It took the bears awo hours to colleough material to fill the truck. Unfortunately, Sharron decided to use that time in order to try and find something to help me rex, and I found her choices… questionable.

  “You shot my radio!” Sharron pouted, as she poked the little disposable device she’d just plopped down on the roof of my truck.

  “What the hell was that?” I replied, unwilling to lower my rifle just in case the radio had any life left in it. “It sounded like someorying to skin a cat with a saw. I thought it was some sort of sonic attack.”

  “Neo Metal isn’t that bad,” Sharroed. “It has nice percussion and rhythm.”

  “I could feel the vibration through my skull. How could you find that rexing?”

  She shrugged, “I grew up listening to it. Guess when you listen to jackhammers and other mining equipment all day you don’t mind the heavy percussion.”

  I stared at her for a long minute, pletely unsure if she was joking, or being serious, before putting my rifle away. “How about we try and e up with ideas that don’t involve music, or fshing lights, or loud noises.”

  “That’s no problem. Since we’ve got a little time to spare, how about a video game we could py together in s. The most popur are… Antithesis killer twenty-seven, samurai simutor sixteen, ah dealer: Shoot a man.” She frowned, her eyes flicked for several seds. “What the hell? Isn’t there a single non-violent option here? Hoeople supposed to rex with shit like this?”

  “Wait, haven’t you pyed one before? Why did you reend it then?”

  She shrugged, “I wasn’t allowed to use my augs for that when I was an iured servant for the mining pany, and I was kind of busy killing antithesis after that. I’m sure there are some good options in there somewhere, I just need some time to find it.” She then proceeded to spend the hour and a half trying to find something. Five minutes in I sidered remindihat her AI could probably help, but I also kinda wanted some time to recover from her music. So the remaining time passed in rexing silence.

  Shanno so much time in her augs, that I had to poke her to get her attentio was time to leave. “Every single game I found, that wasn’t super-violent or for adrenaline junkies, was either for someone of Issi's age, or heavily branded. More often than not, it was both,” she hissed, obviously more than a little pissed that she didn’t have anything to show for her efforts.

  “Don’t worry about it now,” I replied. “The bears mao fill the truck, so it’s time to head home.”

  She grumbled some obsities under her breath but, in the end, nodded and started pag her stuff into her RV.

  I watched the bears carefully store the new rigs into the colle truck, before I climbed into the y truck. I’d seetle guys do up enough times to know they didn’t need my supervision. I just waited for Sharron to let me know she was ready, before heading bae.

  The area around the shelter was even more crowded than when I left. It seemed like there were alls popping up by the hour. “Nyx, are there going to be enough bears to provide security around the shelter?”

  It was my uanding that you were going to attempt to fihings to worry about. I easily monitor the tinued development of your forces, and their deployment around the area, without your ht. Rest assured, there will be no gaps in the ce.

  I bli the reply. “Oh, well, that’s good then.” I gnced back down into the street briefly, and caught sight of a couple bears walking around, just before the truck pulled into the shelter.

  The bears were busy anizing things, and a new squad of squirrels just finished printing. I briefly sidered cheg ohing, until I remembered, once again, I was supposed to be rexing. With a pout, I jumped out of my trud waited for Sharron to nd. I could faintly hear the horrible screech-thumping noise right up until she turhe RV off, and promised myself I’d ravel with her, unless it was areme emergency. The girl jumped out, once again her usual cheerful self, and headed over to where I was waiting.

  “So… what’s first? I promised you a barbeque right? And bames? Maybe movies too. So much to do!” She bounced on the balls of her feet, seemingly full of energy.

  I o use the full extent of my willpower to keep myself from grabbing my forehead and sighing, instead I put on a small smile. “So… where do we start then?”

  “Defihe barbeque. For that we need some quality imitatio products, and a grill. I buy a quality grill, and attach it to the bay RV, if you buy the food.”

  I nodded, still unsure exactly what was so exg, or rexing, about a BBQ and turo Spooky. “Nyx, I apparently need some quality meat-like products.”

  “Easily done. Would you like a bination of chi, pork and beef?”

  “Yes!” Sharron shouted to me from the back of her RV, where a massive metal box had appeared. She appeared to be iing it, fiddling with the dials on the front, and flipping the lid open and closed, when a cooler appeared at her feet. Sharron flipped the lid and dug through the tents happily. “You should let the others know what the pn is. Make sure they don’t fill up on snacks.”

  “We don’t really have… you know what? Ok. Be right back.” I walked through the garage, and into the residence. Jane and An, who were discussing things at the table, looked up when I walked in.

  “Howdy people, what’s happening?” I asked.

  Jane just raised her eyebrow. “You’re awfully cheerful… what did you do this time?”

  I shrugged, “Apparently I’ve been doing too much tely, so I’m on vacation, starting today. Also Sharron’s in the garage preparing a barbeque, because apparently that’s something people do to rex, followed by bad movies and bames. So that’s a thing.”

  “You know you could have called ahead to let us know this was happening, instead of springing it on everyone,” An said with a shake of his head.

  “Oh yeah… I do have that option don’t I? Well, I figured it wouldn’t be a huge deal, since we rarely have anything o eat, and I haven’t had time to sit down with everyoely.”

  Jane just grabbed her forehead. “It’s fine. We didn’t have anything pnned for tonight.” After a moment she sat up and pointed in my dire. “I’ll collect the kids, a some dishes. You really o remember that you call us directly, instead of relying on Nyx for everything.”

  Jane quickly left the table, leaving to go collect the kids, leaving An and I alone. He just looked at me in silence, a disapproving look on his face. “Stop that, or your face will stay that way… if it hasn’t already,” I quipped, before turning on my heels and heading back to the garage. It was half to snub him, half to hide my embarrassment of fetting I had augs, again.

  When I stepped back outside I was surprised by how much the area had ged. Sharron had moved her RV a couple feet from the door a up her ‘grill’ along with a couple foldable tables and a set of chairs. She’d even run a couple strings of lights from the RV to the wall.

  “The hell is this?” I asked, staring at the yout.

  “If yoing to hold a barbeque you o do it right, setup uhe night sky with patio furniture and fairy lights,” she said with a grin.

  “We’re not outside. We’re inside a building, uhe ground. That’s probably the farthest from outside you get,” I replied. I knew she was doing this for my be, but what she was saying was so crazy it was giving me a headache.

  “Well, it’s as close as we’re going to get. I’m sure the kids will enjoy the atmosphere, and all you have to do is sit and rex.” Shannon pushed me into one of the chairs, reached into the cooler, and pulled out some sort of beverage, and pushed it into my hand. “I’ll let the rest of your family out, grill some meat, have some beverages, and have a wonderful time. Rex!” She waggled her fi me, before running over to the resideo let everyo. In the bay head I could already see Eddie, that little troublemaker, trying to sneak ay with the tech. Or Issi getting distracted by the bears.

  I slumped into the chair and started anizing the bears to ensure no-o hurt. It was a very stressful start to my so-called rexing night.