The Last Plague

Chapter Nine: Red

My screen let out a small beep as it flashed red. I panicked, not knowing what to do. I tried recalling my instructions, but nothing came. I felt so confident, and as soon as something happened I panicked, making me feel stupid. I almost couldn't believe myself. I looked over, hoping Mike would know what to do and saw his hand raised. Smith walked over a few seconds later.

"Do you have something?" Smith asked, checking all of Mike's screens. "No, you have something," he corrected himself, pointing to my screen. "Did you panic?" He cocked an eyebrow at me. "We have something on area twelve," he said into the radio.

"Already taken care of," a voice responded back.

"Thanks," Smith said. He looked back at me and pointed at me. "Now, did you panic?"

"Yep," Mike responded for me.

"Okay, that's normal, let's go for take two. You panicking the first time is completely normal. The second time, you should feel calmer." Smith told me, already walking away.

"Are people always in a rush around here?" I asked, noticing how everyone walked away the moment they finished saying something. "Everyone walks away so quickly."

"Not really, it's more of a habit. You'll start to do it without realizing it too." Mike said.

"I doubt that," I responded monotonously.

"You'll see," he said with a chuckle.

Several more hours went by without anything else. Staring into the screen, it stayed at its normal color. No noise came from my or Mike's screens. The day seemed to have lasted forever. The same thing went on hour after hour.

"Alright, you'll be done for today," Smith said behind me, I didn't realize he was there.

I stood up and walked out of the door. Derek was waiting for me there. He looked at me solemnly, and led me towards my room. He didn't say anything the entire time. His eyes were red and looked like they had been crying. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I didn't. It seemed wrong to try to comfort someone I didn't know. We walked into my room, and Nick was in there. He was grabbing a small backpack he had brought and threw it over his shoulders. He started walking out of the door; he was just as silent as Derek. He didn't look like he'd been crying, but he looked solemn like Derek. They both walked out of the door silently. I was left in the room alone. I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. I focused on doing something for the time, waiting for Bethany to come back. I knew Nick had taken the night shift as the guard, so he wouldn't be back for the night. Bethany had taken a job as a cook though, she should be back once mealtime was over.

The moment I thought of food, I felt my stomach burn. You've been staring at a screen all day, you haven't eaten. My mind told me, I was already walking out of the door. I tried remembering where the cafeteria was, and I could remember it pretty well. I walked down a few buildings, but I heard some chatter, so I knew where it was without having to remember. Several men and women were sitting down and chatting away. I walked between the tables and moved towards the front. Bethany was standing there giving out food happily. I walked up to there, and she gave me food without noticing me. I took the food and walked to a bench. After I finished eating, I waited for about an hour for Bethany. Everyone had finished eating, and Bethany walked out. I walked over to her when she walked over to me. I sat back down when I noticed Bethany was walking towards me. She sat down in front of me.

"How was your day?" she asked, catching me off-guard, I wasn't sure why.

"It was pretty good," I said, sparing her the details. "How about you?"

"It was great!" she shouted. "First, we got all of the food out. Then, we cooked it all. We kept making more and more food because there were so many people. It was super fun too! Mellisa is kind of a grouch, but William is super fun. He taught me how to make pancakes with what they had there," she started talking.