Fever Dream Red

44

Doug and Alfie came down eventually, sitting at either end of the table like this new family's matriarchs.

They all ate breakfast, but I didn't find myself hungry. I just watched them shoving food into their mouths quite disgustingly.

I hated watching food eat.

Then there came a knock at the door.

Alfie's eyes rolled.

We all knew who it was.

This knock was gentle, though. Surrendering and calm.

"Not this sh-"
"I'll answer it." I declared, knockin back my chair as I stood up.
"No Fin-"
"You're all eating."
"But it could be dan-"
"Yeah, well. So is crossing the road." I called as I made my way to the door.

I opened it to find Mimi, who I had half forgotten about. Her sleek hair tumbled around in the wind. She didn't wear the normal fancy purple party dresses she had usually known. She was instead dresses in wide dress trousers with a velvet voilet jacket over what I assumed was a blouse.

I guess dresses weren't really seen as outside attire.

"Hello." Mimi waved her hand awkwardly. "Sorry to bother you."
"No bother." I answered sheepishly. "We weren't exactly doing anything." I joked.
"Can I come in?" Mimi smiled.

I stepper aside willingly.

She followed me into the kitchen.

"Hello, everyone." Mimi mirrored her shyness with me as she greeted the room.

Most eyebrows were furrowed.

"Hi, Mimi?" Alfie almost asked. "Sorry. We were kinda expecting your-"
"Brother? Yeah. Nick didn't let him this time. The last one didn't exactly end well." Mimi turned to Skye. "Sorry about that." She winced.
"Wasn't you." Skye accepted Mimi's apology with a disgruntled tone.

I couldn't blame them. They had been shot in the foot. I had the feeling a simple apology wouldn't cut.

"Why're you here then?" Sunny asked irratedly.
Mimi shrugged.
"Hang on. How did you even figure out that we were here?" Doug asked, for once having a point.
"Eli put a tracker on your car." Mimi conceded, with an apologetic smile on her face.

Alfie planted his head into his hands.

"Why does Nick care so much about us?"
"Because he wants to help you." Mimi said, like she was talking to infants.
"We're fine as it is." I argued, leaning back in my chair.
"But wouldn't you be happier with your sister, Finny?"
"She can join me if she likes. I'm not going back there."
"I don't think you've thought this-"
"Haven't I? I've had to leave Inez to be here. That took a lot of thought. And as hard as it's been, I haven't regretted it once. I don't need help. I want to be left alone."
"You don't understand Finny."
"Does she not?" Sunny stepped in. "She seems quite able from here."

Mimi sighed. I think she had already given up on us the moment she knocked on the door.

"Why don't you toodle off back to Nick and tell him we aren't going?" Skye sweetly asked Mimi.
"He'll just come himself." Mimi argued. "You don't want to get on the bad side of Nick."
"I literally wacked him with a bat." Skye responded, waving their hands around in annoyance.
"Oh. So you're the one who did that. Well done. He was in a mood for weeks."
"Not my problem he was on a power trip."
"Can you just go?" Doug interrupted their bickering and looked at Mimi imploringly. "We aren't doing any harm. You keep to your world, and we'll keep to ours, mkay?"

Doug stood up and slowly guided Mimi to the door.

"Cya." Doug proceded to slam the door in Mimi's face, leaving no time for protest.

"Remove the tracker when she's gone." Alfie told Doug.
"Why is he so bothered?" I asked to no one.
"About us? I have no idea."
"It's just. I don't get it. He can't be doing it for our own good. The man's a psychopath."
"The more people who've gone, the more people that will be willing to go." Chloe answered for me. "You said it yourself. Your sister, right? You said she should just leave. And she could do. She would be more likely to leave to find you than stay at that...place you keep on about all alone."
"That makes sense." I responded, a bit dumbfounded.

I still didn't get it though. Why was the amount of people he had at The Base so important to him? Why was he so against people leaving? It wasn't like we could tell the whole world what happened to us and sell the story to the press. We had no one to tell, except perhaps the odd lone wanderer.

Maybe he was just lonely. I couldn't think of much other motive. I suppose it would be quite lonely, at a fancy place all by yoursself with no one to fill its walls. It would be quite depressing.

"We can't stay here, anyway. We have to keep moving."
"What about me?" Skye protested, pointing to their injured foot.
"We'll just have to move on with it. They have cars in the drive. I'll get the keys for them. We can drive them. At least those ones won't have trackers on them."

I nodded happily, at least to the others.

Inside, though, I was a bit disheartened. What else would we do in this apocaypse other than move on from house to house? I thought we would live a bit more. We could finally go to all the places people put on their bucket list. We could go to the best beaches in the country. We could go driving in nature reserves and we could go to the abandoned cities and wander around the streets that people used to call home.

Where was all that? Had we left it in the real world?

I had thought that in the apocalypse I would live. Now I was beginning to feel more trapped than ever. It was still better than being at The Base, but it wasn't great.

What had I expected?