The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

[spin_kick_snap]

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and please wait for the OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

Comments

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

Eliot chuckled. "Yeah, unfortunately liking a place isn't part of securing it. And hey, at least you won't have to be here too much longer."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"God I hope not," Kathy said softly. "I want to be home."

Where she could sleep in her own closet and go back to stashing bug-out bags everywhere. Like a normal person.

"If you trust Max - not that I think anyone should - Cairax will hopefully go away in just a few more days. No more than another week."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

"I don't trust anyone in this world who ain't in this room," Eliot said. "But we won't go anywhere until we've got a good plan."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, crossing over to him to give him a hug. "I missed you, Dad," she whispered, closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder. "About our fight...I'm so, so sorry."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

"You got nothing to apologize for," Eliot said, holding her tight in return. "My past is -- difficult. I can't blame you for reactin' to it."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"Still, I should have known that you were the same guy that I've always known," Kathy mumbled. "And I'm sorry it took needing a rescue for me to get that."

Because when everything else was gone, the fact that he was her dad had remained. And she'd wanted nothing more than for him to come and bring her home.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

"Only thing I'm worried about is getting you home," Eliot assured her. "But . . . thanks."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, hugging him again. "Umm, can I ask for another favor?"

This time, the sad eyes she was giving him were purely for effect. "What are the odds I can convince you to do the cooking tonight?"

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

Eliot laughed. "Yeah, I think you'll manage. What are the options around here?"

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"Prepare for cans of disappointment," Kathy warned, leading him into the small kitchen. "I'll have to go tomorrow and explain that I suddenly have five new housemates, but we should be okay for tonight."

Food in the Mount, she explained, was doled out on a weekly basis depending on how many people were in a household and adjusted for things like allergies, dietary restrictions, and even caloric intake. Households with children, with teenagers, with farmers and blue-collar workers got more. Same with superballs.

"I've mostly got eggs for protein," she said, opening her fridge and showing him a carton of eggs, in a variety of chicken, duck, and quail. "Meat's sparse, which doesn't bother me any, but we have a lot of mushrooms and a decent selection of vegetables, by which I mean, all the squash and zucchini you can shake a stick at."

There was also some kale and a few prized avocados that Kathy guarded jealously. She'd mostly lived on scrambled eggs and avocado toast these past weeks. "Uhh, we got bread, margarine, your basic staples like pasta and flour and beans...And since I need more calories, I was given a bunch of canned stuff." She opened the cupboard so Eliot could take stock of those, too. "I haven't messed with those much, since there's, like, hash and spam and Vienna sausage and stuff in there." It was a moddable mishmash, really.

"Oh! And a small jar of kimchi from Nick," she added. "He had some in his pantry and was willing to share."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

"Well, I could do omelettes, but I don't want to use up all the eggs at once feeding everyone. Maybe a stir-fry, and those who do meat can have some spam."

Spam had a bad rep, but its sole purpose was being a shelf-stable meat protein, and it did it very well.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oooh, stir-fry sounds good," Kathy said. "I've got some rice, too."

It was minute rice and therefore an abomination, but you made due with what you could get after the end of the world.

"Pretty sure I saw some water chestnuts and bamboo shoots among the canned stuff," she added. "There's no more oil left - " it had all gone rancid over the years " - but I've got some vegetable shortening?"

Cooking in the kitchen with Eliot. Funny how it made the world seem a little bit brighter.