Outside

Önë

You could get used to most of it. You could get used to the beeping of the water purifier. You could get used to the random bouts of pitch black. You could get used to the constant him of the generator. You could get used to the silence.

There were, however, things you could never get used to. I would never get used to the screams of the nightmarish figures in my nightmares. I could never get used to the awful screeching noises outside. I could never get used to the panic as we watched in hopeless determination the dwindling food supplies.

But you had to get used to it. Otherwise, you die.

I really hated living like this. No human was supposed to be trapped in a steel box, 60 meters from the surface of the earth, drinking their own filtered pee and trying to grow genetically modified potatoes under UV lights. But that's how we survived. That's why we were alive.

And that made us much, much different than the rest of the world.

"Twenty-seven if we continue to eat like pigs, fourth-eight if we eat only one meal a day and maybe a full three months if we fast," Casper informed us from his perch on the floor. "We need to get that plant growing, otherwise it's us or outsi-"

"I know you weren't about to say that word," Drew said, disgusted. "That's not even an option."

"Oh, so you'd rather become cannabilistic. Even then, we'd run out of food."

"Well, maybe if you tried to help grow some plants and didn't waste oxygen by singing those god-awful songs, then we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Maybe if you got your head out of your arse, than we'd actually have potatoes to eat instead of toxic waste."

"The only toxic waste here is you two," I interrupted, annoyed. I pointed over at Clover. "She's asleep. Unless you want World War four, I suggest shouting your huge egotistical mouths and let her sleep. I don't want to deal with another headache." Sighing, I glanced over to see a defeated-looking Casper staring at his clipboard. "Look, I know that you two are worried, but it's going to be fine. We always deal with it."

That was only partially true. When the power went out, we only half-figured out a way to reroute the wires to a mainframe from the house above us. It was only a matter of time before the entire bunker was cut off of electricity and we slowly died from either lack of air or starvation. But that was a problem for another time.

"I just don't understand why Mr. Doubting Tommy over here is so against going outside. I'd rather die from getting eaten by a giant, flying, three headed fish that spoke German than starvation," Casper said.

"It's Thomas," I corrected.

"Who's Thomas?" Casper asked. I mentally face-palmed.

"I'd rather eat you than die of radiation poisoning. Or did you forget about that?" Drew challenged. He had a point, Casper knew that. But that didn't deter him one bit.

"Who knows if it's still out there?" Casper Pondered. "That was so long ago. Maybe there's other people out there? Or more food! Maybe there's a civilization already. Or aliens. It could be anything! How long has it been since we've been outside?"

I had no honest answer. The truth was, I had no idea of the day or time or even if it was dark outside. We kept track of time by calling a day the time we woke up to the time we went to sleep.

When we first got here, we wrote a tally for each day, hoping to get out soon. By the 300th, we stopped. It was depressing to pretend to believe in something you'd long since given up on. And it was a waste of supplies. That was a big no-no.

"It hasn't been long enough for the radiation to be completely gone," Drew said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, 'Mr. I'm an expert.' I didn't realize we were being so narcissistic. I thought that job was for Junior over there. I-"

"Who is sleeping!" I whisper-shouted. I was going to castrate those two if they picked up their pointless bickering again. "Now you two, go to bed. Or I'll make you."

The two finally shut up and Casper went to go turn off the lights and we were soon surrounded by total darkness. Drew was grumbling angrily under his breath. "Damn idiot" and "useless motherfucker" often heard. By the loud slap I heard and "ow, fuck!" I heard after, I concluded that Casper smacked Drew to get him to shut up. Thank goodness. It was either him or me.

Now that everyone was silent, I got to be alone with my thought. Which was never a good thing.

Bonjour, Y'all. I don't usually do author notes, but I'm just going to make this one exception.

This is my first story on this account. I had to delete my other one for personal reasons. I hope you guys like this story. I know most of the stories on Wattpad are romance, but this one isn't. Take that as you will, I just had a weird idea and ran with it.

Also, I'm sorry that this first chapter was so bad. I was having trouble figuring out where to start off, but once I get into the groove, I'll probably make it better. Also, the device I'm writing on doesn't have any grammar or spell-check, so I apologize profoundly if there are mistakes. I'll try my best to edit it as I go along, though.