Year 2 – Shift 24 – The No Bone Zone – Sara
“I’ve been following your work.” Big Dick Dave called back as he led Sara down a long, dark, subterranean brick hallway. “What you’ve done…it’s changed the face of discourse all over the world. There are so many questions my friends and I would love to talk to you about.”
Sara followed, her heart practically hammering out of her chest. Who was this guy? Cody vouched for him, and that was enough, but she still couldn’t put her finger on what was so out of place about him.
“Who are you again?”
“Big Dick Dave,” he said with a straight. Fucking. Face. “I do a little o’ this, a little o’ that. I’m going to take you to a safe house for the time being.”
Sara grabbed his arm and stopped.
“Wait a minute. I can’t just sit in some safe house. I’ll go fucking crazy. I need to get back to my people. To…”
“Raven.” Big Dick Dave nodded. “You won’t have to worry about boredom here. It’s a place where you can network with other people like us.”
Sara thought for a moment. “What do you mean, other people like us?”
“Survivors.” Big Dick Dave placed a gentle, warm hand on her shoulder. “People who will have to go home when things cool down and need allies, and others who already have those allies and can help.”
A flash of Raven flickered through that special spot in Sara’s brain that triggered the pull. The urge.
“Okay. How far?”
Big Dick Dave gestured ahead. The hallway split about a hundred yards away.
“We’re just up here on the left.”
Sara nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Let’s go, my friend.”
“Can I ask you something a little…personal?” Sara choked out, almost unable to stand it anymore. “It’s been, like…driving me wild.”
“You can always ask,” Big Dick Dave said. “And I can always politely decline if I choose.”
“Fair.”
They reached a small alcove on the left where another long hallway continued to the right. Sara craned her head back to look up at the massive man.
“Can you, like…hold me like a baby so I can take a pic and show my girlfriend that I’m hanging out with the fucking Brawny Man?”
Big Dick Dave released a mighty, spine-tinglingly low chuckle that did things to her she wasn’t ready to process.
“Yeah. Let’s get it right here. The light from the mandles is really bright.”
Sara looked up. “You call those mandles? They’re the equivalent of those tiny tea candles at home. You get a box thinking you’re going to use them, and then they just fucking end up all over your junk drawers for years.”
“Pretty much.” Big Dick Dave chuckled again.
Thankfully.
“But they’re ethically sourced from volunteered flesh.”
Sara paused and stared into the distance.
What did ethically sourced, volunteered flesh smell like? Mahogany? Teakwood? People?
She shook her head, pulled out her phone, spun around, and hopped backward into Big Dick Dave’s arms. She swooned as she took the picture and he wrapped her up.
“I got my shot, but you don’t have to let go.”
His chest rumbled as he laughed. He lowered her to the floor, then banged out a secret knock on the door.
“Okay, so this place has really high security. Typically, there’s a lengthy background process you have to undergo. But every single person inside knows who you are. You’re frequently the topic of our conversations, so I think they’ll make a concession.”
Sara’s heart sped up.
“Wait. I am? What is this place?”
A sliding window opened in the door.
“Big Dick Dave! Hey, who—”
The person on the other side froze.
“It’s you. It’s her.”
The window slammed shut. Locks clicked, and the door swung open to reveal a crowd gathered on the other side. They parted slightly to let them through.
“Welcome.” Big Dick Dave gestured for Sara to follow. “To the No Bone Zone.”
Sara stepped through behind him and found something unexpected.
The wide-open underground space looked like an empty warehouse someone had filled with chairs, couches, and comfortable gathering spaces. Books lined shelves around the perimeter. One title seemed to be everywhere, always just out of sight and calling to her.
People of every race and gender filled the room.
Every one of them stopped to look at Sara.
“The No Bone Zone is a place where people from all points of the gender spectrum come together in a strictly platonic way to discuss the world, support each other, and cook Flygande Jakob,” Big Dick Dave explained.
“What…” Sara stared at him.
Big Dick Dave stopped in the center of the room as nearly a hundred people gathered around.
“Basically, safe cross-gender friendships and Swedish poultry casseroles. And right now? I think they want to be friends with you.”
Sara latched onto the only part of that she could process.
“Is that the chicken-and-banana dish?”
“The very same!” Big Dick Dave said. “The Fly J table is around the corner. We potluck, so there are always a few variations over there.”
Sara peeked around the corner. A large, scarred orc stood in line beside a high elf as they debated the proper banana-to-bacon ratio between samples.
She had to admit, there was diversity here.
“Would you like to introduce yourself?” Big Dick Dave asked. “Just your name and pronouns is good.”
Sara faced the crowd, and her chest tightened. She was used to much bigger audiences, but this was foreign.
“Hi. I’m Sara. She/her.”
“Hi, Sara!”
A middle-aged elf woman stepped forward in middle-aged Earth-mom clothes.
“I’m Flangela. I use she/they pronouns. I’m co-lead and Big Dick Dave’s best friend. I want to welcome you to the No Bone Zone. We’re all really big fans of yours!”
Sara’s eyes widened as her brain assembled the cues in real time.
The nearest young woman held Drawn From the Ash against her chest.
Sara’s book.
Not the first edition, either. It was the updated version with a very different Alenikka on the cover, crawling from the ashes beside her lover, Priya.
“H-how do you…”
Her head swam.
She staggered.
“Everyone, step back.”
A remarkably healthy-looking man in his sixties moved between Sara and the crowd as her knees hit the floor. He stayed close enough to catch her, but she planted both palms against the ground and refused to collapse.
Sara huffed with her eyes down, then sat back on her heels and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
Her own book stared her in the face at eye level.
She took a deep breath, pushed herself onto one knee, then stood.
“Would you like a seat or a bed?” Flangela rushed to her side.
“No.” Sara drew another breath. “But give it to me straight. Two out of five is asking a lot, right?”
Another person stepped forward with the weary smile of a bonedeep survivor.
“Hiram. They/them. I won’t candy-coat it. Certain elements of your work weren’t for me, but this text is actively changing the landscape of feminist theory and helping hundreds of women break their cycles and band together.”
Hiram rocked nervously back and forth on their heels.
“Many of us are here because of your characters. I found my best friend Jessica after we both read it, and we were just like…this makes sense. Let’s be badasses and support each other. Now we’ve grown our network here. I just wanted to say thank you.”
Sara stared at them.
“I…I think I need to lie down. I’ve got a really long day ahead of me.”