*Celosia "Robin" Douglas's POV:
I left the bedroom section and walked over to Gaia, whom was waiting right near the cafeteria's door. She spotted me.
"Is Hikari alright?" She asked.
"She's fine, she's sound asleep. Where's Beval?"
"He's in the kitchen directing Yasmine and Devon to put the food back in their rightful place" Gaia sighed in frustration, taking off her bonnet in the process, revealing her French braids. "They really need to stop doing this. Their curiosity is getting to the best of them. If they truly knew what was up there, trust me, they would never try to escape again. That virus will kill them."
I stared at her. It was true, it can. Even though Gaia was one of the nurses in the shelter, as a hunter, I told her everything I and my other fellow hunters have seen up top. The world's population was getting lower and lower. So much has changed up there.
"Then why didn't you try to leave with us? Why didn't you try to sneak out?" Hikari's voice played in my head.
She was right about this place but it's all we've got. We had nowhere else to go and that annoyed me. But then after everything Danny had told us, it's either here or death. Who knows when the New World Order and World Peace will start? Even then, I would still be hesitant about going out. But then I had to think: we are nearing the New World Order/World Peace era of Danny's prophecy. What will happen once that's over in the next three years and World War 3 starts? How will it start? Will we have enough supplies to survive? Will we ever be able to leave, even after it's all over? Should we take Hikari's advice, leave and find a better place?
"Celosia?"
I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at Gaia. "Yes?"
"Are you alright? You were staring out into space."
"Yeah, I was just thinking. You do know that the New World order and World Peace Era is coming up just like Danny said, right? Well, me and the hunters haven't gone on a hunting mission in about three months because luckily, we've gathered a good number of items. But I do wonder how they will get rid of the virus since it should come to an end soon."
"I don't know, ask Danny" Gaia said with a shrug, not really interested in my conversation. We were leaning against a wall near the cafeteria door, waiting for Beval to come out.
I felt slightly awkward. It's like that same feeling you have when you're in a group and they're listening to you talk, but one of them decides to cut you off and talk about something else with the other group members. I know that isn't the same, but still.
"Hikari did say that we could find a better, more fit place to take shelter. Why not do it during the World Peace Era? By then, the pandemic should be over and done with and we can finally-"
"But then there will be a crazy ass leader who will raise hell on anyone who goes against him" Gaia interrupted me, looking down at her nails.
"Who said we had to go against him? Minding our business is always an option" I argued.
"And God forbid, what if they see us Experi-babies and realize that not all of us are wiped out? Then what? They just might suspect there are more out there, making it harder for us to feel safe. We might just be the only Experi-babies left on earth since a good portion of them were either exterminated or killed by the virus. World peace is only world peace towards those who are on the leader's side and those without powers" Gaia grumbled, proceeding to sigh deeply as she pinched her nose bridge. "Honestly, what can we do?"
"Well, contacts are a thing you know? We can blend in. Shimizu would've wanted us to not only be safe but to also live instead of just surviving."
"Celosia..." Gaia said sternly before she stopped and sighed. I had a feeling me bringing Shimizu up frustrated her a bit, but she maintained her composure and spoke. "Until we figure out how to survive World War 3, we will continue to stay here where it's safe. Do not let Hikari's childish tendencies rub off on you. At the end of the day, we need to be grateful we've even survived this far, we could've been long dead...like our fellow kin" Gaia bluntly responded.
I was thrown back by her low-key shady comment. But before I could respond, Beval opened the cafeteria door. Yasmine and Devon walked out first, with their heads hanging low.
"Go straight to bed!" Beval ordered at the two preteens. They speedily walked straight towards their section: bedroom section two.
He looked at us two. "What's going on?" he asked.
"It's nothing, I was just heading off to bed" Gaia replied, trying not to make eye contact with me. She turned her head to Beval. "I love you".
"I love you too" Beval responded, kissing her before she walked past me. I tried not to make eye contact with her; I didn't want to cause anymore awkwardness between us. My grief had already done that.
I looked at Beval. He looked at me.
"You do know she cares about you" Beval smiled at me, revealing his "brace-less", white teeth.
"She has a funny way of showing it" I said with sarcasm.
"She talks about you all the time, reminiscing on childhood memories. She just doesn't want Shimizu to keep occupying your mind. And I don't either. Neither does Kimberly, Katie, or the others. We wish for you to get some help and-"
"I don't need help. What I need is for us to live in peace. Not to be struggling with food, water and medicine anymore. Hikari was right. We shouldn't be caught up in this place anymore. But where else can we go? All we can do is hope for a day we will be able to leave."
"Hope is stronger than doubt" Beval said, placing his hands on my shoulder. "How is it looking up there? Any chance of getting out of here any time soon?"
Since I am one of the fifteen hunters of the shelter, we were the ones to go up and find food, bottled water, medicine and clothing if needed and bring it back to the shelter. It took up the whole day to complete. Almost everyday someone would ask me how was it up top, I would tell each of them the same thing: "Not so good. Nature is flourishing because the human population is going down, but cities are quarantined."
"No, last time we went up, which was about three months ago, cities were still in quarantine and the virus was still pretty bad" I told Beval.
"Well, I guess there's your answer: No."
I bit my lip and looked down. I didn't want to ruin Beval's mood by bringing up Shimizu. It was already bad that me and his girlfriend Gaia weren't as close as we used to be. But me and Beval still were, in a sense.
"You should head back to sleep" Beval spoke up, breaking the silence between us. "You got hunting to do early tomorrow."
"Yeah, right. Goodnight Beval" I nodded at him as I headed back towards the bedroom section. I turned back to look at him. He took his hat off, sat on a chair and laid his head on his hands. I could tell by his body language he was stressing.
I could see why. Beval was the head chef of the shelter and his job was to prepare the menus, make sure the chefs are cooking the food right, and to make sure there was enough food in storage to feed, now four hundred people.
I felt like it was my fault for even bringing more and more people in over the years into our shelter. But I couldn't just leave them. Most were escaped Experi-babies I've ran into while on a hunting mission. Others were homeless people who had no where to go and had no way to take shelter from the virus.
Beval had a lot on his plate and me talking about Shimizu was only going to add fuel to the flame. But I just didn't want people, especially my friends to forget Shimizu. I didn't want them to forget how he influenced us in so many ways. Without him, we wouldn't have been there at the shelter. We would've most likely been dead. I felt like I was the only one grateful for his existence in our lives.
We lit candles on the one-year anniversary of his death, but that was it. The other four years, I was the only one who celebrated his birthday and lit candles on the anniversary of his death. They were "too busy" to celebrate. I ended up holding some resentment towards Gaia, and a little even for Beval, Kimberly, Katie and even Danny. They pushed Shimizu's memory aside and basically said "fuck him."
I sighed as I flopped on my bed, burying my head into my pillow. The sound of about eighty people snoring and sleeping filled the large bedroom section I was in: section four. I went under the covers and laid my head on my pillow, staring straight up at the ceiling high above.
I knew tomorrow I had to go back out with the other hunters to get some food and other resources for the shelter. I hated going out there. There was always a possibility of catching the virus, but it had to be done. I had no choice. We needed more items to survive.
My eyes grew heavy as I stared upward at the ceiling. Next thing I knew, I was asleep.
"Robin! Robin!" I heard someone call my middle name, the name I used to go by when I was younger. I opened my eyes and found myself in a meadow. It was nighttime and the stars were shining high above. Fireflies were everywhere, shining brightly as they flew around, towards and pass me.
"Robin!" I heard again. It was Gaia. She was on top of a hill with Beval. They were younger. We were younger.
I smiled and started running towards them. I was barefooted, my hair was down and free and I had on a yellow dress, which was odd because I rarely wore dresses when I was a teen. It seemed like everything was going in slow motion.
Gaia and Beval ran away as they saw me approaching.
"Wait!" I cried out. As I ran up the hill, a boy appeared at the very top. I stopped in my tracks as I realized who it was. He was like how I remembered- a Japanese boy with black short hair, bangs, glasses and blue sparkling eyes. It was Shimizu.
Slowly, I approached him. I was speechless. I didn't know what to think or say. I stood there, dumbfounded. He didn't say anything either. His hand brushed against my red, wavy curls. I briefly closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth of his hand.
"Robin..." I heard him say.
"Yes?" I answered gently.
"Robin" He said again.
"Yeah?" I responded, getting a bit confused as to why he was calling my name after I responded.
"Robin!" He yelled.
"What?!" I yelled back in confusion.
"Wake up!"
I opened my eyes and awaken to a shaking sensation. It was Kimberly.
"Get your ass up. It's time for breakfast, then we need to head out" Kimberly said in her usual stank attitude as she walked away. I sat up, finding myself in the bedroom section in my bed. Some people were still asleep, others were sitting in bed talking, but most were probably already eating breakfast by now. I looked at the clock on my mini dresser. It was 8:24 am.
When it sunk in that I was dreaming, I sighed and left my bed. I took a shower in my section's bathroom. Afterwards, I put on black leggings and a blue plain shirt with old, running sneakers. I tied my hair down in two pigtail braids and left.
As I closed my section's door, Kimberly approached me.
"Hey Celo, what took you so long?" she asked, wrapping her arm around me.
"Nothing, it's just that the sound of your voice makes me not want to get up even more than I already don't want to" I clapped back with a sigh.
"Oh ha, you got jokes. How lovely..." Kimberly said with sarcasm and an eye roll. "Come, sit with me."
"Don't I sit with you every day?"
We walked towards the cafeteria door. People where coming in and out of it. Gaia was already in line with Katie as the chefs poured food unto their plates. We both rushed in so we could get in line and get a seat.
The mass capacity of the shelter was four hundred people, and we only had about three hundred cafeteria seats, so many had to sit on the floor or eat in their bedroom section. The population of people in the shelter was the cause of many of our problems.
We grabbed a paper plate, plastic forks and knifes, and went in line. When I turned around, about fifty people were already forming a line behind us.
"Good thing we came early" I mumbled to myself before turning back around. Gaia was in front of us, in line with Katie, chatting it up. Unfortunately, Kimberly being Kimberly, decided to have some fun with Gaia.
"Hey Gaia, how is the nursing coming along? I hope it doesn't make you burnt out like your boyfriend. I'm sure being in a relationship with you is just as tiring" Kimberly said in a passive-aggressive manner. I gave Kimberly a look to tell her to stop, but she didn't get the memo.
"And that's exactly why no one fucks with you. You're shady and unfriendly as hell. I'm surprised no one whooped your ass. Oh wait!" Gaia turned around and glanced at me. "Someone already did".
I was taken back by her comeback and I could tell Kimberly was too. Katie gasped and chuckled as they both went over and sat at a nearby table.
"What a bitch! She gets a boyfriend and now all of a sudden she's acting like she's Queen Bee!"
"Let it go Kimberly," I sighed, shaking my head with a little smile forming in my face.
After the cooks placed the food on our plates, we sat at a table a few tables away from Gaia and Katie.
That day, we were having eggs, bacon, sausages and microwaveable pancakes. Same as always.
A whole bunch of people were coming into the cafeteria now. One of them happened to be Hikari. I waved at her, she waved back at me.
"So, are you excited to go obtain some useless items today?" Kimberly asked with sarcasm as she forked her sausage.
She was a hunter just like me. I was the leader of the group, and she was second command. The group contained of seven women, including us, and eight men. "Hopefully, the helpers up top will have enough food and water stored up in their supermarket like last time. The time before that, all they had was weapons and home equipment. We basically had to go hobo and either look for scraps, or hunt wild animals. Oh god, I can still taste that deer, it was disgusting."
"The items they gave us are rarely, if ever useless. And even if we have to fend for ourselves, we still were given items that can be used as weapons. We've even received pots and pans and a lot of clean bottled water last time" I argued with optimism.
"That's cool and all, but what about the food? We can't keep relying on them to have enough food, water and medicine for four hundred people, especially since we usually go out once a month. They even told us that there is no guarantee that they will always have enough items for us, three months ago we just got lucky and ended up having enough to last those three months. There's no point in breaking into homes either, everyone is in quarantine" Kimberly sighed as she rested her head on her hand, poking into her eggs.
"Then maybe we should travel farther. We can try to sneak into another supermarket and-"
"Celosia, we've been struggling with food and water for over two years. We tried everything. Remember the last time we tried to sneak into a closed supermarket? We almost got caught. We may just have to hunt wild animals again."
I stayed silent, knowing that Kimberly had a point. Certain things we still were in supply of like clothes, some fruits and vegetables in the garden section, and pampers and baby formula.
Yes, I said it, pampers and baby formula, because one of our friends (Isabella) decided to get pregnant during this time. The things we were running out of was: bottled water, breads, medicine, detergent and meats.
"I'm tired of going out once a month to get things we should already have an unlimited supply of" Kimberly continued as blew her breath in frustration.
I gazed my eyes away from Kimberly and pass her towards Gaia's table. She was sitting there with Katie and several other people. She was staring at me as Katie was babbling on about something. She didn't look sad, nor did she give me a mean look.
I quickly looked away, scared to make eye contact with her. I just couldn't look her in the eye anymore, and I wasn't sure why.
Next thing I knew, two people came over to our table to sit. It was Isabella and Danny.
"Hey girls, how's everything?" Danny asked as he looked at both of us.
"Fine, but it could be better" Kimberly responded as she folded her arms.
Anything specific you hunters will be looking for today?" Isabella asked me, rubbing her pregnant stomach. I looked down at her stomach then looked back at her to respond.
"We do need more baby formula, and we are running out of meats, medicine, and some other items. By the looks of the lack of drinking water, it's either find more bottled water or drink from our sinks" I huffed, stressing over our task.
"We got plenty of things last time we went out, which was huge. But the time before that, and the time before that wasn't so great. We got scraps and had to hunt deer and other wild animals and such. Even though people are in their homes during this worldwide quarantine, we still can't find many useful things. We've been doing this once a month for the past two years. I want out" Kimberly vented.
"I'm finished" I said as I got up and grabbed my empty plate.
"That was fast" Kimberly said with a cocked brow.
"I have to go and put my equipment on. Who knows how stronger this virus has gotten since the last time we've left the shelter? I'll let the team know it's time to head out" I responded before I turned to head towards the trash can.
"Oh yeah, about that..." Danny responded. "The pandemic is over. The virus has died out."
"What?!" Me and Kimberly both shouted.