[color=bc8dbf][color=bc8dbf][b]Bae[/b][/color][/color]

They had been on the beach all afternoon. They had come to watch the sunset, and watch the sunset is just what they did. 

Bae and Cedar were stationed further down the shoreline from where Maren had cut herself and where Audrey had come down and where Sol had been surfing. They were too far away to see any of that happening. Or, perhaps it wasn’t that they were too distant, perhaps it was that they were too [i]distracted [/i]by their own devices. It was their minds not their bodies that were far away. 

Far away from people, alone, with only each other and nature, far enough so that others wouldn’t smell the herb as it wafted away from their place on the sand.

Cedar had brought a cheap ukulele and had been playing it before sunset. When the blue sky began to orange Cedar set down the guitar and began to make pictures in the sand. She drew patterns and sometimes wrote words, some were poetic, others strange messages to aliens that might be watching from overhead. The waves would wash it away, she would continue to draw not with her hands but with her toes, it was like she was dancing as she traced the lopsided mandala in the sand. Finally Cedar settled down next to her friend Bae as the sun vanished, lying on the sand with her eyes dull, watching the sky for the first stars. 

Bae was at first frustrated by the amount of sand getting into her knitting, but as the sun set and the herb began to soothe her nerves, she didn’t care. Her mind was calmed and lost in the soft click of the needles as they ran against each other. The sun set and the scarf lengthened. Bae continued to knit in the dark, not needing her eyes, her hands were well practiced and her mind kept track of the knots and rows as she went. 

Cedar was talking now.

“If you think about it, our class, it is a whole generation of survivors! [i]Survivors![/i] It is incredible, no one else can really know what that is like! It was a struggle to even be born, like, to [i]exist[/i]! We didn't have normal childhoods... And no we have graduated!”

“Mmmm” Bae felt pleasantly lightheaded as she listened to her friend. She did not point out that Cedar was [i]not[/i] a Greenbriar miracle-proper, as she had moved to Greenbriar her freshman year of high school... Semantics didn't seem important right now.

It was dark now. The stars and the moon gave everything a silvery outline, but nothing more. Cedar was a grey-scale figure in the sand outlined by moonlight. Bae knew she had blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and that she was wearing a colorful cap that Bae herself had crocheted. She was surrounded by the lines she had dug up in the sand. She was a sand-angel. 

Then Bae could see color and light… Confused, Bae looked up to the sky. 

Cedar had seen the lights too. Who could miss them? They dominated the sky.

“It’s… It’s the lights!” Cedar was sitting up, eyes and mouth wide open.

Bae watched, saying nothing, mesmerized. 

Cedar stood, jumping up and down. “It’s happening again! It’s happening again!” She couldn’t decide if she was happy to be a witness or terrified by what she was seeing. “We have got to do something!”

“But, what?” Bae was getting up more slowly, shoving the scarf and the needles into the basket she sat beside. There was a crackling noise as the scarf was squished against empty snack bags and a clink as the metal needles knocked against a marbled glass pipe.

Somewhere down the beach to their left, there was a bright white light over the water, and it shot up into the sky.

Cedar was already running. Bae barely got everything into the basket and she hobbled along after.

Cedar waited for Bae by the steps, and they kept pace as they climbed upward.

They got a bit side-tracked as they reached Beach Street, but, found another soul on the road near the cafe...

Miles.

“It’s happening again! The lights of the Greenbriar! Do you see them? Those bastards… It’s got to be the government!" Perhaps realizing she might sound crazy she began do amend her accusation. "Even if it’s not them, they knew something! They knew it could happen again! Haven't they been looking into it all this time?”

Bae was too dizzy to stand beside Cedar and rally the troops, and she felt anxious, the lights in the sky seemed a bit too bright and hurt her eyes, Cedar was drawing attention also made Bae unsettled. She sat on the side of the street and began to go through her bag, looking for her knitting. This was no time for knitting, but, holding on to something familiar would comfort her. She was amazed and confused by the lights in the sky. 

She realized that they had abandoned the ukulele on the beach.

"We forgot your guitar." She told Cedar, then the pipe fell out of the bag and hit the cement with a sound that seemed disproportionately loud considering the small size of the pipe. Bae scrambled to pick it up under the table and bag it before Miles noticed. Hopefully Miles was looking at Cedar. 

Cedar looked over her shoulder at Bae for a moment. The pipe was away and Bae held up a fist full of yarn, helpfully.

"What are you doing? This is no time for [i]knitting[/i]! This is time for action!"