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18 MONTHS LATER
EVERYONE thought the Cooperative was coming to save them a year ago. They never did. Nuclear winter came, and it finished off anything left alive from the bombs.
The only thing that changed about Coraline Avery was that she was another year into her twenties. The rest of her life had become continuous. Her visions were coming sparingly now, almost one every four months. She wondered if there was some kind of barrier in her mind now, but truthfully, she hardly knew a thing about her visions anyways, even after all these years. Throughout the past eighteen months, her previous one continued. She kept reliving the black eyes arriving to Outpost 3. After seeing the same pair for several months, one would think she would have an inkling of who the person was. But she had nothing. You could only assume so much from black eyes and a white face.
Miriam Mead still didn't remember a goddamn thing about her. At this point, Coraline was convinced Ms. Mead either blocked out every memory she had with Coraline, or she was simply playing a game with her. Sometimes, Coraline would mention small memories she had of Miriam to her, but the older woman would give her a perplexed expression and walk away. She looked at Coraline like she did recognize — deep down — but still ... she refused to acknowledge it. It was so frustrating. Out of all people for Coraline to be stuck with after the Apocalypse, it was her Satanic neighbor from high school, and the woman somehow didn't remember her.
The no sex rule, or she should say the "no unauthorized copulation" rule, grew on her over time. Coraline didn't have sex with a lot of people before the End, unless alcohol was involved – then she became dangerous. But upon entering this enclosed facility, she thought that maybe – just maybe – she could've found the love of her life here. Call her old-fashioned, but in the means of the end of the world, she started to think irrationally. She was hoping her life would end up like those young adult romance novels she used to read.
She was dead wrong. Most of the men encapsulating the facility were gay. No luck, no fairytale ending. Her finger became her best friend, even though she wasn't a fan of masturbation. She would simply do it in the confines of her bedroom, mainly in her bathtub, because God knows she had all the time in the world now. While the earth got cold and deadlier, Coraline sat in her warm tub, thinking about the men she used to kiss and trying to get herself off. It was so much work, even with the entertaining thoughts of Gabriel, who was probably a pile of ash now.
These were truly desperate times.
She tried her best to get used to her new house mates, but eighteen months didn't do that much. Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt was probably the most annoying human life form that Coraline had ever met, one that totally didn't deserve to survive the fallout. She never shut up and would constantly bring up to Coraline that she looked like she "didn't belong there." Coraline didn't care about her opinion, because while she had lost everything, she did have a lot of money once, but explaining that part would cause Coco's puny brain to melt.
