20. Labeling People By Numbers

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He didn't fall asleep this time and instead, just stared at the ceiling, doing his usual habit of thinking and going through his list of to-try list for the next day until the door of Miles seemed to open and in seconds, Thomas was in front of Alex's door.
"I see you're comfy. Now we gotta have dinner,"
"Do you guys cook or something?" Alex asked, quite curious about the direct daily lifestyle of the Raiders. Thomas grinned. "We usually test out the devices we discovered from the abandoned buildings to do the main cooking for us or just cook ourselves. But these days, we uncovered a packet of food pills to last at least 3 months, so we're getting kinda slack on getting our own hands involved these days," "Woah. Food pills," "Yeah, I know. Those are rare, but Canada is somehow one of the main producers of those pills. No big surprise that we found the packet," "Don't you have to tell Lewis?" Thomas gave him a giddy look. "We can have secrets a bit, I think. I mean, not that they let us. Still, we only uncovered a single packet, so maybe if we find dozens of it, we'd have to tell him. Now get the heck up,"
Alex scrambled onto his feet and they descended the stairs. As they did, Thomas scratched his head, frustrated. "Mile's ok for now. Just ignore him if he bullies you again. As I told you before, just show him what you really are, and he'll cower away." "Got it,"
They emerged onto the first floor again and walked to the kitchen right away. Thomas reached into a white and small drawer on the table and pulled out a small cartilage made of plastic, with a red logo of the Candian Food Pill company on it. He started cracking open the thing, then spilled more than a dozen onto the table directly.
"You lads and gals, get your asses down here, eat, and then continue doing whatever shitty things you were caught doing as I holler to you to dinner like a bad-ass nanny!" Thomas shrieked his rap in the direction of the second floor, and Alex heard with his ringing ears of shuffles and sighs coming from upstairs. "Guess winning the monthly round as the leader is also the same thing as getting the shitty nomination of becoming a nanny. So what I mean is, just don't take the leader thing too seriously or just a simple addition to your resumé or something," "Got it, sir," Alex rolled his eyes as the others walked out of their rooms and started climbing down the stairs.
"Met Lyra?" Thomas asked quickly even before, as Alex knew exactly, someone with a bulky form, probably a grumpy Miles, was half-way down the stairs. "No. I was just so tired," "Oh. I see," "Why are you asking me this?" Thomas bit his lip thoughtfully.
"I just noticed some...well, similarities between you two. She's the third one who came as the Raiders after Miles and me. She is so serious and erudite like you," "Aren't we all erudite? In the unique way, you know," MArs scratched his head.
"I bet. But what I mean here, Lyra makes us feel as if she's the more erudite or the only erudite one among us all," Just then, Miles reached the bottom, grabbed a handful of the pills, then left again.
"Gee," Thomas murmured before Melanie stumbled out, eyes gleaming at Alex immediately. "Hey. Guess Thomas already introduced you to those pills," She shot an annoyed look at Thomas, then grabbed a handful of pills also, but didn't leave right away-nor seemed to be ready for that.
"What of Lyra?" Thomas asked them both, eyes staring at the stairs. "No footsteps," Alex said, ears tuned. "And here opens a door and timid footsteps..." Alex reported, then reached out carefully to taste the famed Food Pills he had never touched but had done so much research on in the past out of simple and ample curiosity while Melanie stared at him, fascinated.
"Good hearing, he has," He absent-mindedly heard Thomas whisper to Melanie. Alex gathered the pills and dropped them in one swipe into his mouth, then felt a strange feeling in his mouth as the pills started to hiss and give him the feeling of drinking soda, but instead of giving him an overly stinging taste, it gave him a taste that he had never felt before, nor could describe with his vocabulary. But one thing for sure-he liked the sensation. Maybe this was something like 'love'-if those people who had said that love is indescribable were right, of course.
He was rolling his tongue in his mouth from the sensation when Thomas flashed over to the bottom of the staircase. "He's the new Raider," He said to a girl who had barely reached the bottom. As much as Thomas had somehow made him anticipate her arrival, Alex watched her carefully and his tongues ceased its wriggling.
She had brown hair wavering past her shoulder slightly and equally chocolate-brown eyes, then high cheekbones. But what Alex notified himself clearly was her size compared to the others. She was like a normal person, just tall enough, but not too much to look like a Raider-actually, she could have been dubbed small compared to the massive Miles. She looked quite hot and could be said so explicitly, but she didn't seem to be too proud of herself and simply murmured 'uh-huh' at Thomas, who bit his lip behind her back uncomfortably, then grabbed the last pills with her fingers delicately, as if pinching the metal table. She glanced up, letting her eyes wander here and there in blinding speed that Alex Mars wasn't sure that she had moved her eyeballs that much at all, then she stared straight at him. Not intimidated nor selfish nor about to bring up a wild conversation like Miles nor Melanie, but purely observable. Simply that.
It was only 3 seconds before Lyra frowned, bit her lip, then went upstairs, the pills in her grip forgotten.
It was until her door closed that no one left in the kitchen spoke a word.
"Erm," Alex said. He looked around to see that Melanie was touching her own fingers nervously while Thomas was staring out the long window. Then the boy turned abruptly back to face the others.
"Yeah, that's Lyra. Become friends with her if you want if you don't just don't. She doesn't care too much," "So what can she do?" Alex asked, suddenly more interested. Thomas had mentioned that Lyra was smart for sure-he was curious. He didn't notice that Melanie was rolling her eyes and sighing at the scene before leaving them alone, altogether.
"She's a bit different from all of us," Thomas said, frowning. "Not an ability... I mean, maybe, she does have an ability-only if we can call her bad mental disease as an ability, yes..." Alex's heart beat faster, and he frowned.
"Jesus. Mental disease?" Thomas nodded. "Yeah. Just let me explain. She told me when she first came here-I was also serving the shitty leader then too-that she just... has to label everything in sight with-erm, numbers. Usually from the range of 1 to 10, though unique stuff exceeds that range. She doesn't even know why. She said that she feels calm at rest and can move on when she labels everything in sight with those numbers written on her 'eye' shot of the room or anywhere," "What do those numbers mean?" Alex asked, now definitely intrigued by this girl. Thomas shrugged. "She herself muttered that they signify the importance or value of the object. For example, I know this is shitty and my own creation, but tolerate it. Take an example of a bomb. She could have declared it as 1 if it was fake, and 10 or 100 when it was an authentic atomic bomb. It's like some safety instinct. See, she's completely useful to us whenever we have little time and have to move on quickly from building to building. Then, she commands us to retrieve the important stuff like advanced car parts or abandoned bombs that might be dangerous an hour before it gets dark, and we obey, though it was an exception today. We just goofed around today, obviously. If Lyra hadn't gone back earlier and witnessed me and Mile's acquirement of the 2000s radio, she could have grumbled it was a 1 and left, shaking her head from side to side. Anyway. She knows her own life is tiring, but she just can't live without the habit and she enjoys it-she is the most confident when she spits out the long list of good stuff in one breathe that she memorized in her brain from all those 'eye' shots that she gathered over the day," Thomas walked over back to the cartridge and put it back int the drawer. "Just get the hell up and ask her yourself," "She's not busy now?" "She never is-at least, in the way she phrases it herself. Ah, just don't make me be a representative of her and find out yourself, Alex!" Thomas said, smiling a bit. Alex nodded. "Sure, sure," He stepped away to the stairs and climbed them quietly, trying his best at walking without a sound as the Martyr had taught him. He reached the 2nd floor and counted the rooms and found Lyra's room to be the one to the left of his room, and holding his breath, knocked on her door.
There was no answer.
"Lyra?" He pronounced her name through his own lips for the first time. "Um, it's the newbie, Lyra. No offense," He was surprised when his talking worked-he heard the springs on a bed jump and shiver as the girl got up and walked tensely to the door. Alex could hear her put her fingers on the doorknob, connecting him to her through the metal, but she didn't seem too determined to yank it open out wide.
"I just want to ask you questions, and introduce myself. No offense, I swear once more," Alex said quickly.
He heard her take a deep breath and sigh out in frustration before opening the door.
"Hey," Alex said, then waved hastily to the room of the girl. "Great. Can we talk in there?" Lyra nodded. "I also have a few questions for you, though I'm more used to finding out on my own," She said. Alex was once more surprised, since she was much different than how she had been just a few minutes before when she had come down for dinner. Her voice was firmer and more confident and she looked much more comfy or something. Maybe this is her original attitude that few detect, Alex assumed and walked into her room. He awkwardly put his butt on a stool next to the bed, while Lyra sat on her bed.
"So, I heard of your ability," Alex said, waving his hands in perfectly timed gestures, though he wasn't noticing his action himself. He was nervous, after all.
"So, um, do the numbers really present the significance of the objects just as you told Thomas?" Lyra nodded thoughtfully. Her brown eyes wandered in a veiled world where Alex seemed to be the only one left out and remaining in Lyra's room. "Um, yeah. Wait, wait, wait. I just really need to find this out right now. Please. It's related to my mind...disturbance or ability," Alex stopped in the middle of thinking up of another question. "Oh, of course. Yeah. Ask me," Lyra bit her fingernails, but Alex was too focused to tell her that biting nails wasn't a thing for Prods on his rule book. "You seem to be ...strange. I mean, a bit unique. I usually label the person I see with numbers according to their personalities or values, and their heights and weights, since all Prods can estimate quite correctly by eye, and, most of the people are 100 to 150. And you...are a 200. And most of the number is not in weight or height but in a category I dubbed 'et cetera' and is not too sure ," She shook her flowing hair at him, concentrating intensely on him. Alex Mars scratched his head. "Um, I don't find a reason for myself to have a good personality nor value...I did a few shitty things before, you know," Lyra gave him a tiny smile. "This is unprecedented, but I should learn more of it-and time only seems like the solution for this. So, let's start our real intros, shall we?" She's so confident, Alex thought.
"Great. I'm Alex Mars,"
"Lyra Cannes," His breathing stopped in his air tube when he noticed this girl had an alive back name which was still hanging on in one piece. "Woah. I also found that we're the only ones who have back names, you know," Lyra didn't nod nor smile at that like Melanie. "Yeah. We all have reasons for changing names, but I just don't yet have the necessary need for it. So, what's your ability?" "Good hearing," Alex Mars deliberately stated his ability with the same words he had said to Miles-he wanted to know what her response would be, if this girl was going to be on Mile's side or Thomas' side.
She actually grinned at him, involving a set of her gleaming teeth and everything. It was a warm sight.
"Wow indeed. Much better than my ability, which you can't call an ability for real," "Hey, have more confidence," Alex Mars reassured her, though he wasn't very confident with his ability of sharing empathy with others. Maybe just superficially, she smiled sadly at her bed. "I always used to hear that advice," She said in a low voice, as if in a word to herself.
Unsure of how to reply, Alex stood up and stared at the floor instead of pacing. Curiosity suddenly poked his mind and he whirled back to the girl. "So, what number are yourself?" He asked, eyeing her. Her eyebrows narrowed together. "I do have a specific number of my weight and height of the day which changes each day slightly, of course, but I have never been able to discern the number of my value or sentiment. I seem to be 49 kilos or so, and 59.5 inches-I'm always a bit smaller than the average 17-year-olds, you see-" She glanced up and actually blushed. "Well, so combining the stuff up, I'm 108.5 today," Woah, same age-but more than that, what a skill! Alex thought. "Woah, then what of me...today?" Lyra rubbed her chin, but took no more time than 2 blinks to speak. "Guess you're 54 kilos or something and 63 inches today. And you seem to be around 16 or something on the matter of age. I'm not that exact, you see. But the thing is, your sentiment seems to have a lot of value, though I'm not sure. That was why I was surprised a few minuets ago. See-I am quite ambiguous at times," Alex grinned for her. "I am 17 and weight and is tall as about the rate you said. You're simply amazing," It was one of the first times he had said the word-since in his before-life, he had always been the amazing and excelling one. And now, actually, he felt great to praise someone else. Lyra bit her lip as if she was also unused to getting praises, then dug deeper onto her bed, staring out the window. "Um, guess I should go now," Alex said after another uncomfy moment. Lyra nodded. "Yeah, just get some rest-since we live with a kinda tight schedule and you're gonna need it tomorrow," Oh gee, the busier, the better-it'd help me freshen up, Alex thought, then walked over to the door.
"Guess I"ll see you tomorrow," He said, and before she could even answer, walked out.

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