The Nero and the Systems Engineer

The systems engineer herself had never seen him in the flesh. Mostly he'd been a whisper in the crevices and alleys, a word held low on the tongue. embedded in one of the buttonholes of his shirt was a scarlet carnation. It's red blot bloomed like a bullet wound. We did not know what he might want with us. With the trains gone, we couldn't imagine much use for the systems engineer. She'd felt the same way uncertain of her safety in an unknown world. So she had slotted our last self, the Gaunt security guard who'd been a murderer even before the undoing. Unless the Nero knew what was different about us