Kevin Wade Johnson
When I woke up in the late afternoon, sweating and sweltering despite the coolbunk, I knew I was going to have to go on a grocery run. I was almost out of perishables. And more. *You can't get delivery anymore.* I put on mesh outerwear, donned my backpack, checked my helmet was charged and put it on. Buckled on the most deadly self-defense armament I dared carry: a cane. A walking stick. Not much if three or four went after me, but all I could carry without triggering a monitoring AI and getting a fine or even imprisonment. The thought alone was enough to make me sweat. *Well, what of it?* My head was already damp under the helmet. Living in an oven was like that. No one was going to shed any tears over it. *Probably too dehydrated anyway.* I unlocked the reinforced exterior door, opened it, stepped through, closed it, heard it re-lock behind me. *Safe enough up here. It's down below that's dangerous. Mostly.* I took a deep breath, then headed for the stairs. *It's not like there's organized crime targeting crappy places to live like this. It's the violent rando's. And they don't want to come up forty-eight flights of stairs any more than I do.* * * * No one wanted all those steps, so my rent was a pittance. *Pity so's my pay.* But the elevators had shut down when the bottom two floors first flooded…and shut down for good when it started flooding all the time. The only benefit was that it kept me in shape. Couldn't stay in all the time. *I'd starve and go stir-crazy.* Concrete walls, concrete steps. All steel-reinforced, or the building couldn't rise this high. *And if the steel rusts in there? Maintenance, such as it is, certainly isn't checking.* I put it out of my mind—forced it out—as usual. *Don't think about what you can't control.* Then I snorted. *That's what my job is.* I got to the ground floor after the usual number of stops to rest and stop panting. I was pouring sweat, the usual amount, and drank some of the water I carried. *Thank goodness I don't have
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