The walking route to the train terminal weaved through an underground mall full of vendors selling all kinds of things, tourist trinkets, glass bottles of questionably-sourced heavily caffeinated drinks, large stuffed cuddly monsters, and weapons. Knives and machetes longer than her arm, dangled next to vanity sunglasses. Displays of battered and possibly second-hand Rugers and Colts next to laminated placemats. Beth had never seen so many illicit weapons sold just straight up.

When she lingered too long over a hand-painted map of the Fraser River Rift, the vendor who had been staring at her blatantly with the expression of someone trying to remember where he knew her from and then in a spark of recognition he finally spoke to her. "Did anyone ever tell you that you look like that girl from that tv show?"

It took practice not to react to the question. In a split second she had to decide what to answer. Was it worth explaining why she was here, in a cluttered vendor's shop, clearly about to hop a train toward the Rift and likely her doom. Or could she lie?

She chose to obfuscate the truth. Was it really a lie if it wasn't explicitly false? "I get that all the time." She put oomph behind the million dollar smile that had launched two seasons of Got It in the Bag before the End Times had become The World Right Now. She shook her head. She might have looked like her, but she was not that person any more.

He twisted his forehead, clearly fighting the dissonance. He had correctly recognized her and she had inferred he was wrong. Any other time, she would have taken the time to sign a few autographs and maybe talk about the Good Old Days™ before the rifts opened by the path of totality and how it had been as a child star working on a show like that. Did she really do her own stunts? Yes, if she went the way of publicists. No, if she told the truth.

She didn't do her own stunts in a super dangerous action-based show. She'd been a kid that had kinda liked acting in the Christmas pageant and her mom ran with it. The thought of her mother just brought an already dismal day down even further.

Before any more words were said, Beth pretended she heard someone calling for her and did a hasty retreat stage left into the group of heavily armoured mercenaries strolling in the direction of the train.

She pulled her grey hoodie up over her head and slid beside the crowd. They were heavily armoured with tactical vests and kevlar. Some sported metals that were maybe riftborn from the strange colours that swirled in them. She caught some of the English-littered conversation, but the most of it was possibly Punjabi. Their camouflaged turbans were the only parts that seemed to be without armour.

She followed along as stealthily as possible beside one quiet fellow. He was tall and svelt with a serious face covered on the bottom half by a neatly cropped beard. He looked over at her once and their eyes met. His were a bright amber colour and she saw the mirror of her own emotions in them: fear, anticipation, and resolution. She couldn't help but smile at him.

He spoke English to her. It was that kind of unaccented Canadian accent. "First time?" She nodded. He continued talking. "Me too." She noticed that his gear had none of the markers of riftborn items like the others in his group. The turban on his head was just a dark green colour.

They came up to the train platform where other groups of militarised people gathered. Beth felt rather underdressed like a more dangerous version of the time she wore a dress that hit the Worst Dressed List for the Emmys. The bow staves crossing her back were her weapon, but now she felt like maybe she should have gotten a few guns or a blade. She felt really under-equipped.

Her walking companion spoke. "I'm Jatinder." No last name.

She could deal with that. "Beth."

"On a gig?"

She nodded again and lifted her mobile phone up. "X-Termin8tr. You?"

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"No. I'm with the Khalsaji." He put his hand on a large hooked ornamental dagger at his waist. She didn't know what it meant and whether it was a competing app, but she acted like whatever he said made sense.

"Awesome." Though she smiled at him, she inwardly kicked herself for being so stilted. When there wasn't a script behind the words, she struggled to carry on conversations.

They both went silent as they seemed to have exhausted all sources of conversation. Just as a long enough pause happened, he looked about to say something and then Jatinder's group called to him and asked him a question in Punjabi. He looked heavenward, took a breath, and answered, but she could tell that he was really embarrassed and whatever he said made the rest of the group laugh. They were teasing him. He looked stricken as though he wanted the world to swallow him up whole. She knew that feeling oh so well.

If only she could figure out something to say. It would be nice to have someone to talk to while in Base Camp. Nobody from her old life would ever sign up for this kind of thing and even if they did, she had a feeling that someone would call the celebrity rags and out her.

It'd make a great headline: Washed up child star forced to hunt riftspawn for her dinner.

That was even just the basic story. If she said the truth, then she would never be able to work again.

Beth tucked an errant hair back behind her ear. The movement opened up her peripheral vision enough that she could see one of the guys in Jatinder's group stared blatantly at her. His eyes were narrowed and he had the look of someone trying to place where he knew her from.

She groaned and turned her whole body away. The last thing she needed was yet another person recognising her before they got onto the train that led out to the rift. She pulled out her mobile phone, entered her password, and pulled up the X-Termin8tr app. She scrolled through local jobs to see what kind of things were available. Maybe if she looked busy, then nobody would feel okay to walk up to her and ask the dreaded question.

"Hey!" A voice called out. "You look like that girl--" 

She pretended not to hear. Focus on the app. Why would a child star be gigging for a monster hunting app? Why would she be completely ill-equipped? 

She was relieved when her phone rang and a notification popped up. The relief lasted only a second until she saw the name of the caller. She hesitated. She wanted so badly to swipe the notification away and ignore the call. She could do that. Only she had a suspicion that if she did, there would be hell to pay probably worse than the things that came out of the rift themselves.

She winced and answered the call, sticking a finger in her free ear to ensure she could hear the call properly. "Hi, mom."

"Elizabeth Leigh Silvers."

Not the full name. Whenever her mom said her full name, then something was wrong. Did she find the letter in the apartment already? Did her mom know? Beth bit her lip and tried to speak. "Mom I'm uhm... Kinda..." She wanted to say busy, but her mother's voice barrelled onwards and cut her off.

"Do you know how furious I am? David told me you didn't show up for the audition downtown. You're lucky I called and they're rescheduling. It's like you don't even want a career."

There was a pause in the conversation as if her mom wanted an answer. Beth tried to figure out what to say. "It's a day player role mom."

"They specifically asked for you. You know I had to manipulate David to even call them for the audition."

Emboldened by the contradiction, Beth asked, "What is it mom? Did they want me or did you have to strong arm my agent to even get me a foot in the door?"

"Don't twist my words, young lady. I'm downstairs right now with some outfit choices so buzz me up."

Beth took a deep breath. "I'm not home at the moment."

The arriving train used that moment to let out a shrill whistle to mark its entrance.

"Where are you? I'm opening the tracking app." Her mother's voice was sharp and Beth cringed.

Another train whistle and then a cheer rose up from all the mercenaries.

"Gotta go!" Beth disconnected the call in panic. Then for added security, she turned off her phone entirely. She stared at her phone like it was going to explode at any moment.

When she looked up from her phone, she could see that Jatinder just stood a few steps away. He held in his hand what looked to be a credit card, but there was a small chip cut into the body of it. 

She stared at it and then looked up at him trying to comprehend what he was offering.

"I didn't mean to overhear, but it's a new SIM card. It should work with the towers still up near Base Camp. I thought you might want to make a change of providers?" He smiled warmly.

So while the world around them packed their things and climbed onto the train, Jatinder helped Beth change the SIM card in her phone.

Just after the final boarding call, they climbed onto the train together and sat in two seats beside one another but in a car far away from his group. He let her sit at the window and pulled a paperback book out from his pack. He began to read.

The train's whistle blew and it lurched to a start.

For the first time in a long time, Beth felt free.