After the Spike || Covid-19 Fic

*.3.*

Almost like it was a well-oiled machine, the induction was finished and the group was moving. 

With every cohort possessing ten couples, there was soon over a hundred a fifty young adults wandering throughout the car park. 

"Be sure to grab your bags! Make sure your car is locked!" One of the other induction teachers claps. Three coaches wait on the side of the road, military personnel waving aside the occasional car. Aside from the trucks lining the street, the whole episode reminded Emily of school camp. 

"Groups G and H, with me!" A male induction teacher waves, some of the crowd splits, moving towards the final coach. Emily hangs back, taking her protection behind a row of cars.

Do the city regs lack all common sense?! She wondered to herself in horror, watching as men hi five and women hug.

"It's like they've forgotten the past few years," A woman next to her snorts. Emily whirls and spots the offender; she's taller, and a little softer in features with a long nose which has a bulbous finish. She has long hair that's easily thrown over her shoulders. She wears a short miniskirt with a checkered shirt. Her riding boots are studded on either side. 

If the horse-obsessed girls in her primary school all merged into one, this would be her.

"I'm Julia," She gives a rueful smile.

"Hey there," Emily manages back. She sighs, turning back to the chaos at hand, "crazy people,"

"City regs move on too quickly," Julia nods.

"You from the country?" Emily tries to keep the hopeful note from being too evident in her voice.

"Yeah, pretty far out West," 

"Long drive?"

"Three hours," Emily blinks, her jaw slightly dropping. 

"That's commitment," 

Julia laughs at that, "No, just my parents,"

The statement is easy enough in and of itself. Emily gives a tight-lipped smile. Don't think about it, don't think about it.

A breath, in, and out.

You did it! A part of her sang. You made it though.

Emily smiled to no one but herself. A small step made in the greater scheme. "Oh yeah? What made you want to do the program?"

*.-.*

Mark narrowed his eyes, surprised at the stupidity of the programmers. 

Over a hundred and sixty single people, all desperate enough to reach out to the government for help to find someone... And they're keeping them together in a group?

If I was in charge... Mark thought to himself, I'd split up the cohorts to completely different retreats. Each couple would have their own room for themselves. And it'd be entirely one-on-one focused. No chance for cross-pollination or cheating, which was sure to happen. 

Mark scowls as he watched women accidentally bump into men. They don't even know if they'll be paired together! He wants to yell.

"This whole thing is bull," He scowls to Zach, Brayden and Thomas. While the majority of the H Cohort had been made up of simps and ex-eshay types who's fourteen year-old girlfriends left them two months into the first wave, his quickly assembled crew were solid enough. 

Zach was tough, spending too much time training in sports to find himself a girl before the world shut down. He was also ambitious, coming from a well off middle-income family. He already had engineered several think tanks in response to the epidemic and rode the stock market whip back in the early days. Brayden was a knucklehead. For a guy who spent so much time in biker bars, one would've figured that he would've been able to pick up a missus relatively easy. Perhaps there was a tragic backstory that Mark was yet to find... And Thomas? He was onto the epidemic from the beginning. As his family ridiculed him, he traded in assets, as he lost his friends, he stocked up on necessities. The secret to riding out the first few waves? Lock your door and spend all your time on Reddit.