Thank you for this universe!
And many thanks to for being a full co-writer on this project!
Kaeden and Vichee belongs to and I thank them so much for working with us! It was an honor!
Sven belongs to Bjorn the Copper Paladin from Discord. I hope to do more with them in the future, and have tons of fun!
And don’t you worry about that final in the title! We have some news at the end!
[First]- [Prev]- {Next Story!!}

{Is the reason that everything happened to Tarlim in the first place?}

{Only up to the ramps, mostly. Trying to impress upon people the importance of accessibility for those with extenuating circumstances. At least according to the records I have access to.}

{The average person knows as much about his friends as they do about Mike Collins.}
<...Who?>
{Exactly. 20th century human spaceman, was there for their first lunar landing. Didn’t get to put boots on the ground, and nobody remembers his name now.}

{Hell, I didn’t even know about him until I put in a search query of niche historical figures just to give you an example. Yeesh…}

(Program Selected.)
(Resume Selected Media? [Y])
(Playing…)
Archived Closed Circuit Security Video - Establishment: Exterminator’s Office - Dawn Creek Division - Subbasement - Date Recorded (ST): OCT 31, 2136 - Timeframe (ST): 11:42 - 11:45
The parking bay is silent. Vans are parked neatly in their spots which frame the hallway to the armory and fuel storage for the camera. A ding is heard and something moves in the hallway. Five fully suited Venlil and a Zurulian step out of an elevator and run towards a van. The sound of a door slamming open comes from the hall roughly 6 seconds later. A stream of Exterminators pour out into the hall from the stairwell.
Their voices are indecipherable as they speak over each other. A Sulian runs into the armory and reappears with a huge flamer tank on their back. Another Zurulian can be seen with an extinguisher tank, but a Venlil bleats at them and tosses it aside. They drag the quadrupedal alien quickly into the parking garage before physically throwing them into the back of a van.
From the back of the hallway, a fluid can be seen spreading across the ground. A trio of Venlil back out of a room while holding their flamers up. They are unlit, instead spewing fuel out of their nozzles. The trio twirl around in an overly animated manner as they walk down the hall to the parking garage. A van pulls out of its spot with windows down so the passengers could let out a cheer.
A black-suited Venlil runs up to the spraying trio while waving their arms to get them out into the garage. The microphone just barely manages to catch him saying, “We need to save some for the predators!” One of the other Venlil replies, “Yes sir, Mafchi!” A short flurry of curses is heard as the gathered exterminators pile into the three other visible vans. Two of the vans speed out of the garage, forcing some other Venlil exterminators to dive out of the way in the process.
The black-suited Mafchi picks up a fuel canister that had been dropped and twists off its cap. He slings it under his shoulder and pours a line of fuel. He marches straight to the final van and hops up into the open rear. The van backs itself up to turn out of the garage. The fuel canister clatters to the ground as it pulls away. Before it clears the view of the camera, the Black-suited Venlil is seen standing in its open back. He is holding what appears to be a flare gun.
The flare sails through the air shortly after the van leaves the frame and impacts the ground. It bounces and rolls until it touches the fuel and ignites it in an instant. A small wall of fire proceeds down the provided trail into the hallway, igniting more fuel as time passes. The hallway is quickly engulfed in vividly red fire. Thick black smoke begins to pour out into the garage as the fire inches closer to the primary fuel tank.
Movement can be seen in the hallway between the flickering flames. The silver form of a Venlil Exterminator is seen rushing out of the stairwell and fighting to head towards the fuel storage room. Before they reach, a white flash fills the screen. The feed goes dead, the error code consistent with electrical interruption.
(Specified Media Concluded.)

{Who was what? Mafchi?}

{Hmmm, there aren’t any tags embedded for them. The suits do a rather good job at making the officers anonymous. Let me see…oh.}

{The, uh… the employment records for that Office were…terminated.}

{It looks like…yes, here. Record wipe in 2497. Media with less than 1 bistandannual visit were removed to save space on the university’s central server. It’s…they’re gone, gone gone.}

{Maybe, but that’ll do us no good if we don’t know their name. And because of the chaos of that incident, nobody has been able to accurately reconstruct where every individual was in that office. We’d have to already know who they were to find them.}
<...I guess that’s another person I’ll have to remember then, huh?>
{...Guess so. Speaking of remembering, perhaps you should check out Tarlim’s view again? Seeing how we were just talking about him.}
<...Sure. At least people remember his name, right?>
(Command: [exitprogram])
(Are you sure? [Y])
…
{-Program Selected-}
{-Restart From Last Playback Point? Y/(N)-}
{-[USERID-11229KMD]: procViewHist -}
{-Retrieving Transcription Viewing History…-}
{-List Retrieved - Select Desired Subject: (Tarlim)-}
{-Restart From Last Playback Point? (Y)/N-}
{-Playing…-}
Memory Transcription Subject: Tarlim, the Venbig. Date [Standardized Human Time] October 31st, 2136
No matter how much Sven and Anso griped about it, having them leave and return with the trailer was a great idea. The humans who had gone with them the first time were, to my dismay, excited to try and ride in the back. I had at least been able to impress on those four that I couldn’t let anyone else ride like that, and that they were to help with rigging a trailer with some seats.
I had to admit; they did a good job!
Several couches sat bolted to the floor of the covered trailer and even had some ropes that could be hooked across the armrests as impromptu belts. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it would work as well as any bus or short train ride! Certainly superior to jumping in the bed of a truck.
I strode out into the parking road and swayed my ears to greet Anso. Sven had stayed behind here to meet with the humans and entertain the kids, a job which he was slightly less unenthusiastic about compared to last time. “Greetings, Anso! Have you made the necessary preparations for the humans to leave with you?”
The Yotul hopped out of the truck bed and bounced to me. “We have! I have to say those humans were great workers to have helped get this whipped up so quickly! I hope Sven has been behaving himself?”
I let my tail wag behind me remembering my last glimpse of him. He should really secure his sheath straps! “He has! Been entertaining the refugees while I made sure they all had their belongings ready to go. Come on inside, let’s go gather them.”
I guided him with a wave of my arm as we turned back to the door. To be truthful, I hadn’t expected Sven to win the humans over as quickly as he did. Needless to say, his primitive attire seemed to spark joy within them, a joy sorely needed amidst the sadness of recency.
As we entered the building I noticed something, or rather, the lack of something. When I had exited only a few [minutes] prior, the building had been full of life and noise. Now, it was almost dead quiet, save for the sounds of a holovision coming from the lobby. Rather heated sounds, at that.
“I didn’t think it was already main rest claw,” Anso mused as he, too, recognized the aggravated voices coming from the lobby. “And what are they watching in there? Sounds…angry.”
“Yeah…” I trailed off as I followed the noises. As I approached the lobby, the sound of what I assumed was a Gojid yelling. “You know nothing about my family. TALK, JUST FUCKING TALK, NOW!” My ears pinned back at the foul language at play, hoping that Sven and the children were somewhere else.
As I entered the room, I saw that I was only half right. The children were thankfully nowhere to be found, but Sven was obviously present, as was most of the facility staff. I was about to ask what was going on before another voice drew my attention to the holovision, the same as everyone else. The voice of none other than Chief Nikonus.
“There were three of us who laid out the groundwork for the Federation. When Kolshian explorers came in contact with the Farsul, more than a thousand years ago, the galaxy was young. We were the first in this sector to escape our gravity well. You know about the founding of this institution, but I reiterate it just in case.”
“The Krakotl were the third,” another voice piped up from behind the camera. I thought it might’ve been another Gojid, but the voice was far too breathy. Harchen, maybe? I wasn’t given a chance to consider it further as Nikonus continued. “Yes, they were a problem from the start; aggressive, disagreeable. We tried to identify the problem, and why they were so ill-equipped for spacefaring.”
“We learned they were scavengers, who would occasionally go for fish as well.”
His next line was rendered inaudible by the shocked gasps of both the refugees and residents in the room. I was no different, drawing in a sharp breath at the abrupt admission. I remembered that Arvi had said some aliens were revealed to have eaten meat in the past, but was this the way it was decided to be revealed? With such abject callousness?
Nikonus continued to speak, looking not just proud, but smug with his words. He went on about how the Federation had saved these aliens with their manipulations, but the entirety of his body language seemed to indicate he reveled in how devastating this information would be to the people he was speaking to. How they manipulated an entire culture, a RELIGION!
What if they did the same to ours?
That horrifying thought struck through my mind like a derailing train. I had relied upon the Tenets in some of my darkest moments. Found comfort in them when there was none elsewhere to be found. To have such a comfort revealed as a lie in its entirety, used only for some other group to control you…
The voice of Nikonus hit my ears again. “Oh Sovlin, I already told you. For the small minority of species who don’t find herbivory alone, we teach them the right way. Doesn’t the religion against predators sound familiar?”
The Kolshian was insufferably proud of those words. There was no doubt in my mind now; this was mocking. Mocking a Gojid for following The Protector. For being a predator. For being different, but expecting to still be treated as a person. The Gojid were predators, they couldn’t help it, and they were already being mocked for it.
What might happen to all the other species?
I shifted my focus away from the screen to the crowd, searching for one in particular. Vichee, a Krakotl already so different from everyone else, and now my concerns for them were multiplied with every word that fell from Nikonus’ mouth. Were they okay? They had come in here to see Sven, I had seen them. Where are-
I spotted Kaeden in the corner of the room. Next to him, slumped against the wall, was Vichee. The dual colored Krakotl’s eyes were glazed over as they stared at nothing. I strode over quickly, my instincts wanting to comfort them. Kaeden was simply standing there, it was confusing that he didn’t seem to be comforting Vichee at all. As I got closer, their head tilted up to me, regarding me with an unfocused eye.
“He was right.” They said quietly. My implant almost didn’t pick it up over the sounds of the lobby. “Kaeden had asked me soon after our first meeting if Krakotl had once been meat eaters. Said it was the shape of our beaks. ‘More suited to capturing small wriggling prey than filtering algae’. He told me. I nearly flew away right then… If I had, I would have been alone with this news.”I listened, kneeling down to be closer to their level. “You’re not alone, your herd is here. Right Kaeden?”
He looked over at me and nodded. “Vichee was there with me when Earth was attacked. I’m here for them now. Kaabra and Venik are… together, elsewhere at the moment. But they will be here too.”
I flicked my ears in understanding. “Then I hope they may help in hugging Vichee until their tears are dry.” I turned an eye to Vichee. “Please, I just want you to know that you are still you. What your body does has no effect on your personhood.”
Vichee still sat, their mind still likely whirling with the new information. They lifted their differently colored wings. “I’m well aware. This lesson I already learned. But thank you, I understand what you mean.” Kaeden nodded slowly and Vichee returned to their thoughts.
“There’s going to be trouble soon, Tarlim,” Kaeden stated gravely. “News like this? Nothing good will come of it. I can already tell this won’t go over well. Keep your eyes open.”
As if in response to his words, the sound of clanking metal hits my ears. They shoot up, pivoting to locate its source. There, dashing towards the door, was the armored figure of Sven. I didn’t know him enough to know how this broadcast would affect him, but running was never the best sign. I flicked my ears goodbye to my friends and rose, following after the metal man. In my periphery, I saw the television screen had shifted to show Rolem moving onto the stage. I would have to miss whatever it was he had to say, so ducked through the doors and continued to follow the sound of metal.
As I exited, I saw that I wasn’t the only one to see Sven’s actions. Anso was bounding behind him, shouting something I couldn’t hear. Sven didn’t seem to either as he kept running, but his gait wasn’t one of fear. He looked purposeful, sprinting in a straight line. A line pointed right towards-
Towards the observing Exterminator Van.
The metal Venlil didn’t even hesitate at the presence of the fence. He leapt up in a display of strength and agility, vaulting over the barrier and continuing his beeline into the van. It was like phased through the doors with how fast he moved. There were sounds of commotion that followed his entry, and soon two Exterminators fell out of the van. One Venlil…and one Krakotl. I wonder how Kalek is taking things.
I, too, cleared the fence with only a high step and reached the van, peering in to see Sven at the controls. “Sven! What are you doing?” I asked, the Krakotl officer shivering on the ground in my periphery.
“They got my girl!” He huffed, “She’s a Gojid, they got her, I can’t let them do anything worse to her!” He tried to activate the vehicle to no avail, but his words brought up something that I hadn’t thought much over. I remember hearing about temporary emplacements that were being set up. Paly had texted me about exterminators bringing people there. Her too. And that would mean-
-THOOOOOOOMMMMM-
The wind hit me like a truck and rocked the van I was standing next to. Sven even stopped trying to fiddle with the controls to see what had just happened. In the distance, near the center of town, an enormous black cloud rose into the air, the vestiges of fire still burning in the suspended embers. I couldn’t look away from it as my mind raced with horrible possibilities as my mind tripped over itself trying to concoct a plan of action.
I wasn’t given long to think before the radio in the van crackled to life, startling both Sven and myself. “Attention all True Exterminators! The truth has come out about the taint in our midst! For too long we have lived with its danger in our presence! If any of you still hold the safety of The Herd in your hearts, come join us so we may burn ALL the predator taint from this District! Rendezvous at Vulen’s apartment complex, we shall start our cleansing there!”
The name of one of my landlords sparked familiarity in my mind. They had been working to build a series of new apartments to add to his old, and if I remembered, had agreed to house the Gojid refugees. The Gojid! Paly was housed with them!!
In an instant, I reached into the van and grabbed Sven by the arm. He tried to pull away, but my grip was too strong. “Sven! They’re gonna kill the Gojid! They’re gonna burn Paly!”
He finally managed to shake himself free as my paws became jittery from stress. “I gotta save my girlfriend! She’s in a facility! I gotta save her!”
“But they’re gonna burn people here!” I protested, “we have to do something! We need- We need People who can fight them! Kaeden! I need to get Kaeden! We can save them!”
I pulled myself away from the van and spotted Anso nearby. He must have had to go through the gate, but this was good timing. I pointed a claw at him. “Do Not Let Him drive off before I get back!”
I didn’t give him, nor the Exterminators who had recovered from their shock, time to ask questions. Paly was in danger, as were who knew how many others. I faintly heard my data pad chime from within my shoulder bag, the signal my heart was beating too fast, but I couldn’t deal with it right now. I could get the heart rate under control during the drive. Right now I needed Kaeden, he knew how to fight! How to save people when others were trying to kill them!
My paws guided me and I was back in the cafeteria before I knew it. Some of the crowd had dissipated, but Kaeden and Vichee were still in the same corner I had left them in, but with their Venlil friends now joined. Without leaving time for protest, I grabbed Kaeden’s arm and pulled him away. I heard Vichee squawk behind me, but I was in too much of a hurry. I can’t let her get hurt. I Won’t.
Kaeden started to slap my arm as I dragged the soldier across the lobby. “Tarlim! What the fuck are you doing?? What’s going on?”
“No time, they’re going to burn everyone,” I breathlessly said as I burst the facility doors open to get him to the van.
“What? Who?” Kaeden questioned, still resisting my pull. I could hear a tinge of worry in his voice, and I knew he would understand. Anso looked back from his position as he heard my approach, and upon seeing me dragging Kaeden along, he grew visibly concerned.
“On the radio, something about True Exterminators,” I attempted to explain to him as we neared the gate doors. This time, I simply spread them apart with my free paw, metal screeching against itself as the gate was forced open. “They’re going to burn every cured species they can find, and That Means Paly. I Won’t Let Them.”
Kaeden had stopped struggling as I explained the bare essentials to him, and once we approached the van, he finally had enough sense to ask the right questions. “So what exactly is the plan to stop them? We’re strong, sure, I could probably take most of them. But just two of us against a wall of those flamers?”
“Not two,” I corrected, letting go of his arm and throwing open the back doors of the van. Still seated in the drivers side was Sven, who looked back once he heard me permit entrance into the back. “We have him too.”
“Wh- the LARPer??” Kaeden asked incredulously. I wasn’t familiar with the term he used, but his tone told us all we needed to know. Sven’s eyes narrowed at the perceived insult, but Kaeden continued. “Do either of you have any formal military training?? Rushing down there is only going to get you both killed along with the others! For fucks sake, slow down! We need a plan!”
“T-There won’t be t-time f-for one,” a voice peeped in from behind us. We all turned to face the source, and we found it was the Venlil Exterminator. They recoiled under the sudden gaze of our entire party, but they managed to continue. “I-I recognized the v-voice. It w-was one of the n-new recruits. They m-might as well be Y-Yulpa. If you w-want to stop them, it’s now or n-never.”
We all stared at them for a moment in disbelief that they’d willingly hand over that information to us. They were Exterminators, weren’t they? They should be allied with the voice on the radio! Kaeden, after considering the information, gave voice to my confusion. “And why are you telling us this? You’re an exterminator, shouldn’t you be trying to help them?”
“M-My husband is the Krakotl that was in the van with me!” They yelled back, stamping their footpaw on the ground in agitation. “I-I don’t care what his ancestors did a t-thousand years ago, I will not stand for those zealots burning who knows how many people! We’re not all the same, h-human!”
I was taken aback by their words. I had given up hope that there were any redeemable souls amongst the ranks of those silver-suited brahkasses, but living proof of the contrary stood before us. Their breathing was only matched by mine as my pad continued to chime in my pack. Maybe there’s hope after all.
Kaeden started frantically looking all around, his focused gaze falling on the facility, the exterminator in front of us, and the rising smoke in the distance. After a moment's hesitation, he growled to himself and shook his head. “Fine! Fucking- if you want to prove you’re different, you and your partner stand guard at the gate! They’ll probably try to send a division here, so keep on guard! And for the love of God, go ask for help if that happens!”
My tail wagged behind me as I interpreted what that meant. “So you’ll help us, Kaeden?”
He paused for a second, an agonizing second as he fully took in the situation in his mind. But ultimately, he nodded. “Let’s go, we can figure things out along the way.”
Seizing the moment, Anso quickly jumped into the van and pushed Sven out of the driver's seat, much to their visible frustration. Kaeden quickly hopped into the passenger seat, leaving me with the problem of finding a space that would fit me. I stepped over to the back of the van and threw the doors open.
The flamers and their fuel tanks were useless to us, easy to toss all three sets out onto the ground behind me. I made sure that the flamers were disabled first, of course. Just had to snap the pilot lighters and slice a hose with my claw. Even if these two said they weren’t like these “True Exterminators” I didn’t trust them one bit. I crawled inside the cramped vehicle and wiggled myself to close the doors behind me.
As I got myself settled, I watched as the Venlil Exterminator started to inspect the destroyed remains of their weapons. I squinted a glare at them and positioned myself so they couldn’t enter with me. “You two aren’t coming,” I hissed. “You know why you’re not. Try anything with the humans, and they will stop you.”
I slammed the doors shut as their expressions fell, just in time for Anso to get the van into gear. I curled myself up against the wall of the van, watching out the back window as we sped down the road. We were on our way now. On our way to save Paly and all the people gathered because their ancestors ate meat. My heart hammered in my chest, but I would need to control it for what we were about to do. I needed to focus. I needed to breathe. I needed to be calm.
Focus. Breathe. Calm
Focus.
Breathe.
Calm…
{-ALERT: Automatic Annotation Detected - Switching Transcription Subject-}
{-Loading…Playback Ready-}
{-Playing…-}
Memory Transcription Subject: Sol-Vah, Fleeing Predator. Date [Standardized Human Time] October 31st, 2136
My legs couldn’t carry me anymore. I had to keep going, but I didn’t have the strength. My pants became wheezes as my body struggled to keep up with the physical exertion of running almost halfway through town. I hadn’t even looked up before now, at least with eyes not blinded by tears. The pain of Mute’s rejection still stung in my soul, a pain so visceral it threatened to rip me apart worse than any Arxur. Protector, what did I do to deserve this? Is there even a Protector, or did the Federation just- just make that up?
I didn’t have time to think about that now, I needed to get to the office. From what little I caught of the broadcast, Nikonus had said they saved us before. I knew what it likely was, but…I was desperate. I just wanted to go back home and have him embrace me like he did before. The safety and love I had felt from him was still fresh in my mind, and if there was any chance I had to get it back?
I’ll happily take it.
As I approached the office, however, something seemed off. I could smell soot in the air, but not the kind of soot that came from our flamers. This was- was…dirtier smelling, as if the fuel had been impure. Upon looking up, however, I saw something that made my stomach drop. A huge plume of smoke, billowing up into the sky. It shadowed the sun itself with its immensity and hate. Did the Exterminators burn more drugs? Or…or…
I felt a renewed vigor as I started to run towards the plume, hoping against hope that I was wrong. As soon as I turned the corner, though, my worst fears were realized. Where the office once stood now sat a burning stack of glorified rubble, every single window in sight shattered and multiple holes in the outer walls. The building was split, it was as if a giant knife had come down and sloppily sliced off its front half to spill flaming debris everywhere.
I stood in front of the building I had once called my home, surrounded by screams and the awful sound of flames roaring. I knew now there was no hope of salvation, no way this could ever be undone. I would never be able to go back to the way things were, never feel the happiness I had for that brief time. I was doomed to this life, abandoned by my love, and forced to live as an abomination devoid of a home.
I suppose that’s all a predator like me deserves.
[First]- [Prev]- {Next Story!!}
You read it right: This is going to be the final chapter of "Of Giants and Journalists." With the conclusion of Sharnet and Vekna's adventure, we will now take the time to show how this announcement has affected our characters and the galaxy at large. We're excited to announce our new series, Nature of a Giant: Aftermath! This series will not be quite as in-depth temporally as Of Giants and Journalists was, mainly because not as much will be happening in as short of a time. Rest assured, though, there will still be plenty of action across the board! You just won't have to deal with over half the story only covering a week of time!
In that vein, we are also excited to announce we are working on another bonus series, one that was teased a long time ago, Venric Lawven: Legal Legend! It will be filling the gap for content while we work on the first few chapters of Aftermath to make sure the scenes are as quality as they deserve, but will have a reduced upload schedule to once a week to accommodate for writing two series at once. On behalf of both of myself and , we'd like to thank all of our readers for sticking with us on this journey. It's hard to believe this series has been going on for over a year in one form or another, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Thank you all again for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you again with Legal Legends! And then...
The Aftermath!!

First/Previous
The travel took on a less gloomy quality in the day that passed since Gemma’s self-reflection and although there remained a queer distance in her eyes, she seemed in better spirits in losing the weight of the words.
It was a night just beyond Wabash Crevasse that we pushed on till sunset was almost upon us and we were each tired and the food stocks ran low and so we found harbor in a half collapsed cellar where a home once stood; it was only after examining the slatted, rotted boards of the old place, fallen over, tired with decay, that we spied the cellar doors intact; sheets of door metal plied us with safety from the outside world and the interior of the place stank of mold and the deeper recesses were collapsed, but there was a cradle to crossbar the stair hatch and I put my prybar there for the night. We finished the water and canned tomatoes, and I smoked a cigarette, staving off the inevitable doom which would come with the dwindling of our supplies.
I’d peeked through the space where the doors met at the cellar’s entry and watched the full darkness there while the youngins spoke of life and the trivial pursuits of it and I hardly said a word besides.
Sitting on the lowest step with Trouble dumbly maintaining her station by me, by the low glow of the space in the threshold, I saw they’d pushed their bedrolls together and Andrew had fallen asleep with his arm over Gemma’s shoulder and her eyes glowed with shine from the crack, blinked a few times while seeing me; she too eventually drifted to sleep, and I spent time by the secured door.
Gunshots rang across the stillness, and they stirred from their quiet slumber and Gemma asked, “Harlan, is it alright?”
I moved to the space there at the doorway again and listened and watched what I could through that crack and nothing beyond came. “It’s safe. I’ll be up a bit longer. I’ll watch.”
Andrew asked, “Can’t sleep?”
“I’ll sleep in a bit. Don’t worry about me. Rest. Sleep good and we can put more behind us.
They sat up, legs crossed triangle-wise, and Gemma spoke again, “Why do you have such a hard time sleeping? It seems I’m asleep after you and only awake after you too.”
“Yeah,” said Andrew.
“It’s cool at night. I can listen to the wind.” I shrugged.
“You should be the one that tries to get some sleep,” said Andrew.
I said nothing.
They reached out their arms and I shook my head.
“Here,” Gemma said, “Move your bedroll closer.” She reached across the dirt floor of the cellar and dragged my splayed roll so that it sat beside hers.
“I’ll sleep later.” I turned my attention back to the door and ignored them till their sounds of sleep could be heard. The Alukah was nowhere and did not tap on the door that night and when I moved to sleep, I shimmied onto the roll beside them, facing away on my shoulder; the dog followed, laid on the bare dirt beside me and I held the mutt.
Though I refused a noise as they stirred in the absolute darkness, I felt Gemma’s arm fall over my own shoulder and felt Andrew’s hand touch my back, and water traced the bridge of my nose and I slept deeply thereafter.
There was no breakfast without food, and the water was gone; I felt the eyes of the dog on us as we packed up our belongings that next morning and I tried not to imagine the poor animal skinned over fire. I smiled at Trouble, patted its head, scratched its chin; she sniffed my hand like she was looking for something that wouldn’t be found.
We went west again, ignoring roads and pushed through straight wasteland where nothing was and no one was, and with every dry footfall on the dry hard ground, I wished for rain, and I wished that when it had rained, as infrequent as it was, that I had been wise enough to save what we could from the sky; that sky was red and swollen and refused to burst. We pushed on through strange dead thickets where grayed and twisty yellow branches lurched from the ground into the sky like even they too wished for an end to all the suffering. It was days more till we would see Alexandria and though I could stave off hunger (thirst too, if necessary), I was not so certain that the children would be able to push on without it; they did not complain and watched the ground in our march and maintained higher spirits than I could’ve imagined from them.
Early in the day, they spoke often, and I listened and as they wore on, their words came less and even the dog seemed in a lower mood for the unsaid predicament; me too.
Gemma broke the silence on the matter by saying, “What are we going to do about food? Water?”
“We’ll push on.”
“We could turn back?” asked Andrew.
“The more time we spend out in the open, outside of a city, the more likely it is that the Alukah will catch us unawares. Tighten your belts.” Our feet took us around a dilapidated truck, an old thing with a rusty hook which dangled off a rear arm. “Save your urine.”
They made faces but did not protest.
“Does that work? You ever drink pee?” asked Andrew.
I laughed, “I thought we’d be there by now. I took us too long by trying to drop the scent of the Alukah. That thing’s hunted us for days—last night was the first time it ain’t bothered us. It’s got me wondering why.”
Gemma piped up, licking her dry lips before speaking, “Do you think that monster ran into those scavengers we saw?” Then I caught her shooting a look at Andrew, “At least we warned them.” Her smile was faint and almost indiscernible as one.
I shrugged. “Can’t say. Don’t think it’s smart to turn back. Won’t be long and we’ll touch the 40 and then it’ll be a straight on to Babylon—couple of days—can’t turn back though. Maybe without food; that’s doable. Water’s the worst, but if it comes to it,” I paused and looked on the weathered faces of the children, on the lowered head of Trouble which followed her nose across the ground (it searched just short of frantic), “Like I said, ‘save your urine’.”
The first pains of hunger held within me brought up some reminiscence and I wished for nothing more than to hold Suzanne; I could nearly smell them and in the swaying walk which took us on past toppled townships, I held long blinks where I could nearly make out their face and if I really pushed the limits of my imagination, I could feel them. In those moments, as we passed dead places, rotted pits of despair, I could think of little more than their presence. Though I knew it was a dangerous game, hoping for more than I was worth, I hoped for Suzanne then and I wished that I’d taken them up on their offer to travel to Alexandria with them; it could’ve been home—it never was in all the times I’d gone there, but who knows? The thoughts of Babylon brought forth their gardens; the wild gardens and the water which flowed freely through their pipes. I wished I was a different person entirely and that too would’ve been better for Suzanne; how it was that they’d seen anything in me, I don’t know. How it was that they could stoop to the level of being with someone like me—I warded off that thought, because to place the blame there would certainly be unfair. I thought of my love plainly and wanted a different life more suited to them.
Imaginations played more furiously, and I remembered the evening when Dave stopped me from leaping from that roof—it’s doubtful that he even realized that he’d slowed my demise; perhaps he did know—I wished then that I could ask him. Too kind for the world. People too kind for the world were scarce and hardly worth the trouble. Yet, there I was, chaperoning those two across the wastes.
Gemma was a broken person when I’d found her, tortured in Baphomet’s well; Andrew was a dullard boy who’d lost his hand. What a silly predicament.
I stopped in my movements and swiveled on my heel to catch Andrew by the shoulder. “You still got your hand, don’t you?”
In good humor, the boy grinned, lifted the nub on the end of his left forearm to show me, “Nope.”
“Dammit, no! The hand in the jar!”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “In my pack.”
“Stop,” I commanded Trouble; the dog hardly recognized my words and continued a way then circled back, sad eyes looking up from where she took to sit by my side. Gemma, both arms dangling loosely from her own pack’s shoulder straps, took into the circle we’d formed.
The girl asked, “What about the jar? It’s nasty, but I guess it’s his.”
“I think that’s it,” I said. I took Andrew by his shoulders, looked him in his eyes, “We could use it!”
“What?” The boy almost laughed in the display of our concern. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I think I’ve got it! It’s good for a trap.” I shook him; maybe too hard. I almost smiled. “It’s worth a shot!”
“It’s mine.” He bit his top lip, withdrew from me.
“You’ll feel differently about that,” I said.
Gemma placed a hand on Andrew’s pack and tried ripping it open. “Give it to him!” shouted the girl.
The boy whipped from her grasp, and he spun on his feet, and panic stood on his face. “It’s mine, isn’t it?”
I took a step forward, “No, not anymore.” I put out my palm, “Give it.”
Andrew nearly flinched at the thought of it and shook his head a little. “Why?”
“I told you why,” I said.
“You don’t even know if it’ll work, do you?” his words were long in protest.
The girl started again, “Andrew, please.”
He locked eyes with Gemma and once again, his bottom teeth came up to meet over his top lip and he moved his jaw methodically with contemplation.
“What does it even matter?” she asked.
“It’s mine. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“C’mon,” he said, but his pack straps fell from his shoulders, and he hunkered down on the ground and opened his bag; his right hand plunged into the recesses therein and withdrew the jar with his severed left hand. He held the object up, refusing to come up from his open pack, keeping his eyes on the ground. “Take it then.” He shook the jar; its contents sloshed with liquid decay.
I grabbed the thing, held it to skylight; the remains within had congealed and rotted and lumps nearly floated in the brownish liquid which had formed in the base of the container. I shook it and stared for a moment at the miniscule debris which floated alongside the hand; each of its digits had swollen and erupted to expose bone; some had come away in pieces. “Tomorrow,” I said and nodded.
We gathered ourselves and Andrew pulled his pack on again and we moved, Trouble still looked sorry and the boy remained quiet while the girl chattered on with questions while we took through the dying ground in a formation with the dog on point then me then the children.
“What will you do with it?” she asked me.
“Not sure yet.”
Andrew made a noise like he wanted to say something but didn’t.
“You think it will work?” asked Gemma.
“Nothing’s a guarantee. They’re smart—Alukah.”
“Smart enough to figure out a trap?”
I shrugged. “We’ll find out.”
“We could put stakes in a pit.”
“Keep on the lookout for a building. Something with multiple floors.”
With that, we moved on, found a worn, mostly destroyed road and we fell into a travelling quiet and the thought of hunger or thirst arose again, and I pushed it down—though I knew the uneasiness could only last so long before savagery would overtake the human condition; the kids seemed strong enough, but I kept an eye on the dog too. Savagery belonged not only to humans, after all.
The ground of the wastes was harder when it was quiet, and it was flatter further west. The sky—red and full of thin and transparent drifting clouds—seemed an awful sight when stared at for too long; it was the thing which stretched as if to signal there wasn’t an end in any direction, as if to declare we had much more to go till safety. Wanderlust is a thing that I believe I’ve felt before, but under that sky, with those two and the dog, I didn’t feel it at all. It was doom that I felt. Ignorance and doom. And it was all because I was certain I’d made all the wrong mistakes, and it was coming back to me. I was experienced. We should’ve had food and water. Perhaps there was some deep and nasty part inside of me that had intended to sacrifice them along the way. The words of the Alukah might have rung true: You say you make no deals, but I smell it. I think you’d deal.
Surely, I felt differently. Surely.
“Getting darker,” called Andrew as we came to where signposts—worn and bent and barely legible—told us of a place once called Annapolis and the buildings were nearly gone entirely; places, maybe places that were once homes, were leveled—I was briefly caught in imagining what it might’ve been like all those ages ago. As are most places, it was haunted like that and when we came to a long rectangular structure of metal walls—thin walls—we took it as a place for rest for the night.
It once served as an agricultural station, for when we breached its entry, there were a line of dead machines—three in all—cultivators or tillers which stood higher than any of our heads and Gemma asked what they were, and I told her I thought they were for farming. The great rusted bodies stood in quiet shadow as we came through a side passage of the building and the great doors which had once been used to release those machines from the building stood frozen in their frame. I approached the doors, lighting my lantern and motioning for the children to shut the door we’d entered through.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed the doors would roll into the ceiling and the chains which held the doors in place were each secured with rusted padlocks—I removed my prybar from my pack and moved along the wall of doors, giving each old lock a smack with the weapon; each one held in place, seemingly fused there through years of corrosion, and I rounded the cultivators once more, back to the children, near the side door where they’d discovered a rickety stair frame which crawled up the side of the wall to a catwalk; along the catwalk, a levitated box stood at the height of the structure, stilted by metal legs, and we took the stairs slowly with the dog following close behind; the poor mutt was mute save the sound of its own shuffling paws.
The metal stairs creaked under our weight and Gemma held her own lantern high over her head so that the strange shadows of the place grew longer, stranger, and suddenly I felt very sure that something was in the dark with us, but there was no noise except what we made. My eyes scanned the darkness, and I followed the children up the stairs till we met the overhang of the catwalk and I peered into the shadows, the blades of the cultivators—far extended on foldable arms—struck up through the pool of blackness beneath us and I felt so cold there and if it were not for the breath of my fellow travelers, I might have been lost in the dark for longer than intended—lost and frozen and contemplative.
“There’s a room,” said the boy, and he pushed ahead on the hanging passage, and he was the first to the door. “Boxes,” he said plainly.
Upon coming to the place where he stood, Gemma pushed her lantern over the threshold, and I saw what he’d meant as I traced my own lantern to help; the room was crammed with plastic totes and old metal containers of varied sizes. There seemed to be enough empty space to maneuver through the room, but only if one watched their feet while they walked. Carefully.
We moved to the room, and I found a stack of crates to place my lantern then motioned for Gemma to douse hers. In minutes, the place was rearranged so that we could sit comfortably on the floor; crates lined the walls precariously and we breathed heavy from the work done, but we began to unpack and upon watching the children while I rolled a cigarette, I felt a pang of guilt, a terrible summation—all choices in my life had led me here and with them and perhaps it would have been a better world for them without me.
Mentally shrugging this thought away, I lit my cigarette, inhaled deeply, and then withdrew the jar which Andrew had handed over. I held it to the lantern to examine it. The grotesqueness of it hardly phased me and I watched it more curious and hopeful than disgusted.
“I hope it’ll work,” said the boy, “Whatever it is that you plan on doing with it.” He grimaced and maintained a further silence in patting his bedding for fluff. The dog moved to him, and she pushed her forehead against him where he squatted on floor. The boy scratched Trouble’s chin and whispered, “Good girl,” into the top of her head where he’d pushed his own face.
“I’m hungry,” said Gemma; she placed her chin in her arm while watching Andrew with the dog. She sat on her own flat bed there on the floor and stated plainly the thing that I’d hoped to ignore for longer.
“I know.” I took another drag from the cigarette and let the smoke hang over my head. “The dog?”
Andrew recoiled, pulling Trouble closer into his arms.
I smiled. “It was a joke.”
Andrew relaxed, but only a moment before Gemma added, “Maybe.”
The boy narrowed his eyes in the girl’s direction, and she shrugged. “If it’s life or death.”
He didn’t say anything and merely continued stroking Trouble’s coat.
That night, we slept awfully and even in the complete darkness, I felt the cramp of the storage room and the angled shapes of the tools that protruded from the containers on all sides remained permanent well after we’d turned the light off and it felt like those shapes were the teeth of a great creature like we were sitting inside of its mouth, looking out.
Trouble positioned herself partially on my chest, her slow rhythmic breathing brought my thoughts calm and I whispered to her in the dark after I was sure the others were asleep, “I promise it was a joke.” And I brushed the back of her neck with my hand and the animal let go of a long sigh then continued that deep rhythmic breathing.
Still without food or water, the following day was the true indication of the misery to come. Gemma’s stomach growled audibly in waking and Andrew—though he kept his complaints to himself—smacked his lips more often or protruded the tongue in his mouth in a starvation for water. The room, in the daylight which peered through pinpricks of its half-decayed roof, seemed another beast altogether from its nighttime counterpart; it was not so frightening. Again, I admonished myself for the lack of preparation, but there was another thought that brought together a more cohesive feeling; we had a possible plan, a trap for the demon that’d been following us.
We went into the field to the west of the building where there was only dirt beneath our feet in the early sunlight and in the coolness of morning air, I nearly felt like a person. The sun crested the horizon and brought with it a warmth that would quickly become overwhelming—in those few minutes though—it felt good enough. I wished for the shy dew and saw none. The weirdness of holding Andrew’s rotting hand in a jar momentarily caught me and I almost laughed, but refrained and the dog and the children looked on while I held the container up and suddenly, seeing the congealed mass of tissue floating in its own excretions, I was overcome with the urge to run, the urge that nothing would ever be right again in my life, and that I was marked to be that way.
I blinked and tossed the jar to Andrew. “Say goodbye,” I said. He fumbled after it with his right hand and caught it to his chest.
“It’s strange you care so much anyway,” said Gemma, shrugging—her eyes forgave a millisecond of pity and when Andrew looked at her, still holding the jar in his right hand, she smiled and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her pants.
“We’ve enough oil, I think,” my voice was raspy from it being early, “Enough for good fire, but if we use it, it’ll mean a few more dark nights on our way.”
“We’re going to set it on fire?” Andrew pondered, keeping his eyes to the contents of the jar. “It worked good enough last time. It’ll work,” I nodded, “I has to, doesn’t it?”
His dry lips creased into a brief smile, and he tossed the jar back to me and I caught it.
“Let’s dig,” I said.
Without much in the way of proper tools, we began at the ground under us with our hands, then taking turns with my prybar till there was a hole in the ground comfortably large enough to conceal a human head and I uncapped the jar and spilled it contents there and we covered it back and I lightly tamped it with my boot. My eyes scanned the outbuilding we’d taken refuge in the night prior and then to the street to the north then to the houses which stood as merely rotted plots of foundation with frames that struck from the ground more as markers than support. “I’ll take up over there across the street when it gets dark. I want you two in that storage room before anything goes off.”
“We can’t help?” asked Gemma.
“You can help by staying out of the way—the mutt too,” I said; the words were harsh, but my feelings were from worry.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we stuck together?” asked the girl.
I shook my head. “You stay in the room and keep quiet. No matter what you hear, you stay quiet and safe.”
“That’ll put you at a bigger risk,” Gemma furrowed her brow at me and shifted around to look out on the houses across the street, “There’s hardly any cover over there.”
The boy nodded, smacked his lips, and rubbed his forearm across his mouth then audibly agreed with her.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, “No matter what you hear happening outside, no matter, you don’t open the door and you don’t scream—don’t make a noise at all. Alright? Even if you hear me calling you, you don’t do it.”
“Pfft,” Gemma crossed her arms and kicked her foot against the ground. The way her eyes seemed hollowed with bruising showed that the irritation would only grow without food. “Alright,” she finally sighed.
Andrew looked much the same as she did in that; he swallowed a dry swallow then stuffed his hand into his pocket and looked away when our eyes matched.
We gathered our light oil. Altogether, it seemed enough; rummaging through the room of the outbuilding we’d earlier taken refuge within, we managed three intact glass containers—the only ones found that wouldn’t leak with liquid; two were bottles and the third was the jar that’d once kept Andrew’s hand. With that work done, we sat with three Molotov cocktails within our huddled circle of the storage room.
“Is it enough?” asked Gemma.
“We’ll see,” I began rolling a cigarette to ignore the hunger and the thirst.
Andrew took to the corner and glanced over his shoulder only a moment before a steady liquid stream could be heard and when he rotated from the wall once the noise was finished and he held a canteen up to his nose, sniffed it and quivered and shook his head.
As the sun pushed on, I scanned the perimeter outside, and they followed. Far south I spied a mass of shadow inching across the horizon and Gemma commented, “What’s that?”
I pushed the binoculars to her and let her gaze through them.
“A fiend—that’s what we called it back in the day anyway. A mutant.”
She held the binoculars up and frowned. “A mutant? So, it was once human?”
“A fiend was once many humans.” I pointed out to the horizon though she couldn’t see me doing so and continued, “If you look at the edges of its shape, you’ll see it’s got limbs galore on it. Sticking up like hairs is what it’ll look like at this distance. Those are arms and legs. It’s got faces too. Many faces.” I shuddered.
“I can barely see any details,” she passed the binoculars to Andrew, and he looked through them, “What’s it do?”
“What?” I asked.
“What’s it do if it catches a person?”
“It pulls people into it. Makes you apart of its mass. Nasty fuckers.”
Andrew removed the lenses from his eyes and held them to his chest and asked, “It won’t mess up your trap, will it?”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” I said, “You don’t want to mess with a fiend unless you have to.”
First/Previous
Archive

In the vast countryside, away from the busy city of Savannah, exist hills as tall as buildings and green as emeralds. There was also an aura of calmness, with a few birds twittering away in dispersed trees, followed by the gentle swaying of the wind.
Then, out of nowhere, came a small, lonely girl wearing a once-lily-white summer dress with a striped long-sleeved t-shirt underneath it. She was also wearing a dark blue and cream-white baseball hat with the letter D on the front of it. She was moving wearily, with a pistol in one hand, and wiping her damp eyes with the other.
She knew what happened to make her weep. According to her, it was her fault that she got him killed; she was convinced by a towering man who said he knew her parents. But that was a brainless, childish lie that got Lee killed. She shouldn’t have run off. At least, Lee taught her how to use a gun and what to expect in the future before his tragic passing. But now she was all on her own.
Eventually, she came to a log, which was next to the rusted shell of a car. Anyway, she proceeded to sit down on it. Throughout all of this, she was as quiet as a mouse, only looking at her feet and wiping her blood-red eyes. She noticed that on the floor next to the log was a mixture of bullets—some shell casings and some unfired ones. Out of curiosity, she picked it up and examined it before exhaling deeply, which is when she noticed something else. Something she could just about make out if she scrutinised her eyes—something on the nearest hill—looked like two figures. One followed the other, and they looked like they stopped to look at her, making her start to hyperventilate as her eyes extended to the size of oranges. Was it someone she knew? Was it a threat to her? She didn’t know.
"Lee said I needed to find Omid and Christa before he got killed because of me." She said to herself, still looking sad, as she noticed that the two figures were now coming down the prominent hill—they didn't look like walkers. So she clasped her gun tightly until the figures came into view. She ended up not firing the gun and running towards the figures, as it was Omid and Christa, and they were alive!
Omid was a tall, slim Persian-American man with short dark-brown hair and a beard to match.
Christa, on the other hand, was a slightly taller African-American lady. She also had jet-black hair tied up in a ponytail, and she was Omid’s girlfriend.
"Clementine, honey, where's Lee?" Christa asked, kneeling to the nine-year-old.
"H-h-he's...dead." She answered with her face buried in Christa’s shoulder.
"Oh, Clementine, we’re sorry," Omid said, who started to kneel to her height as well.
"W-where's Ben and Kenny?" Clementine asked, still with her face buried in Christa’s shoulder.
Omid and Christa then looked at each other without Clementine noticing, and it was Omid who told her what happened to Ben and Kenny.
"So, it’s just us three," Clementine responded, now looking at Omid and Christa with her eyes dry again, a short while later.
"I guess, Clem, I guess so." Christa replied, "Come on, let’s go somewhere safe."
With this, the trio (Clementine, Omid, and Christa) began to walk, with Clementine tagging behind while Omid and Christa were in front. They were busily talking away, apart from Clementine, who was still looking at her feet, along holding the gun in her hand. As a result of this, she wasn't engaged in the conversation that they were having. She was too melancholy about what happened today. With her being kidnapped, seeing her walker parents, Lee dying, and now Kenny and Ben dying as well.
It was a lot for her to take in.
* * * * *
Sometime later, the trio found an abandoned house that had been abandoned for decades, as thick ivy hugged the walls. Furthermore, it reminded Clementine of that house they stayed at in Savannah; it was hard to believe that was a month ago.
Anyway, they succeeded in getting into the house rather than struggling, so now they could search within it.
Clementine, honey," Christa said, kneeling to her. "Omid, and I believe you can search parts of this house on your own. Just remember, if someone, walker or not, tries to hurt you, you got your gun. If you run out of bullets or are in a tight place, call us, and we will help you if you get into trouble. Do you understand?"
“Yeah, I do, Christa; I will be careful."
“Good," replied Christa, "let me know if you find anything."
With this, Clementine strayed a little by searching for anything useful on her own, though she stayed close to Omid and Christa.
As usual in the kitchen, she found faded, rusted cans with nothing but spoiled food inside. So she decided to head upstairs, and it seemed like they creaked with every step; as Omid and Christa were searching the enormous living room. Once she was upstairs, she clasped her pistol tightly and opened the door with one of her hands and the other on the pistol. Nothing. The room was that of a bathroom, with its normal interior—a bath, sink, toothbrushes, and some cupboards—which was stripped of life.
So she closed the door, walked to the next door, and proceeded to open it in the same manner she did for the bathroom. This room was that of a child’s room, which made Clementine remember her room back in Georgia, with its toys and books. It felt like she was just coming home from school and wanted to play with her dolls until supper time; it was hard to believe that was a year ago. Yet, here she was searching for anything useful in terms of survival—and not searching for a certain toy she wanted to play with at present.
“Just as well Lee found me when he did.” She said to herself as she glanced over at the room, trying to remember simpler times. When she went to school, she watched cartoons all day and rode her bike in the park with her parents. When she was thinking about this, she noticed that there was a medium-sized lump near the wall, cloaked in dust. It was a doll, and there was a string attached to its back, and when Clementine pulled it, it produced the word "Mama”.
Clementine remembered the doll that her mother gave her for her sixth birthday; it was probably still in the back of the wardrobe.
Eventually, she found an old pocket-sized backpack with a few flowery stickers, along with a dark-blue hoodie in her size.
“Have you found anything, Clementine?” called out Christa.
“Yeah, a backpack and a hoodie," answered Clementine, walking towards the edge of the stairs where Omid and Christa were.
“Just remember to check the bag, Clem; they might have something useful." Replied Christa.
“Ok," Clementine replied, unzipping the bag and then putting her hand into it, but not looking into it. Lo and behold, she found a working lighter, and it looked like it had a decent amount of fuel for a while.
Clementine then walked to the conclusive door upstairs, and like what she did before, however, the door required a little exertion to open. As a result of this, Clementine noticed that the noise she made alerted her to the presence of a walker heading towards her. This, of course, made Clementine a little timid, but she knew what to do. As her heart started to ram against her ribcage, likewise, a thick seal of sweat began to form on her hands, transferring onto her gun.
Always aim for the head," Clementine said to herself as she exhaled deeply and fired the gun. BANG!! The walker fell with a deafening thud, and Clementine was astounded at herself for shooting the walker that was coming towards her.
I did it, I did it," she exclaimed in a loud whisper. Which is when the door bursts open to reveal Omid and Christa with perturbed faces.
"Is everything OK, Clem? Are you hurt?" Asked Omid.
Yeah, I’m fine; I’m not hurt. Replied Clementine, as the trio all stood in stupefied silence at the walker that Clementine gunned down. "Did you find anything? Clementine asked after a minute of silence.
"Yes. We have found two cans of beans and some water." Christa replied.
"Oh."
“Well, let’s keep moving on, Clem. People might have heard the shot and might come here.” Omid said.
“Ok," responded Clementine. "I said already, but I found a backpack and a hoodie."
“Put it on, Clem; it’s starting to get colder, and we get going."
“Ok, I’ll put it on now."
Clementine then took off her hat, gave the gun to Omid, put on the dark blue hoodie, put her hat back on, and took the gun back from Omid. After that, Clementine followed Christa and Omid downstairs and out of the house and walked on.
* * * * *
Some short weeks later, the trio now situated in a substantial-sized forest under a thick canopy of leaves with Omid tending to a fire. Clementine and Christa, however, were sitting down on some nearby log around the fire.
Christa was busy talking to Omid about her pregnancy, whereas Clementine was busy herself by looking at the stars. The stars flickered and danced in the sky like a million tiny flames, casting a shimmering glow over the forest below. Furthermore, the sky itself was filled with low oranges, along with a mixture of light blues. Which were progressively getting into the realms of dark blues, purples and then full-on jet-black. Moreover, there seemed to be a chorus of crickets hiding somewhere in lush grasses, chirping away harshly.
“I would say that rabbit is cooked now, Omid.”
“Oh, right, yeah,” replied Omid, as he began to take the cooked rabbit off the spit – and handed it out to Christa and Clementine, then to himself.
"Thank you very much," Clementine said as she reached for the rabbit meat before going back to look at the stars. She thought to herself as she ate: "How many are there? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?"
“Hm, what – sorry Christa; what did you say?”
“Omid and I said that we are going to rest here tonight and get going in the morning."
"Ok, as my legs still ache from all that walking we did today."
"Well, get some rest, you're going to need it," Omid said, rising from poking the fire.
"Ok," responded Clementine, getting up from the weather-worn log, wishing Omid and Christa a good night before she got onto the floor near the fire and began to close her eyes. She then began to dream about what she would be doing tomorrow, what would happen, and what she would see.
The next morning was filled with colours ranging from warm yellows trickling through the gaps in the trees. Clementine rubbed her eyes before getting up from the harsh, tough ground and walked to the log where she sat last night, where she saw Omid was cooking again.
"Morning, Clem," Omid said. "How did you sleep?"
"Ok, I'd rather sleep in a bed than on the floor."
"Yeah, I don't like it either, but it's necessary until we get to Wellington."
"Where's Christa?" asked Clementine, now looking around the campsite as she noticed Christa wasn't there.
But then, five minutes later, after Clementine had eaten, Christa came back - and with this, the trio began to walk on; with her now near Omid and Christa. Yet, like last time, Clementine's fingers were still wrapped around her pistol as if it were a part of her. But instead of looking at her feet, she was looking around the pensive clearing.
The clearing was serene, where only a few walkers were roaming around, but they could be seen more evidently through a few hacked trees. The trio strolled down the lane through dappled light filtering itself through the trees; moreover, the sound of the leaves rustled in the weak wind. There was also an occasional bird twittering away on a pile of stacked logs near the broad track Clementine, Omid, and Christa were walking. There was also an infrequent number of signs that littered the road.
"TWO MILES UNTIL TRUCK STOP", Clementine read as she walked on with Omid and Christa.
"How about...Isabella?" Christa said aloud.
"Nah," scoffed Omid, "James is far better."
"That's if it's a boy, Omid. Clementine, do you have any name ideas?"
"What about...Carley?"
"Yeah, that's a good name." Responded Omid, with an expression of puzzled thought in his voice.
For the next couple of miles, they (primarily, Christa and Omid) talked about what seemed to be endless baby names for Christa's child; to pass the time. Clementine wondered if her parents had this amount of difficulty when they chose her name.
Eventually, Clementine stopped a little as Omid and Christa walked on regardless; as she noticed there was a blackbird perched on a nearby tree which cawed before flying into the lush forest.
"What do you think?" asked Omid, as he poised at the truck stop over the abandoned road before crossing it with Christa and Clementine.
"Omid, you can't be serious," answered Christa.
"I am."
"We are NOT doing that."
"Why not?"
"Because one of you is enough!"

Hey all, unsure where to post as first time poster. Currently having an issue where I need some advice/point of view in a legal format
Around Christmas time I was working nightshift for the company I work for and was taken off with no warning. This impacted my family as I couldn't get my daughter to and from daycare. Asked for 7:15am start to get her there (start at 6:30am normally) was denied this as "can't do for me and not for others". Said I would have to leave if we couldn't make something work and was told that I had to if it didn't work. (This is over a phone recording) Partner then left her job effective immediately, started elsewhere and pulled daughter out of daycare.
Fast forward to now: Last week, I parked my truck in a spot that was safer to park in without damage as I couldn't get it in it's normal spot. Took the next day off. Someone else moved it and the tail of the truck hit a poke in the lock up while turning out while having 2 spotters (I was not at work when it happened). Management did an investigation on this and a part of that was an audit on the truck. They stated I hadn't cleaned it even tho I had spent time wiping down (my bad, missed a spot). After this drama they did a second investigation on myself in regards to my hours and when I left the yard. I had finished around 4:45pm. Someone had changed my timesheet to 6pm finish and added that I did tasks that were not completed. The only proof of me not doing the timesheet is the layout said timesheet is and how all my other timesheets have been fir the last month. Someone has gone through and changed my timesheet and said I worked longer than I have and have added things into it that I didn't do/weren't completed at all. I have proof with how I do timesheets and the difference between mine and how the "problem timesheet" has been done buy can't prove it wasn't me other than consistency of how all my others are. I have a serious misconduct meeting on Wednesday and am accepting a job offer elsewhere as it feels they are trying their best to fire me. Where do I stand in this matter? And if it is that my argument doesn't stand, can I be fired on the spot after handing in my 2 weeks notice?

Apologies if I am breaking any subreddit rules here. I'm trying to identify if SN could be a good fit for us. I'd also be open to anyone who wishes to DM about this topic or give me a demo of their SN setup. I know this subreddit will be biased but I wanted to hear from those who actually work with the product before I talk to any sales reps.
I am one of about a dozen developers on a team that's specialized in the Hyland OnBase WorkView case/document management platform. We've been using it for over a decade and have built a lot of successful client projects with it, but the drawbacks have reached a point where we are looking for a replacement. Ideally the new platform is something that our team of developers can learn and become proficient with relatively quickly. We'd also be open to hiring some people with SN experience, and/or bringing in a professional services group to get us on track.
A typical client project for our team is to build a case management system that a state government office of 25-50 case workers would use to enroll applicants in a program to receive some type of assistance. Case workers would perform a series of checklist and document reviews on the applicants' cases and move their case through a variety of steps from intake to closeout. Third party users may also log in to this system and perform their own reviews of cases. Users might be grouped into teams and can only see cases assigned to their team.
Not all our projects follow this model, it's just become a common one for us. I've only spent a couple hours reading about SN, skimming through some of the videos on their website, so I still need to do more research, but I wanted to lay out some info about our current platform below. I would love to hear feedback from the SN crowd here about how it compares relative to the pros/cons listed below, and anything in particular you love/hate about it, things you wish you knew about it before you started, etc.
The good:

• Easy to build a data model -- intuitive for developers to define classes, fields, relationships between classes, and even extension classes where appropriate.
• Easy to use the screen designer to throw together an interface for users to enter data into your fields (more on this in the "cons" section).
• Easy to create working filters/queues so staff that use the system can track what's pending their review.
• Easy to set up user groups and control who can see what.
• Document management is built-in, easy to import documents and automatically tag them with keywords based on the record/screen they're being uploaded to. Also easy to query for all documents of a certain type, with certain keyword values, uploaded in a custom date range, etc.
• Transaction history on every record makes it easy to audit who changed what and when.
• Document templates -- the ability to generate a Word/PDF document with dynamic text on demand is very useful for clients that need their staff to print and mail letters.
• Ability to write C# code to do anything we want, even if we could do it with a native component. Our client's business logic often becomes so complex (and changes so often) that it's easier to manage with code libraries that fire when buttons are pressed, rather than with the built-in "no code" workflow design steps.
• Ability to build external applications that interface with/manipulate OnBase data using the OnBase DLL. We have some C# console applications that run on Windows Task Scheduler every night, for example "connect to this FTP instance and import whatever files have been imported in the last 24 hours, turn them all into data objects in OnBase, and send us a summary email".

The bad:

• The look and feel of the client is clunky and outdated, looks like it's from the 90s. It's a Windows application. There is a web client but it lacks some key functionality and also has the same outdated look. The screen designer itself is just a bare bones HTML page you can add rows and columns to and drag/drop your fields on it. We've added some CSS to improve it somewhat and I'm sure if we brought in some designers they could push that further, but we shouldn't have to work so hard to make the default product not look bad. And don't bother trying to use it on your phone or tablet.
• Migrating changes from DEV/QA/PROD is a nightmare. Our WorkView instance has apparently reached the level of complexity at which the tool for exporting your data to be imported into another instance simply crashes and doesn't work anymore. Even when it does work on a fresh instance, it's a confusing experience of mapping all the fields and objects between the two environments and making decisions about whether to keep or overwrite each one. It's reached the point where we have no choice but to build in PROD, and test changes with internal users before we modify permissions so that they are visible to all users. Our TEST and DEV instances are therefore always outdated and not useful as a result. You can imagine how painful this has become.
• Performance is slow. We've never gotten a clear answer from our support calls about why it can take 15+ seconds for a record to load. I suspect this product was simply never intended to be pushed to the limits that we seem to have reached after so many years. From what I can tell, most Hyland customers use OnBase for document management/workflow, and if they have any WorkView/case management projects they use a small number of classes, with a small number of fields. We are 100% WorkView. I would guess our instance has 500 classes (tables), 1000 designed screens, 5000 filters/queues, and 2000 buttons that launch C# scripts. It takes 3 minutes for the OnBase studio/designer IDE to finish logging in/loading our instance before we can begin making any changes to it.
• Licensing is expensive and confusing. You can buy concurrent licenses that are shared between all users (expensive) or named licenses (less expensive) that are assigned on a per-user basis. We host a lot of different client projects on our instance, and it's not a good look when we reach the license limit and users start complaining that they can't log in. Our users have no idea what licenses are and shouldn't have to see error messages they don't understand. Of course this is a problem we can solve with more money but I am curious to learn how SN handles this.
• The built in reporting module leaves a lot to be desired. Very limited customization/styling, and no ability to set up a report to be emailed on a schedule. We instead rely on other modules like PowerBI and Tableau.
• I mentioned in the "good" section that we can build external applications in Visual Studio to create/modify OnBase data, but this is really a response to the poor IDE built into OnBase Studio which lacks so many features, it's easier to just import the OnBase DLL into a Visual Studio solution and build it there, so you have access to breakpoint debugging, logging, Nuget packages, etc. If I'm writing code in the platform IDE, it shouldn't be a miserable experience.
• Very limited developer resources. You won't find any resources on Stackoverflow, Reddit, or anywhere public. If you run into a problem, you can check the Hyland Community forums (good luck, the search functionality is broken) or send an email to support. Likely a result of the OnBase product just not being very well known/popular. Makes me a bit jealous of the more well known platforms like Salesforce and... maybe ServiceNow?? It was refreshing to find an active subreddit, at the very least!

A UPS driver was fatally shot Thursday while inside his parked van in an industrial area of Irvine, according to police.
The Irvine Police Department said a man was shot near Chrysler and Bendix streets at around 3 p.m. About 3½ hours later, a suspect was taken into custody by a SWAT team, police said.
A male assailant drove up alongside the UPS driver and fired multiple times into his van, Sgt. Karie Davies said. Neither the driver nor the shooter got out of their vehicles.
Police said there was no evidence of a robbery, and it’s possible the UPS driver was targeted.
“He literally pulled up next to the UPS truck, shot him and drove away,” Davies said. “It looks like it was targeted, but we don’t know the relationship yet.”
Police said there was no evidence of a robbery, and it’s possible the UPS driver was targeted.
Davies said authorities found the victim, whose name has not yet been released, slumped over in the driver’s seat. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told authorities that they recognized the UPS driver and that he was on his regular route. The spot where he was parked was where he would stop and have his lunch break, they said.
Aerial ~video of the arrest~ on KABC-TV Channel 7 showed a SWAT team boxing in a silver pickup truck. A K-9 dog was released into the truck to try to get the suspect out of the vehicle. The man was eventually pulled out by officers.
“They ultimately had to force him out of the vehicle with SWAT techniques,” Davies said. “As far as I know, he’s in our custody.”A UPS driver was fatally shot Thursday while inside his parked van in an industrial area of Irvine, according to police.
The Irvine Police Department said a man was shot near Chrysler and Bendix streets at around 3 p.m. About 3½ hours later, a suspect was taken into custody by a SWAT team, police said.
A male assailant drove up alongside the UPS driver and fired multiple times into his van, Sgt. Karie Davies said. Neither the driver nor the shooter got out of their vehicles.
Police said there was no evidence of a robbery, and it’s possible the UPS driver was targeted.
“He literally pulled up next to the UPS truck, shot him and drove away,” Davies said. “It looks like it was targeted, but we don’t know the relationship yet.”

1981 Toyota pickup 22r
My battery light has been on since I got the truck a few weeks ago. Planned on addressing it eventually. I knew it was time when it died in a parking lot. Then I realized the battery was being overcharged. With the engine running It reads around 15.3 volts, 16 when the engine first starts up. Even after replacing the voltage regulator. I have cleaned every ground on the truck, terminals are clean. It fires up fine. Except for that one time in the parking lot. I had to get a jump. Which confuses me because the battery isn’t being undercharged. The battery doesn’t get hot, and it’s not swollen, it doesn’t have a bad smell. My headlights aren’t working, could that be a clue? I hear a click from the relay when turning on the high beams. But no lights. Let me know what you think thank you for taking the time to help me out.

My employer recently signed up with the Colorado Secure Savings Plan in January of 2024. They informed us that it was a state retirement plan for people who aren’t big enough to have 401ks. We were told we had to sign up and either opt out or we would be automatically enrolled at 5% savings into the Roth IRA offered through the plan. I was one of the few employees who actually not only signed up, but actually enrolled into the plan. I set up an annual increase in the deposit and everything. My first withdrawal from my paycheck took place in my 2nd check in January. Fast forward t last week, one of my new employees (I’m mid level management) came to me and asked how he could sign in, as he had never opted out and was in a bind (had his truck towed from his girlfriends apartment for not parking in the right spot). He was hoping he could borrow money to cover the impound, as he should have several hundred dollars in the account, based on his paystubs. He said it was asking for a code. I walked him through how to lookup the code and make the account. During sign up, it says they can’t find him in the system. I helped him call the phone hotline from my office and they checked his name, social, etc… and they don’t have him in the system. I logged in to see if I had any additional accesses as a manager, thinking maybe his social or something is entered incorrectly. I discover I have a $0 balance. I called the company back after confirming about $1500 has been withdrawn from my pay check ytd, and they look everywhere and not only don’t see any money, but can’t find any money has ever been sent in by my company. I asked for a supervisor who again looked and couldn’t find any money was sent in. I got confirmation and sent it to my GM via email, explaining how my employee and I both have no money in our accounts and in his case, he doesn’t even have an account. My GM forwarded it to our controller and copied me, asking her to look into it. She replied back to just him and said she has been meaning to pay the money, but hasn’t done it yet and she is planning to pay it the following week (this week). I’ve checked every day this week and I still don’t have any money in my account. I told my GM I want this made right. The only way you make money on your money is through compound interest. I can’t do that when it’s not invested. He said he gets it and apologized. I am not good with this and it’s one of many shady things that I don’t like about my job. It’s frankly the straw that broke the camels back. I want to quit. What is my recourse? Can I sue? We are talking 4 months of contributions and none of it put into my account. I don’t think my commissions are accurate and I believe they are hiding profit from us. I also think they write off incentives money from the manufacturer of the product that we sell so they don’t have to pay us on it (long story there). Two of my previous managers were fired for looking into it. I can’t prove any of that, but I can prove they are taking my investment money and not investing it, and as of now there is one business day left in the week it was promised to be paid and it’s still not in there. I am worried that if I report it and stay I will be fired, but if I quit, I have no guarantee I will be able to find a similar position or level of pay (have been looking for a month - ever since they fired the last GM. What should I do? Also - when I was looking for my money I found a page that says that this plan IS NOT affiliated with the state. My company lied to us about that and lied about not being able to get our forced contributions back if we didn’t opt out. They said the state wouldn’t let them. It’s not affiliated with the state at all and it was a complete lie. It’s a front for a company called Sumday. Thank you for guidance on what I should do. I tried to research online and there is guidance for non-payment for 401k, but nothing for a Roth IRA.

As kids, (I was 17F, brother was 15) we had horses and for some reason in the winter the deer would break the top wire of the electric fence. Always at the furthest point in the pasture too.
So when we went out to do chores before school, if the fence was broken we had to fix it so the horses could be turned out.
I would unplug the fencer, drag supplies up the hill & splice the fence. As soon as I got the pieces together…..ZAP!!
Now I was pretty sure I unplugged the fencer, but hay… it was early morning so maybe I forgot. I get back down to the barn and my brother was doing chores. I asked him and he said he plugged it back in because he saw it was unplugged and wanted to help. I told him not to plug it in unless he finds me first and why.
Well next time I am on the hill…. ZAP! Repeat convo above, rinse & repeat for 2 weeks. Nothing I said got him to stop…. Until…
We had a crew cab dually with a 454 8 cylinder truck and Dad decided it needed a tune up. He got all the stuff & asked my brother to do the tune up.
Now I knew my way around auto repair & had done a tune up or 2 myself. So I knew exactly what I was doing…… I was helping.
The hood was up & he had gone to get another tool so I figured I would help. By pulling all the spark plug wires off both the distributor & the spark plugs.
He came back and I told him really excited that I helped him get started and showed him how. I thought he was going to cry. He asked why I pulled them all. I told him that he had been so helpful with the fence and plugging it in for me and that I wouldn’t be a great sister if I didn’t help him when he needed it.
He was mad, but learned his lesson. Having to figure out the firing order for the truck without google to help took him 2 hours. But he did stop plugging the fencer in on me.

Why are there so many videos of Kia souls getting destroyed?
So many times I see a video of a car that’s been blown up, or on fire, or flipped over on its side it’s a Kia soul? And it’s not just videos where the car broke down it’s also videos of outside forces, like where a tire flies of a truck and demolishes a car, it’s a Kia soul!
Is it just confirmation bias where I notice it more, or is there really a higher percentage of Kia souls being demolished on our roads??
I feel like I don’t see any other cars keep popping up destroyed like this. What’s happening!

In the movie “come and see” when the Germans are rounding up the villagers into a barn, there is a truck with a person speaking through it and music is being played as the horror is being carried out. When the barn is set on fire you can hear yodeling in the background. I know it’s a tall order but does anyone know what song it is? It’s just a fascinating scene with the sounds

Legoland California’s 25th Anniversary

Legoland California Resort is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Legoland California Resort includes a theme park, a water park, an aquarium and hotels. Legoland California is 25 years old in 2024. Legoland California opened in March 1999. Legoland California is in Carlsbad, California. Legoland California celebrates Lego bricks. Lego bricks are small plastic bricks. People build and play with Lego bricks. Legoland California is celebrating during 2024. Legoland California opened a new area in March. The area is named Dino Valley. Dino Valley is in the Legoland California theme park. Dino Valley celebrates dinosaurs. Dino Valley has many dinosaurs made of Lego bricks! Dino Valley has three rides. One ride is named Duplo Little Dino Trail. Visitors ride in vehicles. Visitors can look for dinosaurs from the vehicles. One ride is named Explorer River Quest. Visitors ride in boats. They can see huge Lego Minifigures. One ride is named Coastersaurus. Coastersaurus is a roller coaster! The roller coaster goes through a jungle. Legoland California has a new parade this summer. The parade is named the Lego World Parade. This is the first Lego World Parade in North America. The Lego World Parade includes floats. One float looks like a Lego pirate ship! Another float looks like a Lego fire truck! The Lego World Parade includes performers too. The performers wear colorful costumes. They sing and dance in the Lego World Parade. Characters are in the Lego World Parade too. The characters are Lego Minifigures. Some of the Minifigures are characters from Lego Ninjago. Visitors can meet Lego Minifigure characters at Legoland California. They can take photos with the Lego Minifigure characters. Legoland California Resort is 25 years old in 2024. Legoland California is celebrating during 2024. Legoland California has a new area and new parade. People can visit Legoland California to celebrate too. Would you like to visit Legoland California Resort?

Lego Group

The Lego Group is a toy company. The Lego Group makes Lego bricks. The Lego Group started in 1932 in Denmark. The word Lego comes from two Danish words. The Danish words mean play well.

Place in the News

Carlsbad, California Legoland California Resort is in Carlsbad, California. Carlsbad is in southern California. Carlsbad is near the Pacific Ocean. Carlsbad is between two big cities in California. The cities are Los Angeles and San Diego.

I saw some salt trucks on lower wacker on the way home to streeterville, some police blocking off a large crowd off Chicago Avenue & state, and now 290 has some fire trucks and police making it one lane into the loop.
What’s going on?

We are just wrapping up a month (April 19th to May 18th) in Playa Flamingo. We had a great time, and did less than 10% of what we had bookmarked before arriving, but that’s a good thing and just enjoyed a Pura Vida life for a few weeks. This experience is applicable if you’re staying in Brasilito, Conchal, Flamingo, or Potrero.

• MyTanFeet got it right and you should trust their advice. Especially the videos.
• If you’re a vigilant and alert driver and don’t mind swerving (duck, dodge, weave, go with the flow and hang loose man), you’ll be fine. If you are 10 and 2 and stay perfectly in the lines and must obey traffic laws, don’t drive here. (I ended up doing all the driving). There are only lines on 1/3 of the paved roads, and only highways (2 lane roads) are paved. The side streets are all dirt and rock roads with variable ruts and pothole conditions (just go slow until you’re used to it). Small SUV is fine for clearance, but get something with a beefier engine with sport mode for hill acceleration. The Hyundai Tuscan was perfect, the Suzuki struggled badly.
• Only rent from Adobe. We had people visiting us for a week at a time and they had bad experience with Budget (arguing about insurance) and Avis (ran out of SUVs and downgraded to Sedan that we couldn’t get anywhere off-road with). I stopped by the local Adobe office twice, once to replace a windshield wiper that was worn out before thunderstorms. 10 mins in and out with a smile on their face. The second time we had pulled on the trunk handle when closing it and the inside panel of the hatch came loose. 3 guys hustled out of their office to look at it, and after 10 mins of no success they drove me home, and brought me a new car (same model) an hour later with no fuss and all paperwork pre-completed.
• Rainy season starts like a light switch on May 1st +/- a few days. It was sunny and 95 with great visibility, then turned hazy and now in mid May it’s like a tropical rainforest and everything is lush and trees are blooming. We only got “wet” 3-4 times during the month unexpectedly. Lots of lightning, minimal thunder. Territorial views help to see it coming.
• There are plenty of resorts and all inclusive, but just go to Hawaii or Cancun for that. We rented a 3 bedroom AirBnb with territorial views on south hill of Flamingo. Having a view on the hill is wayyy better than being on the beach. Lots more to see. And less bugs at night from the beach.
• Booked sailboat with Serendipity Charters lucky 13 (mixed group, semi-private charter) for a sunset cruise out of Flamingo Marina. We loved it so much we went two more times, had the same crew and met the owner and made new affluent friends on each trip. We saw the catamarans with 40 people on them and shook our heads. It’s like taking a smaller adults only dinner cruise vs a Carnival cruise ship. You can book direct on their website for better pricing than TripAdvisor. Don’t let the weather forecast scare you.
• In this area, assuming you want to eat a bit more local and not “at the resort”, our favorites were Gracia Mar Vista (although they were only open 1/3 of the several times we tried to go), Gracia La Vid (amazing wood fired pizza). The Potrero Brewery and the food truck style park was great too. Coco Loco has a cool vibe but we’re disappointed with food price per value. Margaritaville is 2x the price and, is a typical resort if that’s your thing.
• Book a date night in advance (several weeks probably) for Road Less Traveled in Potrero for the Chef’s Choice 9 course meal for the private chef experience with 4 stools at their kitchen island.
• Great soda restaurant experience, frequented Azul and Soda Brasilito.
• $40/hr massages on beach in front of Margaritaville. Look for yellow towel tables. Amazing and better than home.
• We drove to Tamarindo a few times. It’s where the ladies wanted to go shopping for trinkets and casual dresses. Farmers market was meh.
• Grocery prices in Flamingo are pricey. Do a stock up trip once or twice a week to Mega Súper past Huacas toward Tamarindo.
• Super market here means mini mart, Mega Super, Maxí Palí, and Walmart (Liberia) will feel more like home. They have 1/3-1/2 of what we find at home, so you may get creative or stick to simple foods. The meats we had were all great, just expensive. Cheese here is weird and expensive, possibly not pasteurized. The groceries that last a week at home only last 3 days here. Don’t overstock. Fresh fruits everywhere and tons of sliced pineapple, watermelon, etc to be found. The prices at the soda are significantly cheaper than groceries. Get snacks for groceries and eat your meals out.
• Language Barrier: Very few speak English, unless it relates to money or a food menu. The Google Translate app on your phone in conversation tab is your friend. We managed just fine.
• Currency Conversion: 500:1 is hard. Simpler method is to see something in thousands, just drop the 3 digits to the right of the comma separator and double it. 10,000 C = 10, x 2 = $20 USD. 3,250 C = $6.40 USD.
• Paying in Cash: We used cards for anyplace we went that had a roof. Use cash for anyone you pay on the street. Everyone takes US $10s and $20 bills. Bring $300-500 for trinket vendors, massages, etc. We never hit the ATM, and only got a few colones bills back, just paid in USD.
• Credit Cards: Every business, grocery store, and restaurant uses the same BAC (Bank of Costa Rica) credit card terminal that has a tap card. There are no pins, signatures and tipping. Tap your card and go. We used our Amazon Prime credit card here with no hassles.
• Beaches: Spring break or California beach? Tamarindo. Boogie boarding or low key sandy beach? Flamingo. Other beaches are okay, just not as great and many don’t have easy access/parking. We hoped for better snorkeling but it was sub par. All of the boat trips will let you snorkel and get your fix, but go to the Caribbean side for the cool stuff it sounds like.
• Weather Forecast: The apps don’t work since they don’t have weather services down here (ex. No radar). It’s all based on satellite images of storm intensity. Use Weather Underground to play back what it did for the last few hours and if there is a yellow or red cloud in your vicinity, expect to get wet. If you Google search for Hawaii coconut forecast, it’s pretty much that. Just keep your eyes on the skies and territorial view.
• Activities: We found our one way driving radius was an hour and a half. Anything East of Liberia was too far. This is mainly since the top speed you hit out here is about 50mph on winding backroads as we describe them in the US and no fousix lane highways, so it just takes awhile to get anywhere. We could have stayed overnight out there but just ran out of time and motivation to do it. That eliminated many of our bookmarks. We just lived the beach life and chilled in the pool.
• Rain Jackets and Swim Suits: Yes, you need a rain jacket. More importantly, bring 3-5 pairs of swim suits. Several pair are always drying outside. The rain here is warm so it’s easier just to get wet while wearing swim gear than trying to stay dry. We swear by the boxer brief lined swim trunks now.
• Shirts and Sweating: As thin and light as possible. The Under Armour tech tees and Willit sun shirts were my go to. My Roblox shirt was too thick. Cotton is a no go.
• Plane Landing at night (LIR): It’s disorienting here on your first night. Get a room at Hilton Garden Inn when you land, and book your Adobe car to pick up at the hotel the next morning around 8:30-9:00. They will meet you in the lobby with no fuss. Ask for a late check out and hit a nearby waterfall first thing in the morning and come back and shower before driving to the beach towns.
• Power Outages: It happens once or twice a day, comes back on in 30 seconds or 30 minutes. You get used to it, no stress.
• Diamante: It was okay, depends what you’re looking for. Only 5 zip lines even though one is Superman. I like the 10-12 Zips in the rainforest and this is more hill peak to hill peak zig zagging down. You can take an ATV tour out of Potrero up there for added exhilaration.
• Road Trip to Nosara: We randomly decided to do a drive down to Nosara. We took Route 160 out and 150 back. You want a miserable pot hole mostly dirt road adventure, 160 is it. That must have been what the roads used to be. White knuckled for 2 hours of it. 150 is freshly paved and was a saving grace coming home. Wasn’t too much to see that we hadn’t already experienced. Just got some lunch and drove back home.
• Length of Trip: If you’re not traveling around, 7-10 days is perfect. We did a month to test if we like long term travel. After 29 days, we’ve found that 14 is a sweet spot for us. If you stay longer and have family and friends come in for a week at a time, you will have different vibes and activity interests to re-discover or re-explore and keep it fresh.
• Traffic laws? You mean suggestions. Just add a few speed bumps where we want you to slow down and yield signs on one lane bridges. In straightaways outside of the towns, it’s fine to go 15-20 kph over the limit (others will be too). Watch for speed bumps in any 40kph zone. There are 14ish speed bumps on the 1.5hr drive between Liberia and Flamingo and a handful of yield or stop signs. Doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. Never saw a stop light. Just pass whatever is on the road (dog, person, biker, horse, kid, dirt bike with 3 people) when you can see ahead of you, don’t need a passing zone or sign to do it. If something is up ahead that you’re slowing down for, throw your flashers on. Turn em off when it moves. The end.
• Buying Stuff: Just like camping at home, you need to bring it with you. There is no Walgreens, only 7-11 equivalent places. You can get a few things at the corner store but there are no malls here or Amazon or deliveries. It makes you appreciate living “off the grid” in a way.
• Pura Vida: The rules and laws that exist down here are mostly non existent or suggestions. Just live life, preferably in the slow lane. They don’t complicate anything down here. It makes me realize how consumeristic and hectic and scare too easy we are in the states. You do you, they do them. You’ll see some funny stuff and have some stories (walking your horse while holding rope out the car window, dirt bike wheelies, 3 people on mopeds, etc.)
• Local Resident Vibe: The primary industry here is tourism. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming. You’re going to see low quality of living as you drive around (ex. Shanties), that’s just how they live here. We may call it poverty back in the states, but they are just living their life just like you are living yours. I never felt threatened or unsafe in any way. Only saw police twice in our entire trip, and they were just strolling around casually. The nicer the area, the more we avoided it. The more rustic it was, the more we were intrigued.

I hope it helps! Have a great trip!

What’s going on at Chapin L? Peoples alarms go off all the time but there’s actually cops and Setauket FD here