The next morning I woke up in the manager's office on a futon, after a quick shower in the bathroom I walked out into the store to find everyone eating breakfast in the entertainment center where they had something different playing on almost every TV. I sat down at the table that was setup for the adults and teenagers, while Isis and the kids sat at a different table. A moment later Thomas's mother who was an older lady in her mid-thirties placed a plate in front of me loaded with food and a mug of coffee. "I didn't introduce myself before, but my name is Allison, I'm Thomas's mother. The little one at the other table is Zack," she said pointing to a little boy at the other table that looked like a miniature version of Thomas, "but I wanted to thank you for what you've done for us, getting us out of the school and then bringing us here." I took a sip of the coffee before replying, "It was nothing special."
The others at the table shook their heads as she said, "No, it is. You stuck your neck out for people you didn't know not once, but twice. Even before the world became like this there weren't many that would do that." A lady in her mid-twenties with platinum long blond hair and blue eyes across from me extended her hand saying "My name is Samantha, the silent statue next to me is my husband Jim, and the little girl over there is our daughter Rachel." Pointing for to the man on her right who was as tall as me but more built, bald, and with brown eyes. Then to a six year old girl with blond pigtails sitting at Isis's table. I shook her hand and nodded towards her husband as he nodded back. The guy sitting next to me extended his hand which I shook as he said, "My name is Frank, we're grateful for what you did. Did you used to be in the military or something? I'm just wondering, because it's amazing what you've done for us already." He asked with a hopeful look on his face, I also noticed how Jim gave me an inquisitive look at the question.
"No," I replied after another sip of coffee, "I work at the local lab as a robotic engineer. I'm all nerd, but I do come from a family of military men so I know a little about fighting." This drew a look of amazement from the other's, except for Jim, who had a look of annoyance. I didn't pay it any attention, I just thought to myself that he must be pissed that he was saved by a computer nerd since he looks like ex-military. After we finished eating I cleared my throat as I stood up, once I was certain I had everybody's attention I said, "Now that everyone is rested I would like to go over what we should do next, about whether to stay here or to keep going?" This drew a puzzled look from everyone, Samantha was the first to speak up "Why do we need to leave? We have just about everything we need here, it's safe, there are few infected, and we're far away enough from a major city that we don't have to worry about looters." Upon hearing what she said the other's nodded in agreement. "I'm not saying that we have to leave, but people will leave the cities sooner rather than later, and the infected will follow them. If we want to stay there are a few things that we need to do to make this place secure," I replied looking at everyone, "first of which is to seal up every entrance except for one, so we can enter and leave if need be. Preferably in an enclosed space just in case infected get in, the best place for that in my opinion is the back loading dock since I sealed up the whole in the wall last night." This brought another round of nods from them, when I was certain that everyone wanted to stay and knew what needed to be done, I sent the adult's and teenager's to start sealing up the front entrance since it was mostly glass while I had Isis stay with the younger children and I went to check up on the part of the wall that I fixed to make sure the concrete had set right.
When I reached the loading area I first did a sweep of the grounds since I didn't want to get jumped while checking thing's out. Once I had was certain it was clear I walked to the section to see how it dried, I then gave it and the parts around it a few good kick's to see if any portion had to be redone but the wall was solid, so I went back inside to help the other's seal up the entrances. With their help we cleared out the area in front of the entrance and moved some shelves to the entrance while frank and I welded them together since we were the only ones with experience in welding, when the front was done we did the same thing to the entrance in the garden section. We also placed backpacks with emergency supplies underneath the stairs that led to the roof just in case we had to get out that way.
We were done in time for the dinner that Isis and the kid's made. I mostly poked at my food as the other's talked about the life they once had before Zero-day and what they would miss most. Everyone was laughing until frank said "I would miss talking to my kid's. They were with they're mother when this happened and the last I heard from them they were headed to her parent's place in Wisconsin." This caused everyone to stop laughing, to break the silence Samantha asked me about my family since I hadn't said anything yet. "I don't know, they disowned me when I didn't join the military so I hadn't talked to them in almost ten year's. I don't even know if they still live in the same place so there's no point in looking for them and I never told them were I live so there is no chance in them coming to look for me," I replied. This brought another round of silence until I spoke up and said, "Tomorrow I was thinking of moving the rest of these shelves around to create individual living area's for everyone here and give us each a bit of privacy." Everyone started talking about how best to make the living spaces and how to decorate them. It was agreed upon to make the entertainment and sports centers community areas for everyone's use. They also wanted to put up a fence around the weapons to keep the children from them and to also make an area that would be used like a classroom for the younger kid's to both keep them out from under foot, and to keep up with their schooling since knowledge is even more important at the end of the world.
It was also by mutual agreement that Isis would continue to teach the children, it was at this point I excused myself from the table to take a shower and get some sleep. As I laid in my bed in the manager's office I thought back to the kids, Lilly, a 12 year old tomboy short blond hair in a ponytail and blue eyes the sister of 16 year old Julia. Chloe, a shy 9 years old with long ginger hair with brown eyes. Samantha with brown eyes and long brown hair in pig tails at 7 years old. Last was a 2 year old boy with brown hair and green eyes, but no one knew his name. He didn't know it, but he was the lucky one since he is so young he won't be tied down by the memories and ideals of the old world, if he lives long enough to learn what skills he'll need he might out live us all. I fell asleep wondering if humanity would survive this ordeal and dreamed that I was fighting through a horde of infected before being overwhelmed and having my throat torn out.
I woke up the next morning with a jolt, covered in sweat, the dream still fresh in my mind. I looked around the room alert of my surroundings, puzzled about where I was before the memories of the last two day's came back to me. I shook my head to clear my mind of sleep and then noticed that there was someone sleeping next to me. When I pulled the covers down I saw that it was Julia, I was too surprised and it was too early in the morning to say something so I let her sleep. I got up to go to the bathroom to take a shower and hopefully wash away the dream I had which still chilled me to the bone. When I got there I saw Jim come out looking refreshed from his shower, he waved to me and I stopped to talk to him. "I got up early to get some workout done, maybe you'll join me next time," he said. I just nodded making note of what he was really implying, I knew I was chubby around the middle and didn't care, but I also knew that if I wanted to stay alive I would need to shave off the excess weight. "Mind if I ask you why you suggested to moves the shelves? I doubt it's just for privacy since you're staying in the office and since it would be safer to keep everyone together in one area," he asked with shine in his eye.
"I'm pretty sure you already know the answer to that, but since you asked, to act as buffer zones and cover should something happen inside the center," I replied with some confidence, certain that he was thinking to do the same thing. Jim just nodded his head before walking away and I continued on to the shower. By the time I got out of the shower I could hear that the TV's had been turned on and some people talking so I walked out to the TV center where everyone was gathered for breakfast. I sat in my usual place at the table with a cup of coffee for a while before Julia walked in looking like she just got out of the shower before sitting next to me with content look on her face. Then Isis appeared at my other side placing a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon in front of me with a smirk on her face. The others gave looks of both shock and surprise while I just rolled my eyes, they gave me a death glare but I shook my head to assure them that nothing happened bringing a sigh of relief from them, and a satisfied smile from Isis. After we finished eating we got down to the task of moving everything they classified as a weapon to the hunting section before making a cage around them and welding them into place. When we finished welding and locking up the cage there were only two keys available, so it was decided that both Jim and I would have them just in case something happened to either of us there would still be one available. Then we sat down to lunch as they went back and forth about how much space would be allotted to each group, if the younger ones should have their own room's or to make a separate gender specific dormitory, the layout of each area, and then which type of furniture to decorate them with. By the time we finished lunch it was decided that Jim and his wife would have their own room, but their kids would sleep together in the one next to theirs. Allison wanted to sleep in the same room as her kids, but Thomas pushed her into giving him his own, while Isis and the remaining kids slept together in a room laid out like a dormitory. Frank setup an area for himself in the corner of the storage room and Julia said that she would bunk with me but everyone pretended to not pay attention.
Since I was already settled in the office I helped the others move the shelves and furniture around to where it was needed. After that was done I left them to decorate their rooms as I took a pair of binoculars, a walkie-talkie, some water, and headed for the roof to do some surveillance. Once the sun had set Isis poked her head through the hatch, "So this is where you were, Julia has been looking everywhere for you," she said as she climbed onto the roof with a smile on her face, "I take it your up here to avoid her?" "That's one reason," I said as I took a last look through the binoculars to our surroundings, "but mostly because I didn't want any unwelcome guest's to come knocking on our door, living or dead." "That's right," she said sadly, "it's not just the infected we have to worry about now are there." I looked at her with sympathy before replying, "These types of people always existed in the world, but there were so many people to pray on before that some could go their whole lives without having to be victim to them." She nodded her head and looked me in the eye before saying, "I know, in the old world I could ignore the news since it never happened to me. If you don't mind if I ask, you talk like someone that knows what it was like, but which were you? Predator or pray?" I looked up to the sky at the rising moon before telling her, "Most predators were once pray that no longer wanted to be preyed upon."
Just then Julia burst onto the roof with a look of exhaustion before Isis could say anything else. "I've been looking for you everywhere," Julia said as she looked at Isis with annoyance, "what have you been doing up here?" "I was playing hooky, but Isis found me to drag me back," I said with an annoyed expression which caused Isis to giggle. "Well come down, dinner is ready," Julia replied still staring at Isis. When we reached the table the adults had to do a double take since at one side of me was Isis smiling and on the other was Julia glaring at her. I went to sit in my usual seat at the corner of the table where Julia planted herself next to me and Isis went to help prepare the plates. The looks doubled (if that's even possible) when Isis put a plate in front of Julia and myself, which wasn't wrong except for the fact the my helping was twice the size of hers. I just shook my head in exhaustion at the situation and started eating with a bored expression on my face while the other's kept looking between us.
I was thankful when everyone was served because they had to stop staring in order to eat, needless to say dinner what quiet do to a mixture of exhaustion, and not knowing what to say in this situation or even if they should. When everyone was done eating Jim mentioned about setting up a schedule for a night watch. "I was thinking the same thing which is why I was on the roof," I said, "from the layout of the surrounding area there is too much tree cover, too few lights, and too big of an area to cover at night. Every entrance is welded shut except for the loading dock which is locked from the inside with stuff piled in front and the rear emergency has an alarm that will sound if opened so there really is no need to put guards." "Fine, then it's settled," Jim said giving me a glare before getting up and going to his family's area. Samantha said goodnight to everyone before following after her husband, "To pet his ego," I thought to myself. I left also to take a shower and wash off the sweat from being on the roof for so long before going to bed. When I got back to my room I was feeling a lot more relaxed, that was until I found Julia laying on my bed in the skimpiest lingerie I think the store had which forced me to look at her, and I mean really look at her. I had to bite my tongue to brake my attention, upon which I crossed the room and sat on top of the desk while trying to maintain eye contact. "I know what you think you're here for," I said looking her in the eye, "and what you want. But you won't get it through such methods."
She thought about what I said for a moment while bringing up her knee's hugging them causing her breast's to almost explode out her bra. "I don't know if she is doing this on purpose or through ignorance, but I have to keep looking her in the eye if I want her to take me seriously," I thought to myself. "I may not be as mature as teach, but I can take care of myself," she replied with an assertive look, "and considering what the world has become you need a partner that can survive in this world and that is not tied down by the old world's morale standards." I shook my head before replying, "If all you want is a go under the covers you're barking up the wrong tree, that's not to say there aren't others that wouldn't take you up on the offer. But that isn't who I am, a relationship takes time and you have to put in the effort, in the old world that would take weeks." I continued to look into her eyes as I said, "But even in this world where things are faster paced since no one knows if they'll live to see morning it will still take a few day's at least to build a relationship, if that is what you are looking for." After I finished we sat there staring at each other for a while, but she eventually got up and put on her pajamas before leaving. I left shortly afterwards to take another shower, this time a cold one while thinking about how crazy today has been, and wondering how many more day's I can take of this. Having settled down again I laid in my bed, alone, thinking about what she said about doing whatever it takes to survive. So I fell asleep upon deciding to leave here, of course my conscience wouldn't let me go without first making sure there other's would be safe here, stupid conscience.