Bliss

28 - Ingrid

Inside the shelter is hot, and sweaty. Crowded, and loud. The whole left side of the building is like this. The whole left side of the building is without soldiers; they are in the "more suitable " place on the right side of the building. And I'm glad I don't have to deal with the soldiers at a time like this. I don't even know what happened to the soldiers at our home. I don't care what happens to them. All I care about is Lily and Siena's safety.

And Sky's.

She wasn't in the shelter. I thought that we'd all be huddled in one room, but I guess that would be harder to find her. But I didn't expect the shelter to be like organized. When I say organized, I don't mean clean. It goes underground, I knew that already. I didn't know it would be this dirty. And dark. The dusty lamps that hang from the ceiling continue to flicker. Some of the light bulbs even die out. As for the floor and walls are mainly covered in dirt and blood. But not that much blood. There's so much dust, you can feel it come into your eyes every time you blink.

The shelter is made up of hallways and doors. Each door has a number on it, the number of the house you belong to. I carried Siena and Lily followed me to the last house at the end of the hallway. I'm guess each room is like ours. Small, mustard colored walls, two flickering lights, included with two old stained mattresses on the floor and a T.V. on the wall. How considerate of them, providing us with bathrooms.

I don't even want to know what the bathrooms look like. I've taken Siena and Lily twice, I can't take the putrid taste and smell out of my head.

It's been around twelve hours since we've arrived here, maybe more, all we've been doing is watching T.V. and eating. We get served our regular three meals a day, but instead of our healthy foods in a can, we get pale, tasteless mush.

I don't know what's going on. Not exactly. The only thing on the T.V. are reruns of talk shows, and no remote is found in the room. There was an attack. No ones knows where, or if anyone's dead or not, or who did it. Or what exactly happened. It's been driving me crazy. What if Sky's hurt? What if she's . . .

I refuse to think like that. She isn't in our room. But that doesn't mean she's not alive. She must be with Harry and the others. Maybe not Harry. She mentioned something about him . . . I just can't remember what she said. I can't say that she's safe with them. She's in a wheelchair. I hope she's okay, even if she promised me she wasn't going to go back there, and that she was stupid enough to go back. I want to leave this room and go outside, and check every shelter to find her. But I can't.

We've been locked in our rooms from the inside, and we'd have to ring a bell next to the door to get walked to the bathroom or some other excuse. I feel almost trapped, I can't fall asleep, I can't get out. And it feels like an oven in here. Siena and Lily have already taken their top off from the heat, and are only in their undershirts. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to just walk around with an undershirt, though. Would it? I guess it's not against the rules to just wear a cami, but . . . I don't like too much skin exposed, especially to the soldiers around me.

That reminds me of Sky: everyday she'd wear tank tops and shorter shorts. Even though it's not encouraged in our society, and the stores don't have much of that type of clothing.

I sit in the room, staring at the T.V. as I listen to Lily snore. The light above me flickers three times.

Four times.

Two times.

Back to three times.

Four.

Two.

And so on.

I another wave of heat comes over me, and I am staring at my cardigan wondering if I should take it off or not. Before I can think, I am throwing the shirt over my head and on to the mattress where Siena sleeps. I take the messy ponytail out of my head, my hair falling to my shoulder. I breathe out, feeling tired. I don't even know what time it is.