As Ael was making the food, I made sure to keep Eira company, which wasn't by choice, but was instead pushed onto me by Ael.
'This silence is killing me.' I shot glances at her, which I was sure she caught a few. Even though I was here to "keep her company," there wasn't much talking.
*Tap tap tap*
As I tapped on the ground, I looked for something to talk about to break the silence, but I didn't know what to talk about. Maybe my mother was right—I was too closed off. Ael was my first friend, and before him, I didn't speak much to people. Then there was Amiel. He was worse than I somehow.
He had this handsome and cool exterior to him, but once you got to talking to him, he gave off a feeling of a "Why are you even talking to me?" type of feeling.
I stared at him; he was still sharpening the same knife before we left. Seemed like he wasn't able to finish before. After a moment of watching, I think he could feel my gaze on him, because not long after, he gave me a cold look that made me jump and look away.
'Damn, he can kill someone with those eyes.'
"Here you go." A voice comes in from behind me. It was Ael passing a plate of what he had made for us that morning to Eira.
"Thank you." She took the plate with both hands. Even with both hands, the plate enveloped them.
"Yup, no problem, and drop the formalities, you don't need any of that with me."
"Um, okay." She bowed her head a bit as if to thank him once more.
"So Eira? You said you only have about three days' worth of memories. What have you been doing this whole time on campus?"
She took a bite out of the food and looked at Ael, who sat down on the floor across from her, forming a circle between all of us.
With her mouth full, she said "huh" and coughed. She hit her chest, thumping it with her hand, balled like a fist to help, and then reached for water to clear her throat.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, sorry." She turned toward Ael to answer his question. "Nothing much really? I don't even know where I am, to be honest." She looked around at each of us and paused. "You guys are the first people I have seen here."
Ael looked interested, didn't speak, letting her continue her thoughts.
"That's why I went up to the tower, to find any sign of anyone, but no one. Then I got tired and just ended up sleeping there."
'What a weird place to sleep.' I thought.
Hungry, she takes another bite of her food.
"Were you able to get in contact with anyone? Like over any com systems?" Amiel turned toward her as he stopped sharpening his knife against the flat rock.
"No, Nothing seemed to work. No matter where I went, the power was out."
Ael, turning towards Amiel, said, "Same was for us. It seems like no matter what, we can't contact anyone off campus. Was there a huge EMP or something?"
To join the conversation, I said, "Had to be. What else could have caused something at this scale? But this big EMP blast just for no one to invade, that's out of the ordinary."
First, we were told that missiles were coming, then a few days later, we found out it might have been something else, some miasma, and now there was a theory of an EMP blast that hit campus.
Everyone stood silent. The situation we were in kept growing more mysterious as we explored this place. And now we learn that we can even reach out for help.
"We have to get out of this place and soon. There are too many unknown factors." Amiel added. turned toward Ael, he asked, "How close is the nearest settlement from here?"
"Um, I think it would be-"
Before Ael could reply to my questions, I interjected, "About a three-week walk, if we had a wagon and a horse, a week."
"I see."
This was going to be our only option out of here. If someone was going to come and get us, they would have done it by now. But from the looks of it, no one has.
"You're not thinking about a three-week journey in the wastelands, are you?" Ael asked.
"I am. I mean, what other ways are there out of this?" Amiel added.
"He's right, from the looks of it, it doesn't look like there are other options here, Ael."
This plan wasn't the best one, but I really wanted to be with my mother right now. I needed her to know I was okay. I needed to know she was okay.
We could see Ael's face tense. "That's too risky. We should explore more and see if there are any options we missed." Ael said.
"What options would there be? We explored most of the campus. The only part we haven't explored is the forest," Amiel stared.
"I don't know, options." He bit his lip, knowing where the conversation was going. "But there are probably things missed."
"It's riskier being here. We are stranded with no contact with the outside world. We don't even know the full truth about why the alarms went off. We need to get to civilization, and quick." I interjected once again. "The unknown is what we should fear. Not the known."
Ael stopped and tried to think of something else to offer.
"Ael, this is our only option," I said.
"How do you know that?"
"Look around, look at our situation and what we know, there are none. There is one simple solution: going through the wastelands."
Grunting, wanting to go against the decision, he reluctantly said, "Fine, but if we do this, we need to stock up on supplies. Enough for four weeks at minimum." He put out his four fingers.
"But the trip is only three weeks," I said.
"Four weeks. We never know what will happen out there."
He was right. I knew better than anyone here how bad the wastelands could be. I've seen people starve to death, die from the intense weather, hallucinate, and much worse. The prayers to the god of life could help, but only to a certain extent.
"Eira, I know you haven't known us for long, but would you join us?" I asked
"Don't have a choice, seeing what the situation is. Plus, I am in the same situation as you guys."
"There you have it. Tomorrow morning, we will begin preparing for our trip out of here," Ael said. "For today, we relax." He turned toward the doors in front of the cafeteria. "Plus, it looks like fog is settling in—not much we can do right now."