Whatever was happening on the other side of the barrier looked chaotic. People running around, pointing at things, maybe yelling. Jin suspected they were having a different crisis in that dome, maybe even dealing with different rules. It felt weird to watch them like that when he couldn't do anything about it. And anyway, Freya was busy and couldn't talk.

He put off talking to the Colonel for hours, even so.

Finally, he dragged his feet to the mess hall where Colonel Huppert sat with his boring friends, talking and laughing about boring stuff. Jin dragged a chair out and turned it round to sit on it in a way adults in his life always told him was obnoxious. He didn't say anything, but that movement was enough to get the Colonel's attention.

"Ah, Jin, I see you've come to converse with me about our new rule," the colonel said.

"What are we going to do about it?" Jin asked.

"What can we do about it? It seems to me the rules in this place are absolute." The colonel leaned forward and stopped with annoying smug smile he usually had on his face. "We follow or we die. Though I suppose we can give some lessons on weapons safety to limit the damage."

One of the colonel's friends whispered something in his ear, and Jin rolled his eyes and ignored it.

"We could set up a shooting range. And watch people every moment of the day to make sure they don't do anything wrong," Jin said.

"If you think that would help."

The smirk was back. It drove Jin crazy. He shook his hair into his face so he couldn't have to see as much of it.

"Apparently your pretty new friend now has a gun in her possession," the colonel said. "Perhaps you can help her make use of your hypothetical shooting range."

"What are you talking about?"

"The delicate brunette with the long legs."

"Angharad? She has a gun?"

"The good doctor overheard something about it and was kind enough to inform me. It seemed appropriate to pass the news on to you as well."

Jin nearly stumbled getting out of his chair. "I have to talk to someone."

*

Tabitha was not in neutral territory. She was on her side of Zapville and refused to budge. She pointed to the line they'd made, already getting fuzzy under so many people's footsteps, and smiled so wide it made his fist clench with the urge to make her stop.

"We need to talk," he yelled.

"If you go over the line, I'll shoot you."

"We need to talk about Angharad."

Tabitha's face went dark and she scuttled closer to the line. Hissed at him, "You better not try anything with her. She's the only person here other than me that understands what it's like to have wealth and taste. I don't want you getting her dirty."

"I only like girls that can beat a man to death with their bare hands. She's too nice for me."

Tabitha crossed her arms. "Yeah, you bet she is."

"The weapons rule means every psycho looking for someone vulnerable to hit is going to think she's the perfect victim now that they have, I don't know, whatever stupid stuff this place gave them. It gave her some kind of gun so it probably gave someone else a rocket launcher, just to make everything difficult."

Tabitha looked him up and down, stiff and sour from her face down to her feet. "You want me to teach her how to shoot."

"I could teach her but she's not strong enough. You need to make her do push ups or something first."

"Sure, so her wimpy arms can learn to handle the recoil."

He nodded.

Tabitha breathed in deep, breathed out, then rolled her head about and uncrossed her arms. "Fine. We can work together on this. I can turn girl time into strength training and you can set up a place for her to learn how to handle whatever kind of gun she has."

"Great."

"I notice you're not asking Josephine about this. She is useless around pretty girls, though. It makes sense."

"I don't think she remembers most girls can't do pull ups. Angharad was in a coma. She probably lost muscle mass. She needs to gain weight. I'll make her eat protein bars."

Tabitha sighed again, really dramatically. "Don't tell her you're going to force-feed her. That's weird. Girls like being skinny, okay? But, sure, we'll work together on this. I'm still going to kill you if you come over my side of the line."

"Not if I kill you first."