It was attraction at first sight, but love wasn’t that far behind it.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City
Current Date: June 17, 2023

Character: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 34
Current residence: New York City Ruins, New York
 

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I can’t believe my first kiss was near-literally half my life ago. I was seventeen when I kissed Sergio the first time and then, well then I had to end up back home, I ended up married thanks to an arranged marriage—so had Agathe—and while she managed to get out of it fairly easily, it took me longer than I wanted but I was eventually free.

It was five years later—while I was still trying to get out of that marriage—that I found Sergio again. Of course, he didn’t recognize me; I don’t know that anyone other than Lexi would have. I’d gone from dyed black hair, pale skin, glasses and being a skinny teen to having let my hair grow back into its gold curls, I’d had eye surgery and I’d put on a lot of healthy weight, including quite a bit of muscle weight. I like to think of myself as being fit but not over the top, even now.

I’m not going to lie, I had a huge crush on him way back then, and when I got back those five years later, yeah, it was lust at first sight. I lusted after that man like nobody’s business, but it really didn’t take all that long for love to come along. My arranged marriage had been pretty loveless, and I think that, in a way, I was craving a chance at something normal.

Do I regret that I let my heart be swept away by this beautiful, wonderful, perfect man? No. I don’t know that having regrets is even a thing that is possible as far as Sergio is concerned.

At times, I wonder if things would have been different if I hadn’t just gone up to him, kissed him, and pretty much taken off. Not that I could have done anything differently, I’d been asked to get my arse back home to Greece and Agathe had too; so, we had to go, one way or another. I try not to think too much about it because I do feel that things would have possibly been different. How different, I don’t know. That’s up to some other alternate reality to figure out. I’m not going to waste my time on this.

Not when there is so much for us to do out here, after all. Not when I do love being able to laze a little in the mornings, entertaining myself—and my perfectly wonderful partner—with little delights that no other eyes see. What I do wish, in a way, though, is that I’d gotten a chance to actually marry this guy. I know that it possibly wouldn’t have changed much, not in the world as it is now, but if the snow hadn’t happened, I would have done that. I would have gone out of my way to find the ring that felt perfect for him, I would have proposed, and I would have married this man.

At this point in things, though, I know he’s mine one way or another. A ring wouldn’t have changed that before the snow either, but it felt like that one little step that would have made things make all the more sense. Here… well here the extras that might have come with the ring aren’t there anymore. We don’t really have to worry about insurance, we don’t have to worry about taxes or about anything that might have possibly been helped by the presence of that ring.

Not that this would have been the reason why I’d have done these things, furthest from.

These mornings are strange. When my mind is flip-flopping through tangents and digging through the what-ifs and the maybes and the if-only. I know that nothing will change our lives as they are now and, you know what? I don’t want our lives to change. I don’t want us to go back to the high-stress environment that was our lives before.

I still take care of my family. I still help with physical therapy as it might be needed from other people who either seek me out thanks to my little info bit I have on the community billboard, or through the still practising docs who send the folks my way because they do need help with someone. Most come willingly, they understand that this new life we have requires them to have all limbs and pieces in working conditions and others come quite reluctantly, possibly because they have no desire to truly be helped. Maybe they think I’m a fraud, maybe they think that they’ve already had all the help they could get, I don’t know, and it hardly matters at this point.

What matters is that I like my life as it is now. I love Sergio. I adore my family. I’m actually fairly comfortable in our surroundings and I don’t need anything else.

Final Word Count: 815

If the duct tape doesn’t work, then I have no idea what else to do. You’re on your own after that.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Unspoken Promises
Current Date: May 21, 2023

Character: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 29
Current residence: Urbana, Iowa
 

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It’s been strange but there have been comers and goers. They’re not common, we’ve seen people—solo wanderers, those who wander in pairs, I think I’ve seen one family—coming by maybe once, twice a year. There have been three this year so far and that’s been strange, as though more and more people are finally gathering the courage to roam this abandoned wasteland. I’m fine with not going anywhere. I think that I’ve finally made my peace with how the world has changed. It’s not always easy but that’s okay. I still have bad days, but I have Sergio with me and he’s the reason it’s easier.

Of those not-quite-rare but far-from-common visitors, only two that I know of have actually stayed. When I say two, I guess I mean three. One was a lonesome visitor we don’t see much of—we’re a small community anymore and people talk—he lives on the very far edge and he seems to mind his own business. The other is, what I assume to be, a young couple. Though I don’t know if calling them young is quite right, by all means, they’re probably around my age. Not that I’m old and there even are days when I still feel as though I got out of high school just months ago; it’s a strange feeling.

The couple that, possibly so, could not be a couple though I’ve seen them walking while holding hands and I’ve seen the looks they throw at one another, has settled in a house that’s actually right across from ours. It had been empty since just before the fog had actually settled so it’s been an odd thing to realize that the place is no longer empty.

I’m not sure they’ll stay forever but, as of right now, they’ve been around for close to six months, I think. They showed up a little before the weather really started to hit its coldest point last year and they’re still there now. I guess they were looking for shelter and we might have been one of the still inhabited places they’d found in a while. I don’t know that anyone knows how many little pockets there are left out there, at least in the United States. It’s not something I’m all that interested in knowing if I’m going to be honest about that. I tip my invisible hat to anyone willing to roam out there but that’s it.

A few days back, we hit a surprisingly hot day that was far more fit for the dead of summer than the middle of spring, they were outside, looking at the fence that surrounds the property. I know that that particular fence has seen better days, but it was already a bit rickety when we moved into this house and that was visible from across the street. I can only imagine that it hasn’t gotten any better with the passing years and no one to take care of it.

The neighbourhood is so quiet that it wasn’t hard to hear them talking about whatever few means they had to fix up the fence—the old chain-link type that had seen better days and was sagging in places where it was no longer held up by anything. I heard mention of duct tape, mostly. I think it was all they had, and it made me smile a little. I think there was a brief period of time in my life when duct tape was my fix-all. It was a very brief period of time. I think I was in a school in Germany.

My host family had been super sweet to me at that point—all of my host families had been—and I got along really well with the boy who was pretty much my age and who had nearly the same schedule I did. I can’t recall what it was that had been broken at that point though it was something of his, not something of mine. I do faintly recall telling him that if the duct tape didn’t work, then I had no other ideas as to how to fix it—whatever it was. After that, he was on his own. For some reason, that seemed to set both of us off and we laughed so hard our sides hurt.

I hadn’t really thought about that in so long; I don’t know that there’s duct tape in our house so there wouldn’t really have been any reason for that memory to surface. It’s not even a bad memory. I’ve been with so many host families that it’s hard to remember them all since I was in a program that meant I spent half a school year in one place before I moved on to another one. There have been a lot of host families and I had good memories with most.

My best, of course, was when Sergio entered my life, but I think that no one would be surprised by that particular point. I love him so stupidly much.

Final Word Count: 841

You’re not allowed to make fun of my pyjamas. They’re comfortable.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 33
Current residence: New York City Ruins, New York
Final Word Count: 756 words
 

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I’m that one person who sleeps with sleeping pants one way or another. Even in this weather, I still sleep with pants on. They’re thin, breathable pants and the nights are honestly cool enough to be comfortable. In the winter, I would sleep with full pyjamas if I could help it; it just felt more comfortable to me. It was as though that extra layer meant protection from something or other and it just eased me to sleep faster.

I tried once we started living outside again, to sleep in just my underwear. No matter how exhausted I was, I would end up staying awake for a long enough time that it was unpleasant, and I just wasn’t rested come morning. So, when I found a pair of faded, well-worn thin cotton pants in what served as a store from the beginning, you can bet that I got those, and my nights started being much more restful.

Agathe used to tease me about the pyjamas I wore to bed when we were younger. I didn’t care how they looked, I didn’t care if they were beginning to fray along the edges, all I really cared for is that they were comfortable. In the summer, I tended to wear pants and a just as worn t-shirt, in the colder months, I would find a two-piece kit as well to keep me comfortable while I slept.

Let’s just say that some of the patterns were a bit out there, at times. I wasn’t picky, I would check the first found I would find, see how soft they might have been, and I’d buy those. It wasn’t as though anyone else but me would be really looking back at these. At least, that’s what I told myself when we were younger, and it was rather true. Once we turned eighteen… well things didn’t change. I still wore what I could find and that was that.

In this new summer heat, I’ve managed to stop needing to wear a shirt to bed. The pants are still worn and, oddly enough, I’ve realized that wearing shorts seems to also be sufficient in making sure I slept more peacefully. On those hotter nights, as we do still seem to have seasons of sorts, it just shows in the change in temperatures though not in any truly drastic ways, wearing the shorts is easier than the pants, though the pants are still so well-worn at this point that they’ve gotten thin.

I’m not going to complain, though. They’re comfortable, they’re still holding up to daily night wear and that’s what matters to me. Once I become unable to wear them, I’ll deal with it but otherwise, they’re perfectly fine pants.

The only time I might not be wearing anything to sleep is when we’re up to delightful moments of pleasure just before we sleep and mostly fall asleep tangled. Even then, with the bit of cleanup that these moments require when I do get up to get a soft cloth or something else and wipe us down, I do tend to at least slip on the shorts, they’re closer. They’re soft on the skin and against the skin and cuddling back up to him isn’t a problem, even in that relaxed afterglow.

I can’t be the only one who needs to be covered in some way to be comfortable for sleep. It might be strange, and I’ve never discussed it with anyone at length, but I’m sure that it’s not that much of a strange sort of behaviour. It’s no different from someone needing a weighted blanket to be able to sleep if you think about it. I don’t even know if these are a thing anymore in this day and age; I’ve certainly not heard a thing about it but, not unlike this sleeping partially or fully clothed thing, I haven’t gone out of my way to ask others about it.

From memory, I know that Lexi used to actually have one before the snow, but it was a fifteen-pound blanket and carrying that with us when we were making it to the transport seemed to not really be in anyone’s best interest. We were already packed down with the clothes we had managed to put into our bags and the food rations we’d found, adding in an extra fifteen pounds wasn’t exactly something that held the interest of anyone. Had she brought it up, I would have tried to figure something out, but she didn’t, so we didn’t.

I’ve been your friend for this long and never once have I complained about the fact you take your pants off before your shoes. That’s true dedication.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Unspoken Promises
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 28
Current residence: Urbana, Iowa
Final Word Count: 829 words
 

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I suppose this might very well make me sound strange, if not outright insane, but I didn’t take well to the fog lifting. Not at first.

Part of me still held hope that once the fog lifted, everything would be back to the way it was. We’d be able to reconnect with the outside world, we’d be fine, and things would go back. I don’t even really know why I held on to that hope at all. After some eighteen months spent locked in this community, surrounded by fog, I should have been able to wrap my mind around the truth, but I didn’t want to.

So, I’m not going to lie. Yes, the fog lifting was a relief, but realizing that everything out there looked like it had been abandoned for a century or so made me sink into a depressive state. I was able to pull myself out of it within a few weeks’ time, though I’m pretty sure that without Sergio, even my sister wouldn’t have been to help with my depression.

It’s only through him that I know I was able to pull myself back up that slippery slope and, since, I’d like to think I’ve adapted fairly well. It’s not perfect, there are days when I still find myself daydreaming a little about what our lives could have been, but it has become a little less common now.

During the few weeks that followed the fog lifting, I know I was pretty much a useless member of our little community. I could barely bring myself to get out of bed, and when I did, I ended up staring off so much that I lost track of passing hours and I know that I’m actually missing a few days, as far as my memory of things is concerned. There are whole days that are just blips in my mind and I have no idea what I did during those very days.

Little by little, with Sergio’s help, love and patience, I managed to drag myself back up. I remember, one morning, I was feeling almost all right and I even offered to help with the general cleaning around the house. It felt good to actually be able to get out of bed without feeling as though I didn’t have any energy to spare.

During my cleaning, I found my old yearbook. The one from our last year of school and I set it aside. I’d wanted to look it over once I was done. Doing the cleaning took longer than it should rightfully have, but I was still a little sluggish. I did finish it all, though, and that was honestly a day I look back proudly upon. I’d managed to do everything in a single day, and I hadn’t done any staring off.

In the early evening of that day, after we’d eaten and we’d settled comfortably together for the few hours left before bed, I’d brought back the yearbook. It wasn’t as though we weren’t familiar with its content, but it was almost a decade old, and it felt good to think about something that had been, instead of everything that was currently happening.

We looked through the pages, the old photos, the scribbles from others. It was a good evening.

At one point, we made it to one spot where there were group photos. Now, as someone who, once he was old enough, went to different schools in different countries every year because it was part of the package deal, there are a lot of people I only met and spent time around for a school year’s time and then, that was that. In that group photo, however, was a friend who’d been in the same program I had and had been to the same schools I had. He’d been something of a childhood friend though we’d drifted apart later in our teens.

Looking at that photo, it brought back a memory that still makes me smile to this day. This particular friend was somewhat peculiar. Even as children, he felt peculiar to me. Whenever we would be going somewhere that required changing out of our clothes and into something else—even gym comes to mind now—he would always be somehow taking off his pants before taking off his shoes. Most of the time, the pants he wore had wide enough legs that it wasn’t that much of an issue, but it was always just so strange to me.

I even mentioned it to him, not long before we started drifting apart. He was complaining about some of my behaviour about something and I reminded him that I’d known him for years and I’d never complained about how he removed his pants before removing his shoes. That this had to count for something. He only huffed, thankfully, and that was the end of that particular session of complaining. We’d been friends long enough to know better than to really fight, I guess.

That was a roller coaster of emotions and I don’t want to experience it again.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – New York City
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 735 words
 

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As someone who had never witnessed the birth of a new life before, let me preface this by saying: never again, please.

Now, it wasn’t the sight of everything, it wasn’t the sounds, it wasn’t even the fact that this wasn’t a human giving birth to another little human; it was about the rollercoaster of emotions and I didn’t think I’d go through all of them over a cat giving birth.

You do have to understand that since the snow and the rest, ‘common’ animals such as cats and dogs were thought to be pretty much extinct. How any of them survived through the bitter cold that swept its way through our lives is a mystery to us. I know that a couple of dogs did survive; no one knows where they were or how they did. By ‘couple’ I mean probably a handful or a mother and her fresh litter, which only makes this all the more baffling.

Up until a year or so back, I’m pretty sure that everyone also thought that cats had been wiped out completely but we’ve been seeing a few strays wandering around the area. All of us were more than a little confused by their presence, to say the least. It had been years since the snow, were these a new generation of cats, somehow born from a survivor or a small group of survivors? We hadn’t really made to approach any of them out of fear of chasing them away.

A few weeks back, however, I noticed—and I’m sure that a fair few of us noticed—that one particular cat in the group was getting a little… fat. As it turns out, fat, in this case, wasn’t so much fat as it was the fact that she was full. In this world, you have to cherish every little bit of life that comes your way—unless they’re bugs that bite, you can squash those as you’d like. I mean, they’re still likely useful but we’re not quite as worried about them as we are, say, returning cats and dogs.

So when we realized what was going on, though it was Lexi’s idea, we set up a little area with blankets and whatnot for the potential momma cat to settle in and have her little one if she so felt inclined to. In a way, I didn’t expect her to want to but in the middle of the night, a few nights past, I woke up to mewling and shuffling and, well, I went to check it out.

There was momma cat with at least two little ones in the cozy setup we’d made up for her but by the looks of her, she was struggling.

To make a long story short, neither I nor Sergio got much sleep on that night, we helped her as much as she allowed us to and we had to get two kittens from the whole litter a little help because they weren’t responsive or breathing. As I said, it was a major rollercoaster and I don’t know that I ever want to go through that again.

By the first few rays of morning light, we finally saw that she seemed to be done, all the little ones were cleaned up and breathing and seemed to be fine—though don’t take my word for it, I’m no vet—and we were proud but exhausted sort of new dads. It was weird and I wanted to sleep.

It’s been a few days now and all of the little ones still seem to be fine, they’re all breathing fine, they’re shuffling around in the box, they’re feeding fine. Momma comes and goes but she lets us feed her when it’s clear she’s still struggling a little with getting around. I’d still say she’s mostly feral and we haven’t really tried petting her but she lets us near her and the little ones so there’s that, at the very least. If we can get a small population of cats going, I can’t say I’ll complain, it’ll do good.

As is, I don’t think anyone is equipped or has the knowledge to ‘snip’ these little ones, should the need arise. At least, I don’t think so. It’s all right, I think. We do need to keep in mind that they’re technically still considered near-extinction, in the end. So they can go without for a while.

It takes work to look this good and yet all you have to do is wake up, apparently.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Unspoken Promises
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 26
Final Word Count: 863 words
 

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I know I was in denial last time; I’m not going to lie. I still was looking at potential homes—and I’d even actually found a small house on the outskirts of this place—even after the fog had settled in. We were two months in, at that point, but I still held hope that it was going to lift and life would resume as before. I still was flipping burgers at that point, too, but the number of folks who came to eat at the place was already starting to seriously dwindle and most everyone else had left.

Bills weren’t going to pay themselves and now, with the Internet gone and no link to the outside world, I’m almost afraid of what life is going to be like when this fog lifts because I know it will lift, it has to, right? On some days, it’s hard to think positively about the fact that our lives might never be the same ever again but on the same note, the amount in my bank account—which I can’t even really check anymore, so that might be a lie—hasn’t changed in the last year and a half.

I mean, people can’t pay you for the work you’re doing and you can’t even do most of that work. When the main source of electricity failed and we had to turn to our solar panels, we knew the burger joint couldn’t really keep working—plus, our supplies were dwindling, we’d been expecting a delivery a few days after the fog first came and it never happened. When we ran out of fresh stuff, we had to cut down items from the menu but even at that point, I think the boss just mostly decided that if people came asking, he’d likely give stuff away to those who needed it.

For a year and a half, we’ve been subsisting on canned foods, dry foods and surprisingly so, frozen foods. Up until now, I didn’t even know that the warehouse on the other edge of this place had frozen foods, I really only thought… well it doesn’t really matter at this point, not really. I’d never been in a food warehouse, anyway. The security guys have taken over keeping watch over it, preventing some looting and whatnot because a few people tried that at first, I don’t blame them but still.

All in all, this has been difficult. I don’t know how they managed, but they shut the electricity off in all of the empty places but the university, giving that a central point for people to meet up if they need to and I guess it makes sense. That thing is at the very heart of our community, in the end. No one is struggling for heat or light, at least. Water was a touchy subject for a while but at this point, we still seem to be okay and I’m not going to complain.

There are days when it gets to be too hard. Days when I’d like to roll over and tell the world to forget I exist for a while because I don’t even want to get out of bed. Days when I tell myself it’s not worth it.

It’s on those days that I turn most of my focus on Sergio, I barely even think about myself, I just think about anything and everything I can do to help him in any way he might need at that point. When that’s unnecessary and that’s the case often because we have what we need for the most part and only really just need one another, I turn back to thinking about funny memories.

I’ve had to recently, I wasn’t doing so well, everything seemed dark and dreary though I swear that the fog at night isn’t as dark as it used to be, isn’t as thick. I’m probably just imagining it. The memory that cropped to mind was one from the time I still was in Greece, I remember getting up in the morning, hair tousled from sleep—I kept my hair shorter, back then—and Agathe just took one look at me and laughed almost immediately. I was a bit worried that there was something on my face or in my hair but she just kept on laughing until I was nearly begging her to tell me what was going on.

Eventually, and it’s quite simple which is why it likely still makes me smile, she told me that a few of her rare girlfriends seemed to have crushes on me and had asked her what kind of routine I did to look ‘this good’ and she’d told them that this was my just-fresh-out-of-bed look. They’d giggled away about how much time it took them to get ready and look good and yet, I was inta-good-looks or something. It made me smile on that day, it was weird but cute at the same time but I’m still grateful for that memory because it helps me.

When I start chuckling for little to no reason, Sergio usually knows it’s because I was thinking about that particular memory.

I’ll get you back for that. One day. Mark my words.

 
Timeline/World: New York City – Surviving Earth
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 638 words
 

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People get angry over the pettiest of things. At least, back when the world still was a thing and I had to deal with more people than I do now, people used to get upset and angry over the pettiest of things. I don’t know whether or not that really has changed, I don’t think it has, but I don’t have to deal with quite as many people as I used to and the people I have to deal now tend to just be intimidated by my build and stature and would rather be healthy than a splat on the wall.

Not that I’ve given any single one of them any reason to fear me.

I suppose my build alone is enough to get a few people to worry that I could break them in half if I tried but it’s my sister you have to worry about, not me.

Now, before the world ended, before the snow, before the jungle, when fans still were crazy about their favourite singers and artists, things were different. I probably was different too. I think everyone changed with the snow but people were still people before the snow and I can’t understand how some of these people used to think.

I remember one particular concert, though it was a couple of hours before the concert so we were chilling in the RV, just relaxing before the big event. It was mostly quiet, Lexi was in her room, we were downstairs sharing tea and then just suddenly, there was banging at the door. Now, everyone was inside at that point, so there shouldn’t have been anyone bothering us any time soon so I went to check it out. I was closest to the door.

Getting out of that door without letting that slippery visitor inside proved to be a challenge. The boy—he couldn’t have been more than seventeen or eighteen—tried to slip right past me when I opened that door. Thankfully, I have pretty good reflexes and I was able to keep him outside. It was clear I’d thwarted part one of his plans and he looked miffed. Several times, he tried to go around me, never mind that I was leaning back against the door and there was no way to get inside otherwise.

Did he really think he could just slip right in? I figured that he must have assumed that Lexi would be alone in the RV, something pretty stupid, and that he’d wanted some one-on-one time with her but that just wasn’t going to happen. It was my job—though technically not mine, but as I was the one outside, it was my job—to keep him out and her safe inside with the others.

I just stared him down. I don’t know how long it took exactly but eventually, he got the hint that he wasn’t going to be able to get inside and he started yelling. I still remember him telling me that he’d get me back for that. One day. I managed to somehow not smirk at him but I think I could have smacked him upside the head, hoping to whack some sense into him but I didn’t. I waited until he was gone. I waited a while more and then I went back inside, I locked the door and I never really did think much about it again.

Well, sorry to say kid but you didn’t get back to me for that. Your one day has come and gone, the snow has swept it away, the jungle has grown over it and while I suppose I am a little saddened by your potential death, as I am the death of everyone else who didn’t make it, this is just one of those things. You were an idiot. Good riddance.

You’re quickly picking up on these things. Soon, you’ll be better than I was.

 
Timeline/World: Urbana LaCrosse University – First Clocks
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 25
Final Word Count: 527 words
 

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It’s always rewarding to hear your teacher tell you that you’ll be better than he ever was. At least, I used to think it was rewarding until I realized that this latest teacher of mine was only teaching me so he could retire. He was doing a half-hearted job because he was just so tired and most of the time, I was the one picking up his slack and teaching the rest of the small assembled group.

I didn’t mind at first, it was thrilling to be the one all of these eyes turned to with rapt attention but as time went on, I realized that I didn’t want to do this for a living. A hobby sure, something for fun but not something that would turn into either competitions or, as it’s now turning into, a teaching job. I don’t want to teach for a living, it’s not my thing but I don’t know what to do about it. How do I let them know? The teacher is talking about retiring at the end of the year and there’s no one else, bar stupid, blind me who hadn’t seen all the signs until it was too late, to take his place.

How do you tell some fifteen wide-eyed teenagers that there’s no one else to teach them because their teacher is retiring and they’re not hiring anyone else since they assumed I would do it without being asked? You don’t. You don’t tell these teenagers that kind of thing because this is their one escape from reality. Most of these kids come from families with a history of violence or bullying and this class is their escape. It teaches them to be stronger, to defend themselves without turning to violence or to abuse.

I don’t want to be here. Even Sergio knows I don’t want to be here. He knows the whole story and while I could just tell the folks running this place that I don’t want the job, I can’t bear the thought of all the depressed kids I’d leave behind. How fair would that be?

It’s been making going to the classes after work a chore. That’s the issue here. I already have a job. It’s also not a job I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing but it’s a good job with a good pay and that’s all I need at this point. I’ve been looking into a job I can do from home, though home is about to get bigger before too long and that’s why I’m hesitating to drop my current desk job. I have a few places lined up as far as work-from-home things are concerned and I just mostly need to let them know if I’m interested or not.

One thing at the time though, I need to figure out what to do about the twice-a-week evening class with mister-I’m-retiring-so-you-have-to-teach-them jerk about to leave me on my own. I have no idea whatsoever about a possible way to work this out and I’ve already spent far too long worrying about this.

Since you know everything, mind telling me how to get out of this?

Timeline/World: New York City – Surviving Earth
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 30
Final Word Count: 543 words

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The situation had looked hopeless at first; that’s how I remember it. It looked hopeless and like we’d be stranded in this particular place until the ends of time and the particular people of this one group we’d seen to hire for this gig that had landed us in this spot were, how to put this gently? Oh, there’s no way to put this gently. They were entitled arseholes.

This was before everything else. This was when we’d just barely started and yet security was a big necessity and we hadn’t really contacted the right people. We’d hired two goons whose backgrounds I should have checked much better but clearly had not and now we were stranded in a small room and one of them was leering at Lexi in a way that made me want to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze, it was that bad.

The issue was that there was a mob of screaming and squealing fans just outside the door. Clearly, these idiots had not done their jobs well or maybe they’d done their job so well that we were exactly in the spot they’d wanted us to be at.

I can’t remember which of the two uttered it first, somehow blaming me for the fact that we were stuck here when I told them that this was a dead end—and it had been a dead end. I almost reached out and punched the guy but I didn’t want to step away from Lexi, I didn’t trust either one of them at this point. They’d seemed competent when I’d first spoken to them, when I’d hired them for this one gig, but they hadn’t met Lexi then. They didn’t know who they’d be working to keep safe and I think that’s the part that changed everything. I should have seen it in their eyes when they first saw her.

Needless to say, we did eventually get out of the room and I sent them on their way and let them know we wouldn’t need their services anymore. The paycheck would be in the mail. They left pretty reluctantly and if I could have shoved my foot up their arse I would have done it but I didn’t. I just didn’t.

I still remember that situation and it feels like a lifetime ago. I was so young, we were all so young. How is it that time has slipped by us so quickly? Not that I’m old, not that any of us are really old though there are days when I feel old after this whole end of the world thing. All the snow and then the volcanoes and the changes in the world. It took some adapting to be quite honest.

I like things as they are now, at least, for the most part. I think I like them as they are now because Lexi has both her arms and hands once more. When she came back with that news, it was hard to swallow but it was real. It took her time to adapt to the changes, she just didn’t know how to handle it at first either but we were all there for her and now, well now it’s like that limb was never lost.

I’d be done with all of this by now if I weren’t so tired.

Timeline/World: Urbana LaCrosse University – First Clocks
Characters: Theodoros Constantinides
Race: Human
Age: 24
Final Word Count: 536 words

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I don’t know what I expected when I got out of secondary school.

Well, no, that’s a lie. I had big dreams, I’d study in physical rehabilitation and I’d be a huge help to everyone around me. Things didn’t quite turn out that way.

Oh sure. I’ve done all of that great studying thing and it’s interesting, there was so much to know. It’s the job-finding and student debt paying back that’s a pain in the ass. You know that thing they tell you about how once you graduate; all those magical job-doors will be open and waiting for you to just step in? Not so much. Not that I believed I’d find a job in my field quickly but I expected to find something. I’ve been looking for a couple of years and so far, it’s a big fat load of nothing at all. So what do I do? I flip burgers.

I hate it. It’s turned me off of meat for the most part, not because the food is prepared poorly, the kitchen is in great shape for a fast-food place but all I pretty much do, day in and out is flip patties, bacon, chicken and other food products and I just can’t stand the sight, or stomach them anymore.

It pays the bills, barely. If my parents still bothered to keep in touch, I know they’d help but they more or less fell off of the face of the earth once we both graduated from secondary school. We were adults at that point; we could take care of ourselves. Sure, we’re taking care of ourselves, that’s why we live in this little apartment that, while cosy, can get pretty frigid in the winter and a steam house in the summer. I know Agy isn’t having much better luck but at least I’m not alone. I think that would kill me.

I wish I could afford us something better than this. At least the neighbourhood is nice, it’s quiet and calm most of the time and when I come back home at around ten in the evenings, I can just sort of crash and sleep without having to worry about anyone being too noisy and keeping me awake.

I’m still looking. I know I’ll eventually find that one good job that’ll make all of this seem like a distant dream but right this very moment, I’m just so exhausted that it seems pointless to even dream of getting out of there.

My life could be worse though, I know. I have a good roof even if the walls aren’t so great, I have access to food, my student debts are slowly going down and I have love at my side to keep me level-headed at the times I wish I could just chuck everything out the window because I’m having one of these days where everything feels like it sucks and nothing is worth it.

I love him. He completes me in ways I never thought I could be completed and I don’t mean it in a sexual way, for all of you perverts out there, though yeah, he does that too. Not that it’s anyone’s business but my own, that.