Turned » 5sos

0.7

"Kat? Kat! Kat, wake up!"

My eyes flew open and focused on Calum's face standing above me. The memories of the passed three weeks flooded into my head. Today we'd be assigned to our foster family.

All of the underage children that has been transferred to the city were sleeping together in the gymnasium of some high school. We'd been sleeping on cots for the passed six days now. The first day when we showed up, we had to sleep on mats on the floor. Before that, we were in a completely different place all together. By the time we got to the city, they'd already started figuring things out for survival such as living arrangements, jobs, and who would run the city.

I slowly got up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and stood at the end of my bed next to Calum. He looked down at me nervously but immediately looked away when someone with a booming voice yelled for us to pay attention.

He introduced himself as Gerard Taylor, mayor of the city. He then went on to explain which line kids would have to get into to be assigned a family. Kids between fifteen and seventeen would be in a line together so Calum and I walked over to the already forming line. He was the one who was assigning for them.

We waited for a little while. The line was pretty long -- there were mostly teenagers than kids -- but it wasn't that long to sort through kids and tell them where to go.

"Next." Mayor Taylor said and Calum stepped up. "Name?"

"Calum Hood."

The mayor flipped through his papers until he found what he was looking for, "You're sixteen, correct?"

He nodded, "Yes sir."

Mayor Taylor handed him a slip of paper, "That's where your housing will be located. You'll be living with the McKaskill's, the Carson's, and the Coty's. The Carson's will be taking care of you. Next!"

Calum stepped off to the side and watched me, waiting to see where I'd be assigned. I stepped up to the desk and timidly looked at the intimidating-looking mayor. He was big and muscly and actually terrified me.

"Name?" he asked, not even looking up at me.

"K-Katerina Wells." I told him.

He thumbed through his papers until he found my name, probably. He looked up at me but didn't say anything. Instead, he just continued to look at me as if he was trying to figure something out.

After recomposing himself, he looked back down at his papers, "It says you're fifteen."

I nodded, "I am."

He looked back up at me and stroked the scruff on his chin before gesturing to the end of the table, "Wait there."

I glanced over at Calum worriedly. Was I being put somewhere different than he was? "What about him?"

The mayor followed my gaze and landed on the boy looking between me and him, "Is he your brother or something?"

"He's the only person I have." I told him desperately. "I have to be with him."

He sighed and nodded, "You two just wait at the end of the table."

-

The mayor walked us home after everyone was assigned and the kids had filed out to their new homes. He brought us to a place that he said was acting as their city hall.

"We're going to be living in the city hall?" Calum asked him, holding my hand because he knew I was a little wary of this big dude wanting to walk us home, especially after how he acted when he saw me.

"Yeah," he chuckled, "I live here. I'm the mayor."

I looked up at him even though Calum and I were walking behind him, "We'll be living with you?"

He nodded, "You want to know something, kid?"

When I didn't say anything, he kept talking.

"You look exactly like my little girl." he admitted. "She was almost sixteen before all this happened. Actually, her birthday would've been a couple days ago. My whole family was wiped out by these zombie things. My little girl was taken from me and became infected."

"What was her name?" Calum asked.

"Darcy." he replied. "She was a sweet girl, loved being outside and playing with our dog. That's probably how it happened."

We walked up a few flights of stares in silence. I felt a little less weird about this dude now that I knew why he was staring at me but I still kept Calum's hand in mine tightly.

"What are your names again?"

"Calum Hood."

I hesitated before I gave mine, "Kit Hood."

We stopped at a door and mayor Taylor pulled some keys out of his pocket to unlock it, "Kit? That's a different name. Short for anything?"

"Kitty."

"Your parents named you Kitty?" he chuckled, opened the door and allowing us inside.

"My sister called me that," I told him as I followed Calum inside, looking around curiously, "but she's...I'd like to go by that now."

He nodded, "Whatever you want, Kit. You two can call me Gerard if you like."

The apartment was small but I didn't expect much. There were two rooms and a bathroom, plus a living room, a kitchen, and a closet. There was only one bed in the room that was meant for me -- now for me and Calum -- but neither of us cared.

"I'll, uh, get another bed or something." he told us. "We'll get you both some more clothes tomorrow too."

I turned to face him and smiled softly, "Thank you for taking us."

He returned the smile and nodded, "You're welcome. Both of you."

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Little bit of a flashback just to show how Calum and Kit ended up with Gerard as their "father" thingy. I'll probably have a couple more later on