if they get her.  Don't worry."  After a pause Verna added, "The other side has no idea where she is, you do.  You'll find her first."

"Ok.  Gotta go."

"Good luck."

Cameron turned off the phone and turned to Jane, "She's alive."

"Anything beyond that?" Jane asked.

"Not a jot."

"Then we better get going."

They got back on the bike and continued their search, now confident that one of their shouts of, "Chloe!" would get a response beyond their own echo.

---

Rayford sat still, armed guards watching any move he might make.

The plane shuddered as a shockwave passed.  That would be San Francisco.  A city he might have saved if he'd been willing to crash the plain while his wife was still on it, but he had been foolish enough to think he could save both.

Now it was too late for him to do anything.

He wondered how much blood was on his hands now.  Too much to ever wash off.  That was for sure.

-

[Skewed Slightly to the Left Index]

Skewed Slightly to the Left: On and On it Goes

[Originally posted at Slacktivist (page 4).]

[Previously: The war begins, at the GCW office, quiet moments for Cameron and Chloe during the previous, at New Hope, Chloe goes out to meet a contact, Cameron's group finds out about the bombs, heads for New Hope, they make it there and the bomb drops. Cameron gets a chance to talk to family, Loretta and Verna coordinate their networks, and Cameron finds out Chloe is unaccounted for.  Jane joins (leads) Cameron on the search for Chloe (which takes place via motorcycle), they run into emergency personnel and reach the spot where Chloe met the contact, which Chloe has since left.]

"Insurgents just took control of printing presses," Loretta said.

"What kind of presses?" Verna asked.

"Newspaper."

Verna turned her attention from Loretta to who she had been talking to over Loretta's system, "We just got a paper, no idea how long we'll hold it for.  I want every asset in every warzone to write up an article now and have it submitted here.

"Got it?" Pause.  "Good."

Verna turned to Loretta, "May I use your people?"

"Yes."

Verna burst onto the main floor of New Hope, "I need everyone with any experience in print, I don't care if it was books, magazines or your high school newspaper.  Anyone who just wanted to write a scathing article about how Nicolae is the Antichrist... I'm not checking credentials.

"We have a paper and we're in a hurry."

--

"Alice?"  Loretta asked.

"Working," she said, her attention focused on Bruce's laptop.  "The encryption is heavy, the encryption is good.  He wasn't using this for the Sunday school schedule."

"We got a paper."

"Yay us," Alice said.  Her voice was fairly flat, she was too caught up in what she was doing to show emotion, but Loretta could tell she was happy.

"Good luck with the computer."

"Good luck with the paper."

---

"Do you think the street would have become impassible before or after she passed this way?" Jane asked.

"I don't know," Cameron said, his voice defeated.  The fact that Chloe could very well be dead had finally hit him.  They hadn't seen much in the way of survivors, just deserted streets and their own voices echoing back when they called, "Chloe!" again and again.

"Cameron," Jane said loudly, hoping to break him out of his down state, "this matters.

"If the street was passable when she made it here she would have taken it, meaning we have to try to get back to this street, if it wasn't she'd have been forced to take an entirely different route.  If we can't figure this out we'll be looking in the wrong place."

"I know," Cameron said.

Jane started looking through the debris, and said, "Tell me about her."

"You've met her."

"But I'm not her husband.  Tell me about her through your eyes."

"What are you doing?" Cameron asked as Jane fiddled with a dead arm.

"Looking for a broken watch.  If we can find a broken watch-"

"We can assume the watch broke at about the same time the street became impassible."

"Exactly.  Now tell me about her."

Cameron joined Jane in searching, "She's stubborn as a mule, assuming mules are as stubborn as people say.  She likes retellings of Homer that aren't retellings so much as obvious homage, Joyce's Ulysses, Walcott's Omeros." Cameron's voice lifted slightly as he spoke, "Whenever she meets someone with glasses she insists on trading glasses with them briefly to compare their vision.  When she stops laughing there's always one last laugh that doesn't seem to fit but comes out anyway..."

-

[Skewed Slightly to the Left Index]

Skewed Slightly to the Left - After the bomb

[Originally posted at Slacktivist (page 3)]
[A giant pile of reminders and the like: Cameron hasn't heard from Chloe yet because he's been busy doing his job, which left him on the run because his job involved telling the truth about Nicolae.  Second, I misremembered a while back, and as a result Cameron has a sister instead of a brother.  And for those who have forgotten, Verna, Alice and Cameron are at New Hope following the decision to try to use the underground network of churches and shelters as a way to get the word out about the attacks.  And Chloe is trying to get a blackmarket contact, who had the misfortune of being caught in the middle of World War III, to safety.  Also I seem to be hung up on J names, Jack, Jane, Jason who knows what else.]

-

Cameron gave the video camera to Verna, "I got video of the bomb dropping, probably not good video, but..."

"Thanks," the sincerity of the word helped pull Cameron up a bit.  He felt somewhat less useless, and that made a lot of difference. "It looks like we can still reach the internet, so I'll see if I can get this out there."

"How are things going?" Cameron asked.

"Good, considering, we've managed to hook up a lot of our staff with Loretta's safe-houses and use her communications network to get the word out.  All ten cities got warning."  Verna sighed, "It probably wasn't enough warning but..."

Now it was Cameron's turn to try to help Verna.  He gently placed a hand on each of her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "Hey, we do what we can.  No one can expect more and... and focus on the people who wouldn't have made it without your work not... not the rest."

"Thanks, Cam."  They separated.  "I've got more work to do."

Cameron didn't.  He wasn't sure what to do.  He knew what he wanted to do, which was find Chloe.  He knew what he should do, which was find a way to do his job so the burden didn't fall on Verna, Loretta, and the rest.  And between those two things he wasn't sure where to go.

Then Jane ran up to him, "I've been looking all over for you; you've got a call from your dad."

She handed Cameron his cellphone.

As soon as he had it he asked, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine.  The war's not here.  How are you?  I've been trying to call you for hours, your apartment,  your office, your cellphone.  I didn't know about this number until your sister got your voicemail."

"Sorry about that, it's technically a work phone.  What about sis, is she ok?"

"She's fine.  How are you?  We heard the news about New York."

"I'm in Chicago."

"We heard the news about Chicago."

"I'm in a bomb shelter in Chicago.  I'm as safe as I can be considering the circumstances."

"What about your wife?  We haven't even met her yet."

"I don't know."  Cameron wanted to cry, and to scream.  "I'm about to try to find out so I have to let you go, but before I do... I'm kind of an enemy of the state at this point and I hope that doesn't have any fallout for you, but if it does... You and sis be careful, ok?  Keep safe."

"You too.  I love you Cam."

"I love you, and tell sis I love her too."

"I will do."

"Got to go, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Jane was still around, so Cameron asked her, "How do I contact one of the other shelters?"  As she was getting him to New Hope's communications equipment Cameron remembered why Jane had had his cellphone in the first place, "Is Jake ok?"

"Yeah, he's fine.  He wasn't that far from the nearest shelter."

-

Cameron was able to reach Chloe's shelter but when he asked for her he was passed off to Chloe's assistant Jason who said, "I don't know where she is, sir."

"What the hell do you mean-" Cameron stopped himself from shouting.  "Sorry.  And it's Cameron, not 'sir'."

"She went out to meet a contact and hasn't come back."

"Do you know where?"

"I think so, she left her phone here and-"

"Thanks Jason, just tell me where."

-

"Chloe's outside.  I'm going to look for her."

Loretta and Verna were both speechless for a moment.  Then Loretta said, "We're getting ready to send out search and rescue teams, let me send one with you."

"They'd have a different goal, I'd just slow them down.  I feel bad about taking one person away from the work here, I'd not going to compromise a whole team."

Loretta handed Cameron something and explained, "Geiger counter."

Verna said, "Good luck."

-

[Skewed Slightly to the Left Index]

Verna's Perspective

[Originally posted at Slacktivist, page 2]

Original text:

Buck had had innumerable run-ins with Verna Zee in the Chicago office. Once he felt she had overstepped her bounds and had moved too quickly into her former boss’s office after Lucinda Washington disappeared in the Rapture. Then, when Buck himself was demoted for ostensibly missing the most important assignment of his life, Verna did become Chicago bureau chief and lorded it over him. Now that he was publisher, he had been tempted to fire her.

Vermic's response:

I would really, dearly love to read a Verna's POV version of this paragraph.  Everything about this one positively screams "unreliable narrator".

My attempt to provide it follows, though I note that I was so focused on the filling in about the past that I sort of forgot to work in that this is when he's kicking her out of her office during World War III.  You know, when she, as a news person, would be kind of busy.

-

Verna first met Cameron Williams in the midst of the world altering catastrophe that the event had been, her boss gone she'd stepped into the role of organizer because if the Chicago office hadn't relied on battlefield promotions no one would have been in charge and anarchy and panic would have been allowed to reign.  She couldn't let that happen because it was vitally important, especially during disasters, that the news got out.  Into that Williams had walked and taken offense at her for shouldering more responsibilities than anyone had ever asked of her.

She was glad to be rid of him when he was gone and under her the office did it's job and did it well.  The battlefield promotion was made official and she didn't give a second thought to Cameron Williams until he fucked up a major assignment in New York.

Assigned to cover a high level meeting at the UN he never showed up, the meeting became a major news story when it unexpectedly became the scene of a murder suicide.  The deaths of either of those involved would have been a major story that shook geopolitics even if the world weren't already in the midst of the the worst turmoil in human history.

Any member of nearly any news organization would have given nearly any body part to have had a reporter in the room when it happened.  And GW was supposed to have.

Rather than admit his failure Williams had lied, tried to claim that he was in the room and did cover the story even though none of his facts lined up and everyone agreed that he was not.

In the aftermath of that, when he should have been fired, he was sent to her.  She'd tried to find a place to fit him in her team even though she neither wanted nor needed his help, and moreover, even though she had little use for a reporter she couldn't trust.

He responded with insolence and rather than go through channels he insisted that she take the matter straight to the top.  Partially to humor him, partially to test to see if his "after hours number" for their boss was correct, she'd done just that.  The resolution was imperfect, it was clear that emotions were at play, notably a strong fondness for Williams, but it at least got him out of her hair.  He would work from home independent from her office.

And that, she had hoped, would be the last she heard of him.

Then freedom of the press died.  All media was consolidated under a single entity, and that entity served at the whims of the newly forming one world government.  As everyone had to make difficult decisions about whether to quit in protest or remain in their role in hopes that they could make it something more than just state sponsored propaganda, one figure emerged who would head this new one word media.

When she heard it would be a reporter she by turns thought maybe it was a good thing, and wondered who they had found to so completely sell their soul as to lead the end of free media.  That figure: Cameron Williams.

With all of the world's media to push around she had hoped he wouldn't have time to bother her further, but now here he was, kicking her out of her office.

-

Or something like that.

-

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