Then how could Rex and Nikola possibly rob a food storage. Yes Rex is an aberrant but he has to be like me and West chipped by birth, nearly powerless infront of 'no chip' aberrants? As if reading question in my eyes, Nikola laughed throwing her head back and then said in a whisper "that's our secret" and laughed again. "What happened?" ask the girl coming and ploppling on the bed next to Nikola. "You two are friends already" West asked looking at me with curious expression. I looked back and Nikola 'are we friends now?' I asked to myself. "No we are not there yet! but she looks kind of interesting let's see if we become friends over the course of time considering we would working here for a long time I guess." Nikola answered for me and West and other girl both nodded. "Anyways I am Nikola and you can call me Nik" Nikola said looking between my sister and girl beside her. "I am Shay, I am from Level 4" replied brunette. "And I am West, we are from level six" West replied.
"So you two are friends or something" Nikola asked, looking between me and West. "We are fraternal twins" I said.
"Uh-oh, so who's older?"
"She is" this time it was West who replied. "by like three and a half minutes" I added.
"Oh, so how does it feels like being twins? I have heard one can feel the pain and emotions of others?" Shay asked looking between us. At which I resisted laughing actually. 'cause if this was even one bit true West would have understood that whatever I do, I do it to keep her out of danger. That whatever I do is to keep her alive, that I do not boss her around. "that's just a myth nothing more." I said to Shay.
"Okay girls, you can keep chatting now. I am going to take a bath, it feels like ages since I took one last time." Nik said getting up and stretching. 'When was the last time I saw someone actually living on street, by the way?'
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True to their words guards escorted us to general hall after an hour. It was huge and cool just like rest of the building with an exception of dark colored walls with dark curtain. Chairs were set in rows and last three rows were were already occupied by the time we reached there, so we took seat in second row. Nikola on the other hand ran straight to Rex, so a guard escorted her back to us making her sit beside Shay, in return he just got string of curses which he obviously didn't hear 'must be a Human then'
Having nothing better to do I decided to give a once over to everyone, I did not get the chance to even look at myself after wearing fresh clothes after ages. I was the last one in the bathroom so lack of time prevented me from at least checking out myself after wearing these given outfits. Wasted most of my remaining time in admiring my now clean skin and hair 'thanks to soap and shampoo'. My usually dull fair skin and dead red hairs looked so much better that I just was not able to stop myself. Although my grey eyes still looked the same and I don't know what to do to make them look less dull. West on the other hand looked a lot better then me, everything about her looked a lot more vibrant than me from her brunette hairs to her olive skin and grey eyes. Today she look cheerful if you ignore that anxiety of not knowing what is to come next in her eyes, me? well I look... 'umm less dead I guess!'. Anyways back to square one they have given us white T with ISO's logo in the middle and a greenish cargo pants. 'I totally hate green color, but what option did I have?' assuming most of the people are looking okay including West, so I must be looking okay too.
After few minutes entrance door of general hall opened and few people around my age entered entered taking chairs placed in the first row. Each one of them took a chair without looking around for even a bit except for the last boy, he looked around before his eyes stopped at me and he looked at me for a bit too long before the brunette sitting ahead of me tugged on his hands, asking him to sit down. He looked kind of familiar!
Last one to enter in the hall was none other than Harley herself, she don't look much different even after all these years. With exception that her long raven black hairs were now short and she somehow look more wise. She has a warm yet uneasy smile on her face, as if she is not ready to throw whatever she is about to throw at us.
"Hey everyone" yep she is definitely nervous which is making me even more nervous. When she got no response she continued "I am not going to ask you have gotten proper rest. That would sound too stupid you know....considering one hour is obviously not enough. But I just hope that you all would be able to get enough."
"Oh please cut the crap" came a voice from behind causing everyone to turn back at the owner and as expected it was Rex. Few people nodded in agreement, others including me, West and Shay just sat quietly while one of the four guards grunted shut up. 'eh he is a total jerk, she was just trying to have a small talk. What an asshole!' "Ahem, I am trying to get to the point mr!" Harley replied. "So what a you waiting for? get to the point I don't think anyone here is even a least bit interested in small talk with you." Rex said and this time more people agreed with him. It is obvious, everyone wants to get over with whatever this is. Harley narrowed her eyes at him and walked to the able picking up a file that she brought with her. After flipping several pages she closed it and looked up at Rex, "Mr. Rex Weyward mind me but why do I feel like you think you are doing us a big favor by volunteering?"
"Well as the matter of fact-" Rex start to say but was cut off by Harley "but let me make it clear, crystal clear that you are not doing us any favor. In fact" she folded her arms in front of her "You are doing yourself a favor. In fact I know twenty two out of thirty eight of you here are doing favor to yourselves, want to know what I mean" she said looking at everyone "twenty two of you are orphan or your family threw you down there. You wanted to get out and what can be a better opportunity than volunteering whatever we are offering you, so you jumped in the first chance you got-"
"So you expect us to lick your feet for?" Rex asked cutting Harley off. "No believe me I do not really expect much of anything from any of you. Because I know our ways are harsh and that makes your life a hell, which makes that scenario impossible to even imagine. But I do expect you not cross your line, to understand that I am not the one who did this to you, to see this through perspective of mankind, to see we do are best to keep human race alive. Just like I understand you and see things from your perspective.
"Anyways I don't think this debate will ever over so let us move to the task that is million time more necessary than this. And that is future of Humans as well as aberrants." With that she really did grab everyone's attention, yes even attention of those who did not paid attention to the short speech she just gave.
"As you know in year 2552 our normal days ended with pryramids collapsing and New Zealand and half of Australia sinking underwater to never emerge ever again. It took us by surprise this happened all on same unfaithful day leaving us shocked, everyday following that day brought us new horror, reasons to grief, losses and terror of what is to come next, what mother nature has in her box for us. For one year our world was one fire, second year was kind of peaceful if we ignore heart wrenching cries of people who lost everything to mother nature's fury and funerals of those who were lucky enough to get one. Third year though brought us another excruciating surprise when several nuclear power plants that luckily survived disasters of 2552 blew up. Seven in Turkey, twenty eight in China, twelve in Saudi in the span of eight months of course due to earthquakes....mostly. Four year later we got another disturbing surprise when it was declared that ozone layer is vanishing. What happened after that you know.
But it seems like that was not enough, it seems like another hell is about to break loose on us" this...."am I the only one who feels like we are watching some slasher horror movie that people in old times used to watch sis?" I asked West in hushed voice "well you surly are not only one, in fact you should call it horror" she replied. Yes it is not like we are hearing this for the first time even the illiterates knows how our world turned upside down, how nuclear power plant disaster and then food crisis forced people of Turkey, China and Saudi die everyday before they actually died because there was no ozone layer to protect them. But that last line "....that was not enough....another hell is about to break loose on us" that is what scaring the shit out of me and I am damn sure out of everyone.