Reactor Scram Triage
I restarted my phone for the fifth time, hoping that this time it would find a cell tower, or that by now enough people had left the area that I’d have some sort of service again, but no. Nothing. Each time my phone came back with a little less battery, and I felt sure that my sanity was dwindling with it.
I wasn’t quite afraid for my life yet, but I had to wonder if I should be. I’d never really been out in public alone before, and I hadn’t mustered the courage to seek help from strangers yet.
I was doing the right thing, right? The parking spot was a sort of unspoken emergency meeting place, or at least it had been at some time. Maybe nobody else had been as careful to remember as I had, but what if I moved and that was the minute someone came to check for me here? It was all so fucked.
My head was pounding, my stomach was eating itself with newly remembered hunger pangs, and my stupid stupid phone was never going to get reception. Which was more important? Being in a predictable place? Or being reachable by cell?
The only thing my phone could tell me was the time. So I knew it had been two hours since I last saw Ellen, and I had maybe an hour of daylight left.
Fuck it. Whatever I was doing, it wasn’t currently working.
I heard voices as I approached the stairwell, and even through the garage reverb and tinny speaker phone I could recognize Carolyn’s voice.
“Yes, she's right on top of you now, just check the next level.”
“Oh thank goodness.” Mary spoke over Carolyn as she and Addie came into view. “We found her, I think she’s fine.”
“Hand her the phone, I have some strong words for—“
“Nope.” Addie spoke over her and hit the red button on Mary's phone. “Don’t worry Maddie, we’ll get her calmed down before you get home. You must be starving.”
“I…” I cleared my throat “I am a little, yeah, how did you find me?”
Addie gestured at the glorified paperweight in my hand. “Your phone was still sharing your location with all the other local devices, even if it couldn’t find cell service. We did have to play a game of telephone to sort things out though.”
“Gods.” Mary groaned. “What a nightmare. Well, first things first. Everyone’s okay, your friend— Rose I think? Had a seizure and needed to go to the hospital. Ellen and Xander are with her. Ellen had the foolproof plan to ask Addie to give you a lift to the hospital, and then that fell through the minute I let you out of my sight. The last hour has been a game of telephone through an increasingly irritated dragon. I’m sure you can imagine.”
“I’m probably going to get reamed for this, and I’m not sure hanging up on her did me any favors.”
“She knows you’re safe now, that will have to suffice for the minute.” Addie handed me a bottle of water and I cracked it open. I had a feeling I wasn’t supposed to chug it, but I wasn’t trusting that feeling right now. Addie was watching me with growing concern “Right. Food. What do you want to eat?”
“I’m not on a dietary restriction anymore, so anything is fine.”
“You aren’t?” Mary was incredulous.
“Oh, uh, surprise. I’m pregnant. I’m already halfway back to a human-like digestive system, so grass isn’t as easy for me to digest anymore.”
“Congrats, but I think I can understand Carolyn’s frenzy a little better now.”
“I’m not that far along.” I took a peek down the middle of the stairwell as we took a corner, and even the two or so remaining flights seemed daunting. I’d abandoned the sandals, so they weren’t sabotaging my balance anymore, but I was crashing hard enough from Mary’s spell to make up for it. “I don’t know. I don’t care, just pick something close I guess. Please don’t make me make choices with a headache.”
“Looks like you’re choosing for everyone, babe.” Addie grinned at Mary.
“Lucky me.” She grumbled. “So what’s your half of the story? You really just came straight here and stayed?”
“Yeah. Should I not have?”
“I mean, normally I’d say the logic was solid, but you didn’t happen to mention where you’d parked, so that left us with an unpleasantly large net to cast.”
“Sorry.”
“Not trying to guilt you!” Mary held up her hands. “Honestly, even if you’d prioritized cell reception it would have been a challenge to meet up again. The only thing we really needed to do was not act so fast at the beginning.”
“And here I thought it was always best to be decisive.”
“There’s always exceptions, and one of your friends suddenly having a seizure with no history is uh… exceptional in the worst way.”
“Agreed. I wonder what set her off.”
“At a convention, your guess is as good as mine.”
“What a clusterfuck…" I took a deep breath as we reached the bottom of the stairs. "by the way, did you decide on food?”
“Damn it, woman, I can’t do three things at once!”
“Skill issue.”
Addie's car was waaay newer than Xanders, and I reclined in the passenger seat while the vents and seat worked together to surround me with cool air.
It wasn’t all that hot outside, but I was feeling feverish between the hunger, stress, and general fatigue.
“I like your car.” I tried not to sound pathetic as I basked. I was beginning to think Mary was counting on me refusing her offer to ride up front, and now that I'd discovered the gospel of cooled seats, I wasn’t in any hurry to move.
“Thanks,” Addie turned the music down, “it’s been pretty great. Being a hybrid has helped with the fuel prices, and being green makes it really easy for passengers to find.
“Oh yeah,” I looked up at the decal on the windshield. “How’s the rideshare gig?”
“Pretty good, pretty good. I don’t drive enough to make a real living on it, but it’s comfortable. I’ve gotten a whole lot better at talking to strangers and so far it’s just about the best fit I can imagine for my schedule, or whatever you’d call the haphazard ritual of weeks plans I have.”
“How much would you usually make on a trip like this?”
“Mmm, about double minimum wage, but since I have to buy my own health insurance and with all the car maintenance costs… it’s a little better than minimum. I suppose I’m just lucky to be a sugar baby to a super rich demon.”
“You’re not a sugar baby.” Mary grumbled.
“Do you mean Mary? Or Mazer?”
“That’s the joke I suppose. I do a few odd jobs for Mazer, baby sitting and whatnot, but his wealth isn’t all that liquid, at least in human terms. Similarly, Mary is making an honest living as an accountant. Neither of them is very good at the whole dishonest wealth accumulation game.”
“Which is a good thing, for the record.” Mary leaned forward between the seats. “Though, I’m not sure how much good it’s doing you to have an at-home accountant if you’re going to ignore my advice and put off paying your taxes until February.”
“It worked out!”
“Ugh.” Mary groaned. “Addie, I love you to bits, but having your tax deficit be roughly equal to my tax return is not what I’d call ‘working out’.”
"Oof." I let my eyes close again. I'd been playing a balancing act, because having my eyes open made the headache worse, but having them closed put me at risk of nausea from the car ride. Focusing on the balancing act took the bulk of my thought capacity.
"Damn, the withdrawal on the spell is really doing a number on you, isn't it?"
"I'm just special like that, I suppose." I rubbed my eyes. "I'm sorry if you already answered, but what was the food plan?"
"We're pulling into the grocery parking lot now. I'm just going to run in and pick up a few options."
"Interesting choice." I heard seatbelts unbuckle, but the car was still running so I figured I could safely sit the adventure out.
"You'd be surprised. Gas station and Grocery prepared food has gotten pretty serious, though maybe I'm just praising them because they happen to be my holy grail of bathroom spaces." The car shook slightly as a couple doors opened, but I kept my eyes closed.
"Sit tight, we'll be back in a sec." Mary spoke from behind me before both doors closed again.
The absurdity of the situation wasn’t lost on me. I'd literally met these two people today, yet they were already acting like we were life-long friends. For all I knew, maybe they would be. I certainly wouldn't mind, but I also struggled to imagine that they would get a good deal out of that. Addie presumably liked my milk for baking. Could I get past my qualms of sharing enough to offer her milk in thanks? It's not like the last couple weeks of extractions could be sold normally anyways, so a lot of it was just sitting uselessly frozen for people who didn't have vegan requirements.
Maybe it wouldn't be all that weird.
My phone buzzed once, and then twice more in rapid succession. I looked down and found countless notifications whizzing by as the infernal device finally caught up to the deluge of messages I'd missed this evening. I didn't feel like reading.
I held the stupid voice assistant shortcut "Call Carolyn."
It only rang twice before she picked up. "Fucking finally, where are you? Why haven't you been answering?"
"Sorry." I tried not to sound pathetic. "My phone lost signal at the convention. Mary and Addie are taking me to get something to eat, and then I don't know what."
"Why didn't you borrow a phone? What the hell were you thinking?"
"I'm sorry." Tension welled up behind my eyes and I let the phone sit on my chest while I tried to rub the ache away. My throat was already tightening too, and that definitely wasn't going to help me explain anything. "I thought— I was doing the right thing." My breath was already catching painfully. "I went to a known place and I stayed there. I even told someone where I went, I did my best!"
"Okay, okay, calm down." The edge of anger was gone from Carolyn's tone. "I… those are good, I suppose without any cell contact it would be difficult to adjust the plan. Fuck, I was just so worried."
"I was worried too!" I whined. "All I saw was Ellen running off after some paramedics, leaving me alone with people I only met today—"
"Yeah… Ellen hasn't been doing so hot either. I guess I kinda caused her to break down as well… You heard about Rose?"
"Is she okay? All I heard is that she had a seizure."
"Yeah, she bonked her head a little when she collapsed, but otherwise she'll be okay. She was already on her way to being lucid again when the paramedics reached her, but for first time seizures a hospital visit is always a good idea. This… Is going to complicate the process of making mods for her I bet, but at least I should be able to help Ellen detect early warning signs first."
"That sucks. This all sucks."
"I know babe… but I hear you made new friends, did you have a good time today?"
I scoffed at the absurdity of the tone change, as though I could salvage some happy memory from this cluster fuck.
"Mary is cool. We play the same game, and everyone at the convention was chill about the mods. Though, I think my costume might have gotten a bit more attention than we bargained for."
"I mean the logo wasn't that big."
"I kinda entered in a cosplay contest… and they sorta plugged the farm when I went on stage."
The line was silent for a moment. "Damn, okay that was not on my bingo card as the kids say."
"The kids don't say that…" I muttered. "Anyways, I kinda fled the scene before they did awards or anything so I don't know who won or whether I actually got that much attention."
"Uh… 'hardcore body modder sweeps the novice bracket of cosplay contest'... the local news picked it up."
"You're shitting me."
"I wish I was." Carolyn mumbled. "You look reasonably cute in the photos, though I'm going to have to step up my game if they are going to attribute all of that to me— Yeah it's Maddie, she's fine."
"Oh thank fuck."
I heard Deyha in the background of the call, and there was a soft beep before her voice came through clearer.
"Are you okay? Do we need to come get you?"
"I'm with Mary and Addie, I don't think you need to come get me, but we should be thinking of one hell of a thank-you for their rescue work."
"Absolutely, absolutely." Deyha murmured. "I don't think I'll be accepting payment from them any time soon, maybe even ever."
I chuckled weakly. "Whose milk have they been getting anyways? Is it a blend?"
"They were reserving Xander's before you came to the farm, but for the last few months they've requested yours as well."
"Well. They were impressively tactful about that" I mumbled. "This feels like a setup— Carolyn's trying to stockholm me into accepting the fan-club"
"I am not!" Carolyn was indignant, but I just laughed. "Also, why do you sound miserable?"
"Haven't eaten today. But I'm getting food soon, don't worry about it."
"You can't stop us." Deyha laughed. "Well, do you want to join Ellen and Xander with Rose at the hospital? Or should we try to bribe Addie and Mary into bringing you home?"
"Home please." I shook my head. "I'm eepy, and I neepy to sleepy. No offense to Rose."
"I'm sure she will understand. You should call them next though. They know that Addie and Mary found you, but it seems someone was a little bit intense with the backseat rescue coordination so everyone has been starved for news since then."
Carolyn gasped, "Can you blame me? You would be the same in my position!"
"I wouldn't threaten to unload on Maddie." Deyha teased.
"No, you'd unload in her."
"Gods." I groaned. "Okay, I'm going to call Ellen. I love you both okay? See you soon."
"Love you too~" they chorused back and I fumbled for the disconnect button as silence settled over the car once more.
I wondered if I could get away with just texting Ellen. The call had taken so much out of me, and there was no telling how soon Addie and Mary would be back.
”Ugh.” I activated the voice assistant again. “Call the kitty.”
I felt a little absurd saying it out loud, but I didn’t trust the simple helper to remember what she was in my contact book prior to renaming her. This time the phone rang for a little longer and there was a bit of a scuffle after she picked up.
”Hello? Maddie?”
”Hi Ellen.” I tried to sound less miserable, anything to keep her from feeling worse. “How’s Rose doing?”
”She’s fine. Just a little bump on the head and a possibly chronic condition that will shake up the trajectory of her life. How are you?”
”Fine, fine. Mary and Addie found me eventually and they are getting me some food.”
”Good, good. I’m so sorry, I thought I was needed with Xander, and I knew that Mary could be trusted so—“
”Don’t worry about it. It worked out.”
”Carolyn is scary…” Ellen’s voice was suddenly small.
“Yeah, I know.”
”Honestly, I hope you don’t. Even with how civil she tried to keep things there was an overbearing feeling that if anything happened to you she was going to ruin my life over it.”
”I mean… maybe she wouldn’t?”
”As if Deyha would stop her.”
“Don’t think about that.”
Already I had to wonder how much truth there was to her fears, and whether Carolyn would have to lie to reassure her at my behest. It wasn’t fair that she was feeling the full force of Carolyn’s rage over this.
“Sorry, but last I checked, you’re not the one with psychic abilities.”
”Ugh. Nerd.” I groaned, but I was encouraged by at least a hint of humor returning. “How’s Xander?”
”She wasn’t even a little concerned about you, which I think you should take as a show of confidence in your abilities…”
”And not an indication of how little room there was in her mind beyond concern for Rose?” I finished for Ellen.
”Eh. The concepts are compatible. She’s fine though. Rose has a concussion, but they will probably clear her soon. The doctor is a little excited to get her started on some sort of anti-seizure medication, but I think we’re going to get a second opinion before opening that can of worms.”
”You don’t trust the doctor?”
”I… carry an unhealthy amount of skepticism, but I’m not out to make that Rose’s problem. Are you swinging by the hospital soon?”
”I’d rather not, honestly.” I sat up a little straighter and caught sight of Addie and Mary on their way back to the car with at least three bags of groceries. “I’ll see what Addie has in mind, but I’m kinda hoping they will take me straight home.”
”fair and valid… though I might have already derailed that.”
“How so?” I fumbled for the controls to get the seat more upright and looked for a way to make sure the car was still unlocked.
”They offered to pick up some food, and I may have accepted? I’m sorry, but I’m starving and I saw the stuff they fed to Rose.”
I chuckled. “Okay, okay, I’ll make sure that you get whatever is left.”
”Left‽”
”Love you bye!~” I hung up as Addie opened her door and I accepted one of the plastic sacks. ”Welcome back,” I tried to fake an amount of energy I wasn’t feeling.
”Thank you, thank you, It’s good to be back. I can’t say that I’ve ever been welcomed back into my own car before.”
”First time for everything. What did you get? What’s for me?”
Addie chuckled and pulled a plastic tray out of her bag. “There’s eight packages of sushi to choose between. I grabbed a bunch of non-caffeinated sodas because I like them, and Mary picked up a rotisserie chicken, a salad, and three different packs of cookies.”
”That… is a rather baffling variety, but I can dig it. Is it okay to eat in the car?” I picked one of the sushi packages at random and cracked it open.
”Even if I was concerned about the upholstery, I think I’d encourage you to eat.”
”Right, upholstery. Do you have napkins? And do you want to switch, Mary?”
“You want to sit in the back? Why?”
”I’m a little self conscious about eating… and also I don’t trust myself to use chopsticks in a moving vehicle so it's gonna be finger time to house this sushi.” I frowned as I failed to keep my fingers clean of the mayo-like drizzle, but Addie was already holding out a paper towel.
"Thanks.” I unbuckled and closed the sushi tray as Mary held the door open for me.
“You really want the back seat?”
“Sure. I assume the AC works back there. Oh! Phone chargers!” I checked the tips. “—And you have the one for my phone! You’re easily the best driver ever, Addie.”
“Thank you, thank you, it’s always depressing to hear how low people’s standards are.”
I rolled my eyes and worked on buckling up again. Mary had left the rotisserie chicken back here, but I wasn’t nearly that hungry.
I resumed devouring the sushi, making sure to at least chew with my mouth closed and swallow before talking, despite my frenzy.
The hunger didn’t even soften until after the first tray, and I’d already cleared two more before I even considered feeling out whether I was satisfied. I washed it all down with a ginger probiotic soda, and then had some of the ginger and wasabi from the empty sushi trays for good measure.
“Feeling better?”
“Much, thanks.” I held in a burp and coughed as it made my nose sting. “Sorry, I promise I’m not always this much of a slob.”
Addie glanced at me before refocusing on the road. The light turned green and she turned into the hospital parking lot “I wouldn't call you a slob. Well, I wouldn't call any passenger a slob but that shouldn’t cheapen my assessment. I’ve experienced the crash after Mary’s spell. It's worth it, generally, but only barely, and only because it does pass.”
“Which by the way, thanks again for that, Mary. It did work really well, and I don't want you to feel bad just because I can't hold my mana.”
“Heh. Clever.” Mary shook her head. “I might steal that one, but yeah. No worries. By the way, Carolyn texted trying to bribe us to bring you to the farm, is that okay with you? I just need to take up the food I promised Ellen.”
“You’re too kind, and yeah that would be awesome.”
“Cool, sit tight, I’ll be right back.”
I handed her the chicken and cookies, and she dipped out of the car, heading into the emergency entrance as the car idled.
“So…” I fiddled with the cables in front of me. “I know that Mary is half-demon and stuff. Do you have anything supernatural going on? Or are you just along for the ride like me?”
“Like you?” Addie chuckled. “I mean, I’ll take it as a compliment but you have definitely elevated yourself to some type of supernatural, even if you’re the first of your kind, I mean, just going on your milk alone— I mean… sorry, I don’t want to be weird.”
“I… think I can handle a little bit of weird. I get the sense that you aren't going to treat me strangely— and I do appreciate you being so tactful even though I’m 90% sure you recognized me from the picture on the bottle within a minute.”
“Hah, yeah… I mean I’m not much of a milk drinker, but I have to admit that using yours for cereal would be tantamount to washing dishes with fine wine. It's kinda insane, and Mary agrees, like there may be actual magic in the milk you make. Mary says it's almost as good as sex and, well… you know.”
“Yeah, damn that's crazy praise from her. Is it just mine? Or do the other producers have the same effect?”
“Why would yours be different?” Addie twisted in her seat now.
“Oh, I mean, a year ago it wouldn’t have, but a couple months ago I did a pretty major transfiguration with Mazer. It was guided by my subconscious, so I wondered if maybe that changed something.”
“Huh…” Addie stared past me. “I don't think it did. I mean, the ‘good as sex’ anecdote was about tristate milk in general, not yours specifically.”
“Deyha said you were specifically requesting mine and Xander’s.”
“Right, mostly on account that— I mean, this is going to sound weird, but we can kinda tell that you have a more sophisticated diet than most of the farm? It's subtle, but a few months back we got a full spread of samples from all the producers and I put my test kitchen experience to use. All of the samples were pretty sweet, but you and Xander had… I don't know.”
“Huh…” I mused. “I mean, Xander was my coach on diet stuff as I got started, so I did adopt her habits pretty wholesale. Once my gut was settled I eventually started getting cravings for the easy grasses but I kept with the clover and rye out of habit? I assumed it was good for me, like, a lot of the roughage sends my body an overwhelming positive signal as though I’m eating cotton candy, but I keep with the old familiar flavors because they taste like… I don’t know how to describe it. Clover is like the green beans of the thanksgiving spread. There's always turkey and mashed potatoes and everyone loves those, but I always make sure to have some of the stuff that isn’t as immediately rewarding to eat.”
“Interesting. Well, whatever it is, it works.”
“But now that I’m off that diet my milk will probably change flavor again, at least until I get back to it. You’ll probably want to stick with Xander’s while I'm out of commission.”
Addie shrugged. “Maybe. Are you going to lactate throughout the pregnancy?”
“I'm actually going to try not to, it's just weirdly difficult to stop since we haven't pinned down the mechanism in my new biology. Like, normal cows have to actually be impregnated to produce milk, and for the other producers their mods mimic that hormone cycle, but we haven't found the off switch for me I guess.”
“I bet Mazer could find it.”
“Yeah… but we don’t want to trouble him.”
Addie laughed. “Trouble him? Gods he's such a nerd. I guarantee he is dying to be invited to play with genes.”
“We invited him out to the farm a few weeks ago.”
“I know. You have no idea how awestruck he was by the facility. He's genuinely considering giving Carolyn a formal fucking job application.”
“Like, closing his practice and moving to the farm?”
“Exactly.”
“What?”
“I said what I said.” Addie shrugged. “You’re welcome to wait it out. Mazer is patient, but he’s not that patient. Right now he’s in politeness purgatory because he doesn’t want to seem like he's threatening a literal dragon’s territory.”
“That… I can just tell Carolyn. At least if they are both in the same agony it's bound to develop faster. She fucking idolozes him, shes terrified of insulting him by inviting him to stoop to her level.”
Addie fully cackled now. “I am so tempted to tell him that. Gods, it's been a while since I wanted to engage in a full on conspiracy. Part of me wants to stage a parent trap, but part of me just wants to end this stalemate as painlessly as possible.”
“The sooner the better~” I mumbled. “I do not want to divide my energy between making milk and an entire ass human.”
“Then the real question is just how dramatic are we going to be with pushing them into a business partnership?”
“Somewhere between a hallmark film and mission impossible, I think.”
“Then our first step has to be involving the wives.”
“Crystal and Mikah?”
“As well as you and Deyha.” Addie nodded. “After all, it would be unfair for either Carolyn or Mazer to be disproportionately conspired against.”
“Evil. I love it.”