RETURNING TO HAWTHORNE SCHOOL FOR EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG MEN made Eve miserable. Not because of the memories that were attached to their Fallout Shelter, but because of its inhabitants.
She should be thankful. She was a Purple, thanks to careful manipulation by her father and Lucifer. She could've been a Grey, doing everyone's bidding and practically living as a slave.
Two and a half years had passed since she last saw Michael. She knew they'd meet again – it was why Outpost Three was where her father, Lucifer, and Madame Voyait decided she'd stay there – she just didn't know when. She'd attempted to force a vision to come several times, but when nothing did she knew it would not be in the immediate future. She realized she'd have to let it come naturally.
She had also been the first to arrive at the bunker. Wilhelmina Venable had known who she was the moment she walked in and feared her, which brought great joy to the halfling. Miriam, on the other hand, had no memory of who the halfling in front of her was, and Eve played along with her. The second group to arrive unnerved her. There was something... off about two of the four. The brunette, Mallory, was... odd. There was something strange about her. There was something about Coco, too, but Eve couldn't tell if it was just because she was a raging bitch or if it was similar to whatever was going on with Mallory.
Timothy and Emily were the fourth and last group to arrive. They had walked in when Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft was playing.
"This song, the same one every night." Gallant was complaining, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "Where is it even coming from," he got up, "and why do we have to listen to it? What are we missing here?"
"About 99% of the world's population." Eve smirked at Stu's comment.
"Would've been better off dying with them." Gallant opined.
"Speak for yourself, darling." Evie, his grandmother, replied.
"Wouldn't have to drink this, whatever this is."
Andre rolled his eyes. "It's mineral water."
"It just plays over and over, twenty-four hours a day," the hairdresser continued to complain.
"It's like Satan's Spotify playlist." Stu commented, causing Eve to hide a smirk and stifle laugh behind her hand. It was no Spotify playlist from Satan. It was hers. She'd enchanted the damn radio when she first got there. If she wasn't able to see her Michael, she had to have her fun somehow.
The new occupants entered. "Oh, well, well well," Dinah spoke, "new blood. Come in, don't be shy."
Dinah, too, knew exactly what and who Eve was. It wasn't difficult for the Voodoo Queen to sense that the blonde was half demon. But she also knew of Eve's connection to Michael Langdon, having previously met him.
"You're Dinah Stevens." Timothy realized, "My mother used to watch your show. She said you beat the pants off Oprah any day."
"Bless her heart," Dinah spoke, "a million of her and I wouldn't have been replaced by that telenovela."
"Um, what's happening out there?" Gallant asked, approaching the newcomers.
"It's all gone." Timothy said plainly. "Everything." Emily confirmed.
Venable then entered the room. She rang her bell and spoke once, "Dinner is served."
It was an unspoken rule that Dinah and Eve were to sit next to each other for every meal. The two had found respect in each other – Eve because Dinah had helped her lover, and Dinah partly out of the loyalty she herself held to the Antichrist and partly out of the fear of the power the halfling possessed.
"It's all we get." Gallant said to Emily, noticing her expression. "Don't be too disappointed."
"Darling, you don't know what disappointment is until you've slept with Yul Brynner."
Dinah laughed at Evie's comment while Gallant responded with a comment about how he wanted to die.
"The cube on your plate contains every vitamin our body needs..." Dinah trailed off, "Or so they tell us."
"I am still hungry," Coco complained after shoving the entire cube in her mouth and swallowing it whole, "I am so tired of the hunger." She slammed her fist down on the table, "Fuck this bullshit!" The chair screeched along the floor as she got up and pushed it behind her. "With all the thought that went into this place, they don't have a single bag of Pirate's Booty in the pantry?!" She continued her tirade, failing to notice Venable and Mead's entrance. "For a million dollars a ticket, I expect goddamn Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen cooking us real food!"
Venable tapped her cane to announce her presence. Coco stopped and tensed in fear then turned around to face the two women behind her. Without hesitation, Wilhelmina Venable backhanded the heiress across the face.
Eve sat silently, ignoring the commotion. She cut her cube into thin slices, eating each one by one off of her fork. She preferred to savor it, though at night when she was alone in her quarters she would conjure up whatever she was craving (which was usually chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache).
"I'm going to be very clear so there will be no misunderstanding." Venable spoke. "We have enough nutrition for the next eighteen months, and if our situation doesn't improve, you can count on less and less."
"Situation?" Gallant asked, after Coco sat down. "What is our situation?"
Mead looked to Venable. "We had a perimeter alert this morning," Venable admitted, "something penetrated the grounds.
"It was a carrier pigeon delivering a message from our benefactors."
"Wait, a pigeon?!" Coco exclaimed, "Can we eat it?!"
"It was contaminated by the fallout." Mead finally spoke up.
"There are no more governments," Venable announced, "only rotting mounds of corpses – too many to bury. Starving people kill for a piece of bread. Three outposts have been overrun. We are the last vestiges of civilized life on the planet. Be vigilant."
"Everything we know is gone." Mead confirmed.
"In two weeks?" Andre asked himself, "That's all it took?"
"It was always fragile." Mead spoke, "They made you think the system was a rock. It was a water balloon. One prick of the needle and –" she made a popping sound, "– that's all it took."
"We will only survive if we follow the rules." Venable reminded the group of survivors.
But dinner that night ended with a contamination spike and the death of Stu.
-
They sat waiting for their next dinner in the dining area the following night. Andre sat and cried while Dinah stood behind him and attempted to comfort him in his time of grieving.
"How could he be contaminated? Stu never went outside. He was with me most of the time."
"Well, people do strange things when they're stuck inside 24/7." Coco spoke, playing with her freshly styled hair. "I've started masturbating with my off hand."
"Are you saying he deserved this?" Dinah questioned.
Eve had to agree with Dinah. She questioned whether she truly was the monster here when the humans she'd encountered in her short lifespan of four years were so vicious and callous.
"I'm saying Stu was boring, and using up our food, and that lesions won't work with my complexion." she defended herself.
"Fuck you!" Andre replied. "I hope they come for you next!"
With her jaw clenched Eve glared at the woman and sent a shock of pain up her spine, causing her to flinch and hold back a yelp. Dinah turned to her, having sensed what she had done to the obnoxious woman.
"No one's coming for anyone," Mead spoke, announcing her presence, "Not unless you break the rules."
"This is a difficult time for everyone." Venable spoke as Mallory walked in with a cart and stopped to stand in the middle of the two headwomen. "As a small consolation we have a special treat."
She lifted the lid off a dish. Eve narrowed her eyes at the woman. Whatever it was, she wasn't eating it. She didn't trust the woman.
"No cubes tonight?"
"Enjoy the bonne bouche." Venable said. "Don't get used to it."
Eve stared at the bowl in front of her in disdain. She refused to eat it. Instead, she played with her spoon in whatever the broth really was.
"Oh my god," Coco exclaimed after taking a mouthful, "I think my mouth had an orgasm."
While Venable spoke to Andre, Eve stirred at the soup. Head tilted and brows furrowed, she looked at her spoon in confusion. There were bones in her bowl. There was never any chicken.
"Tell me this doesn't look like a finger," Andre gasped, looking at what he pulled out of his mouth. "Oh, jesus christ. The stew is Stu!"
The occupants got up and backed away from the table. Eve dropped her spoon, thankful she hadn't bothered to try their "special meal."
"Mallory, come over here and stick your finger down my throat!" Coco exclaimed.
-
Following dinner the group spent time in the living room area.
"You're a monster." Andre accused Evie, "How could you keep eating? You knew what it was."
"It was chicken, Andre. Delicious white meat chicken." Evie replied in her faux posh accent.
"You're a cannibal." Andre said lowly. "You're all cannibals!"
"Think about it," Dinah grabbed him, "she ate it too. Stu was contaminated. Why would Venable eat irradiated meat?"
"That's right," Timothy joined in, "why would Venable eat contaminated meat? The whole reason why she is here is to keep us alive."
"But where's his body, then?" Andre cried.
Eve rose a brow and spoke up. "I didn't eat any of it." She got up from her spot and continued, "You don't find it suspicious that the night after Stu is practically murdered we suddenly have fresh food instead of a gelatinous cube for dinner?"
"I want to see it. I want to see Stu!"
"Are you saying she fed us human meat? Contaminated human meat?" Mallory challenged from her spot next to Coco.
"No," Eve responded, blood boiling, "I'm saying I don't trust the bitch."
"Shut up! Shut up!" Emily exclaimed, "Just listen!"
"I don't hear anything." Gallant said.
"Exactly."
Eve's tense shoulders relaxed.
"The song stopped."
In her rage she hadn't realized she had stopped the song. She looked to the radio and willed it to begin again, not thinking of any song in particular.
It buzzed and started again. The Morning After flowed from the small speakers.
"It's been the same song for two straight weeks, why would the suddenly change it?" Gallant asked, taking off his sunglasses.
Eve stood still again. She'd put on the wrong damn song.
"Don't you get it? It's a message!" Gallant continued and sang along, "The Cooperative is trying to tell us something!"
"They're saying, 'hang on, we're coming for you.'" Mallory said in awe.
"Yes, the Cooperative is coming for us! Halle-fucking-lujah!"
A/N: so for a lil context, eve is 2 years younger than michael, making him six years old at this point in time.
also ps soz coco, only sanctuary occupants get food prepared by gordon ramsay.