After the Rain

Don't go alone

It's been 2 years... 2 years, 3 months and 24 days since I've been brought here. I have been keeping track of it by drawing it on the wall in the storage room. Over 2 years in this little home of mine. I've given up the hope to go home long ago. This is the place where I'll have my final breath.

I make my way over to the storage room to grab the black marker I keep there for counting and draw another line. The wall completely covered with lines keeping track of every day that had passed. I don't know how I have survived for this long but, I don't have the motivation to care anymore.

I look over at the shelves which have little bags filled with some weird powder on them. After two years there isn't a lot left, well I always knew that I'd starve here at some point. Being locked in a room where you can never leave is just a stay of execution.

Speaking about execution... Researchers slowly but surely started passing away too, including my father. Instead of a line, I draw a circle every day a researcher passes away. 93 have passed away since the time I got here. I know it since the furnace room is next to mine and every time they burn a body it gets incredibly hot in my room.

In the beginning, I was devastated about my father's death. I didn't eat for days. But, after a while, I started to realize. "We're all going to die here anyway". I miss him every day but, somehow it's comforting to know that once it's my time to leave. I'll see him again. They never actually told me how he died though. I wonder how it is outside. How people live there now.

I rip open the bag of powder and put it in a bowl. As I then made my way over to the kitchen block and filled the bowl with water. It dissolves quickly and after a bit of stirring, I'm left with a thick, gross coloured mush. It looks disgusting and simply by looking at it your appetite will vanish in an instant. It isn't that bad though, it doesn't really taste like anything.

I have wondered, about why I wouldn't die from the water I mixed the powder with and drank from. I've been told that it was because of a very strong bacterial filter sitting somewhere between the tap and the pipes the water go through. At first, I was too scared to even touch the tap water but somehow it's safe. Pretty weird how coincidental it is, however, what baffles me the most is that it hasn't broken yet. Not that I'm complaining.

I take my time eating the mush out of the bowl as I start hearing knocking on my door. I tilt my head to the right and my gaze meets with the most familiar face to me. "Good Morning Mom, It's open."

It's all I need to get rid of a morning full of bad thoughts. She's been here for me, even if it's the end of the world. "Koda... Didn't I tell you to lock the door? You know anyone can enter right? What if that person doesn't have good intentions?"

I know she's worried, and rightfully so too. An infected person once managed to break in and took the lives of 12 researchers by either murdering them or infecting them, leaving them to die. I didn't have the door locked then either so if he would've found me it'd be the end of the line. Luckily he didn't.

"Sorry... I tend to forget you know, I'll think of it next time."

Even though we're both serious about this I can't help but smile. She sits next to me as I shove the bowl to the side. I can hear her yawn as I take a closer look at her familiar face. It's pretty clear she hasn't slept tonight. There are clear bags under her eyes.

"Sometimes you're just a copy of your dad..." She says in a way that makes me feel I'm being looked down yet that she likes it.

"And you shouldn't pull off all-nighters any more. Look at you, you're a mess. Fatigue is one of the last things you want to suffer from. You need enough rest to focus." I say as I lay a hand on her shoulder. She's trying too hard to save something that died long ago. She wants to develop a solution with a couple of remaining scientists. But it's been two years, I don't think they have the power to do anything anymore.