Welcome to Gaia! ::

Anya was upset. Not only had she been forcibly dragged out of her room to clean and get spooked by potential infected sounds, they’d tossed her out to go scavenging where she’d scared herself when she’d tripped and the projector in a huge auditorium had sputtered to life and made way too much noise, they’d also handed her supplies and told her to fix things! She wasn’t even good at crafts! And now this! She scowled at the food in front of her. Handle the food, organize it, quietly unpack then repack food stuffs that need it. All the while being hungry and tempted to eat the food! But you could eat it, they’d counted it before and would count it after… and eating more than your rations of food was guaranteed to get her kicked out of the university faction or lynched!

She sighed and looked at the clock: she’d need to do this fast but quietly. Loud sounds attracted the infected and after the scare earlier where infected had been inside? She shivered; no she needed to be quieter than a mouse. First things first! She grabbed the box she was handed and sat down near a window where she could keep an eye outside and see if danger was approaching. Opening the box her stomach growled: her favorite fiber one bars lay on top! The lemon cookie ones…. The temptation was hard to resist, but surviving and not pissing off her ‘group’ mattered more than eating tasty sweets. With a heavy heart she pushed those over to form the perishable pile and rooted around for other perishables. There were other protein bars, about eight of them to go with the four lemon fiber one bars. Two cans of chili beans joined that pile while her nonperishable pile had only four items; two puddings that were near their expiration dates and two carrots that needed washing but she wasn’t willing to waste her water on it and wasn’t sure using the unsafe faucet would be better than leaving it with some dirt on it. Extra protein right?
She paused and looked around. That had taken longer than she’d thought to unpack quietly and put them into piles. 10 minutes! But no sign or sound of danger…. As she stretched she saw some items on the nearby counter, four cans of beans. Why are they over there? She wondered as she wandered over to pick them up. No dents, no openings, no funny smells… They were probably safe right? Someone had run out of time right?

She shrugged and added them to her pile where she began to repackage them slowly; more wary now that she’d seen someone hadn’t had enough time to finish their job. Had they been attacked? Whatever had stopped them didn’t interrupt her, much to her relief. After 20 minutes, she restocked the food and handed her temporary key back with a sigh and headed up to her room. Could today please be over? She just wanted to sleep!


(504 words!)