Black (Veil) Ops

Jonah banged around in the kitchen for a bit, and had slapped together a pretty decent breakfast of sausage, eggs, and potatoes. Sammi had been dead on in her approximation that we'd all be in a better mood once we'd eaten.

"So now what?" Ash asked of no one in particular.

"Damned if I know," CC replied from where he was sitting, half-reclined on the floor.

"Well...we could try to get Ashley here drunk, then watch and see if he does anything stupid," Jonah offered.

"As amusing as that might be, I for one, am going to have to decline," Ash said. "Besides, if that sort of thing's what you want to see, just keep an eye on Jake and CC for a while, something stupid's bound to happen."

"Hey now, be nice," Sammi laughed.

"Or we could just sit around here, and wait for the cops to show up and arrest us," Andy pointed out from behind another cigarette.

"Well somebody's a ray of sunshine this morning," Jinxx observed from a safe distance. Andy's temper had a mind of it's own at times.

"Just pointing out the obvious."

During most of this exchange I had been staring aimlessly at the walls. Just plain white walls. All of a sudden, a lightbulb flicked on in my mind. "Anybody got a Sharpie on them?" I asked, standing up.

"Yeah, why?" Ash asked.

"Just give it to me, I've got an idea."

"Four of the scariest words you could say to me," Ash said, tossing me the marker.

"Yeah," Jake added, "Right up there with 'I have a plan', 'Andy's trying to fly', and 'Trust me on this'."

"You're hilarious Jake," I said, as I turned to the wall and wrote 'YOU ARE HERE' in big letters. I drew a bubble around it and turned back to my audience. "Were are we?" I asked.

"Come again?" Jake asked tilting his head to the side.

"Were are we? What's our basic situation, our point A, our Tabula Rassa as it were?"

"Don't you start with your big fancy book-learnin' words again Carolyn," CC jokingly warned me. "That's were we start losing you."

"That being said," Andy interjected, "Tabula Rassa, we're fucked."

"Alright it's a start, at least," I turned back to the wall and scribbled 'WE'RE FUCKED' on it next to 'YOU ARE HERE'. "Okay, now we need to know why? Suggestions?"

"Because Andy got his ass stuck in a mental hospital?" CC laughed.

"Because we're idiots," Jake added, smiling like a Cheshire cat.

"Because gnomes can't play baseball," Andy suggested in mock seriousness.

I had to stop a few times as I wrote these, and other suggestions, on the wall, to keep my laughter from making my already fluctuating handwriting from becoming illegible. "And let's not forget, 'Silverton's a tool',"I added as I finished writing.

"So now what?" Jonah asked.

"I don't know. There has to be something we're missing...something we can use to....I don't even know." I slumped to the ground, leaning my head onto my arm.

We sat there studying the wall like scientists study an equation on a chalkboard.

"What if we..." Jinxx started to say, "Nah, fuck that. It would never work."

After a good hour or more, Jake stood up. "I gotta pee," he muttered, walking out of the room.

"K, have fun," CC said, still not taking his eyes off the board.

"Hey," I called after him, "Mention my name, you'll get a good seat!"