"That's a 1975 Dodge Sportsman, with a 440 cubic inch engine. No electronics, no computers, full analog system, and that model engine is famous for being tough and reliable so it should do fine in the badlands." Chang Wong wouldn't have been a salesman for a living in 6000 years, but enjoyed occasionally playing one.

"We do plan to cross a yellow zone... and adding a gasifier to a 440 is easy, yeah. Okay, what's wrong with it?" The prospective buyer was tall, wide, white, fuzzy, and nervous enough that his ears were twitching.

"We think the fuel line and maybe the fuel pump. Basically if you can get it to start, you can drive it off."

"Leave it to me. How much?"

"Two hundred nicks - eh, two thousand dollars."

"Done."

Chang Wong shook hands with the stranger and took the handful of bills. There were still some Nick notes in the stack, most of which had Carpathia's face defaced in some way, but most of the bills were proper dollars, featuring Jefferson or Franklin or Alfred Scard. Furthermore, this was the last vehicle to get rid of; the Children of the Tribulation site had slowly turned from a bivouac of vehicles huddling against a derelict strip mall into something that could be properly called a campus, albeit a small one. The planned building was square-shaped, with an interior garden taking up what used to be the strip mall's parking lot.

For now the only hint of the new construction was wooden scaffolding, but the plan was to get the job done in a year. With the Roszenweig Foundation matching local donations two to one, it had been relatively easy. Tanya had left; Chicago these days was almost civilized, and she found it boring - Lionel had finally taken his leave as well, pretty much chasing after the former militiawoman. Finding new staff was no longer a problem.

Chicago still had some ruins to explore, especially in the sections that had been maybe-nuked-maybe-not in the beginning of the Tribulation, but the time when scavenging runs were necessary was long past. Had it only been eighteen months? Well, Carpathia had managed to literally conquer the world in eighteen months, and in retrospect he had been a complete idiot, so, why not. For now, Chang sent the RV buyer on his way and got back to the small workshop that served COT's needs as well as the network node's.

COT was its own network node now, so he and Naomi were in the odd position of drawing a salary from CATS and one from COT. The former was sufficient for daily needs, so the two had simply not been drawing their COT pay in lieu of a tithe. It worked well for everybody. It also meant that Chang didn't have to directly work with the kids unless he wanted to or unless there was an emergency. Any day now, Naomi would find his marriage proposal, hidden in a randomized Zelda game...

Speaking of which, there was Anthony. The kid was antisocial enough to want to play videogames rather than play with most of the others, and approachable enough to talk to Chang without being intimidated: apparently "gamer" and "nongamer" were more important categories than "fellow kid" and "grownup".

"Heya."

"Sup. Whatcha working on?"

"Not a lot. Trying to fix a SNES game."

"Can I see?"

"Sure."

"Super 3D Noah's Ark! I heard about this one! It's a Wolfenstein 3D clone!"

"... and how did you find out about Wolf 3D?"

Anthony gave Chang a meaningful look. Chang returned a grin. Of course he'd figure out how to bypass the ethernet filter. "Anyway, Judd wants to set up activities centered about Noah's Ark, so I figure this fits. Apparently we're getting a professor from Australia come in, dress up as Noah, and tell the story of the Flood. Want to give me a hand?" The game console came to life. "We got three SNES... SNESes... SNESi? so I want to clone this cartridge twice so people can race each other." Chang pointed to a number of scattered components and several cartridges damaged beyond repair. "You can copy the circuit I have on the bench, it just neds all the contacts soldered on. Then make another one."

The kid was still a little intimidated by the soldering iron; he immediately put on a serious expression. "Doesn't have much to do with Noah. I mean, it's a Bible story, why bother trussing it up? We've read it at least four times already."

"What would you rather? Noah come back from Heaven and tell it to you?"

"Nah, doesn't sound that much better. A logistics sim would be cool! Build the ark from components, figure out the best fit for the various critters, set up provisions..." Anthony put down the iron for a moment.

"So... something like Oregon Trail?"

"Yeah."

Chang shared Anthony's taste in games; coding such a sim would have been interesting. The problem, of course, was that most kids - or even most adults - would end up finding such a game a chore. "Maybe we can write one for the z-machine. You keep saying you want to get into game development when you grow up."

"What did you want to be before growing up?" Anthony got back to work on the cartridge.

"Well... A game developer, actually, so I getcha there. Different environment though. Computers got faster every year, and worked the same everywhere in the world, no EMP or ion storms or pataphysical feedback, so everybody figured there was going to be a much bigger market. Now I reckon we're stuck with 16 bit boxes for the foreseeable future. Pretty much all the good pre-Rapture computers have been bought up by factories and and labs and so on. It's actually the fastest way to make it so we can build them again someday. I'd actually like to work on that."

"So why don't you?"

"I'm doing work here! Plus, Naima is here."

Chang Wong had to endure a few minutes of Anthony working to the tune of "sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g".

"Is Anthony in there?" That was Vicki. Anthony frantically shook his head. Chang sighed.

"... yeah, is he in trouble?"

"I found another one of those weird D&D booklets under his bunk!"

Anthony facepalmed. Chang had a right to feel proud; even agitated, the kid was making sure to not do anything stupid with the soldering iron, and had put it away before emoting.

"What's it called?"

"Draxonomy."

"Oh... No, that's an actual science book. New reptile species in South America."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, thanks!"

Chang sent a very grateful Anthony on his way. Later that day, Vicki still had a brief talk with the kid about being careful with books that promoted evolution, even if they discussed post-Appearing hyperadaptation. The various flying lizard pictures were pretty neat, though, she had to admit - she figured that the best thing to do was have Anthony write a paragraph on how they might fit into the Ark story.

That night, Judd and Vicki were sleeping in separate beds. It wasn't a matter of their relationship having soured; they'd just had different schedules this week, enough so that one slipping into bed late would force the other to get to work on interrupted sleep. Things were going well, only... she couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go very wrong. She had prayed about it, of course, but had gained no insight from it.