Back at Max’s Burgers, the rush hadn’t subsided. Where the town square had monsters and screaming, the dining room had backed-up order screens, a missing fry cook, and Marvin. “No excuses, people!” Marvin barked, stationed in the fryer zone turning off timers and lifting large baskets of

“Are you KIDDING ME?” Shuli apologetically responded, “I’m not kidding you.” Carmen stared in disbelief. “Perfect! Well, no magic wand. Awesome. I'm sure someone else can handle the apocalyptic weed monster, then.” She looked around for that someone else. Two cops were sprinting in the opposite direction,

Carmen sat on a bench in the nearby park, close to her work. She had her boba tea in hand, and was watching a flock of pigeons scatter in the sky, admiring the clouds. She slurped, getting a lychee-filled boba ball and popped it with her teeth. There was

Carmen lazily brushed the taste of cardboard out of her mouth with mint flavored toothpaste. She changed into an old T-shirt and sleep shorts, not bothering to check her appearance in the mirror, and crawled into bed. She was ready to sleep after being emotionally ambushed by those empty

Carmen held the empty container in both hands, hoping she was hallucinating again. She set it on the counter, picked it back up, and checked it—just in case her eyes had gotten it wrong. The sweet grilled onions sat pushed to one side, untouched. The green beans, zucchini, and

Carmen entered the break room and collapsed into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs. The room was barely large enough for the small square table set up against the wall, the three chairs, an outdated microwave, and a coat rack that was shoved into a corner. Hanging from it was

The burger joint was already in full, normalized chaos. The timers that haunted Carmen’s nightmares beeped from behind the kitchen line. Fryer baskets sizzled, sending up greasy smoke. “Yo! I need more hash browns!” “We don’t have any more!” “Then go get some from the freezer!” The cashier

Carmen’s phone alarm went off. She groaned into her drool-soggy pillow, “Five more minutes…pleeeeasseee.” Her hand reluctantly emerged from the blanket, smacked around the nightstand, knocked over an empty ramen cup, sending the fork clattering on the carpet, and eventually swiped the snooze button. She almost cried

Carmen trudged down the poorly lit street, putting as much distance as she could between herself and the car she’d just badly wedged into a parking spot. It should’ve been an easy fit, but the person in front had parked like an asshole, which was probably why it