Quaranteam: Remote Work Ch. 02

The angry roar continued. "You aren't getting away with that, Adam! You still owe me, hand it over or I'm calling the cops!"

"One, the picture frame you made was both the wrong size and obviously shoddy, so I didn't accept it. Two, the cops aren't coming for something like that. Not with the plagues going on, not without a written contract."

"Come off that, they're hoaxes! Fake news to make cowards like you cower in their little hidey holes. You still owe me!"

"And that brings me to point three." AJ pressed something on his phone, and the speaker suddenly sounded off with a hideously realistic imitation of a shotgun racking. "I just survived two weeks in the hospital over that so-called 'hoax' right after a home invasion. Keep pounding on that door, in a castle doctrine state, and Mr. Mossberg will begin to take offense. Stop."

"You wouldn't! I know you, you couldn't shoot a gun if your life depended on it!"

"Funny thing, I found out that my life could depend on it and my mind changed. Last warning." There was a pregnant pause, followed by the sounds of stomping footsteps. Adam breathed out sharply. "Sorry you had to get that particular introduction so soon, Shannon. I was hoping he'd think I was dead and leave me be."

She was looking at him oddly. "What... what would you have done if he'd pressed the issue? Do you own an actual shotgun?"

"Nope. Would have called the police to report a second home invader and talked a delay. Gus is twice as dense as Chad and eight times as angry, but he most likely wouldn't press the issue if he thought he could catch a chest full of buckshot at point blank over it."

There was silence for a moment. "Um. Okay, Oracle profiles definitely don't talk about the neighborhood. Seems like an oversight. Are they all like that?"

"Welcome to Yelm. We get a really mixed bag out here, not like Lacey or Olympia or Seattle. People feel strongly and believe powerfully. The place can be an amazing one, but the last four years have seen the worst of it come out. It is a place where neighbors help neighbors and people remember where they came from, but it's also a place where all quarantine and vaccination orders were made strictly voluntary no matter what the state said. It can be a lot, but it's home."

"You have a talent for understatement, AJ. It's definitely a lot, kind of glad I don't go out much. Even before DuoHalo was a thing."

"To be fair, same. My job is helping people. I teach young adults to be better citizens of their city, state, nation, and world. All I can hope for is that the people I teach go on to spread what is good about this place and realize which parts need to be left behind. I won't always succeed, but where I do I help repair the world that much more."

What a strange life that man led. One that would only get stranger.