Dystopian world

Inside the storage room

  It was the floor beneath the middle floor where we stopped. Unlike the upper floor, the door was actually visible, and there was no panel next to it.

There was also no lock on it, which made things easy for us.

Sam pushed open the door.

I didn't know what to expect honestly, but from what I saw I had to say, I saw impressed.

  It was most likely because nothing I had seen in this building had been worth being amazed over, or maybe it was because the room was just plain cool.

Nah, It was probably the first.

  The thing that caught my eye right off the bat though, was the hundreds of vials lined up inside shelves upon shelves joined to the walls.

I let out a small "wow".

I truly was impressed by the sight.

  Sam must have sensed this too, because he smiled and patted my shoulder. "It is truly amazing isn't it?" he asked.

"Very" I replied, eyes fixated on the vials.

  I don't know what I saw fascinating in those tubes, maybe it was the colorless liquid in them, or maybe it was their uniformity.

  But I couldn't let such things distract me, I needed to put the books somewhere safe, and return to the safe house before any one got suspicious.

I alongside Sam started searching for a good hiding spot for the books.

  The room just seemed to go on and on. Everywhere I looked there were boxes and racks with more boxes. And of course: the vials on the walls.

  As we moved deeper and deeper in to the storage room, the volume of liquid in the vials rapidly began to decrease, until there was nothing left in them.

One thing really alarmed me though

Only eleven vials up till now had been full to the brim with the mysterious liquid.

  I had a good mind to ask Sam about this, but he seemed to already have read my mind, as he so expertly did.

  "Our supplies of the chemical are running drastically short" he explained, a hint of worry barely noticeable in his tone.

I nodded, "Seems like it." I paused, before asking him a question hesitantly.

"How long?"

"How long till what?" Sam asked, looking towards me.

"How long till the supplies are finished?" I asked, slightly worried now.

  "A few days at maximum" he replied, the intense gravity of the situation weighing down on them like a mine having to support the weight of the tones of earth above it. Except this particular mine was on the verge of collapse, ready to buried under the tones of Earth above it.

  That was kind of a weird way to describe the feeling, but for some reason it felt to Nico that it suited the moment well.

  Finally, after what seemed like a long time, though in reality it had only been a few seconds, I took my eyes off of the ground and asked, "Does anyone know about this?"

"No" he replied solemnly. "I haven't told them."

"Why not?" I asked curious as to what the reason behind this was.

  "If any of them knew...things would fall apart. Listen Nico, everything here seems as fine as can be, but believe me when I say that if the others became aware of this situation they would either turn against each other, or if we go with the milder scenario they'd panic and chaos would ensue. I can't let that happen. Not after..." He hesitated.

"After what?" I asked, now more intrigued than ever.

  "N..nothing, it's nothing" Sam replied, though I could clearly tell something was wrong, and I was going to find out, one way or another.

  "Alright Sam" I answered. "Where do you plan on hiding the books?" I asked, trying to change the topic.

  "Right here" he said, putting the books down and grabbing a decent sized bed side table and pulling on it. "Hey Nico? Can you help me with this?"

  "Oh, sure!" I said, walking over to him and putting my hands on the table opposite to Sam. I pushed as hard as I could, and slowly the table moved.

Geez, who in their right mind made tables so heavy? God

  It only took a few moments though, before a small hole in the wall came in to view. It looked just big enough to hide the two books.

  I admired the clever hiding spot. Where the table had previously been, no one would have even thought of the idea that there was a convenient hiding spot just behind it.

  I picked up the books and placed them gently in to the hole. It was an almost perfect fit. After that was done, I grabbed the table from one side and Sam grabbed it from the other, and we pulled the piece of furniture back to where it was before, so that the hole was now completely obscured from vision.

It seemed that we were done here.

  I looked at Sam and smiled happily, and he smiled back. Now there was no chance that anyone could find the books. Only us two knew about it.

Just like only us two knew about the vials.

  I shuddered at the thought, it seemed like we were the only two aware of quite a few disturbing things. In my mind I tried calculating the total number of days we could survive before the liquid ran out, and even though I had no experience with this sort of math, I was aware that we had a week at maximum with the present supply.

  It was at this moment that I really wished that everything wasn't so depressing and sad, and everything didn't eventually lead to some life or death situation.

  My stomach growled suddenly, and I looked down embarrassed. Sam looked at me and smiled. "It's okay, I'm pretty hungry too. What do you say we take some of the vials to the upper floor and have a little meal?"

  I nodded, glad that he didn't tease me for that, and went back to grab some of the tubes. I grabbed three from the shelves, leaving only eight left which were completely filled, and 5 which were only partially full.

  Making sure I had a firm grip on them so as not to drop them. Me and Sam quietly exited the storage room and walked up the flight of stairs.

  And as Sam entered the code I couldn't help but wonder how things would play out if the others did know of the situation.

I shivered a little at the thought. I wasn't imagining a pleasant scenario.

  But for now though, I was determined to enjoy this meal and then get to whatever job Michael had in mind for me.