All of us climbed down the rusty ladder, I held the glowing crystal gem lamp in front of all of us, "Past here, finally." I gulp, I felt Ray wrap his arm around my waist, I smile at him, he knows I've always been afraid of the dark, "I hate this." I whisper to him as we hear the clacking of our heels on the floor, we finally reached our door and we opened it, I tapped my hand against the wall trying to find a switch, I felt some cool metal, "Please turn on, please turn on, please turn on." I flick the switch, "Yay." I mutter to myself as the room started illuminating, "It's on!" The kids cheer, I saw monitors covering one side of the wall, all showing the wasteland, "It doesn't look like anybody lives here." I peek my head in, "There may have been before. Escapees just like us." Emma looks at a tin of mouldy cookies, "Is this showing outside?" The kids look at the screens above the dinner table, "Probably, with this many monitors, we'd know immediately if demons or pursuers are here." Don grins, "Nat." Ray turns around, "A radio?!" I see in his hands, "Look." Gilda points at a letter stuck to the wall, "A letter?" Emma picks it off, "Congratulations on arriving, I'm sorry I cannot celebrate it with you in person, this shelter is yours." Emma's face lights up, "William!" She looks at us, "Minerva!" Everyone chimes, "Mr Minerva prepared this shelter. It's for people like us who escaped the House!" Gilda smiles, "First we need to figure out the layout of this shelter." Ray says, everyone ran off and investigated the shelter.
"Wow a kitchen!" Lani yells, "This will allow us to cook real food." Thoma holds a pan, "I want to cook too!" Mark smiles, "Me too!" Yvette jumps up, "A bath!" We look at the bathroom, the bath was enormous, "Yay!" Rossi and Dominic were about to take off their scarves, "Not now! Later!" Gilda holds her arm out, Don found the pantry, filled with canned goods, everyone's stomach rumbled and we all laugh, "I can't take it anymore!" Don holds his stomach, "I want to each something!" Yvette and Jemima cry out, "A garden?" We found another room, "No way," Don looks around, "Let's grow stuff here like fruits and vegetables!" Lani looks up, "Yay!" Alicia smiles. "So many books." We trace our hands, "It's like a small library." Anna looks at a cover, Nat walks to a piano, "Can I play something he asks?" We all look at him, he starts playing a tune, Nat was always musically talented, it was beautiful finally hearing music again, Dominic grins as he hits the highest key on the piano then it started to slide to the side, "What's this?" He looks in, "A secret room?" Anna peers in, they investigated further and it leads to a secret tunnel. "We were able to secure water, food, power and housing." Ray says, "Thanks to Mr Minerva." Emma smiles, "Nat, can we go now?" Dominic looks up at me, "Huh? Where?" I was confused, "Sure, go ahead. It's been a while after all." Gilda smiles, "All right!" They sprint to the bathrooms.
The boys were first to go to the bath, "Thank you for the meal." We all started eating, bread, soup, the first time in a while we could eat to our heart's content, "This shelter is truly amazing, more than I expected." Ray looks at me and Emma, "Water is pulled from an underground well. Power is generated with the help of geothermal energy and organic waste. If that's not enough, there's an auxiliary generator power by separate fuel as well." Ray eats another spoonful, "Organic waste?" Don asks, Ray leans over and whispers to him, "You can get power from our poop?!" He yells, "Don! Ray! We're eating!" I scold, "Hey, I said 'compost'," Ray stresses, "Sorry, Ray." Don rubs the back of his head, "There wasn't must food in the pantry, but there are animals outside. There are still a lot of the nonperishables we brought from the House and we can use the seed Mujika gave us. We can live here, in this place." Emma looks around, "Yeah. It's the perfect hideout. It's safe, clean... and with our small number of people, we can live here for a long time. We can survive." Ray smiles. We all started washing up after dinner, the shelter filled with the sound of Nat's music, the kids crowded around him as he played, "We're starting from here, aren't we?" I look at Ray, "Maybe our dream is slowly becoming a reality." He kisses my forehead.
