A scream rips through the middle of the night. Mordecai wakes up. He's always ready to react to the slightest sound of alarm. He grabs his rifle and runs towards the source. He's pinpointed it before he's processed everything. Then he finally realizes the location. The meaning behind it. Tina. Tina's screaming.
He leaps over the steps and knocks on her door.
"Tina!" he bangs on the door. There's no answer. You know what to do, Mordecai. He listens closely. You know how to handle this. "Tina, I'm going to open the door!" His right hand reaches for the sniper rifle as he kicks open the door. The door hasn't hit the wall before he's looking through the scope. Immediately in front of him-
"Mordy! My man. My dog. My main squeeze. How you doin', girl? Here to watch mah soaps? You are not gonna believe what Esteban's evil twin is doin'?"
In a barely stable wooden chair, the young girl squirmed in her seat. The glow of the TV was the only light in the room, but it was bright enough to reveal everything around her. She was alone.
The man looked at the TV. All static. It made sense, as there weren't many stations that even reached Pandora. He muttered to Tina.
"Eh, so, ah… soaps, ah?"
"You know it, boo! And I am not missing a minute of this it is sweeps week!"
"Weren't you just-"
"Hey yo that's cool and I'mma let you finish but Charity's pregnant and dat baby butt might be alien."
"So you weren't-"
"An alien, son! Do you want me to piss the intricacies of this story!? Sit or leave, Mordy. Sit or leave!"
Her eyes conveyed an almost violent seriousness about them. Quietly, silently, he closed the door.
Mordecai sighed as Brick walked up to him.
"She doing it again?"
"Yeah…"
Brick shook his head.
"I'm tellin' ya. She's not going to talk about it. We just need to let her deal with it for now."
"Can't get any sleep like this, man."
"You'll learn to sleep through it. Trust me."
Mordecai rubbed his head. The headache wasn't going to go away anytime soon. Brick motioned towards the other Resistance quarters and his friend began to walk back with him.
"What was she screaming this time, Mordy?"
"Eh? Oh… 'Mommy'. I think."
"That's good, I guess. Maybe means she's getting over Roland."
"I guess."