The Dead Zone

━ 05 | after

Jim Barrow stretched out his legs on cold concrete, exhaling billows of smoke and passing the blunt sidelong to Jay, who took it silently. His half-amputated leg was propped up on a backpack—Yadiel had said he was pretty sure he needed to elevate it.

"You know, all these cars are basically free for the taking," Jim mused.

Jay glanced over briefly, eyes half-closed. "Not much good with water in the engines. Or without keys." Too slow he realized they were high up enough that most of these cars were untouched by the tsunamis and somebody probably knew how to hotwire a car, anyway. Jim either didn't see fit to correct him or didn't notice.

"The stuff inside, I mean."

"You wanna raid people's cars?"

He shrugged. "Someone's going to. Might as well be us."

Rosalynn wandered over, undoubtedly to check on Jay. It was everyone's obligated kindness now, a responsibility they all seemed too afraid to shirk after already having lost one member of the class. Or she was trying to get away from Fray's loud arguing with Rich about God-knew-what. "How you guys doin'?"

"Fantastic as always," Jim said cheekily. Rosalynn released a half-laugh and pulled her hair over one shoulder, running her fingers through it.

"I'm starving," she muttered.

Jay huffed a cloud of smoke her way, holding up the blunt in offering. "Takes the edge off."

Rosalynn eyed it uneasily and shook her head, shoving her hands in the pockets of her capris. Like everyone else, her soaked clothes still stuck to her like shrink-wrap. Jim felt it necessary to politely avert his eyes from the sleeveless lavender crop top plastered to her skin. His own mildly ironic white tee that he'd grabbed thoughtlessly during a thrift store haul—it read I AM A MOM AGAINST VAPING!—was probably looking equally see-through. "No thanks."

Jay frowned at his leg, wincing as he adjusted its position. "Gah, I'm bleeding again already." He was taking the whole thing surprisingly well, Jim noted. He hadn't expected such resiliency from him. Then again, he had little choice.

"Kalani's coming with bandages."

Their woodshop teacher approached as if on cue, bringing first aid supplies. Seeing the boys made him halt in his tracks.

"What are you two doing?"

Jim looked at him as if he'd grown two heads. He figured out what he meant quickly enough, but playing ignorant was more fun than acknowledging the oddity of the situation.

"Havin' a smoke. Why?"

He shut his eyes, bringing a hand to his temples, before opening them again. "You can't get away with acting like this just because—"

"Just because the world ended?" Rosalynn deadpanned with a slight glimmer in her eye. Jimmy watched her curiously. He didn't know much about Rosalynn Kay. The most he'd ever heard her talk to any of them before today was that time she'd cussed out Jay for climbing on the roof of their team's shed before it was done—which had collapsed it—and Rich for daring him to do it.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Jay said lazily. "But school's out. You're not our teacher anymore." He shrugged. "You're just Kal."

It was an uncomfortable truth, and a step too far so soon.

Mr. Kalani clenched his jaw, stepped forward, and snatched the weed from his hand, tossing it aside. Jay would have looked scandalized if he wasn't clearly so relaxed and unbothered. "We're not doing this today. Today you're going to behave. Both of you," he added sternly, shooting Jim a pointed look which he pretended not to notice. "We're all focused on making a plan for our survival, and you're both going to contribute."