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The air is cold, even as he steps through the doorway, the lingering chill leaving a steady, almost static pain in his joints, a harsh reminder of the limited time he has.
Footsteps echo through the empty place, the only people reminding him he's still with the living is a man behind the bar, and an older woman sitting in front of it.
She does not even glance towards him when he takes a seat, nor when he mutters a soft thanks when a drink is placed in front of him.
Silence hangs heavy between the two, even more oppressive than the lingering, biting cold.
“You know, the silence is nice, but Grace would've started rambling on about whatever science nonsense by now.” Eva finally speaks up, a small, bittersweet smile on her face, though her eyes are foggy and distant, not quite seeing the glass in front of her.
“Yeap. He really seemed to like doing that, especially with you, even though we both know you didn't understand over half of it.” Carl hums softly, taking a small sip of the drink, liquor warming his throat and fighting off the biting chill even just a little bit.
Eva does not respond, brow furrowed in a way he's come to recognize when she is fighting off guilt, and he takes another sip before he continues.
“They've fine tuned the astrophage breeding now. Set up a closed system where it heats up the breeding area by using more astrophage. They've already got twelve going, and five heated buildings in the process of finishing construction.” he tells her the good news, hoping it'll help ease the guilt. Her brows only furrow more.
“He would've explained it better, you know. But you forget I still have a lot of contacts, I already know.”
His only response is a hum, as stillness washes over them again. He lets it linger for a while, both of them sipping on their drink intermittently.
“Do you know that I have an observatory and a handful of volunteers checking the skies?” he asks, and that makes her pause, and finally look towards him.
“No. Did you bribe them? You don't have authority anymore.” Eva points out, and he can't help the small grin that forms.
“I didn't need to, only had to give them a general direction and what to look for. Everyone is eager to help.”
“So, what? Did they find anything?” she asks offhandly, her trained pessimism keeping her from jumping to conclusions and getting her hopes up. But it's all thrown out the window when she sees Carl smile, quickly straightening her slumped form as Eva turns more towards him.
“You're being serious?”
“I wouldn't joke about this, though it's still very small blips, and they aren't sure how far out it still is.” he informs her, but despite that, she's smiling brighten than he's seen in years, tears falling freely down her face.
“They did it, then?” she asks, and he hums in response.
“Seems like it. I knew he's do great.”
“Here's to them.” she holds up her half empty glass, and Carl raises his along with hers.
“To our saviours.”