OffGun One-Shots

OffGun - How I Met Your Father

There was this day, a couple weeks ago, the weather was so hot, lots of old people passed, and shops closed and every window and door was closed to cut the heat.

But it striked so suddenly people had entered any place they found to lock themselves in and protect from the sun's literally burning uvs and light.

That's how high school freshman Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat ended up locked in his high school basement with high school senior year Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn.

After the first strike, heat actually started to increase and nights were getting shorter.

They both were still surprised to be the only ones to have ended in the basement, but maybe others were in classrooms or the air conditioned cafeteria.

They talked a lot after the first three hours spent in awkward silence.
Gun learned that Off hid there because it was closest to were he was when the national message was released.
Off learned Gun chose the basement for specific reasons such as no windows, under the surface because the first floor starts right at earth level. Also, he knew the water bottles for the distributors are stocked in the basement along with the chips, raw pastas, rice, seasonings and labeled cakes, chocolate bars and stuff.

He arrived two hours after Off, and after the older heard of his explanations, he better understood why the younger was drenched in sweat and hyperventilating due to hard breathing.

He had taken his shirt off directly and used it to vent himself and dry it. Off was only surprised when the boy put it back on.

"I can't just get used to the heat with already no shirt on, what will I do if I then can't bare it anymore? I can't take my skin off." he said as if that was obvious to the other.

They talked a lot about the strike, hypothesis and fears for what would be to come next. But they had no idea.

It has been 17 days since the first strike. The temperature went up 29 degrees, currently reaching 51°C.

It was night time, even though night had not set for three days, and the boys shut down the TV rediffusion they set up on the older's phone. The younger's had no batteries anymore and he had no charger with him.

Gun, lied down on the floor to try falling asleep, turned to Off, in the same situation a few meters away, and started talking.

"I understood you have quite the family, don't you miss them?" he asked, trying to fill the silence and maybe exhaust himself by talking.

"What? Oh, no. Not really, well I mean I usually don't accomodate much with them anyways..." he started, he then looked away for two seconds before meeting Gun's eyes. "And you?"

"Oh, you know, it's only my brother and parents. I know they're in this together and the house was ready for anything, they're quite something when it comes to potential crisis. The basement is air-conditioned, the house can be controlled from every room with remotes, and so they can accessible the food stocks they have. I know they're fine." Gun explained, sounding like he was convincing himself more than like he was confident.

"That was not the question, nong. Are you actually homesick?" Off asked back, specifically.

Gun hesitated, he did was homesick, but admitting it, it was something else, it implies nothing could be done about it, and implied to resign to being uselessly worried.

"I, it's just I wonder if they worry about me. Maybe they could think I'm dead, I haven't given them a sign or anything since the beginning of the heat strikes."

Off sat up and turned to face Gun, the younger followed.

"If they are the ones to have taught you everything you taught me to survive here, they know you are fine. They probably know you chose wisely where to lock yourself."