Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia (Zoey Ashe #3)

by Jason Pargin

Zoey followed DeeDee after properly reassuring herself that her legs worked. They got only mildly curious glances from the sex workers and it seemed clear that DeeDee was familiar to them. They passed the neon-lit trailers and were now walking among makeshift tents, presumably where the residents slept in between shifts. Everything stank of urine and wet trash. All along the ground were discarded Iso patches, purple and pink and red. Slap one on and it would dispense the drug into your bloodstream at perfect intervals to keep the euphoria humming for about eight hours, until it was time for a new patch. Within four hours without one, you’d feel like you had the flu. Four hours after that, your insides would spasm and twist until there was nothing left in your bowels. When you took on an Iso habit, Zoey had been told, it was like you’d had a major organ removed and only those colorful patches could replace its function. DeeDee said, “I see the disgust on your face. You know, Leo Damon got famous coming to places like this? Getting the trash and human waste on-camera, saying, ‘See, look at these subhumans, living like animals, wallowing in filth.’ Like anybody wants to live like this, like they’re getting away with something.” Zoey said, “You could get a dozen Ivy League lawyers, make them live out on a patch of land cut off from their money, get them hooked on opioid patches, and within a day it’d look just as bad. No trash-pickup services, no running water, no sewer lines....