“I will do it,” Tomasz says. He flicks on the lighter, holding it above his head to light the aisle.
“Not so high,” Regine says. “It can be seen from the front.”
“Oho,” Tomasz says. “All the advice now, but there is nothing when Tomasz is lighting the grass on fire and saving all our lives. Oh, thank you, Tomasz, thank you so much for your clever idea which lets us get away. Ow!”
He drops the lighter and sticks two burnt fingers in his mouth.
“Yeah,” Regine says. “Thanks so much, genius.”
“You are welcome,” Tomasz says through a mouthful of fingers. Regine starts patting around the floor in the gloom to find the lighter again.
“Why is this particular lighter so important?” Seth asks.
“Because it works,” she says, finding it and flicking it on. “These things are basically alcohol. You know how many hundreds I tried before I found one that wasn’t evaporated? Now, take off your shirt.”
Seth blinks at her.
“Your chest, stupid,” she says. “You’re walking and talking, so I’m guessing you’re fine, but we might as well see.”
Seth hesitates, suddenly shy.
Regine frowns. “We’ve already seen you showering.”
“And more!” Tomasz says.
Regine switches the lighter to her other hand. She gives him a mischievous look. “I’m not asking you out on a date or anything.”
“It wouldn’t matter if you did,” Seth says, the words coming out almost as a reflex. “I don’t date girls.”
Her face drops immediately. “You mean you don’t date fat girls.”
“No, that’s not –”
“I can see you thinking it. How can she still be so fat in a world where there’s hardly any food? How fat must she have been to start with?”
Seth starts to argue but stops. He didn’t think that. But it does beg a larger question. “How long have you been here?”
“Five months, eleven days,” Tomasz says.
“Long enough,” Regine says at exactly the same time.
There’s silence for a moment, as Seth doesn’t know what to say, so finally, he just says, “No, I meant I don’t date girls. Any girls.”
Regine holds up the lighter to look at him, understanding now. “So what you’re saying is, if we’re going to repopulate the planet, it’s up to me and this little Polish person?”
“What?” Tomasz says, confused. “What are you saying? I am not following.”
“He dates boys,” Regine says.
“Does he?” Tomasz says, fascinated. “I have long wondered how this works. I have many questions for you –”
“Just let me see your chest before he goes off on one,” she says to Seth. “Please.”
In the light of the flame, all they can see on Seth’s skin are the beginnings of a bruise and maybe some redness.
“How can this be?” Tomasz says. “It knocked you all the way across the room.”
“I know,” Seth says. “I thought I’d have ribs sticking out my back.”
Regine shrugs. “Maybe it didn’t hit you that hard?”
Seth gives her a look.
“I don’t know,” she says. “Just be happy.” Her voice has gone irritable again, and she starts making her way down the aisle, deeper into the store. “Is there anything here to drink?”
“You could be a little friendlier, you know,” Seth says. “We’re all in this together.”
She faces him, the flame shining off her sweaty cheeks. “Are we now? Because I thought me and Tommy weren’t really here. And if we’re not, then there’s not a lot of point being friendly to you, is there? Not when you make brilliant moves like the one back at the house that nearly got us all killed. Thank God for us not being there, eh?”
“But we are okay!” Tomasz says. “Thanks to myself.”
“Well, if I knew what was going on,” Seth says, “instead of all this stupid mystery –”
“You want answers?” she says challengingly.
“Regine,” Tomasz says carefully. “He is maybe not ready.”
“Nope,” she says. “He asked. So I’ll tell him.”
“Tell me what?” Seth says.
She stares at him, the flame flickering between them. “This world? This hell you think we’re in?”
“Regine,” Tomasz says. “Stop.”
But she presses on. “This isn’t hell, Mr. You’re Not Here So I Hope You Don’t Mind If I Kill You. Everything you’re remembering, everything you’re dreaming, every stupid little bit of life you can ever recall living?” She leans into the flame until her eyes look like they have their own fires burning in them. “That was hell.”
“It was not,” Tomasz says, firmly.
“It was and you know it,” she says. “But this here” – she gestures to encompass the store, the empty streets beyond, the Driver, which is still undoubtedly out there somewhere looking for them –“this is the real world. This here. This.”
She slaps Seth across the face. “Hey!” he shouts.
“Feel that?” she says. “That’s as real as it gets, baby.”
Seth puts his hand up to the sting spreading through his cheek. “What’d you do that for?”
“You didn’t die and wake up in hell,” she says. “All you did was wake up.”
She clicks off the lighter and heads into the darkness.
“Wake up from what?” Seth says, going after her.
She stops in front of the bottled water, her eyes wide. Without a word, she and Tomasz start searching through the bottles, holding them up to the lighter flame, discarding the discolored or empty ones.
“Don’t you have a supermarket in your neighborhood?” Seth asks, a little shocked at how vigorously they’re attacking the shelves.
“The big one near us is totally empty,” Regine says.
“Which leaves only small corner shops and markets called Something Express,” Tomasz says, drinking out of a bottle.
“But you’re only a couple miles away,” Seth says, taking a bottle and drinking, too, only realizing as he does how thirsty he is. “Didn’t you come looking?”
“Not with the Driver on patrol,” Regine says. “It’s all been undercover, house to house and keeping quiet and trying not to be seen. Which we did fine until today.”