The Oblivious

Chapter Five: Going Out

        Within a week the group fell into a routine.  Rufus put it upon himself to keep the generators charged by frequently peddling the bicycle.  Cadence kept track of the food, and rationed enough for each meal.  Peter kept up with the maintenance of the machines.  Nathan continued to check, wash, and replace the air filters.  Everyone else did their part to make sure the space stayed clean and helped whenever needed.

       For the most part the first week was quiet, with each person grieving silently and keeping themselves busy with chores.  It was a taboo to mention how much they missed their parents or their old lives.  They wanted to confide in one another, but they also didn’t want to bring on difficult feelings for someone else.  That changed the following week.  Patrice was the first to talk about their parents.  She asked Eli, “Do you ever wonder if it was painful when our parents were taken?”

         “I’ve been so paranoid about how many different ways we could die, that I never bothered to think about what it was like for them.  I never took my parents very seriously, but I wish I could go out the way they did,” answered Eli.

         “Yeah, me too.  I hate not knowing what’s out there waiting for us.”

         “You don’t got to worry.  I’ll make sure that you’re okay.”

         Patrice always managed to keep herself within arms-length of Eli.  It was obvious that she felt safer around him, but she had to put on a tough persona.  She didn’t want anyone to think that she needed any help from a man.  She gave Eli a backhanded comment, “You can barely feed yourself.  Who do you think you’re going to be helping?”

         Nathan watched the whole thing.  They were only a few years younger than him, but Nathan was old enough to know exactly what was going on.  He was familiar with the tough girl act.  He had the scars to prove it.  The name of the girl that broke his heart was Abbey, and she fiddled with Nathan’s head like it was a banjo.

         

~ During Nathan’s first year in college ~

        Nathan fully embraced the unfettered campus lifestyle, and he lived in spiteful rebellion against his parents by doing the opposite of everything they established.  He scheduled all classes later so he could sleep in, and he ate whatever and whenever he liked.  Granted, young people have a higher capacity to handle harsh living conditions.  They’re spry and quick to recover, however the downfall of the youth is that it takes longer to realize the consequences of their behavior.  Nathan struggled with fatigue, insomnia, and constipation throughout his time in college because he wouldn’t heed the advice of those who knew better.  He had to learn from his own mistakes.  Back then, that was typical of Nathan.  He was stubborn and didn’t see anything wrong with it.

      Even the way Nathan spoke in class carried a conceited tone, as though he thought his classmates should have been held back in high school.  The truth of the matter was that no one was very bright at his college.  The professors found it easier to instigate open discussions instead of teaching a real curriculum, just as it was in high school.  Students went into adulthood without learning how to investigate or analyze information objectively.  Professors rode their tenure by picking controversial topics and letting the “lemmings” share their feelings about it during class.  The terms “textbook” and “professor” were synonyms, and often interchangeable.  As long as students were paying their tuition, the university was happy to hand out bachelor’s degrees, proof that their students possessed the skill of memorization and regurgitation.

         Nathan didn’t know any better.  He enjoyed college because he possessed an exceptional talent for winning arguments.  He was smart in how he processed information, but he was ignorant of the fact that people regarded him as an intellectual bully.  Nathan was one-dimensional.  He couldn’t communicate without being argumentative.  The only friends he could keep were people with passive personalities.  Nathan was oblivious to the whole situation, and he was happy living in his own little world.  Of course meeting Abbey changed all that.