AWAKENED

CHAPTER 28 - A Thousand Years

After leaving the inner most secure area, Jude announces there's one more section of the facility she needs to show us tonight before she takes us to our private quarters. As we mosey along, Autumn and Ash grow restless, fidgeting in our arms, whining, and crying out in frustration. They may be tired, but I can also tell they're hungry. In fact, they slept a ton on the flight here. They might not be tired at all.

Back in the residential area, we pass through a doorway. No one stands guard and no keypad lock secures it. It seems like a corridor where people can come and go as they please.

Jude peers back at us. "This entire wing is our common area where families gather, play, watch movies, children attend school, teens learn about their future occupations, adults unwind after long days out in the field, and of course, where we eat."

The walls have fresh paint in this corridor, white from the waist to the ceiling, and gray down to the floor, which they had laid with white tile. Years of use had chipped some corners and cracked the center of some pieces. I imagine children's hands gliding as they skipped through the hallway, and judging by the wear on the floor and the fresh paint, this area has seen a lot of action. We move past a wide room with sliding doors that stand open, revealing a large screen on the far wall, and rows of theater chairs. The movie room.

We pass another large room that has books on tall shelves and tables surrounded by chairs in the center. A library. Then there are a few empty classrooms, and finally, we reach the cafeteria.

Long white tables with fixed round seats run the length of this vast room, spaced apart in many rows. The back wall has a rectangle opening like a window without glass. The lights glow in the kitchen beyond, but we're the only ones in line. Jude disappears through a swinging door, and when she returns, a worker with a frown appears at the window. She has her gray hair balled up in the back, under a net.

Despite her displeasure with having dining guests this late, she hands us trays with what looks like pre-prepared food. A slab of steak. And a colorful assortment of corn, carrots, and broccoli. My mouth waters at the sight of the beef.

We take our trays and sit near the entrance, on the first seats we come to. Eve turns aside to give milk to Autumn and Ash. Jude's not eating, and she doesn't blush when my wife raises her shirt to breastfeed. We only got two trays for me and Eve.

With our routine down pat, I eat, tearing into my steak. As I chew, swallow, and go back for more, the texture and juices intensify the process. When I'm done, and Eve has finished breastfeeding, she eats while I hold the twins. Daisy wanders around the cafeteria, bleating, but not too loudly. Goats will eat anything, but I don't want her stomach tore up, so I empty my other pocket of the weeds I pulled from the beach and toss it on the floor. Daisy gobbles it up.

As Eve finishes her meal, Jude sees an opportunity to speak. "I know this place looks deserted, but it isn't. People pack this cafeteria for three meals a day. You came in at closing time. You can thank me for your meal." She places her hands down on the table and leans forward, her words beginning with a hushed awe and then strengthening as she continues. "Families have been living, reproducing, and dying in this facility since the flood."

"This place has been around that long?" I say. "Seriously?"

"How else would we be here now?"

Eve swallows her food. "I don't know. Perhaps you went into space with NASA."

"Some people went up," Jude says. "We went down. The company that built this facility acted when the ice caps melted. They also believed reports that there was something greater at play."

"The fountains of the deep," I say.

"Do you know the science because you worked for NASA?"

I nod.