i'm getting real sick of these "bear" creeps.

Arlo Andazona Rider Express - Santonio Anvi Tyagi Tyagi Casino. Austin July 11 2285

Fine!

You can just clean them?!

Use your *feet*!

Squash it!

*excuse me?* ( kicking the ground, looking down. squinting in thought - andazona style - and taking a looooong drag of her cigarette. she sighs, eyeing the kind stranger again. ) . . . no. you're right. i'm sorry. it's just-- really, i-- no, it doesn't matter. it's not your problem. i'm sorry.

not that it's any of your business, but i don't smoke regularly. it's just the day i've been having, that's all. thanks.

i'm a grown woman.

can i bum one?

anvi is quiet on the monorail, looking around afraid that someone is following her. she can't sit still. the space is too small, there's too many strangers, anything could happen to the monorail on the way, but nothing does except the usual: camp mccarran.

anvi makes a break for it, as fast as a beaten and bruised woman can.

shout out to some random ghost in lucky 38.

so many firewalls. what's the point if they don't do anything?

( she falls back with a sigh of relief, and recovers into laughter. )

am i free? did i escape?

i don't . . . remember . . . something. first there was this . . . feeling, this dread, and now i'm here.

you have-- *no* idea.

( trembling. ) i don't CARE what you call yourself. go away!

wh-- where are we? did you move me? you shouldn't touch an electrocuted body.

DON'T TOUCH ME. ( she scrambles up, backing away. ) i've had it up to here with disgusting slimy men trying to touch me. fuck off the other way RIGHT NOW.

( anvi breathes a sigh of relief. ) this is not worth it.

that doesn't answer my question.

i wish it had.

who the hell are you?

fucker . . . !

she awakens to realize that to her horror she is still alive.

rape and torture are pretty bad.

I don't wanna end up in a ditch, or worse.

the bombs weren't what we should worry about.

( she can. she sits down next to cassie, pops the cap off and takes a long, long drag. ) people fucking suck.

( she hands her a massive bottle of vodka. ) you can have it. i stole it from this insane couple i was staying with. i think it's homemade.

do you want-- ( ugh. ) a drink?

not even a month ago, i didn't know what a crow was. now they're everywhere. look at them. watching. they know something.

i don't know. no.

i don't know. people just care about themselves. their power over each other, their want for sex or drugs. cavemen with guns. it's like . . . . . . something's gone, *wrong* with the world. maybe the radiation.

people might still be alive in other countries. i-- i know a mexican.

the bombing? i guess. but it's-- ( oh she hates criers. especially the pretty ones. ) well, we lived! there are-- still people. lots. thousands maybe. hundreds of thousands even.

what?

you don't remember? it was after . . . after the canada massacres, it was when the . . . the . . . ( something shifts in the dark of memory; that is, she remembers. ) after the daleks.

i don't know. a lot of people.

uh. are you okay? i know it's been a long time, uh, in those vaults . . .

2297.

( she looks at her own reflection in the shades. oof. ) the dirt is like a . . . a *vortex* for everything to hate in people.

yeah. why?

the war. the bombs, y'know?