Suzy’s Strange Saga

You wake up feeling slightly colder than you did last night, though it’s probably because the fire has died down a little and Jack is no longer spooning you. A quick look around though shows that he’s still here. He notices that you’re up.

“Well good morning sunshine.” He says sitting at a table with a candle burning.
“What time is it?” you ask, not thinking.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d say it’s still morning, maybe the afternoon. In any case it’s daytime the last time I looked outside.”
“Oh right. No modern luxuries. Is that one of those books we found yesterday?” you ask.
“Oh yeah. I was trying to read or at least understand any of it.”
“You a linguist?”
“Eh, not really. I mean I have studied a few languages from time to time for my own reasons and in a couple cases thanks to the Gray Building weirdness I had to learn some new ones, but it isn’t like I had any formal training on the matter.”
“You understand any of it?”
“Not excessively so, but I only really started. I get the impression whoever lives here is a fur trader. Some of this book isn’t doesn’t really consist of words as it’s a list of numerical symbols and totals. Fortunately those are universal. It would also explain the large amounts of furs piled up and this…” Jack says picking up the pouch of coins. “…I would imagine is their life savings.”
“So you still think we’re in a different world?”
“I dunno. As I mentioned I’ve looked outside while you were asleep, and wandered the area a bit. Not too far, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary save for trees, snow and a few white rabbits bouncing around. I mean that ugly head on the wall is the only thing I’ve seen so far that’s out of the ordinary. I will say that the presence of books at least shows writing and probably literature exists. The coins imply some sort of economy system. So civilization here exists, but of course who knows what said civilization is like.”
“You said you thought it was a medieval one.”
“Yeah, and I’m still holding on to that belief, of course it’s possible that maybe we’re just in a less advanced area. For all we know there are people whizzing around in jetpacks elsewhere.” Jack says and then snaps his fingers. “Oh I did see an outhouse. It’s not excessively far; we just never saw it yesterday due to the direction we came from. Well that and paying more attention to wanting to get into this cabin. You’ll happy to know it’s not even a disgusting diarrhea sprayed mess or overly foul smelling. The cold climate probably helps on that aspect. There’s even a roll of paper in there. Um, it’s not exactly the softest stuff though, and you’ll have to clean your hands in the snow.”
“Lovely. Definitely not looking forward to the experience. So you see anything else of note on your outdoor adventures?”
“I noticed foot prints going from this cabin and heading towards the east. I imagine they’re from the boots of the person who lives here. I’ve seen the same foot prints all over this immediate area, but those were going somewhere with a purpose rather than milling about taking care of every day chores around here I imagine.”
“Wow, you’re tracker too huh? You really do know a little bit of everything.” You say.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a tracker, I’m just sort of making guesses in the scheme of things. I just saw the prints in the snow and made the conclusion.”
“You think the person living here is coming back?” you ask.
“I dunno. I mean it’s possible, but I’m wondering if this place was abandoned. Seems like the door would have been locked. Of course the door can only be barred from the inside, so maybe that’s unavoidable and there generally aren’t many people wandering around here to worry about locks. Still, it seems like they would have hidden their pouch of coins better or even taken them with them.

You nod and there is a silent pause in the conversation.

You look back at the fire and Jack goes back to looking at the book. Probably the pair of you are wondering what the hell you’re going to do now. At least you are. Jack seems like he’s trying his hardest to make sense of everything and that’s certainly a good thing. You can’t help but think maybe you’re not pulling your weight as much as you can though, it’s just you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. It isn’t like you’ve ever been in a situation like this before.

So far you’ve just been trying to make the concentrated effort of not falling apart and giving in to despair because you get the impression no matter what happens, from here on out your life is going to be very different.

“I know how to sew.” You suddenly blurt out.
“What?” Jack responds.
“I know how to sew, I mean I haven’t done it ever since my mother died, but you never forget something like that completely I suppose. My mother was the one who taught me, which is why I just sort of lost interest in it when she died.” You say.
“Well that’s an interesting little fact you never told me about yourself when you were talking about your family before. What made you bring it up?”
“Our situation I suppose. I mean I suppose at some point we’re going to need new clothes. I’ve never sewn furs together, but I suppose I’ll figure it out. I guess I just want to let you know I’m not completely useless and I will be contributing to our survival out here. I mean I’ll chop wood and learn to hunt and whatever else we need to do together.”
“Suzy, you’re stressing about this too much. I mean yes, this situation isn’t the best, but trust me I’m just as worried if I’M going to be useful at all in this situation. I mean it’s only thanks to all the past weirdness I had to deal with due to that Gray Building that I even have some of the basic knowledge I have of various things and a good portion of that probably isn’t even going to be useful here.”

Jack gets up and goes over to sit with you and he takes your hand.

“When it’s all said and done. We’re both a pair of basement dwellers and neither one of us was truly prepared for this, but we’re still going to get through it. I mean I like to think I’m a survivor on some level. And you, well I think you’ve more than proven to be one. I know you think it’s all just been luck or coincidence in that regard, but hell, maybe there’s a reason. Maybe there’s a reason for all this.”
“You think so? You believe that all this is part of some plan?”
“I dunno. Maybe it’s just a bunch of shit that happened. Still doesn’t mean we aren’t going to get through this.”

You look into Jack’s eyes and you take the initiative and kiss him full on the mouth. He reciprocates your affection, but you’re getting the strong impression that you might be the experienced one here.

And then something urgent breaks up the moment.

“Damn it.” You say.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” Jack asks.
“No. That thing that I wasn’t looking forward to has finally arrived.”
“Wha…Oh. That. Um, well did you want me to come with you?”
“You’re going to watch me go to the bathroom? Freak.”
“No! I meant did you want me to come with you to show you the way or extra protection.”
“I know what you meant, just joking. Yeah, I suppose you should come with me so you can at least show me where it is. Knowing me, I’d end up getting lost on the way there. Well alright come on, let’s go get this over with.” You say getting up.

Remembering how cold it is out there, you grab a couple of the furs to wrap around you so you’re at least better protected this time. You go to grab your bat, but then you think if you shouldn’t take one of those spears instead.