Playlist for the Apocalypse

Chapter 8: It's Still Rock and Roll to Me

JONATHAN

Evelyn probably would have returned with him to River District sooner. She kept insisting they seek medical help, but Jonathan was adamant that he needed some time to recuperate. It wasn't a lie, the journey back to River District would be rough in the shape he was in but mostly he was just not looking forward to returning. He didn't want to explain where he had been and what had happened. He didn't share that with Evelyn. She didn't need to know.

The next few days passed by in a blur, perhaps because Jonathan spent most of them nursing the awful hangover that had Evelyn making the sweeping proclamation that she would never touch the stuff and Jonathan nearly agreeing. Evelyn, Jonathan soon realized, was nothing if not organized. After assessing his injuries she'd assured him that his knee and ribs could be fully healed in a minimum of six weeks and then proceeded to create a whole routine of physio exercises for him to do. She even went through his food stash and rationed out meals. To pass the time, he ended up agreeing to a game of 21 questions. At first, Jonathan had been annoyed. In fact, when Evelyn first suggested the game, he was so cranky and hungover, he claimed that he was fluent in only two languages: silence and music, but Evelyn proved to be annoyingly persistent.

"So, are you from here, originally? Pre-blackout, I mean."

Jonathan had just shrugged and offered her a non-committal answer, "I've been here and there."

"We had jobs at SFU's bunker, I was a medic obviously, what do you do at River District?"

"This and that."

"Well, aren't you just full of information," She'd harrumphed, which he had tried hard not to enjoy when she pulled a frustrated pout. She eventually managed to persuade him to play by abiding by his rule: no deep questions and nothing too personal. She complied by focussing her questions on how he was feeling and the music he played. He didn't intend on becoming familiar with her but with his injuries preventing him from being able to move on his own and her inability to handle just sitting in silence, he figured it would be easier if he just relented.

Evelyn showed a surprising interest in his record collection, though Jonathan had to continuously remind himself that her interest was not actually all that surprising considering she had been the only active listener of his broadcast. Evelyn was strangely unfamiliar with most music, claiming she didn't really listen to music much and when she did, her tastes tended to fall into Taylor Swift's discography, showtunes and the K-pop realm. The latter, she claimed, was courtesy of her sister, Beth, who was a BlackPink fan. On the positive side, it meant that almost every song she heard was a new experience and it was strange but, Jonathan felt like he was almost rediscovering his record collection through sharing it with her. On days when he'd woken before her or pain made it difficult to fall asleep, he found himself lying in the darkness making mental lists of the songs he needed to add to her musical repertoire.

"What is your favourite song?" Evelyn asked one day while they were sprawled out on the floor, passing the time by playing a game of Star Wars themed monopoly. Jonathan had been doing his mandated "Dr. Evie" rehabilitation exercises but paused what he was doing to consider her question.

"Now that is an impossible question," He informed her, "I can't answer that."

"You have to answer," She said in a teasing reminder of the rules of their game, "you already used up both of your passes."

Jonathan shook his head, remembering the hard hitters he'd dodged the night before. As they'd surpassed 21 questions, Evelyn's questioning had gotten increasingly more personal, "That last one didn't count! I still answered!"