AGE OF INSANITY

Chapter 32: Earthquake

An excited Rebecca bounded into my house with energy no teenager should have. The gun in my hands only caused her to pause for a second before disregarding it's presence entirely. Richard followed closely behind not at all phased by the murderous look I had in my eyes.

"Put the gun away! It's only Richard and I. You promised to take us sight seeing and it's already in the afternoon."

It felt like I had only slept for an hour but it seemed that several hours had passed. My mind was still groggy and my body still felt heavy. I still forced myself to go with them. They would only knock on my door until it broke or they broke their tiny hands. Caring about my siblings was an entirely new experience. I had caught these protective feelings only recently and yet I already felt like killing them. They were still annoying as hell but I did not want to deal with thier sad moppy faces for the next days.

I strapped on my boots and was joined by Charles as we set out into the woods. The rest of that day was nothing short of perfect. Charles had dragged several cages with him. We took two of each group of animals we came across.

"Look at us!. We are basically Moses with his boat."

"First of all dummy! It was Noah. Second it was a ship. Thirdly we would in that scenario be the condemned in revelation trying to survive the apocalypse."

"You are so morbid. I say we are Moses."

"Noah! god you are so annoying I don't even know why I put up with you."

Rebecca fed up with her twin's foolishness stomped ahead of the rest. She had only taken a couple of steps before grinding to a halt a look of sheer terror on her face. About thirty yards from where she was lay a lioness and four cubs playing beside it. The lioness had spotted my sister but made no move to approach. Seconds passed by and neither one of them made a move. It was Charles who finally broke the stand off and moved closer the queen of the soon to be extinct jungle. The lioness attention shifted to Charles who did not pause but slowed down his approach hands outstretched Infront of him.

"You do realise that is a lion and not a dog, right?." The suspiciously calm lioness decided to walk away. The lack of fear must have deterred her from launching an attack.

"I don't care. I have to have it. Wouldn't it just be sad to live in a world with no more lions in it?" A mute point given that the lioness and her cubs had already disappeared behind the trees.

"You could always go to the animal orphanage and bring back the wild animal there."

I said it as a joke but Charles turned to me face all lit up as if I had come up with the greatest idea. The orphanage could not be far from where we are but there was still a risk everytime anyone drove out of the compound. I told Charles as much but he completely rubbished my reservations. With no one else being the wiser we took the last truck and left for the orphanage with my siblings in tow.

An hour and a half later we arrived at the deserted orphanage. There wasn't a single soul in sight. All of the older animals had escaped except the young ones in a closed nursery. The look of pure joy as he took in the starving animals was one I would not forget in a hurry. It took us the better part of the day feeding all the animals before loading them and their different feeds into the truck. My siblings were astonishing more excited than Charles. Rebecca took to a cheetah and Richard to a lion cub that they insisted on on cradling even as we drove out of the orphanage. 

We took a much shorter route on our back. Twenty minutes into the route Richard spotted a smoke signal coming from not to far away. Charles reasoned that it could be an infected but the idea was quickly discarded. We were far away from any human settlement let alone a busy center. The chances of the infected roaming this far were slim to none. Who ever had put up the smoke signal, was clearly in control of his thinking faculties.

We followed the signal to what looked like a research facility. True enough a group of nine individuals clad in lab coats came through the door, clearly happy to see us. Charles stomped out the fire after pulling out the branches. We could not risk anyone else finding out where we are. The group of individuals were from different countries. They had come together for a project. They were at the top of their fields. There was Priscilla, a top biochemist. Boni a protogé industrial chemist. John a physicist. Mary a neurologist. Francis a general surgeon and Christopher a pathologist.

Nobody in the shelter could accomplish what these people could. So we decided to take them back with us. After a brief breakdown of the events to come, they offered no objections. We made space for them in the truck. John and Boni followed us using a huge cargo truck carrying their various equipments. Soon after we resumed our journey. We got home late in the evening. The worried faces meeting us at the gate reminded me of the fact that not only had we left unannounced with my siblings. We had not carried a means of communicating with the rest. My parents were livid Marcus was unreadable while my friends seemed relieved that we were back home.

They wanted an apology but got a dry explanation instead. I refused to be held accountable for events that we had not even planned on. We now had wild animals to add to our pets. We had gone out and the trip had been event free. If they wanted to get hang up on things that had not even happened, then I would not stop them. The new members were assigned houses and their duties were delegated according to their areas of expertise. The next morning the bomb announcement came. We had seven day until the detonation.

For the next six days we spent time familiarising ourselves with the shelter and carrying out our respective duties. There was a lot to be done and within a blink of an eye it was the day of Reckoning. On the seventh day we closed the lead door one last time and waited for the unknown. An hour after we closed the hatch the first earthquake hit. Everything shook as we held onto each other in the shelter. The fragility of the underground shelter and it's disadvantageous location should the shocks prove to be too much, became all too clear.

With baited breath we waited, praying to the god's who seemed especially faraway in that moment. Several more quakes followed but the shelter remained steady.That evening we all gathered in the church for a meal. I looked at the faces around me. What the future held, was up in the air. Uncertainty seemed to be the only certain thing. Yet, nobody cried or looked distressed. We were all stuck together for the foreseeable future. Why was the only one who seemed worried?