Chereads / Of Monsters and Men / Chapter 5 - chapter 5: Queen of some, jack of others

Chapter 5 - chapter 5: Queen of some, jack of others

Even though the stated shifts for most are nine and a half hours, running a compound takes a lot of work and when things require a little extra work most the time I'm called by one of the other two trusted to do my duties in directing others when im off shift. when im off shift my duties are split between 4 different people each shift, one of which being a shorter shift where when relieved those people help out with other tasks. I am often radioed to help with any number of different tasks, in the medical ward, outside helping with a problem when gardening, simple issues with equipment, questioms about procedures, etc. Im almost always wearing my ear peice. "why do you have a closet full of clothes here for both of us, the majority of them being black, earthy colors, or straight camo?" Vincent asks from behind me as he looks through the closet

"they are cargo pants, my tank tops that fit tighter so i dont get caught on things, then we both also have all kinds of t-shirts, earthy colors and the black ones all say something sarcastic so it can have a little spice. in the back there are also a few dresses for me and button up shirts for us both incase we are here for a special occasion, i managed to find ones that were durable and practical but still looked nice. the containers up top have socks, underwear, bras, belts, and the ones labeled with our names each have a custom bug out bag in them. the totes in the bottom have supplies, gear, snacks. i was prepared." I close my laptop as I finish speaking and look at him with my hands folded over top of it.

"you made me a desk here....PC and all..."

"its logged into all your gaming accounts, all the offline games have been downloaded on a few different hard drives, and each one is labeled by which games it has on it, they are all in the right hand top drawer, the left side of the desk is mine, i bought a big one so we could both use it. your processer over is yours and the left side with the paper organizer and plug in printer is mine along with the filing cabniet there" I gesture as I explain

"whats in the other two drawers then?"

"I went through your desk and got you a few pairs of the headphones you had, packs of all the cables I found, sets of the small tools you use to do maintence on your computer, and a few things i thought would be useful like pens, pencils, paper, puzzle books, and some cords i saw online that looked useful."

"ill have to go through all of them but honey...I never knew where all your extra money went and yet while i thought you were buying stupid things you never told me you did all of this for me, this must have cost you so much..."

"i wanted you to be comfortable here. under the tv there's an Xbox, a playstation and around 40 games for either, and of course tv shows and movies on DVD, i figure if we are staying here for a long time we may as well be comfortable. the compound produces an excess of power even for now when we are all living here. we rehooked all the extra solar panels, have hooked up both of our wind power generators, we have more than enough power to go around here. while we should still shut anything we arent using off we are free to play on what ever we like."

"you had all this set up and you didnt even tell me? theres a fucking mini fridge in here. theres a microwave and a one burner stove, pots, pans, gaming stuff, a fucking amazing bed. this is better than where we LIVE now, why didnt we just live here?!"

"I mean it is far enough away from my father that we wouldnt even really have to see him and could use seperate real kitchens but it wasnt perfect yet and I didnt know how to bring it up for the future."

"what do you mean it isn't perfect?"

"this room was supposed to have a burgundy accent wall painted soon, I even have the paint in the utility closet down the hall from this room, the two recliners came in, bit havent even been moved into this room and assembled yet, under the bed that pull out storage is an armory that's missing 50 rounds of ammunition i need to replace, and it only has three bullet proof vests, its missing one."

"I could have helped you finish everything, you didnt have to do all of this by yourself hun"

"I wanted to" i say just as my earpeice crackles to life, mike informing me that I'm needed in the red building, kitchen number one for a mixer malfunction. "I need to go take care of some things but have fun, take things easy i know this a new space for you."

I spend the most part of 4 hours getting sent from one odd job to another to pick up tasks that the people specially trained to each of these tasks had bigger jobs of that type to do, and while i can do basic to average in most jobs there are some i excel in, in those four hours i got three that i was a queen of, inventory questions and help, subbing in as head chef for a little while, and stitching up a two inch gash for the guy who wasnt being careful enough and fell off the roof. falling off a two story building hes lucky thats all he got, he put his harness and saftey line on and thats the only thing that saved him, but he gashed his arm on a planter hanging on a window of the upper floor. the doctor thanks me as he was a bit overwhelmed with all the wellness checks and while the man was a priority he thought backup would be nice and I was already there when he walked in. I write up the report of the injury and how it occured and what treatment he got after I put on antibotic cream, and bandaged it up, having him sign the report right under my signature and then the doctor sign under him. On the walk back about half way to our room vincent finds me "youre a hard woman to find. i thought there were only nine and a half hour work shifts?"

"for most people yes, but with much power comes much responsibility" I make my tone deathly serious for this corny quote, causing us both to chuckle a bit

"i found the ice cream. we should have some"

"to not have some ice cream right now would be irresponsible."