Comic Relief at My Expense, As Often Is the Case (SBH Pt. 138)

The wind gusted right at that moment, as if to punctuate Al's words.

Tsering broke the silence. "Obaku and Hyakujo."

"A, I doubt there are five hundred mes running around," I replied, "and B, I am not a fox. And come to think of it, why are you bringing this up, anyway?"

Tsering simply smiled.

I wagged a finger at him. "Don't do this to me. Don't go all Zen Master."

"Life," he laughed, "is suffering."

"Don't I know it."

"Um," interjected Zoe, "what's going on here?"

"An old joke," I replied. "Several hundred years at least."

"We'd better get a move on," Al deadpanned, gathering what unbroken items he could. "If my oculars are correct, things we'd best avoid are going to start happening pretty soon."

"What sort of things?" I asked. (If you haven't already gathered by now, if Tsering is a Zen Master, I am a Dumb Question Master.)

Al shot me a look with those glowing green eyes of his.

"Oh," I fumbled, "right."

"There's a bunker about a kilometer from here," he announced. "There we can regroup."