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the old-boy network, though disdained as politically incorrect, did exist, and it did help at times when needed.
Funny how we think in terms of film and television now, John thought.
People have ALWAYS used stories. From the beginning of time. It's ALL stories.
Scale of social order, he thought. The larger the group, the more likely it was that it would fragment under stress, with a few in power looking out for themselves first.
“But regarding the refugees, let’s just say, we’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse.” Charlie smiled. “That’s right, you’re from New Jersey originally.” John smiled.
So corny. Bleh
What I wouldn’t give for shrimp, chilled jumbo shrimp, a salad, a nice glass of chardonnay.” He looked up at her. “If you hadn’t saved my life, I think I’d tell you to shut up,” he said with a bit of a grin.
UMMMMM what? What an asshole thing to say. Acting like after so many days of boiled to death meats you wouldn't also like some seafood and a nice crisp salad...gtfo
Some might say I’m still an ‘outsider.’ ” “Damn it, Makala, don’t say that word again.”
Only mad about it because he knows her, when he thinks the same as her about everyone else.
We were spoiled unlike any generation in history, and we forgot completely just how dependent we were on the juice flowing through the wires, the buttons doing something when we pushed them.
It's not a BAD thing for our lives to be better. It's stupid to look down upon things that have MADE OUR LIVES BETTER
Look at how people are migrating even now; by instinct they’re following the interstate highways.
Instinct? Not at all because it's easier to travel a paved road that's already cut a path through mountains and forest? That's easier to push carts holding their small children? Not at all because of that? No? Just looking for a way to be smug? OK
“Well, we got married right after he graduated, two years ahead of me, and then the classic old routine,” Makala said with a sigh. “I switched majors to nursing to start the money rolling; the agreement was that once he got into residency I’d go back for pre-med.”
Makes no sense. If he had already graduated, that means he's (presumably) working as a doctor and the money is now rolling already.
“John, you hardly know me,” she smiled, “so don’t just judge by exteriors. I have my bad side, too.” “Well, I’ve yet to see it.
Why do people do this
“Now, with this? You think I’d want that worry on top of everything else? Suppose we did have children and I was up here the day it happened. I’d have been clawing through the tide of refugees to get back to Charlotte.” He nodded. The way she said “clawing through” told him a lot. She liked kids, maybe wished she had some, and had the instinct to kill to protect them, no matter whose they were.
Her character is not fleshed out so I can't say with any certainty, but what? Assuming he means to take this as a comfort for her being a part of his family later, what a WEIRD way to look at a person. Not to mention, she was gonna be a doctor, and is currently a nurse. THAT'S the easiest way you can tell she cares about people. Not "ah, yes, a Mother" ugh this is so dumb
Surprising how many nurses smoke.
Is it? Is it really? Or maybe if you worked for 36 straight hours you might also smoke just for the chance to take a 5 minute break, several times a day
She’s a sweet child. Not a twelve-year-old dressing, talking, and sometimes acting like she’s twenty-one. She still sleeps with Rabs in her arms, plays with Beanie Babies, reads a lot. The way perhaps twelve-year-olds were long ago. Rather nerdy actually.”
UGH more "kids today" bullshit. Has a stuffed animal and reads, that's BASIC 12 year old stuff. stfu
WE SHALL WIN THROUGH TO ULTIMATE VICTORY. GOD BLESS AND PRESERVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Gross and weird
“I feel like I’m in a bad movie or novel,” she sighed. “ ‘Long Live the King,’ or ‘Long Live Our Glorious Leader,’ or something like that should be on the board.” “We are nowhere near that yet,” John said coldly. “Might as well warn you now, I’m one of those old-style liberals who used to see conspiracies behind everything the right wing did.”
That's.....EXACTLY what the board said/did. What the hell, John
He had spoken to them more than once about the privileges they had. That kids their age were defending them on distant fronts even as they sat half-dozing in class.
Sanctimonious dick. Why do his students like him?
What had just happened with Makala? He wasn’t sure how to react to her now.
It's the apocalypse and she cried for two minutes. And THIS is his response????
“Isn’t this a little overboard?” John asked. “Hell, I know Washington’s a good man, a great man actually, but come on, Dan. What is he doing out there, getting turned on with old memories, like it’s Parris Island or Khe Sanh again?”
Couple chapters ago he had a hard-on for exactly this scenario.
But it was no different from what he used to talk about with such enthusiasm at the Civil War Roundtable and see at reenactments.
I LOVE IT....but jk when you people do it it's weird
Hard to believe, John, but rattlesnake shish kebab isn’t all that bad.
It really ain't
The group turned to face an American flag in the corner of the room and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, a ritual John had insisted on.
WHY?? He is so fuckin weird. There IS NO AMERICA anymore. Why the HELL would you do this
A healthy six-pound baby girl. Named Grace America Turnbill.” “Damn, that’s good,” Tom said out loud.
Is it? Is it really? Or is it weird blind patriotism?
living in a very pampered society where it was almost obligatory to have some sort of disorder.
Or....stay with me....science exists. And medicine advances. And we can more acutely diagnose things...
“Damn, this is starting to sound medieval,” Kate sighed. “We are medieval, Kate,” John shot back.
And yet...when someone else wants to do things, he says it's medieval with his voice dripping with disdain
She had sat in his 101 class only the semester before. Cute, yes, a bit sexy looking with her long blond hair, blue eyes, and tight blouses, but still just a kid to him now. His own daughter was not much more than two years younger.
Oh jk it's only the boy students who get mini biographies told about them. The women in his classes have no backstory, we're just told their measurements and whether or not they wore tight clothes. "Ah, yes, those women, the ones who are basically the same age as my daughter. I have noticed them. But only their bodies. I am a Good Man"
It was Brett Huffman, one of his ballplayers, a darn nice kid, backwoods type from up in Madison County. He had a baseball scholarship with a real interest in history and wanted to teach high school. A kid who was a natural leader and looked up to by his classmates.
Cool! Pretty well rounded backstory for a character who is never mentioned again and has no real purpose in the plot!
a man in a three-piece business suit, scuffed worn dress shoes, bandage around his head.
Ah. Simple. Descriptive. To the point. He's a refugee and all fucked up. I get it
A woman who reminded him a bit of Makala on the first night, with a very sexy gray business jacket and skirt, stockings still on but absolutely shredded, and heels knocked off her shoes to try to make them more walkable, was limping along.
BUT WAIT. A /FEMALE/ refugee...he just HAS to describe whether or not she's sexy
“Hi, my name’s Carol,” she said, and moved towards the median barrier, her hand extended. He could see the lost world in her. Sharp professional-looking woman, intelligent face, sexy and using it to her advantage, the hand extended for a warm handshake to start the meeting … which she was used to having go her way.
Don't forget! She's sexy! So sexy! It's absolutely heartbreaking! Because she's sexy! And uses it!
It was a delivery, a sales pitch, cool, professional, and listening to her broke his heart. She actually was used to winning that way and believed it would work now.
Yes? How fuckin weird that people who are LOST IN AN APOCALYPSE don't know how to act or what to do. How fuckin weird, right?! Poor, poor people. If only they had been Smart Like John
“Don’t do this to myself?” she cried, her voice rising to near hysteria. “Offer you a piece to stay alive? Three nights ago I was raped. Raped by four men who said they had some food hidden in a shack. I half-expected it but was so damn hungry I no longer cared. Do you hear that?” “I’m sorry.”
Unbelievable dialogue. So dumb. SO. DUMB.
“Oh, damn, Jen, not now, not today, I don’t even want to think about it in relation to her.” “Few fathers do. But frankly, my son-in-law, I think your sixteen-year-old daughter is now, how shall we say, a woman.” “Jesus, don’t even talk to me about this now.”
UGH. The WORST kind of father. THE. WORST. OK not The Worst, but still. Not good. Not good parenting right there
The two frequencies of Voice of America were talking daily about the first harvests coming in from the southern Midwest, of cattle being driven, and it all sounded to him like the old Chinese and Soviet broadcasts of the Cold War when they boasted daily about their great strides even while people lived in squalor and indeed did die of starvation.
Yes. You know what that's called? Relating your experience to a story! Funny how it's only OK when he does it. But it's absurd when others do
He knew Makala was interested in him; in a vastly different world they would definitely have been dating, but not now.
LOL k
“Daddy, that’s all over now. All over.” He looked up at her. She had always been slender, like her mom, but was even more so now.
Slender is the wrong word to use here. For a lot of reasons
so many more of his kids, as John had once called them.
You're not allowed to call them your kids and then describe all the women as sexual objects. You're a creep.
the road that had been his daily commute for so many years.
No one cares. How many times do we have to hear about how he used to do things before the apocalypse. We all assume that you probably had a daily commute and also more variety of food in the town you lived in before the world ended, thanks.
