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dacemegen-a

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New York-- or what's left of it-- is starting to piss Jennifer off.

At least, this year her name has mostly been Jennifer.

She's gone by others, in the past. A lot of others.

Getting back to New York, however: first of all, it's New fucking York. Not Norak, not Station Twenty-Eight-- New York, with cars that run on gasoline and no buildings higher than about a hundred stories. (She hasn't bothered counting, and anyways, half of them appear to have fallen down).

The second problem is that it's full of carnivorous plant life. She lost her shoes the first day and switched out her gloves the second, because the advantage her fingers and toes give to climbing is severely hampered by any attempt to hide them, and currently being inconspicuous is taking a backseat to being alive. So fingerless gloves and toe socks with the ends cut off it is.

Which is how she's currently dangling from a rooftop by her feet, staring down at three rustling green things and calculating her odds of survival if she tries to take them on all at once.

It doesn't look good.

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"If I did, I'd be there."

Surprisingly, it's said with only mild sarcasm.

"City's overrun with man-eating plants. Safe places're not really that likely around here."

Speaking of whichc, she's going to pick up her triffid carcasses and duck inside the building to head up the stairs. A height advantage is one of the few things resembling safety still available.

"How long have you been here, then? Can't we leave?"

Leaving sounds like the best option. Unless the plants are everywhere, in which case this sucks more than anything before in her life.

"If there's a way to leave, I haven't seen it yet."

DMG-A, being on the stairs and therefore out of sight, can't comment.

"Second option, then..." she mutters with a sigh.

"Now I wish I was more in shape."

"Could be worse. Could be dinosaurs."

Stairs.

Jessica thinks that over.

"If they were herbivorous, it might not be worse."

She checks the hallway for their third.

"Well. Presume they'd be carnivorous."

"There were more herbivorous dinosaurs than otherwise," points out the door to the roof as it opens to admit DMG-A.

"A city of only carnivorous dinosaurs makes about as much sense as a city of carnivorous trees," Jessica concludes. "Hypothetically speaking."

"More sense, even. More carnivorous dinosaurs than there were carnivorous trees."

"I think the carnivorous trees would disagree with you there," says DACEMEGEN-A sensibly.

"I don't think a census would matter. Anyway, shouldn't we go?"

"If we're feeling like especially morally upright citizens, we should probably search the city for more survivors."

"Isn't that the army's job?

"And if they couldn't do it, what makes you think we could?"

Except maybe the finger woman.

"I've been here a week," comments DMG-A. "There are no other survivors."

"You've seen the whole city?"

"What's left of it. There's a whole lot of blown-up nothing out that way, stuff gets a little more intact over there, and that's the ocean." With nods in the appropriate directions.

"Don't go near the ocean. There's things in the water. I wouldn't bet a gnat's fart on the life of anyone who stayed there for longer than it takes to see the water and get the fuck out again."

"So... we're stuck. Until we die."

"Such a chirpy girl. If we're stuck here, then we should find a shelter. Fortify it, see if we can get water. Carnivorous trees for stew. We may die of malnutrition."

"I tried the fortification thing and it didn't go so well. Maybe now that we've got more manpower we'll have something of an advantage. Better than sitting on our asses and waiting for the trees to get us, at least."

"I don't suppose we can call out on a cell?" That would involve something good, which is apparently against the laws of the universe here.

"Or find some cigarettes, at least. Either way, we're going to have to search for a place with clean, running water if we want to survive. I don't think most of the taps here are still intact."