A week passes and Shann has finished half of the food in the backpack. He reckons that he's going to run out of food one day and is bound to look for supplies. He has never seen Elis eat in front of him, but occasionally, Elis would disappear for a while. Shann doesn't know whether he is out there hunting for other prey or downstairs mingling with those MUTANTS. He always returns clean and tidy though.
When they're stuck in the room together, Shann will read to Elis, chat with him and even show him how to draw. They've found a set of board games hidden in the wardrobe and Elis has fun learning how to play chess. Shann shares with him things about himself, his life before the outbreak, his family and school life. Elis makes a comforting audience. He doesn't retort, or interrupt, or debate with you. He simply listens, nods in acknowledgement, and sometimes perks up at fascinating details. He is now able to utter a lot more words and even create simple sentences, but the word he articulates most accurately is still Shann's name, the very first one he has assimilated.
Shann wakes up one day and finds Elis missing. After faltering for a while and leaning his ear against the door to assure that it's drop-dead quiet outside, he turns the knob and walks out. He tiptoes cautiously to the stairs and peeks down. As expected, the other four MUTANTS are still there, wandering in the sitting room and the kitchen. They are each indulging in something. Elis's brother is standing near the window peering out, seemingly in a trance. His spiky-haired cousin keeps his eyes fixated on a painting of a sculptured vase filled with sunflowers on the wall. The bespectacled one is sitting at the dining table and the shortest one is lingering around the kitchen sink. Shann tiptoes backwards and decides to sneak into another bedroom before retreating to the one he is staying in. He enters the room where Roy has knocked down a pile of crates from the wardrobe. The crates are still scattered on the floor. He rummages through them, only managing to find some clothes, bedsheets and glass figurines. A dusty photo on the wall catches his attention though. Shann stands before the photo and wipes the dust off, gasping as he finds those familiar figures in the frame.
Elis is inside and looks a bit younger. He is wearing a graduation gown and holding a rolled certificate with a slightly blushing face. And his brother is standing on the left, an arm around his shoulder with a proud smile. On the other side stands his cousin with a wide grin on his face and a thumbs-up. The other two friends are there too, each holding a fluffy stuffed penguin dressed in a graduation gown like Elis.
Shann walks out of the room and bumps into Elis, who is holding a box of canned food.
'Woah, where...did you get these?' asks Shann.
Elis blinks and then leads Shann to the stairs. He points at the bottom of the stairs and a meter away, there is a door on the ground, one that they have missed while ransacking the house. It probably leads to the cellar.
'The cellar?'
Elis drags Shann back to the original room and shuts the door.
'N-No...out,' growls Elis.
'Right, I know, but you disappeared,' says Shann. 'I got curious and went out to look for you, but saw your...er...family and friends downstairs. Hey, do you know that this is literally your own house?'
Elis creases his brows.
'Elis,' exclaims Shann as he marches up to him and shakes his shoulders. 'I saw a photo of you with your family in the next room. This is your own house. Do you remember anything?'
Elis shakes his head.
'Then how did you know that there's food in the cellar?'
Elis shrugs.
'S-S-e-ar-ch.'
They place the box of replenishments near the bed leg. Shann, determined to dig out more relevant information of Elis's past, begins a thorough search in this room. He has a peculiar feeling that this room might belong to Elis. It's plain, white and very much secluded, resembling the aura of solitude surrounding Elis.
There is a locked drawer under the nightstand and Shann has been trying to pry it open. He even invites Elis to look for the key together. When they can't find anything useful, Elis simply smashes the drawer with his fist.
'Are you an idiot?' says Shann. 'You're going to get a bruise.'
Elis wants to tell him that he is never bruised and creatures like him don't get hurt, but right after his fist collides with the wooden furniture, he gasps and collapses, hugging his aching fist with another hand.
'Are you alright?' asks Shann, kneeling down beside him.
His knuckles are swollen and for the first time in five years, he is able to feel the pain. It's unpleasant and tear-jerking. Something warm begins to prickle his eyes.
'Oh, come on, let's patch you up,' sighs Shann as he leads Elis back to the bed and starts tending to his wound. After wrapping Elis's hand, they pull open the broken drawer and find a digital photo album and a digital diary. Shann picks up the thin, transparent screen and presses the tiny switch at the bottom. Immediately, the screen flickers and a series of albums pop out. Shann clicks onto them one by one, starting from the photos displaying Elis as a child. As a toddler, Elis was chubby and sulky, always whining or pouting in front of the camera. He carried a stuffed penguin with him everywhere, sucked his thumb in his sleep and shoved away the bowl whenever it was filled with cabbages. His complexion was less pale then but as he grew older and began his primary school, his light blond hair turned paler alongside his face. He still fidgeted and looked elsewhere when taking a photo. He looked much leaner in his secondary, having started playing a few sports. He still pouted and blushed a lot, sometimes even turning away from the camera. He always wore a grey hand-knitted cardigan and there are quite a lot of photos of him playing the violin for the orchestra.
'You're not that photogenic, are you?' Shann snickers. 'You look like you're always forced into this.'
Elis lowers his head, his face on fire.
'Johan – that's your brother's name,' says Shann as he traces different names in the caption. 'Mateo – that's your cousin. And your two roommates are Noah and Tonni. Wow, you've been living together since secondary school. That's so sweet. Must have shared lots of wondrous memories together.'
Elis's eyes widen and he snatches the screen from Shann, swiping it repeatedly to scrutinise each photo. As he stares at each photo, an image would pop up in his mind and flash in front of him. He remembers all those solitary nights he spent weeping at night waiting for his parents and in the end, it was always his brother who came into his room to give him a hug, read him bedtime stories or hum him a lullaby. He remembers all those skirmishes he had with his brother when he was still treating him like a baby in secondary school; always checking up on him and teasing him when he failed to confess to his crush. He remembers the boisterous noises Mateo used to fill the house while listening to loud hip-hop at night and throwing sleepover parties every weekend that rendered the house in a disarray; the scolding he often received from Johan whenever he carelessly dropped a décor or a wine glass. He remembers all the times he had to pull an all-nighter because of algebra and Tonni offered to tutor him till he understood every formula and the countless times Noah cooked him his favourite mid-night snack just to keep him motivated.
How can he have forgotten something so important?
This is their house; their shelter; their nest.
And here is his room, where he used to sleep, study, read and play video games. They've given him the only en suite room on the second floor, the largest and the most comfortable room in the house.
'Do you read these entries together?' offers Shann as he waves his digital diary.
Elis nods and Shann switches on the gadget. A familiar voice plays on the recording. It doesn't take them long to realise that it belongs to Elis. He has been using the recording function of the device to recount his daily experiences.
My first day of school got officially ruined by Johan. I asked him not to drive me to school but he wouldn't make any concession. Great, now everyone knows that I still need my brother to walk me to the school entrance even when I'm in secondary school.
'Seriously?' Shann laughs. 'Your brother is worse than Jun.'
Elis flushes with a sigh and quickly swipes the screen.
Damn it, Johan made me wear one of those old-fashioned sweaters to the party today and they all stared at me like I'm some sort of weirdo. I have a hunch that he just didn't want me to get a proper date. The girls said I looked like a nerd and they wouldn't stop making fun of my pale hair. It's so distressing and –
Elis can't bear to listen to any more of it and swipes to the next entry again. Shann chuckles.
Okay, there's something called privacy I desperately want Mateo to know. I'm not talking about how he likes to barge into my room without knocking and always tries to unlock my diary but he just lacks the sense of personal space. My room is next to his and I don't need to hear him making out with random girls every weekend. He lives like there's no tomorrow and gosh, the moans are horrible. I'm glad I've got my iPod with me –
Elis grunts and swipes the screen. They continue to read more entries, all of which revolve around Elis's school life and his eccentric 'family'. Short. Simple. But full of love.
So, there is this adorable boy in my Economics class. He always sits at the back with his brother and probably doesn't notice me. He likes to gel his choppy brown hair and sometimes wears shades. But I like him without shades because I don't usually see people with eyes that brown. He looks absolutely suave, I must say. He's so good at this course everyone is trying to invite him to their groups in the project. He's half-British and half-Chinese, always hanging around his brothers and sister. He once pointed out a mistake in the lecturer's presentation and the lecturer got so embarrassed. I think I kind of like him but I'm not sure if he swings that way –
Elis switches off the diary. The blush deepens on his cheeks as he looks away from Shann.
'Oh...' Shann cocks his brows. 'Wait a minute, so you were also studying at Queen's?'
Elis stares at his lap and tries to recall his college life. The first day of school was always disastrous. He rejected a ride from John but missed the train. He went to the wrong side of the campus and almost entered the wrong lecture room but bumped into a boy helpful enough to point out that he had messed up his course schedules. The boy told him that they were actually taking the same Economics course and led him into the correct room.
And that boy was Shann.
'Now that I think about it, maybe we've met before,' says Shann contemplatively. He wants to keep reading the entry but Elis is holding the diary protectively. 'You had a crush on me?'
Elis shuts his eyes and clutches the diary tighter. Shann laughs. He might have noticed Elis once or twice, but the boy used to be a major introvert, always sitting at the far end of the row, typing notes industriously with his laptop, keeping his head low and his eyes blocked partially by his side bangs. He hardly spoke to anyone on the course and even if Shann caught him trying to approach him a few times asking to be in his project group, he never made any actual moves and Shann would simply dismiss his invitation of friendship almost instantly. What he probably didn't see was how Elis kept blushing and fidgeting whenever he neared him.
'You should've tried to speak to me,' says Shann, leaning close to Elis. 'I would've thought you were pretty cute too. And Elis, I'm a bi.'
The kiss is swift, but Elis will never forget the tenderness and the warmth of Shann's lips – the lips he has been craving to taste. He has always watched Shann from afar, admiring his charisma and intelligence, and was never able to pluck up his courage to ask him out. He was so afraid that Shann would turn him down and he would stand no chance befriending him ever again.
He regrets never having spoken to Shann properly before the outbreak, but that doesn't matter now.
'We're in the midst of an apocalypse,' says Shann as he breaks the kiss and smiles. 'And it feels absurdly romantic to know that someone has always had a crush on me.'
Elis grabs Shann's face and smashes their lips together again. He wants to taste Shann, lick every inch of his lips and bask in the sweet scent of his breaths. With Shann around him, he doesn't feel cold and dead. It's as if he's given a second opportunity to live again.