Here & Now

The 2020s

The misfits five found themselves in a huge, spacious hotel suite at the top of the Endzone.

Eli led them all up the stairs, into an elevator, and up one final stretch of stairs before they emerged at the threshold of black double-doors. He pushed them open, allowed the others to talk inside, and stepped in after, closing the doors back behind them.

The room around them was luxurious, expensive, and endless; in the far left corner was a bar, practically untouched and completely unoccupied unlike the one downstairs, with shelves full of drinks and other amenities behind it. To the right and halfway down the wall was a collection of large leather couches, far bigger than normal ones, all a deep shade of red and positioned around a sleek glass table of a unique round shape. Across from this huge seating area was a gigantic flat-screen on the wall, and farther to the right was an area shrouded in more darkness, though it appeared to lead to a sleeping area around the corner.

There were no walls or doors separating most of the various areas in this space; it seemed that this entire floor was open and free to traverse, the only isolated space being a spacious bathroom on the far left side, its door standing open, and its light turned off. The further areas had little to no lights on, but the bar and seating area—the places closest to the entrance—were lit well, as if they expected visitors at any moment.

While Octavia, Mohinder, Samuel, and Hailey all paused to look around, Eli simply meandered over to the bar.

“Make yourselves at home,” he told them in stride, waving for them to do whatever they liked.

Samuel bit his lip and surveyed everything with raised brows, then turned to Mohinder, who had resorted to staring vacantly at the ground again. He snapped his fingers and motioned over to the seating area, leading him away.

Meanwhile, Hailey was squinting at Eli rather closely, marching over to the bar and leaning over its surface, giving him a strange, thorough stare.

Eli was pouring himself a drink now, and he raised his head and paused, returning her stare from beneath the brim of his hat.

“Oh… holy crap,” Hailey breathed the moment she met his gaze. “ Eli …?”

Eli went still, his eyes narrowing at her.

“Girl… did you just now realize who I was?” he said in surprise. “You followed me all the goddamn way up here without knowing who I even was? Damn, girl, I hope nobody ever tries to kidnap you…”

“Wha—I jus—I was following them!” Hailey replied defensively, swatting over at Mohinder and Samuel, then wheeling around to Octavia. “And—and her!”

Hailey then stopped, giving Octavia a double-take before leaping forward and trapping her in a sudden hug.

“Ehehe… and hi , by the way,” Hailey grinned, squeezing her tightly. “Holy crap, I haven’t seen you in forever…!”

Octavia laughed and returned her embrace. “Good to see you too… seriously…”

“Ohmigod… so like… what happened here?!” Hailey beamed excitedly, motioning between Octavia and Eli. “Where did you guys even come from tonight?!”

“You have deducted that this is my club, right?” Eli asked with a smirk. “Or did I need to spell that out too…?”

Hailey shot him a snide look and leaned halfway over the bar, holding up her middle finger an inch away from his face.

“Yeah… I just ran into him earlier today, and I came here so we could catch up,” Octavia explained, gesturing to Eli.

“Ooo… now we can all catch up!” Hailey exclaimed.

While the three of them traded conversation at the bar—Samuel and Mohinder sat on the giant red couch against the wall, right across from the huge TV, just far enough away to manage a private conversation with one another.

Mohinder glanced over at him, stealing several glimpses before he finally started to talk.

“You don’t look, um…” he mumbled faintly.

Samuel leaned forward, propping his arm on his leg and squinting questioningly at him.

“What,” he barked with a laugh. “Strung out?”

Mohinder sighed and tossed up a hand.

“Well… the last time I ever did that was fourteen years ago,” Samuel informed, rolling up his black overcoat sleeve and revealing his arm, which was clear of track marks. “Lookie. Clean and sober. Yay me.”

Mohinder stared at the arm, then at him, sighing again.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I couldn’t just…”

“Oh… don’t give me no bullshit,” Samuel chided, leaning back against the couch cushions. “I would’ve done the same damn thing if I was you… and you disappearing was a big part of the wake-up call. It just got too damn hard to keep saying no when all that shit was in my house all the time. At some point, I didn’t care anymore… and then… at some point later, I did care again. So… y’know… we had to just get the fuck out. Me and Hailey moving the fuck out was what we always needed. Everything got better from then on. Not easier… but… better.”

Mohinder nodded quietly.

The two of them were silent for a moment.

“And…” Samuel uttered, glimpsing at him and patting him once on the back. “I’m sorry… about your friend.”

Mohinder shook his head. “I don’t wanna think about it.”

Samuel nodded, and there was another pause.

Then, Mohinder turned his head and eyed the other three from a distance, squinting at the bar area for a moment before facing Samuel again.

“Did you know they were here?” he asked, nodding over at the bar. “Eli and Octavia…”

Samuel shook his head and laughed. “Nope… no fuckin’ clue. That shit just came out of nowhere.”

“Huh. It’s wild that we all ended up in the same place,” Mohinder mumbled thoughtfully, meeting Samuel’s gaze. “And how is it that I always end up seeing you right after the worst damned parts of my life happen…?”

Samuel breathed out a laugh. “I’m a dark cloud over your life, man. That’s kinda my job in everyone’s.”

“Oh… come on, now,” Mohinder said, tilting his head and giving him a look. “Don’t be down on yourself like that. Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve survived half the things you’ve been through… and you’ve done amazingly.”

Samuel scoffed and looked away. “Psh… yeah, busting my ass for 15 dollars an hour and chasing gigs all over the goddamn place, and renting a room from some old dude who forgets I live there half the goddamn time… yeah, I fuckin’ made it.”

“Sam,” Mohinder said seriously, ignoring the sarcasm. “That kid who just blew his brains out tonight was a heroin addict.”

Samuel turned and stared at him, falling deadpan.

“No shit…?” he uttered.

“He was,” Mohinder affirmed. “And he had a lot of demons… and yours are different, but… you do, too. Well… guess what. You’re the one who’s still here. So yes. You’ve done well.”

Samuel took slightly back, unsure of how to reply.

“C’mon,” Mohinder said, standing and pointing over at the bar. “Let’s go catch up.”

Samuel followed him, and the two of them approached the other three. Hailey was mid-story when they walked over, telling the harrowing tale of how she battled her now ex-boyfriend earlier in the day, Eli sipping his drink while he listened, and Octavia ogling her in mollified surprise.

“And then… my hero shows up,” Hailey grinned, planting a hand on Mohinder’s shoulder and giving him a shake. “And he brought me here… and that’s about it for my day.”

“Oh, hardly,” Mohinder chuckled. “You left out the part where you got thoroughly stoned on painkillers at the hospital.”

“Ooooo… yeah,” Hailey laughed. “ Man , that felt good. I still kinda feel it now…”

“No… hold on… speaking of heroes,” Samuel smirked, side-stepping over to Octavia and snapping his arm around her in a sideways hug. “This little rebel right here was fucking amazing tonight. I missed the hell outta you, you know that? Stormed right up on the cops with no fear. You’re a beast , dude.”

“Yes… you are,” Mohinder agreed, giving her a smile. “I appreciate you doing what you did, by the way. Thank you.”

Octavia flushed and laughed it off. “Aw… c’mon, now… I just reacted. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“She’s had a long day of fighting tyranny,” Eli remarked, taking another sip of his drink. “Y’know where I ran into her? The county commissioner’s meeting. She ‘bout busted the doors down and demanded there be no more data centers built here… and she made it so another seat opens up on the board, too. A seat she plans to fill this election. Makin’ waves like hell.”

“Yeah—listen—that’s not anywhere near as interesting as whatever the hell’s going on with you,” Octavia quipped in response, gesturing up and down Eli as if he was a bizarre attraction of some kind. “You said you’d tell me how you got all rags to riches —and I wanna hear that story.”

Eli perked his brow. “You wanna hear that whole thing…?”

“Oh… I think we all do,” Samuel nodded, plopping onto one of the stools and planting his chin atop his fist, giving Eli a comically invested stare. “Enlighten us, oh pimp master of the dark arts. How art thou money-making endeavors go?”

Octavia, Mohinder, and Hailey all snickered.

Eli stared at Samuel vacantly for a moment. “The fuck did you just say to me…?”

“I don’t know,” Samuel chuckled. “I was trying to sound fancy, but that didn’t really work…”

“Sound like you havin’ a stroke is what you sound like,” Eli snarked, making everyone laugh again.

“Tell uuuus,” Octavia said excitedly, slapping her hand rapidly to the surface of the bar.

Eli glanced at her, his thin black facial hairs curling around a faint half-smile.

“Well’p… I could say the story started with bitcoin,” he said, gently swirling his drink around. “But... the story really started… with a gold watch.”

Everyone fell silent and listened, Octavia’s humorous expression fading away, replaced by a more profound one.

“There was one lucky, gorgeous, beautiful damned gold watch that I got on the worst night of my life… which ended up also being the best night of my life,” Eli told them all, motioning his drink toward Octavia and raising his brows at her. “D’you know what that gold watch was actually worth?”

Octavia shook her head.

“Twenty-three thousand dollars,” Eli stated. “Enough to get Mom and I out of the hood… enough to stash a chunk of that shit away in savings… and enough to invest in something. Y’all wanna take a wild guess what the first thing I invested in was?”

“Bitcoin,” Samuel shrugged. “You said bitcoin, so…”

Eli pointed at him and nodded. “Yes, and that… was a big -ass stroke of luck. From there… I got a good mind for it… and I started investing other places here and there. I got pretty good at gauging the markets, and always ending off with more money than I started with. Eventually… I did well enough to buy some property, and make a lil’ more as a landlord. Fast-forward a lil’ more… and I can build and open my own club. I got businesses and properties making me more money than I have to put back into ‘em, I got people managing a lot of them for me now, and I also never stop playing the investment game in my spare time… which means… there’s always more money coming, somewhere, or somehow. I got damn good at playin’ the money game… and it did us pretty damn well.”

Everybody stared at him quietly for a moment, all looking rather impressed.

“Oh… and Momma says thank you, by the way,” Eli added, nudging his drink toward Octavia again. “She told me to tell you that if I ever saw you again… and she also told me to tell you to come visit her, ‘cause she ain’t seen you in forever.”

“Wow,” Mohinder muttered. “You really did the smartest things possible… and you must’ve done it in the smartest ways possible for it to work out so well. That’s… incredible.”

“I always said he was a wasted genius,” Samuel grinned. “I wonder how many honest-to-God geniuses are born into poverty and just end up getting their lives wasted on some stupid shit and never meeting their full potential…”

“Not me, motherfucker,” Eli said, raising his drink before taking another swig. “Not anymore.”

“So… basically… now you can afford to make your hair fabulous forever,” Hailey teased.

“You goddamn right I can,” Eli laughed, looking to Mohinder. “And speaking of being fabulous… what happened with you? How come you didn’t do the whole college doctor thing?”

“Ah… that’s a long story,” Mohinder replied. “I just… wanted to be a first-responder more. Personal choice.”

“Why?” Octavia wondered.

Mohinder glanced at her and sighed. He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, and just when he opened his mouth to respond—his phone began to ring.

Huffing out another breath, he pulled it out of his pocket and squinted at it, seeing that it was an incoming call from Rachel.

“Oh,” Mohinder murmured. “Oh, I never called her tonight…”

“Who?” Hailey asked.

“My, um… my girlfriend,” Mohinder said, raising the phone briefly before stepping away. “Hang on…”

He wandered over to the couch area before answering the call.

“Hello,” Mohinder uttered.

“Hello, Hindy,” Rachel replied, her tone sounding rather flat. “So… where have you been all night?”

Mohinder hesitated, biting his lip and glimpsing over at everyone by the bar.

“I’ve had a… long night,” he told her. “Sorry…”

“Mhm,” Rachel hummed. “So… lemme get this straight… you basically tell me that you never wanna marry me, and then you ghost me all night long when you usually always call me right when you get off work?”

Mohinder sighed stressfully, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Rachel, something happened tonight…”

“What happened?”

“I had t…” Mohinder paused and swallowed roughly, trying to remove the grisly, horrific image of Wally’s decimated remains from his mind. “I had to go pick up a friend after work to take him to the pharmacy and get his medication… at my apartment complex… and when I got there, he k… killed himself.”

There was a long pause.

“Okay,” Rachel eventually replied. “So… where are you now?”

Mohinder glimpsed over at the bar again.

“I’m… with some other friends,” he said. “They’re, um… they’re being very… supportive… and comforting… right now. They’re old friends… people I haven’t seen in years. I actually ran into one of them during my shift today, and I managed to help get her out of a really abusive situation after this guy sprained her wrist… and… God, it’s just been an insane day today. Hell… I’m even not sure where to take her now, to be honest. I was gonna let her stay at my place, but… I really don’t wanna go back there right now.”

“Wait.” Rachel’s tone dropped even more. “You’re letting another woman stay in your house tonight?”

Mohinder fell silent for a long, intense moment, a wave of strange disbelief flooding through him.

“Rachel… did you hear the part about this guy she was living with physically attacking her?” he asked. “ Or the part about me seeing a friend of mine kill himself? ”

Rachel fell silent again.

“How is it that I’m getting more compassion from some high school friends who I haven’t seen in two decades than I am from my own girlfriend?” Mohinder griped.

“Hindy,” Rachel said coldly. “If you wanna cheat on me, just go right ahead.”

“Oh, for…” Mohinder rolled his eyes. “You know what? I’m not gonna chase you down and beg for your forgiveness over nothing. You can talk to me when you grow up.”

“ Excuse me…?”

“Yeah—call me back when you crawl out of this mindset that everything is about you somehow. You either do that, or don’t call me at all. Goodbye.”

He hung up and stuffed his phone away angrily, sighing before marching back over to the bar.

“What was that about?” Hailey asked him.

“Nothing,” Mohinder replied dismissively. “Doesn’t matter.”

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds.

“So y… um…” Hailey murmured, twirling her bangs a little. “I wasn’t trying to overhear any of that, but… I kind of heard… part of it… and… I totally understand if you don’t wanna go to your apartment tonight. I probably have enough to go stay at a motel or something instead…”

“Ohhh… there ain’t no need for that,” Eli said, swishing his drink around again and flashing a smirk. “In fact… I kinda did wanna bring up a potential for all of you, depending on your, uh… current living circumstances.”

The others stared at him questioningly.

“I always told myself that… if ever given the opportunity… I would pay back the only five people who gave a damn about me before I was somebody,” Eli explained. “And… when I had my home built… I built it plenty big. Big enough for way more than just me and my mother.”

Octavia’s mouth drifted agape, Hailey’s brows raising, Samuel and Mohinder narrowing their eyes at Eli thoughtfully.

“Now… if y’all are comfortable and content with all your current living situations… then that’s all well and good,” Eli continued. “But… I’m gathering that some of y’all aren’t exactly content, and I just want you to know… you do have another option now. I wouldn’t expect much. Hell… I’m doing so good now, I wouldn’t even need any rent from any of y’all. Just some basic adult shit… helping to maintain things, keepin’ things clean, fixing stuff when it breaks, bringin’ food into the house… all that good shit. Oh… and… helpin’ to keep an eye on my mother, ‘cause she’s gettin’ older, and she still thinks she can do every goddamn thing…”

There was another pause between them all.

Eli perched his brow at them, his eyes shifting from person to person, surveying them all expectantly.

Octavia swallowed and glanced away, Hailey smiling and twirling her hair again. Samuel scratched along his chin, appearing to be deep in thought, and Mohinder slid his hands into his pockets, looking down as he mulled it over.

“I know y’all weren’t expecting an offer like that tonight,” Eli chuckled. “Take all the time ya’ need.”

“Oh… I like it,” Hailey told him happily. “I really like that idea. I don’t need time to think, I’m just like… in shock…”

“I would like to get outta that little rink-dink-ass room I’ve been living in,” Samuel mumbled, partly just to himself.

“And I’d certainly prefer not to go back to those apartments now,” Mohinder pondered aloud.

Eli nodded at them, and then, his eyes landed on Octavia.

Everyone else looked to her as well.

Octavia blinked and glimpsed around at them, breathing out a laugh. “What…?”

“What about you , OC?” Eli asked, leaning on the bar and studying her. “You’re the only one who hasn’t said a single thing about their, uh… living situation.”

Octavia swallowed, trading eyes with all of them again and feeling a spark of anxiety inside. It wasn’t as if she disliked the idea—in fact, she felt a rush of joy at the mere thought of it—but the last time she trusted friends enough to live with them, she was suddenly forced into homelessness the moment they had a disagreement with her. Not to mention, living with her mother left her with little to no control over where she lived. Living in her car was simply safe and secure to her; it was the one method of living that was fully in her control, and it couldn’t be taken away from her by anyone else.

Eli read her expression, then pushed up from the bar and walked out from behind it, grabbing his cane from where he’d propped it against the wall.

“C’mere,” he suggested, sauntering over to one of the darker areas of this enormous suite. “Lemme holla atcha.”

Octavia followed him quietly.

The two of them rounded the corner, passing by the open bathroom—and Eli stopped at an elevator that was on the other side of the center structure, one that none of them could see from the bar or the stairwell. He pressed a button, and moments later, it made a ding , and the doors slid open.

He stepped into the brightly-lit elevator, beckoning her to join him. Octavia sighed and walked into it as well.

Eli pressed the button marked ROOF, and the doors closed, the elevator shifting and carrying them upwards.

Then, when the doors opened again, the cool autumn breeze washed over them—and Octavia found herself staring out at the last type of place she expected to see on the rooftop of a nightclub. Before her was a wide, spacious grassy area with a thin, narrow pathway in the center, leading out from the elevator and branching across the grass-covered rooftop like a greenway in a public park, complete with a fantastic view of the starry night and the town from above.

Eli sauntered out, and Octavia followed, glancing around and seeing a pavilion in the middle of the rooftop, the place where all the stretched of the walkway intersected together. This gazebo structure had circular, luminous lanterns hanging from around its rounded rooftop, and the walkways had tiny lights along the sides of them, brightening the way just enough to give the rooftop a comforting glow.

“C’mon,” Eli said, strolling down the path. “Let’s walk and talk a minute.”

Octavia marched onward, walking alongside him.

“Now… why don’t you wanna say where you’re living?” Eli questioned. “I know there’s a reason.”

Octavia looked down at her shoes while she walked, sighing and taking a moment to respond.

“I don’t want pity,” she mumbled. “And I have trust issues… and I also know you feel like you owe me, which you don’t.”

Eli choked out a laugh. “Fuck outta here…”

“Well… you don’t,” Octavia stated. “I just wanted you to be okay, and I got what I wanted as much as you did. See… that’s my whole problem, right there. I get way more attached than everyone else… and then it hurts a lot worse whenever people just up and disappear again. I kinda just don’t wanna open myself up to that again… I don’t know…”

“Well… if it makes you feel any better… I didn’t actually plan on ‘up and disappearing’ again,” Eli remarked. “I didn’t plan on that the first time, either… I was just busy as hell, and then my phone fell in a damn pool, so I lost everybody’s numbers…”

The two strolled along the path quietly for a moment, Octavia glaring downward in thought.

“I made these friends at the community center… Sarah, and Ashley, and Marcus, and Dan,” she told him. “And they were like… awesome people. Hanging out with them reminded me of hanging out with you guys… and for a long time, they were like… a family. They offered me a roommate deal, and for a while, that was awesome… despite them hardly ever cleaning anything… but when COVID happened, they just like… completely changed into different people… and they kicked me out for not getting a COVID shot. I saw somebody at the hospital collapse and seize the fuck out after getting a COVID shot… so I just didn’t wanna get one. I just didn’t wanna risk it. And this is the whole thing… like… I’m not gonna change who I am for anybody, so… I can’t really live with people who aren’t tolerant of that… and I don’t wanna end up in that situation again. I need to be allowed to make my own choices. If I did something that you just couldn’t deal with, and it made you hate me… then… where would that leave me?”

Eli fell silent for a moment or two, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it as he walked.

“Well,” he said, exhaling a smoke cloud into the air and sliding the cigarette from his mouth between two fingers. “There’s one big hole in that logic, OC… because you’re assuming I’m even capable of hating you. And I’m not.”

Octavia stared over at him with a vexed look.

“A lot of people on the pro-vax side of COVID were controlled by fear… and a lot of people on the other side of it were goin’ on anger,” Eli deduced. “But you’re not really either one. You’re just you… real, and raw, and unapologetic… and that ain’t the kind of person I’m ever gonna have any real clashes with. That’s the kind of person I like, and seek out, and respect… and that’s the kind of person I always aim to be. That’s being real . And y’know what else…?”

He turned his head and smirked at her.

“I don’t really see us disagreeing on much of that kind of stuff any way,” he told her. “The way you talked at the courthouse today told me all that and then some. Besides… I ain’t about to throw somebody out on the streets over a disagreement. Them ain’t real friends who did that to you.”

Octavia looked down again and shrugged.

“Did you like…” she muttered seconds later. “Did you always… plan on doing this? Like… getting all of us together to live in the same house…”

“ Plan …? No,” Eli said, shaking his head. “It wasn’t a big conspiracy or anything… I just wanted to throw that offer out there if the opportunity ever arose… and it did tonight.”

“Yeah, but… why?” Octavia asked curiously.

Eli stroked along his facial hairs for a moment.

“Well… for all the reasons I said,” he replied simply.

“Yeah… and all the reasons you didn’t say, too,” Octavia suspected, eyeing him knowingly.

Eli let out a chuckle. “You’re sharp as hell, girl.”

They walked on in silence for a few seconds.

Then, Eli sighed and slowed to a stop, thumping his cane lightly to the ground and turning to face her.

“There’s a lot of shit goin’ on in the world… and everything in the world isn’t at all what it looks like on the outside,” Eli told her, raising his cane. “Like… this, for example. Why do you think I carry this on me all the time?”

Octavia’s eyes narrowed, making another shrug.

“I didn’t start using a cane because of how it looks ,” Eli informed. “Something happened that fucked up my leg years ago, and I had a medical cane for a lil’ bit while it was healing… and then, people started treating me a lil’ different… because that cane combined with my clean-ass look made me appear a certain way on the outside.”

Octavia breathed out a laugh.

“So… I ended up keeping the cane after the fact, and designing this fly lil’ motherfucker on my own,” Eli continued, raising the cane again and showing off its stylish silver handle. “Plus, it’s pretty good for goin’ upside a motherfucker’s head… but that’s just a bonus. Good lil’ beatin’ stick…”

Octavia smirked and nodded.

“The point is… if you walk around lookin’ like a pimp… then people assume you’re a dangerous motherfucker, and they’re a lot quicker to back the fuck off,” Eli explained. “And I like that. I like people leaving me the fuck alone… but that whole thing is based on outside appearance. You know damn well I ain’t what they’re seeing. The reality of me ain’t anything like what they’re thinking it is. Ya’ see what I’m saying?”

“Yeah,” Octavia affirmed.

“It’s a predesigned appearance meant to manufacture a specific reaction,” Eli stated, lowering the cane slightly and gesturing at her with it. “And that… is exactly how the world is. It’s always been that way to some degree… but now… it’s a full-on damn conspiracy to make everybody feel complacent and chill, like everything’s all right when it’s not. Society looks normal… and shit carries on like normal every day… but people with eyes can see the reality behind it. People with eyes can see that gas ain’t supposed to cost almost ten dollars a gallon… food ain’t supposed to cost out the ass and make everybody sicker than a motherfucker… living in an actual house ain’t supposed to be a pipe dream for everybody our age and younger… and we ain’t supposed to be afraid of hospitals, and procedures, and basic normal shit that we should be able to rely on. People ain’t supposed to hate each other and bark on each other as much as they do… and we ain’t supposed to have entire shops and restaurants being run by robots now. There’s a lot more to add to that list… but I bet you know a lot of ‘em without me having to tell you. The point is… the level of my success was necessary for me to feel safe, because the future’s been lookin’ nothing but bleak ever since we got out of high school.”

Octavia fell silent for a long, thoughtful moment after he got done speaking, staring at him and feeling both surprised and perplexed—and, deep inside, she also felt a touch of validation. After all, she usually felt rather alone whenever she thought about these types of things—but now, someone was saying all of the same types of things that she herself dwelled on every day. It was grim, in a way, but bizarrely refreshing as well.

“I can’t…” she mumbled, softly shaking her head. “I can’t understand why nobody else ever sees it…”

Eli’s mouth curled into a half-smile. “Only real people see the real world… and that’s me and you both, OC. It almost doesn’t even matter who’s president… the deeper clubhouse in the government is gonna pull their strings and get their way somehow or another, and they got some scary-ass plans for us here soon. We’re comin’ up on 2030 now… and everything they’ve been layin’ the groundwork for looks like it’s all about to come to a head. So… basically…”

He sighed, planted both hands atop his cane, and stared at her from beneath his hat’s brim, wearing a profound expression as he did.

“We need each other,” Eli said definitively. “We can’t trust hardly anybody in regular life… but we’re gonna need people we can trust, because there’s gonna come a time when that is all we’ll be able to rely on. Community is damn important. That’s why I try to influence and control as much as I possibly can in this town… that’s why I’m a county commissioner… and that’s why I personally believe that this long, old, grandfathered-in bond that exists between us five is actually really damn important now. Ya’ know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” Octavia answered honestly.

“I’m not gonna try and force anybody to live under the same roof… but I do think it’s a good idea, and I wanna trade phone numbers and contact info with everybody even if they don’t wanna live together,” Eli added. “Because they might change their minds as soon as some shit hits the fan.”

Octavia nodded.

“That’s also why I brought you up here to talk about it one-on-one… because you know how it’s gonna sound to most other people,” Eli remarked.

“Yeah,” Octavia mumbled. “Crazy…”

“Mhm,” Eli agreed. “Now, they don’t need to know the full extent of why I’m offering them a place to live… I just want them to be in the right place at the right time when some shit happens, if at all possible. In fact, I want that for all of you.”

There was a pause, and he raised his eyebrows, gazing expectantly at her.

Octavia stared seriously at him, still feeling a bit anxious.

“I’m an activist now. I do risky things sometimes… and I get annoying sometimes,” she warned him. “Are you sure you wanna live with that?”

Eli tilted his head curtly at her, smirking again.

“D’you know how many times I thought about you in the past twenty years?” he said softly. “You could tell me you’re an arsonist with fifty fuckin’ warrants out for you… wouldn’t make no damn difference to me.”

Octavia hesitated, squinting skeptically at him.

“Are you married? Or dating anybody?” she inquired. “Because if you are, then… they’re probably not gonna want me and four other people just moving into your house.”

“Oh… I ain’t been serious with anybody for a while now,” Eli mumbled. “Kinda hard to find somebody who’s not a gold-digger when you got my kinda money. I got all kinds of unpleasant stories about that shit. No… only people at my house nowadays is me and Mom. All the sharks and snakes get stopped and turned away at the door. I ain’t about gettin’ used anymore. That shit got old a long time ago… and it’s precisely why you should feel honored to get invited inside, because almost nobody ever does anymore. I got four special friends I’d trust in my home, and that is it . Fuck everybody else.”

Octavia choked out a laugh. “Well… what about my puppy dog? I don’t wanna get rid of her.”

“P’shit… as long as the dog ain’t got a problem with black people, then she’s as welcome as you are,” Eli told her.

Octavia fell silent once more, giving him a deep, surveying stare, and she felt the need to ask a more difficult question.

“I have to ask,” she said, motioning between him and herself. “Are you expecting something to… happen here? Because I don’t wanna move in and feel like I owe you if… y’know…”

Eli’s brows raised again, and he laughed. “Expecting? No. Hoping? Yes. There’s a difference… but there ain’t no pressure, and there ain’t no expectation. I don’t like being used… and I wouldn’t try to use someone else , either. That’s not even on the table, OC. Just put that right outta your mind. That’s just a thing that may or may not ever happen naturally on its own… and we can just deal with that when it comes, and if it comes.”

Octavia bit her lip and glanced down, sighing heavily.

“I honestly think we can prepare for a lot… ahead of the game,” Eli said. “And… you’re probably the only person who’d be right on the same page as me with a lot of that.”

Octavia made a nod, eyeing him interestingly.

“Me and you would kind of be… secretly doomsday-prepping for us our friends,” she determined.

Eli smirked and nodded. “Yeah. Exactly.”

Octavia gazed down at the concrete, pondering deeply on this.

“And… if I remember right… I think somebody once told me that doomsday-preppin’ is the best thing you could ever do,” Eli recalled, taking a step closer and slowly rolling up the side of his black undershirt. “So you can be prepared for some impossible bullshit like this.”

He revealed his lower abdomen, and along his smooth, dark complexion, Octavia was able to see a small, shiny scar from where he had been stabbed over twenty years ago.

She stared at it, then at him, a hint of sadness on her face now. Even after all these years, she hated thinking about the kind of awful, drastic things that her friends had gone through.

“You have no idea what kind of impression that day left on me, OC,” Eli said, lowering his shirt again. “One thing it did was really make me think… and I figured out… you were absolutely right. Being prepared ahead of time makes a hell of a difference when something unexpected happens. Well… guess what. Now… I have means. I have money. I have a lot of ways of preparing like I never had before. And…”

He placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning slightly closer and gazing deeply into her.

“ You’re the one who’s got a mind for it,” Eli disclosed. “You got a mind for that like I got for investing. I’ve got the money, and you’ve got the eagle’s eye. You see what I’m sayin’?”

Octavia stared at him.

“How do you know I have a good mind for it?” she murmured.

“Well… for one, I know you, and I remember lookin’ in your crazy-ass closet,” Eli laughed. “And, for two… I ended up stuck at the auto shop for a long time today when my Lincoln broke down, so I ended up sittin’ around with a bunch of time to kill. I went on my phone and looked into that website that your friend Sheryl sent me… and that ETC website has got all kinds of that self-sufficient doomsday-preppin’ information all over it. I killed a lot of time reading all that… and I saw… a lot of it was posted by you.”

Octavia nodded quietly.

“And it was right , too,” Eli said pointedly, jabbing a finger at her. “Least as far as I could tell. It got me thinkin’ about adding some of that shit to my house… like that rain-catching system, or whatever the fuck that is… that sounds like a good idea. And I have the power to motion against any restrictions that Wallace County has on those, too. Y’see what I’m getting at here? We’re in a good position to prepare, and open the doors so it’s even more possible to prepare… not to mention make it so other people can prepare all they want, too.”

Octavia flashed a smile, feeling a jolt of excitement.

“I love that,” she grinned.

“Yeah… I thought you would,” Eli chuckled. “There’s a reason the world looks kind of unrecognizable to us, compared to how it was when we was kids… because… I believe… that an apocalypse isn’t actually gonna happen in one big movie disaster, like zombies, or a big-ass nuke, or whatever. I think it’s gonna be a slow burn, unraveled by a lot of other things that happen over time… and they all eventually add up to one end result. A gradual collapse that makes everybody wonder what the fuck even happened, or how we even got here.”

“And if that’s the case… then it’s something that’s happening already,” Octavia knew.

“And has been for a while now,” Eli confirmed. “And I think we’re pretty damn close to the time when all those things add up to their big end finale. It always ends up taking longer than they want it too, because people always fight back somehow… and for us, specifically… I think this is how we do that. Just gotta keep fighting against it. Always.”

Octavia made another thoughtful nod, feeling a spark of inspiration. She thought of the whole reason she wanted to stay in Wallace—not just because it was the only place she saw as home, but because she hated to see how much it had changed for the worst since she was a kid, and she genuinely wanted to preserve whatever was left of the place she once knew. Beyond that—there was Eli, there was Mohinder, and there were Samuel and Hailey, people here who she still cared about, and seeing them again seemed to make it all rush back, the whole reason she ever started caring about such big, worldly things in the first place. She, they, and everyone else here deserved better than the hand they were being dealt now.

“Okay.”

Octavia held out her hand, giving Eli a firm, determined stare.

“I’m on board,” she decided wholeheartedly. “Me and you… we’ll just manage and plan from behind the scenes. I like it… and I think this is where the real ETC starts, right here.”

Eli gave her hand a shake, then eyed her curiously.

“Your little ETC community group isn’t the real ETC?” he asked. “What’s the real one, then?”

Octavia lowered her hand, autumn breeze gently shifting her hairs aside, and she revealed a sly, confident smile.

“The End Times Club.”