ATHARI

3

My eyes opened, and the bright light entered my vision, causing it to blur.

Again, the memories haunt me. They will haunt me until my last breath.

I blinked and looked around. Yeah, we were here. The old man shook me to get up as my crew started unloading the dwarf stones. The elders of the crew came to greet us. They couldn't do much in the way of fighting, so they helped us in other ways. As the clan leader, it was my duty to protect them. Around the camp, we had already set up walls powered by electricity, generated from the dwarf stones. I also had some genius members who were always working to solve problems through technology. Together, we were building a secure home here.

But this place wasn't permanent for us. I got out of the jeep, wearing my helmet, and walked through the camp. I could see the old man and the rest of the crew unloading the supplies. I spotted the old mother—the oldest female in our camp. I didn't know her exact age, but she was like family to me. She always patted me on the head whenever she saw me, just like the old man. Both of them gave me a lot of attention.

As always, she patted my head. After that, I headed back to my cabin. I needed some good sleep. My head felt heavy. It had been a long day for me and everyone else. I used my thumbprint to enter the cabin. I lived alone inside. Only the old man had access. He lived nearby for security reasons. We built single cabins equipped with oxygen generators.

I entered the cabin, looking for something to drink—I was thirsty. For drinking, we had two options. One was to use the blood of creatures. We had developed a technology that allowed us to dilute the water content from their blood. Creature blood contained a lot of minerals and water. We also had a water source here, but it was radioactive. On the island, there was a small pond that hadn't dried up despite the harsh heat due to its radioactive contents.

We used this water as well, but it took time to dilute it into a drinkable form.

In the meantime, we were using this radioactive water to drink.

After drinking the water, I lay down on the bed. I hoped for no more daydreams, hoping for a good night's sleep. I wished that to myself.

I closed my eyes tightly and started counting backward, a trick I used to resist overthinking.

I started counting:

"99...

98...

97...

96...

95...

94...

93...

92...

93...

91...

90...

89...

88...

87...

86...

83...

81...

7...

6...

2..."