Salvation 2035

Chapter 2- Far From Lotus-Land

 『Abel』

     We begin our walk to the cafeteria with the other prisoners from the cell block. I'm getting plenty of looks from every way. I can't tell if they're dirty or just curious. For my own peace of mind, I'll go ahead and think that they're just curious.

     After making a few turns we arrive at the cafeteria. To my left is a long line of fellow inmates awaiting their food and the rest of the area is filled with tables. Strangely enough, there aren't benches, but chairs. Usually, cafeterias have benches, that's all. A few have claimed their spaces already, but most of them have yet to receive their breakfast. The two of us join the long line and wait, slowly making our way up.

     "How's the food here?" I ask Tsuki as a strange aroma wafts past me.

     "I'll let you find that out yourself," he answers. I can't help but have a premonition of impending doom before all this.

     As it finally becomes my turn to receive my meal I am first greeted by the sullen appearance of the server. He's wearing an orange jumpsuit like the rest of us, oddly enough and looks to be in his mid-forties. His sallow face and hollow eyes stare at me as he hands me my meal. I look down at my tray and see the sad sight. It appears to contain some canned fruit, a small cup of juice, some cold cereal, straight-up margarine presumably for the biscuit and lastly some strange gravy-like substance.

     "Thank you," I say out of impulse for the server. Needless to say, he doesn't acknowledge me. I look around for Tsuki but have seemed to lost track of him. I scan the heads of the other prisoners and soon find the one I'm searching for in the furthermost corner.

     "I thought I lost you," I say as I sit down across from him.

     "I thought you wanted a break from me," he responds as he picks at his food with his plastic spoon.

     "You're the only person I sort of know here. Logically it wouldn't make sense if I left you." I explain.

      "I haven't exactly had the best track record with hitting it off with other people," he shoves a bit of the cold cereal in his mouth. "Anyways, how did the war end up?"

     "End up? It's been over for five years!" I exclaim.

      "Calm down, I've been in here since I was twelve. I don't exactly know what's going on. And yes, they can imprison children in places meant for adults if they try hard enough. So, who won? Us or them?" I didn't think he'd be in prison for that long of a time, considering what he did and the age he was at. I'm also losing faith in our overlords by the minutes. How low can we set the bar? He was a kid for Christ's sake!

     "Well, nobody really won. They finally stopped dropping nukes on us so that a win? But then again the whole anti-foreign sentiments about America being the only country, genociding the cultural backgrounds of any non-Americans living here, destroying individuality, and the fact that we're doomed due to the fact that we have barely any natural resources to sustain ourselves without outside help, and also we got a side of nuclear winter, I can safely say that we probably lost!" I aggressively shove a bit of the gravy-like substance into my mouth, but soon regret that. "God, this is awful!" I exclaim. I hear Tsuki laugh a little.

     "Well, that sucks," he answers nonchalantly as if he was expecting worse.

     "That's right, it could be worse," I reassure myself. Somewhere and somehow, there are probably people that have it worse than us.

     "A bit of an optimist?" he questions. "That's rare to find these days."

     "Keeps the mind healthy," I reply with a forced smile. I feel my face contort in disgust as I swallow a strange substance that is supposedly food. "Also, what the hell am I eating?"

      "They call it country gravy. I don't touch the stuff." I glance down at Tsuki's tray and see that he's eaten everything else but that. "Then again, look at me. Whatever is in that slop could probably do me some good, but I'm not willing to risk it."

      "I guess I'll take it then if you're not going to eat it. I assume that all of the other meals are about the same size, so I'll take what I can get, I suppose─"

      "Great!" He proceeds to quickly scrape his remaining gravy onto my tray. "Now that I'm done eating, I'm going to put this away. I'll be back."

     I sit alone for a few minutes, and a foreboding feeling washes over me. I then realize that I'm being watched by a small group of crooked looking characters. I make sure not to stare back, but I guess I took a little too long for them to not notice me. The three of them begin to saunter over to me. One of them has a disturbing receding hairline with a greying beard, another has his dirty blonde hair slicked back and his nose protrudes outward like a nail that hasn't been hammered in. The last one is bald, has the muscles of someone who once took a ton of steroids and is decorated with a ton of tattoos that look like they were done by a nine-year-old.

     "You there," the bald one says. "You're new, right?"

     "Yeah," I answer, trying to sound as confident as possible. I'm actually quite terrified, but there's no way I'm letting that show.

      He then pulls up a chair, sitting on it the only way a douchebag knows how: with the back facing the front. The other two hover around him, trying to look menacing. "What's your name, kid?"

     "Abel," I say on reflex. Now I'm having instant regrets. I should have told him something fake to be on the safe side.

     "Abel," he echoes and then pauses as if he was going to remember that for a while. He then leans in closer to me. "Now tell me, Abel, why the hell are you hanging around that Fag-suki kid?"

     "I'm... sorry?" I breathe out. My mind goes blank. Words like that aren't exactly something you hear every day. I also might be in immediate danger right now, and there's nobody who will care about what will become of me. It's three on one─ and I have no fighting experience whatsoever. I don't have a chance if these guys become hostile.

     "That's one fucked up kid," he answers. "I don't think you should be hanging around with someone like that." I choose to remain silent, as I don't want to aggravate the situation. He then stands up and leans even closer to me. "He may look like a weak lil' pretty boy, but that kid breaks jaws, y'know. Y'never know when he'll turn on you. It's crazy." I then spot a familiar figure in my peripherals, just behind the small gang that is in front of me. The bald man then clues in and looks back to see Tsuki. He then stands up and whispers to me, "you'll see," and walks away with his cronies, not making eye contact with him and bumps into his shoulder. My roommate then rushes over to me in a sort of a panic.

      "What happened?" a look of concern and alarm flashes in his eyes.

      "Oh, um, nothing really─" I start.

     "Are you sure about that? What did you say to him?"

     "Seriously, it was almost nothing─"

     "Almost is still something!"

     "Christ, would you calm down!" I exclaim. "All I said was my name."

     "Nothing else?" Tsuki seems to have dialled it back a bit.

      "No, he did most of the talking," I reply. "He said how you were crazy and broke jaws, which the latter isn't entirely wrong, right?"

      "Well, yeah. But you can't trust people like that at all. They're just trying to manipulate you. Be careful," he warns.

      "Noted," I answer. I then look down at the empty food tray in front of me. "Where do I put this?"

     "Just follow me," he replies. 

     The two of us head over to the same area in which we received our food. I put my tray on top of the others that have been returned as well. I ask Tsuki where we're off to next, and he says that we'll be heading to work─ whatever that entails I have no clue. I am intrigued at the very least. But what I'm most interested in is learning more about him. He seems to be a little bit of a wildcard, possessing traits that are the polar opposite as to what you'll expect. I still don't know whether to fully trust him or not, but out of all the characters in this place, I don't think I have much of a choice.