X-periment 5

The Slush

"Hey Rye, wake up. All the food at the Slush will be gone by the time we leave." Jerry's voice cooes me from my sleepy state.

 "What's the Slush?" I yawn rising from my cot. I must've fallen asleep  after Levii and Xander left. As I rise from my cot I notice the jacket I'd been wearing- Levii's jacket is placed over me like a blanket.

  "I'll show you if you could get ready quicker thank you very much, some people aren't super humans trained to go without food for 2 weeks."

 I smile, "Actually the longest I've gone was 1 week."Jerry returns her smile, "What do you guys hold competitions or something to see who could go the longest based on their training?"

 Laughing at her assumption I reply, "No it was punishment for skipping my training session once." I get up, leave the jacket on my bed and follow Jerry towards our tent's opening.

 Jerry stops outside of our tent, her bright smile slightly faltering. "Oh." Then she starts walking again. I catch up to her, noticing her furrowed brows. "Is everything alright?" She gives me a ludacris look but quickly shakes her head smiling again. "No nothing, you must've been quite the rebel for skipping,"

 "Actually I'd just wanted to show my roommate at the time around. She was one of the very few who'd been kept in primary for a longer amount of time before coming to us."

 "What's Primary?"

 "What's the Slush?" I responded too quickly. Jerry laughed it off, as if it was a joke,  even though my heart skipped a beat. Why did I have to be so defensive?

 "Sorry uh-Primary is just where we are prepped and I guess tested  as to make sure that they have properly prepared us for our next stage. Usually we spend half of our childhood there but sometimes it could be extended." ...or shortened significantly, a little voice reminds me. I'd only spent 6 months in primary.

 "And you are there as soon as you're born?""I don't know, you're not supposed to remember your time there."

 "Oh."

 As Jerry turns away we walk through the refugee camp. "So just so I could understand this perfectly, this is a building and we are on the bottom floor."

 "Yes and no, we used to be in the building but retreated underground so we couldn't suffer as many casualties when being bombed."

 "Wait you guys get bombed?"

At this she laughs but in a more maniacal fashion, "Yeah, in this state of the world who doesn't? Plus our high and mighty official government doesn't want there to be any survivors from the Philadelphia Bombings in the first place. It was too much of a mess to sort out and having no survivors allows for more people in the country to be enraged, increasing amount of drafts into the military."

 "Okay...so the only way to access this is the lift we took? Is the actual building being used? How many people are here? What about-"

 "Okay okay I guess we should have a time dedicated to answer your ramblings but please let's just take this one at a time. Yes it's the only way, Yes but only floor guard are using the first floor as posts... everything else is pretty much useless, um the last head count was 250. Now is that enough for now?"

 "I guess." We keep walking, the only person to pass us is an old, frail women who is carrying a young child. I resist the urge to ask who were the people here and what led them to leave their lives but based on the way Jerry was quickening her pace, I decided it was best to keep quiet. We continued walking until there weren't any tents anymore. but instead a door.

 "Come on, I want to eat." Jerry said opening the door revealing a large room. It had high ceilings and long tables that stretched nearly to the end of the room. The seats were filled with people of different ages each taking turns at their respective tables to scoop up food from 2 large bowls at either end.  Chatter and laughter filled my ears as people ate and waved to others across the room.