02/09/21 Snippet, [Title TBD]

Post-apocalyptic living! With restaurants!

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In front of them was what was becoming an impressive enough bustle. The parking lots surrounding the college had long since been stripped of whatever cars that hadn’t been melted down to the asphalt or imploded into heavy metal balls in the first days of the return of magic; now the spaces were hosting something that was halfway between a collection of tents and shelters and actual streets of shops. There were more people around then there had been, too; most still dressed in garments from the Before Times, but the salvage was starting to run out and work was a lot harder on your clothes.

But everybody was clean and nobody was obviously starving, which was something Janet took some personal pride in. Meetings or not, the Emergency Council was doing the job. There were a lot of places where people hadn’t, starting with uptown Portland itself. But Janet didn’t like to think about that. It was too easy to end up thinking about all the horrors implied in the phrase ‘the end of the world.’

Her thoughts were interrupted by Elizabeth. “Hey! Janet! Lunch?”

Janet blinked. “Sure. Try the new BBQ place?” Venison had been the first red meat to go off the emergency ration list, and still the most common.