Esoteric

Chapter 7: Hopeful

The door made a click sound as the handle was pushed. It opened a bit and Mary pushed it open with one hand, trying to make sure there weren't any surprises awaiting them. Molly confidently strode in with her head up high.

"Wait. There could be someone in here. We don't want another Sylvia incident." Mary pointed out, putting an arm in front of Molly to keep her from entering.

"Who cares? We have self defense, and I don't see any signs of others being here." Molly pushed her arm away and stepped inside. Mary followed her reluctantly.

Inside the room resembled a cafeteria. There were long, white tables with black stools placed perfectly in neat rows. On one end of the room, there was a gray, shining counter with trays stacked up on it. Joining it was a clearly transparent window that seemed to lead into another room. The rest of the room was painted white and had high ceilings and, like the others, contained no windows. The lights lining the ceiling blinked and buzzed ominously as if they were bees.

Mary and Molly glanced at each other, and silently decided to approach the counter. As they ventured farther in the room, Mary noticed it had the faint smell of bleach. Mary sifted through the neatly stacked trays on the counter, finding nothing. She turned and watched Molly doing the same.

"This looks like some kind of cafeteria. There has to be food here." Molly suggested, pointing to the window that was behind the counter.

"Let's check it out." Mary gestured to the door that stood by itself on the right side of the counter.

Molly pushed it open and walked in with as much confidence as before. This room was like a smaller version of the other, except it had metal cabinets lining the walls and a sink in one corner with a fridge on the opposite side. Without saying a word, Molly ran over to the fridge and started looking through its contents. Mary didn't wait and rushed over to a cabinet. Inside, she found a few singular blueberry muffins wrapped in plastic packaging, a box of raisins, and a bag of potato chips. She raided the cabinet and grabbed all of the items at once.

She put the food in a pile in the center of the room and quickly turned her attention to another cabinet. This time she found a box of mashed potatoes on the lower shelf and a box of macaroni and cheese. The food looked appetizing to Mary, but another quick glance around the room showed that there wasn't any type of stove or oven in the room.

She closed the cabinet in disappointment and approached Molly. Molly was busy quickly grabbing food out of the fridge and placing it beside her. Mary caught glimpse of some carrots, a sandwich, a jar of pickles, and water bottles. Molly clapped her hands together proud once she was finished.

"Finally! We finally found food. Let's bring everything out there." Molly said.

Mary skipped over to her pile and picked it up. She was happy that they were now abundant in food, and her stomach growled as she thought of biting into a fresh sandwich and a scrumptious muffin. She raced into the other room, trying not the drop the food, and set it down at the nearest table. Molly joined her and placed all her food down. They sat and dug in, silently. Mary chose a ham and cheese sandwich and some raisins. She bit into her sandwich and enjoyed every bite, finally putting an end to her aching stomach.

As she ate, she looked around the room again and noticed that there were trash cans joining the side of one wall. The design of the room intrigued her.

"This room feels a lot different from the rest." Mary said in between bites.

Molly chewed on her carrots and looked up thoughtfully, as if deep in thought. Finally she said, "I think it's a cafeteria. It feels more detailed from what I've seen so far."