CHAPTER 2

“Maybe it's just hiding somewhere. Or gone on a trip to come home. But falling in love is always a pretty crazy thing. It might appear out of the blue and just grab you. Who knows — maybe even tomorrow.”

- Haruki Murakami -

A wrench in my plans before I knew those plans really existed. Kool. Kool kool kool.

I looked faux Kool-Aid man directly in the face and said “Where's the Oh Yeah?”

My humor was apparently lost to him, as he looked desperate and grabbed me by the collar.

“You can't let her die. You CAN'T!”

So far from my perspective she'd come much closer to killing me than I had to her, so I wasn't tracking one hundred percent. But the situation seemed fluid, and Dono seemed to be chomping at the bit to be a part of it.

“Yo Rando, if you're gonna destroy one of the walls you'd better buy a round for everyone at the least”

Thanks, Dono, we needed that.

Kool-Aid man shook me like a martini and gasped out “She's the only one that knows how to-”

And promptly exploded.

Not like, figuratively exploded with rage, literally exploded, all over us.

Looking back evidence suggests high powered sniper rifle at close range, but none of us had any idea at the time what was going on. We fled to the corner like pups from a wolf, and remained there until all seemed quiet on the western front.

“You guys alright?”, I asked, trying to keep the shake from my voice that I knew was there.

I looked over incredulously at Dono as he was somehow still holding his drink and sipping it.

“Five by four”, was his reply. A backwards 80%, good enough. Renna and Felix were huddled together and gave me a weak thumbs up, and I figured that we needed to get out, and get out real quick.

Renna made a gesture that said follow me and I wasn't in a position to argue, so we ducked down, hung a left, sprinted down the hallway, burst out the emergency exit, and Chinese-Fire-Drilled into the van.

Safe for now, but honestly, what on earth just happened.