8 Days

A New Life

Chapter 6

A new life

Day 2:

After the sun's downfall, the stars reigned, and while I kneeled beside Edward's grave, I looked up with wonder towards the small fireflies in the sky above my head. With my new eye, and senses, I could admire even more stars than anyone has ever seen with their naked eye. The sheer number of them impressed me, they appeared infinite. The colors were diverse, red, blue, white, yellow, some seemed to have a greenish tint and some purple one. I questioned, at the same time I witnessed the night sky, is there life out there suffering the same crisis as us? Is there life out there?

I looked back at my dirty hands, which I used to bury the body. If my studies were correct, the second phase would begin after midnight. I stood up and looked around. The stars above were enough to light the forest up as if it was bright like the day, but this brightness was caused by my violet eyes. I turned around, I had to finish patching up Fatima. To enter the cave, I did the same things I've done before. Left, right, left, crouch, etc. I entered the bunker the same way, trying to get rid of as many germs or things to enter. The heater around me, killing any harmful 'virus' was what always had been protecting us, and the two doors separating home from everything else.

I came in and saw the blood on the floor. The blood spilled by that shot. I couldn't know If I felt relieved that the situation was over, however, it didn't have to go to the extends it went. The death of Edward was something I told Fatima would never happen. And besides, I didn't know that she fell in love with him. But I have to tell her as soon as she wakes up, hiding it for as long as I could, would be very disadvantageous not to mention disrespectful. I came into the room and found her where I left her. With the bloody bed sheet on the shoulder. Around the room were various drawers, where I kept different medical equipment. I went rapidly around the room to grab anything that I could use for the operation. Bandages, scalpel, tweezers. I brought them to the night table on Fatima's side and began the operation.

I could hear her weak breathing, pushing her chest up and down, and her slow pulsating heart, beating like a metronome dictating the rhythm of her music. The wound was as bad as I expected it to be. I treated her as it should be, following each step carefully and thoroughly; removing each pellet from her body and placing it on a container next to my tools. My hands were slightly shaking, and my forehead sweating. But, with no delay, I finished the operation successfully, and Fatima was now on the road of recovery.

I walked to the exit of the room looking at Fatima, all patched up. I was relieved and sighed in the quiet bedroom. I opened the door and went into the dull hallway. While I was closing the door, I peeked through the closing crack. I saw something—no—, someone standing next to the bed. He, she, it, I couldn't tell who that person was. He wore all black clothes, a black suit from neck to ankle, shiny and pointy black shoes. He was holding his hands together while watching Fatima rest. He then glanced at me, his eyes empty of emotion and life. He looked back at Fatima. He smirked...I jolted the door open but found no one but Fatima in the room. I must be seeing things. I must be tired. I closed the door now and returned to the hallway. To my right was the door to my room. And to my left was the path leading to the kitchen and entrance.

—Hi...— said a voice behind me. I jumped out of fear, and surprise. —Hello...— said the empathetic voice. I knew this person. Eve, yes! I remembered I left her in the lab. How did she get here? The voice was coming from the monitor room, on the opposite side of the hallway. I opened the door and walked into the small room. The room like the others was gray and dull, there was an L shaped desk covering the right and opposite walls from the door. On the desk were keyboards, empty food cans, water bottles, notebooks, and numerous screens, small and old screens, depicting different video recordings of cameras placed inside the bunker, and over the forest outside. In the middle of the room was an old office chair. It had mold on some parts, and on others, the leather of the chair was falling off over time. My improved olfactory system could even pick up the mold's smell, even from the entrance of the bunker. I sat down on the chair to evaluate the black and white screens.